Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome back Canadian poet and photographer Katharine Weinmann, who opens the “Belonging” issue with a group of poems and photographs exploring the subjects of self care and internal resilience. Belonging stems from an internal acknowledgement and acceptance of who we are–nothing will make us feel that we belong if we cannot love and support ourselves. “Blessed Be My Be-Longing” is an expression of gratitude “for this place within my body/ with strong back and open heart/ to face whatever comes my way,” a prayerlike invocation to blessing and kindness within and without. welcome pictures a broken angel holding a nest, which looks as if it contains the bits of the angel (feet and hands) that have come off. Nest and angel are terra cotta and there are leaves of the same color. Katharine invites us to make space for our brokenness and care for our woundedness. “I Miss Me When I’m Gone” is a confessional poem about anxiety and how it drives us away from awareness and love of ourselves: “Scrambling to sound coherent and appear competent/
in a world that expects so much, when all I really want to do/
is hide in bed, wishing sleep to come.”
In an ineffable be longing we see a group of colorful leaves fallen to the grey concrete near a patch of moss, whispering of the cyclic beauty of life, death and being. A Turkish bath in Spain provides balance and healing in “The Spanish Hammam”: “tender dreams swirl/
through sandalwood incense/
music whispers an echo/
of flamenco finding its home/
in these Andalusian hills…” Society often labels rest and time to ourselves a luxury, but Katharine reminds us that it is a necessity for wellness. The set concludes with heart home, an image of a waterlily. They eye is drawn not to the showy yellow flower, but to a leaf in the center of the frame that has curled into the shape of a heart. So often we recognize the blossoms in ourselves and others, missing the health, the greenness, of our beings. We must learn to appreciate the entirety of who we are. Katharine’s sensual imagery takes us to the sacred place where humanity meets nature and we are all one.
Experience Katharine’s mystical poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Belonging” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Katharine Weinmann is the 2024 winner of Canada’s Lawrence House Centre for the Arts’ Carmen Ziolkowski Poetry Prize. She has won and received honorable mentions in Off Topic Publishing’s monthly poetry contests. Published in several international anthologies and literary journals, Katharine was lead poet and foreward writer for Weaving Hope Through Our Education System (2024).
An intrepid traveler, long-distance walker, and internationally published photographer, Katharine blogs at A Wabi Sabi Life and conjures one-off, silk-purse culinary specialties from kitchen leftovers. She lives with her husband and their new English Setter, “Walker the Joy-Boy, Wonder-Dog,” on the Canadian prairies.