Finding the archetype of the gem and the poet in poetry

In honoring National Poetry Month, this episode is a discussion of the poem "Poems" by Nikki Grimes, which reflects on the difficulty of sorting through life's memories, emphasizing the value of painful experiences that lead to personal growth. 

Then, we discuss the poem's connection to the poet archetype, which seeks truth and meaning in life's moments, and the gem archetype (from the Wild Unknown's Archetype oracle deck), which represents the preciousness and rarity of experiences formed under pressure and darkness. 

There is a need, especially in hard times, to find the significance, recognize, and cherish life's gems, even when they emerge from challenging moments, emphasizing the transformative power of pain and the importance of recognizing and valuing life's experiences.

If you would like to purchase The Wild Unknown Archetypes deck, click here (not an affiliate link).

To find more of Nikki Grimes works, click here.

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My links

Transcript

Ashlie McDiarmid: 0:23

Hello there, dear spirit. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to the Tea and Tombstones podcast. Tea and Tombstones is a platform dedicated to helping you root into nourishment through the haunted darkness and claim your hallowed ground through tarot education, spell crafting, spiritual coaching, and nature- based services. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf- child of Tea and Tombstones, and I welcome you here. Hello there, my hauntings. I hope you are well today. It is a cold, drizzly morning afternoon here in Colorado, and today's podcast episode is going to be another episode of the poetry and card counsel. April is actually National Poetry Month, so it is obvious that this would be the podcast episode that we do to close out the month of April. In this podcast episode, I am going to read the poem titled "Poems" by Nikki Grimes, and then bring in some cards from my Wild Unknown Archetypes deck, and then compare the messages, the invitations, the metaphors, and see how we can really use that in a way that is of service to close out the end of April and beyond. So grab your tea or whatever you are sipping on. I am taking a sip of my coffee because I need go juice today. I have so much stuff that I'm doing and working on, and I'm feeling like I'm running out of time. So yeah, I just need coffee today. So here is the poem titled"Poems" by Nicky Grimes. I am hardly ever able to sort through my memories and come away whole or untroubled. It is difficult to sift through the stones, the weighty moments, and know which is rare gem, which is rock hole, which worthless, shale or slate. So, one by one, I drag them across the page, and when one cuts into the white, leaves a trail of blood, no matter how narrow the stream, then I know I have found the real thing, the diamond, one of the priceless gems my pain produced. There, there, I say, is a memory worth keeping. That short little poem has so much packed into it. She starts off by saying, I am hardly ever able to sort through my memories and come away whole or untroubled. What I love about that, about those few little lines, is that that is what it means to to be alive. That is what it means to be in this world. And when we come to the totality of everything that has gotten us here, we start to realize the ways in which our wounds may be never fully healed, or they healed in a way that produced a scar. Those scars can be a badge of honor for the ways that we have survived this world, the pains, the wounds, but the scars are a constant reminder of the ways we have felt pain, and the trials and the hardships, and the challenges, and the hurt that we've had to endure. To be a human in this world is to endure life. As much as life is beautiful, as much as life is glorious, and there are so many spirits and energies waiting to be manifest in this world, to be in this world is, is not easy. Enduring is part of living. She then goes on to say it is difficult to sift through the stones, the weighty moments, and know which is rare gem, which rock hole, which worthless shale or slate. What she's saying here is that it's difficult to know as we sift through the moments and memories of our life, what is of service, what is of purpose for our transformation, for our continued survival, and which is just simple and surface, but serves no deeper purpose. It's difficult to know which ones are the rare gems that really speak to the precious moments of our life, that are of worth, that are of sustenance, that are a treasure for our transformation, and which ones are the rock coal that serve to provide some sort of energy, even if it's dirty or in the dark. Which ones are the moments and the memories that keep providing energy, and which ones are like the shale and the slate that have some sort of surface attraction? But as we go deeper into into the sustenance of that situation or of that memory or moment that we realize it's just that it's a fleeting part of life's experience, but doesn't provide any deeper currency for our spiritual evolution or for our wild reclamation. Simply put, what I think she is saying here is that as we sift through the moments, the memories, the experiences, the relationships, the situations, everything that has been a part of our life, it is difficult to know where the true treasures are and where the wounds, the grief, the anguish or