Scars

In her gorgeous poem, “For What Binds Us,” Jane Hirschfield writes about proud flesh, the name used to describe how, when flesh grows back over a wound on horses, those scars can be raised and dark. She writes, “all flesh is proud of its wounds.” 

Think back over your own life experience. Can you identify moments that have created a sort of injury, or wound, which have since scarred over, or begun to scar over, as “proud flesh?” Make a list of these moments. Let your mind be loose and free and curious.

Now, take a moment to make a list of metaphors for scars. Look all around you. The white ring left behind on a wooden table by a water glass. Hail damage on a roof. A dent in the side of your car from the time you scraped too close to that fencepost. The scuffs on the toes of our shoes. Storm damage. Footprints in mud. It's interesting, thinking like this, to see how some scars are more temporary than others! Think of as many as you can, and let them be as concrete and specific as possibl…