Defiant Joy

it's an attitude and a practice

November 5, 2024 - waxing crescent moon in Capricorn

Loves,

Want to join me in starting something defiant and joyful?

Back in 2020 I reacted to our collective experiences, our collective grief, worry, anxiety, frustration (and, and…) by wrapping myself around recognizing a moment of defiant joy every day, capturing it in a poem, and sharing that poem with an interested community of people.

Any length or style poem was welcome. The point was to defiantly step outside the collapsing tumble and bang and slip into an experience of joy for as many minutes as I could sustain the connection. I focused on shoring up resilience through noticing moments of joy, wonder, awe, and peace while keeping my feet firmly planted in reality.

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Defiant Joy 2020 #3

this morning,
life waged itself
under the pin oak
in our shaggy 
suburban lawn—
a flash of
russet-feathered 
talons
a tumble of 
grey fur.

it could have gone
either way.

today, grey fur fled
and russet feathers flew
and no one had
a perfect morning,

but everyone lived
to try again.

if that isn’t defiant joy
shaking her fist
at the tiger
I don’t know what is.

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As an artist, it was a master class in noticing. As an overwhelmed, grieving woman it was a thread that wove me into a community of people also defiantly finding joy or ease or simply space to breathe.

With everything happening today in the U.S., it seems like a good day to invite you into a defiant joy adventure.

(I restarted the practice a few days ago and am already feeling more me. This time I’m letting myself just record a sentence if that’s all I have time and headspace to do, though I’ll go full poem when moved.)

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Defiant Joy 2024 #1

It sounds like it's raining in bursts.

Only it's leaves, not rain
leaving safety with each new breeze—
drifting into piles of transformation. 

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If you want to play, drop a phrase, a sentence or two, a poem about a moment of defiant joy (peace, clarity, kindness, wonder, awe) in the comments. Comment (kindly) on each other’s comments. I’ll circle back next Tuesday for another round.

Let’s be defiantly joyful together!

Tracie

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I’m Tracie Nichols, poet, facilitator, HSP, over-thinker, introvert, and woman of deepening years. When I’m not doing managing director things for the Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN), I create seasonal word adventures for shy but curious people. More at tracienichols.com.

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Current word adventures:

Exploring the deep quiet of the winter solstice

December 21, 2024 from 4-5:30 PM EST | 9-10:30 PM UTC | as a one-time, 90-minute Zoom session.

Seeding change: Creating When Life is Hard (through the Transformative Language Arts Network)

February 2, 2025 from 3-5 PM ET | 8-10 PM UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session.