the fleeting but unsustainable, or the energetic but unsustainable moments have been that have led us to the path of this present moment. As we look back on our life, we are being asked, and she's mentioning it here in this poem, we are being asked to consider what is worth documenting, what is worth holding and cherishing and extrapolating and going into the finer details of, of that space. If you had to narrate your life, what would be the moments that you would absolutely include, even the moments that are on the spectrum of burial and bloom or the haunted and the hallowed. What are the moments that provide the trajectory to hear what are the moments that speak to the weight of your life in this world, life presents us with energies of darkness and pressure and time, and that is exactly what is needed to create and cultivate a diamond, which is why she goes on to say that as she drags each moment across the page, meaning that she's writing the poem of that moment, and when one cuts into the white leaves a trail of blood, speaking to as she pulls this memory or this moment out of her and onto the page. It creates pain. It creates, it creates a space of anguish or of wound that is hard to bear, and yet that is that pain, that moment that is being pulled out of her, is also the diamond. So as we look back on our lives, as we look to the moments of pain, of darkness enveloping us, we can actually say that those are where our survival has occurred. That the precious gem of that moment that we've now extrapolated by pulling it out in remembrance, or in poetry, or in anything that we use to narrate that moment or to reflect on that moment, as we pull it out of us and as we relive the pain of that moment, or the pleasure of that moment, we see how those are the moments that are the diamonds of our life. They are the cultivation of the rare gems that speak to us surviving and thriving. They speak to us creating something so beautiful, which is our personal life, using both the good and the bad. When we use the moments and when we pull out and extrapolate the moments that were hurtful and we have to endure that pain again, we actually can see how we have survived, and then she says,"There, there. I say, is a memory worth keeping." So, even the memories that have left her unwhole and troubled, that she's no longer untroubled when she pulls this memory out, it's actually worth keeping. What I love about that is as we look to our own lives. This is where our own gems lie. This is where the memories worth keeping are. This is also where we can say that our life uniquely has shaped us into a gem in and of itself, that through every moment, both good and bad, we can take pleasure and revere and see the currency and the worth of what our life has given to us. Some of the situations that I thought would be the end of me were actually the most beautiful gifts I could have ever received. My divorce, for example, was one of the hardest moments in my life. I did not know how I was going to make it through that. And when I was going through it, I had to confront a lot of enduring wounds and enduring pain. And when I would write poetry on it, or when I would speak about it, or when I would reflect on it, I would feel those wounds again, but I would also feel that there was love there. I would feel that there was healing. I would feel that there was a space of me that was vulnerable and wholehearted, and it was a gift, because then, as I pulled the gem of my divorce out into Palmer, into reflection, I was able to realize that that was a memory worth keeping, that it was of. Worth in some way. It was a gift, and now I'm in a relationship that I could not imagine never having. I would go through all of that again. So as we look to these situations or these moments or these memories that pull on us and force us to go into the darkness, that is where we find the gems, and that is where we find the things worth keeping, because it speaks to what gifts we have been given in time and pressure and darkness. I love that she made the title of this poem poems, because as she drags that weighty moment across the page, and she pulls on the lifeline the blood and produces the pain that is actually the gem, and that's the same as it is for me, at least in writing poetry and also in tarot and my spiritual evolution, and in the business that I am now working to create, it is holding space for that pain. It is holding space and pulling on that lifeline and saying that there is space for it to be here, and that's why it's a memory worth keeping, because there's space devoted to it. There is there's reflection, and there's narrative on it that can't be given to any other situation in that way or in that profound vibrance of it, even if it was something that was painful, it is something that is of worth it. Is something that needs to take up space so that it can be remembered for what it was. And that's what I love about this poem in general. That's why I chose it, and that's why I think it speaks to the archetype cards of the poet and the gem, starting with the poet archetype card from the wild unknown archetypes deck. The guidebook says the poet's work is to feel immensely and not be afraid. They must seek out truth in the darkest corners of the world and carry it back for all to see. The relation between this poem and the archetype of the poet is obvious, but here what I love in relation to this short poem is that she's not actually