The Story Behind the Poem: “Healing” by Faera Lane

Faera Lane was a true bookworm as a child and fell in love with words from a very young age. She was home schooled and her mother kept many books in the house but her first introduction to poetry was the local library, where she read works by poets like Emily Dickinson and Edgar Alan Poe. Lane says: “The way poetry utilized words with such complex economy to weave nuanced and sweeping narratives fascinated me.”

Libraries were safe and welcoming places for Lane, with access to so many stories, perspectives, and ways to understand the world. In fact, it was a library contest that inspired her to write her first poem when she was twelve years old. She says, “It just seemed like a natural extension of reading!”

Lane found the Every Voice contest to be a challenge – but a good challenge. As an introvert, it gave her a chance to “step out of (her) head a bit” and engage with the poetry community. It also resulted in her first officially published poem.

When Lane writes, she jots down ideas as they pop into her head, usually while doing household chores. Later she moves these “scraps” into a Word document and expands on them.

“It’s an amorphous process,” Lane said. “Usually the core doesn’t change but sometimes the direction does. I have an idea to express but turns out to be something quite different. The story tells itself to me and I think: Oh, that’s what was there! I also read my poems aloud to see how they flow and where I want the emphasis of cadence and tone to land.”

Lane’s poem, “Healing,” is about surviving one step at a time: “Survival is often quiet and unglamorous. Tiny daily tasks can become mountains due to physical or mental health barriers, and there is often shame attached to being unable to do what seemingly comes so easily to others. I think we all need to give ourselves a little more grace and the permission to do one thing at a time. Even if it seems small, it is enough.”

“I inhale and forgive myself for survival.”

The Story Behind the Poem is an ongoing series by Mark Hertzberger featuring conversations with poets recognized in this year’s Every Voice Poetry Contest and published in the anthology, Roots Through Stone: Poems of Strength and Resilience. Copies of the anthology are available for purchase at Fanfare Books in Stratford.

Healing

[hee-ling]

Phonetic (Standard)

adjective

re-learning a language our bodies forgot how to speak

Today, I washed

one plate

one fork

one glass

Artificial lemon scent fizzed bitter in my mouth as I

ran hot water over numb fingers

circled the sponge in lather

set my small accomplishments to dry

The sink still bristles with

cutlery

crockery

shame

I inhale

and forgive myself for survival