Permission to Fail [by Lera Auerbach]

Hidden Room • Ink on Paper by Lera Auerbach

When you struggle to survive, 

there is simplicity in perspective:

You take one breath. 

Then another.

You take one step. 

Then another.

You learn how to respect your body's new limitations.

You learn how to challenge it. 

You try to hold on to who you are.

You try to reassure others. 

You give yourself permission to rest, to stay quiet.

You grow impatient and irritable.

In anger, you call yourself a failure, 

then remember –

you have given yourself permission to fail.

Sometimes you feel alone.

Sometimes you feel loved.

Comments

[Emily Fragos]

"Sometimes you feel alone./Sometimes you feel loved." In your hands, the personal becomes the universal. Stunning poem. I am now a huge fan! "The hidden room" is yet another poem.

Thank you, Lera, for the honesty and brilliance of your work - in music and in poetry.

[William Harper]

As I grow older I appreciate Lera giving voice to pilgrimage