speaking to any particular moment. She's not speaking to any particular poem. She's speaking to the act of being a poet. And to be clear, this poem and the archetype of the poet doesn't mean that you have to be a writer. It doesn't mean that you have to be an artist. It doesn't mean that you have to be a creator of some kind. This energy is present in all of us. It is what connects us and transcends us from the moments of our life, whether they are the gems, the coal, the worthless shale, everything can be a poem, which means that everything is interconnected into a transcendent form of understanding when we focus the lens on one moment in our life, whether we're focusing that through writing a poem physically, or we're just connecting to it through reflection or communication, or however we're connecting to it, the poet's energy is not the creation of it into something artistic or into something beautiful. The poet's energy, and what she's speaking to here is creating meaning and understanding and transcending the situation through meaning, through understanding, into a space of reverence, into a space of worth. So. the poet's energy is within all of us. If you've never written a poem, you still have the poet's energy within you, because you have had moments where you've reflected on your life where you've reflected on that weighty stone of a moment, and you've been able to see through understanding and through feeling it, immensely, whether it's painful or not, by feeling into that moment, immensely, you see how that moment has provided light into the dark, you have seen how some moment in your life, or some situation, or some relationship, or whatever you are reflecting on, you see how that moment has weight, because it speaks to the trajectory of your life. Just as with everything these archetypes have the spectrum of the haunted and the hallowed within them. The guidebook says that when in the light, the poet is clairvoyant, wise, and timeless. I would say that when in the light or in the spectrum of the hallowed, the poet is the witness. The poet is the one that sees the truth of this world and directs it and describes it and speaks to it or illustrates it in a way that allows us to really feel again, immensely, to really feel the power of that moment, the power of any moment. So even if it's a worthless shale moment, everything can be a poem because everything is part of the bigger picture. And the poet, when in the light, is the one that reaches in and pulls on the bloodline, on the lifeline of that moment, and pulls it out and says, Yeah, this is what is worth keeping. This is a gem that is exactly where the poet is in the light. The famous poet Emily Dickinson once wrote, tell all the truth, but tell it slant. And that is exactly what the poet does, is take the transcendent truth, pull it out of the darkness, and give it to the world in a way that it can be received with those feelings, those immense feelings, tapping into that part of ourselves that is not just mere mortal, that is spirit, that is sustenance, that is connected to the energies of this world when in the light the poet is the witness. In college, I took a class called writer as witness, and I loved this class so much, and one of the books that we studied and learned and read from was from a book that was edited by the beautiful poet Carolyn Force, and the book is titled Against Forgetting. If you love historic poetry, if you want poetry that is going to take your breath away, both good and bad, get this book because it is, it is such a glimpse into the human experience. There's poe [sic] There's poems in there of the Armenian Genocide. There's poems of the Holocaust. There are some of the most there. They are some of the most beautiful poems I have ever read, and yet they are some of the hardest, because they again, speak to the human condition, and that is what the poet does in the light, speaks to the truth of the human condition in a way that transcends it. When in the dark and when in the hallowed the poet is the one who takes that and thwarts it for creativity sake. All poets, or I should say, the archetype of the Poet does allow for artistic freedom when we look back on a moment, when we pull that gem out of us, we are capable and able and allowed to see how the situation transcended the moment in that space, and in that time. That those, those moments within us are in the past, but they're not in a vacuum. As we grow and as we gain new understanding, as we tap into the haunted and the hallowed aspects within our own selves, we are able to see and perceive those moments that the poet pulls out in a way that does transcend it a bit. We're able to see and learn and grow and deepen our self understanding, our understanding of the world and of life itself in a way that doesn't have to be just on the nose rationality. However, the poet, when taking that and altering it in a way that it loses the truth that is the poet in the in the haunted. Excuse me, so when working with the poet energy, or when working with the poet archetype, it's really asking you to step into a sense of transcendent truth, and sometimes that truth is found in the dark, and reflect on it, speak it, sit with it in a way that it helps transcend you into the interconnected energies of the world. The Haunted aspects of the poet archetype, as I said, are thwarted creativity and trying to make something pretty for pretty sake, that when we reflect on something, or