Whanaungatanga

By Rebecca Beardsall

It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!

---

Pull my bones from the pebble shores of Lancashire.
Plait my hair with flecks of auburn from the grasses of Donegal. 
Push my muscular frame from the Rhine 
onto the ringing rocks of Pennsylvania. My
feet sink into black sand; Tasman Sea 
leaves a layer of salt on my knees. Face of
freckles emerge like southern hemisphere stars. Layers
of lands live inside me, and I search like a Saturniidae moth 
ancestral spirit returning. Sepia spirals
mark my wings with amber, burnt umber. 
Warm spring rain sinks into paddock soil
submerges and expels into North Sea, Atlantic, Delaware,
Irish Sea, Pacific, Rhine, Schuykill, Tasman Sea.
Lines of lineage—currents and undercurrents 
surface in my eyes, shape of my nose, space of my teeth
Confirm and baptize me into my new, renewed—marriage merges me.
I stand on these Pacific shores, not the shores of my ancestors.
Tell me I am home.

---

Rebecca Beardsall (MA, Lehigh University; MFA, Western Washington University) is the author of The Unfurling Frond and My Place in the Spiral. Her current nonfiction work explores her hybrid life as a transnational and explores settler colonialism. Rebecca is an editor, coach, and teacher. She teaches MFA-Style courses for writers. Find out more at rebeccabeardsall.com.

---

• 11/8 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free

• 11/8 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray and local poet Judy Ireland / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free

• Get ready for Give Miami Day on November 16! As a newly established 501(c)(3), this will be our first time participating. If you’re able, please consider giving us your support. Check out our link here: www.givemiamiday.org/organization/Swwim.

• Are you a SWWIMmer with literary news to share (publication/feature/award/book/book review)? We’d love to shout out your accomplishments in our Weekly Spotlight! Please email swwimmiami@gmail.com. (No DMs on any social media platforms, please.)

• Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky for more updates—and visit our website to see past, present, and future readings & events.

---

**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.