when we're sitting with a moment again, that gem of a moment when we try to alter it away from the truth, to make it appeasing, to have it be validated by others. Or when sitting with that when working with that truth in a way that we try to dress it up to be pretty and to be easily perceived, we are in the shadow aspects of the poet archetype. Some moments in our life are shit, and we have to be in the shit in order to turn it into fertilizer. When we try to alter the truth of ourselves or the truth of a situation so much that we end up bypassing it, we are in the shadow aspects of the poet archetype. So when working with this archetype, or in working with this space, it's vital to see how the truth is transcendent, but also how it is the kernel of truth that cannot be neglected, that we cannot dress something up and make it pretty for pretty sake, because then we are not keeping to the truth. But we cannot avoid pain, the real wounds, the real shit moments that come with the truth, either. We have to have both in balance, and that is the poet archetype. Moving on to the Gem, the guidebook says "The gem always stands in contrast to its surroundings. You can't find it when you are among comforts and pleasantries. Precious stones develop slowly, deep in the earth, amid pressure and darkness. Discovering the gem requires a descent beneath the surface where there is no definitive map, yet the longing to touch the true gem within us is so strong that we cannot help but seek out its radiance. Your gem, like your destiny, is unlike any other in the entire world. Keep digging." Again. We see this so beautifully, and the poem by Nikki Grimes, because she says that those moments that pulled on the bloodline, that pulled on the lifeline, the diamond, was produced through pain, andthat's exactly what the what the hallowed aspects of the Gem, is that when we go deep into the darkness, when we go into the shadow of ourselves, that's where we find the gems. That's where we see what has been cultivated from that space. We're able to see how our unique experiences shape the gems within us. And, even though there is an element of pain, of pressure, and of darkness that comes with the gem, the more we sit in that space and the more we keep going into the darkness of ourselves and into the shadow part of ourselves, we are able to see and integrate the gem back into the light and see the vibrance of our lives and of our moments. Some of the Haunted aspects of the gem would be toxic comparison, feeling the need to compare your inner space to the space of someone else, to see how far you're progressing versus someone else, to also toxically compare in the form of not knowing your worth and feeling like someone else's inner gem is shining brighter than yours. There is no comparison of what is happening with spirit, because we are all on our own path. We have to find our own way into and out of the darkness, and we are the only ones who can go in to our shadow self and really work through it, to find the gems that are resting therein. So when we speak to the haunted aspects of the gem, I think it's really important that we acknowledge that that knowing our worth and that knowing what the path is worth is sometimes more valuable than the gem that we pull out of our inner truth and out of the darkness. I think it's also important to remind ourselves that when we speak to the gem as an archetype, we're really speaking to all of the beautiful gems that reside within us, the inner light, the inner creation, the inner unique substances that are formed in the space of spirit, when working with that from a haunted aspect, it's important not to try to make your inner light look, feel or be the same as someone else's. Your inner light, the gems that reside within you are your own. The Gems of each of us our own. They are ours to hold and to own. We cannot make our gems and the gems that appear in our life in the form of archetypes, we cannot make them look, be replicated or appear as someone else's. We need to honor the gems that are of us and for us while honoring the gems that are for others and of others. That is the way to really take the energy of the gem and move it into being in the light. When we are envious, when we covet, or when we feel a sense of greed attached to the archetypal gems that are in our life, we are doing a disservice to what the gem is really trying to tell us, which is it's trying to point us in the right direction. The gems and the inner treasures that come to us in our life are there to guide us and provide a sense of value for for the path that we keep going as we keep going into the darkness and into the unknown, and as we keep seeking and searching for the gems, we are tapping in to what it means to have an appetite for our life, we're tapping into what it means to be nourished by our life. Bringing that back to the poem by Nikki Grimes. I feel that that is exactly what she's saying when she mentions that she's found the real thing, the diamond, one of the priceless gems my pain produced. The more that we continuously bring the metaphorical poem across the white page, the more create that appetite to go deep into the weighty moments and transcend the truth of those moments, provide value to them and and use them to nourish our lives and to remind us that in the seeking and in the appetite of the search, we can find those beautiful moments that transcend us, that illuminate, that remind us what it means to be they remind us what it means to survive the moments of time and pressure and darkness. And before I close out the podcast, I just wanted to take a brief moment to talk about the gem that just came forward from me in my life, this pop up event that I just had last Saturday at nurture, was far and away one of the most beautiful moments ever. I honestly went into that situation thinking that I wasn't going to break even. I went into that situation really going. I'm here to provide readings for anyone who wants one, but I just hope I get some exposure. I hope some people see tea and tombstones resonate with tea and tombstones. And I did eight readings in like six hours, like I was so beat by the end of it, and it was so beautiful. It truly was. It was such a moment of illumination. It was such a moment of being in the gym for me, because there have been days when I have shown up to my office, to my desk, to my tarot cards to teen tombstones, and all I feel is the darkness. All I feel is the pressure of trying to make this business viable and alive in a world where so many other people are trying to do the same thing, in a world where many people still don't value tarot readers and the gifts and the gifts that we provide with our readings and with our cards, and in a world that's just constantly that's still struggling, there is still so many things happening for people in their own lives that that it's hard, it's it's hard to show up to a business and to always feel into the beauty and into the love and into the light. That's obviously not going to happen. And when I went into the pop up event. Like I said, I really thought that I was going to get more of a sense of, like, exposure and networking than I was going to be getting readings. I did have some people who had booked appointments with me, and I thought, you know, if I even get one other person that just does a first come, first serve sits. down, I'm going to take that as a total win. And I had four people do first come, first serve, and then I had my four booked appointments, so it was truly a gem of my life, and of Tea and Tombstones, because, like I said, I have had moments where I only feel the pressure and the darkness. I only feel the time that has gone by that I've worked on this, and that day was just such a beautiful reminder that when the gem comes forward, you feel it, even if it is produced by pain from Nikki Grimes poem, you still feel the value, and you still see the illumination that comes with the gem. When the Gem comes forward, you will know. You will absolutely know, and that moment for me was far more than I ever thought it would be, ever dreamed it would be. To everyone who got a reading with me. I am so humbled, and I am so grateful that you let me hold space with you. I am going to be doing more events with nurture and hopefully with other places too. I'm going to start reaching out seeing where I can do other events and so if you would like to get an in person reading with me, you can definitely check out the events that are going to be coming up. I will have those listed soon, and yeah, I think that's it for today. This episode is a little bit shorter. I purposely chose a shorter poem, one that was a little bit more easy to manage, because I have been writing my absolute butt off trying to get the Patreon creations up and up and accessible by May 1. I am still working on that. So, yeah, um, I purposely wanted this one to be a little bit shorter today, because I'm just trying to be mindful of my power of place again, tapping into the Knight of Pentacles and into Gaia's Dragon, knowing where I am merging with higher energies and where I need to merge with my basic needs is really humbling. Right now, I would love to just sit here and talk for another half hour on poetry, but my body and my voice and my spirit just need a little bit more tending with this episode. So. I purposely chose one that was a little shorter. And you know, that's okay. Sometimes we just need to honor where we are at in our power of place and let it be so, yeah, that is everything that I had today. I would like to thank my spooks patrons, Lisa Zimmerman, Bobbie McDiarmid, Deb Guy, and Zach Tate, thank you all for your continued support in Tea and Tombstones. I am so grateful to have you as patrons. If you would like to become a patron, as the new creations and the new offerings are launched, you can find the link for pretty much every word that I'm at on the internet. I will have it linked in the show notes. I will have Nikki Grimes link to her poem in the show notes, and also the newsletter is going to be coming out the same day that this will be out. Yeah, I'm recording it a day before, so I have time to edit it. But if you would like to subscribe to the newsletter, you will start receiving the Tarot affirmation, and then the Patreon creations will go more deep into the Tarot affirmations, the tarot card meanings, and into some community connection as well that I'm really, really excited about. If you would like to book a reading with me, or do a Zoom reading. You can go to my website again in the show notes and see the offerings that I have up and available on my storefront. So yeah, thank you again. So much for listening. Thank you for your presence, for letting me into your day. My theme music is by gravedancer. They just came out with a new album. Go check it out. It's beautiful. It's lovely, and until next time, take care. Bye. You.