Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome back poet, writer, and creative spirit Sara Collie, who first appeared in our 2020 Labyrinth issue and has since brought us captivating stories, essays, and poems. In Dignity, she offers two tender and exquisite poems exploring the nurturing dimension of the theme.
“The Visitor,” dedicated to “the neighbourhood cat who turns up at my back door late at night,” is one of our poetry contest finalists. Sara writes with remarkable tenderness about the companionship shared with animals who choose to bond themselves to us.
“Tuck yourself// into the creases of my restless nights./ Show me what it is to surrender, make of me// a shelter from the raging storm, the shadows.”
The communion between human and animal transcends the master-pet cliché we so often encounter. Anyone who has lived with a cat knows they have no masters. Yet for the fortunate humans they choose, they become the best of friends. Sara’s soft sibilants and luminous imagery bring this relationship vividly to life, honoring and celebrating the dignity of connection.
The second poem, “Reminders to Self,” turns that focus inward, exploring the dignity of releasing the urge to perform for and please others. When we learn to live from our center, we gain the confidence to grow, thrive, and embrace the abundance around us. Sara gestures toward the process Carl Jung called individuation: the lifelong journey of becoming yourself rather than who society wants you to be.
“Stop looking at your life from the outside in./ Instead, lower your body into the glass green waters/ of your days, collecting every flash of blue brilliance/ & orange-bellied abundance that whirs itself your way.”
Sara shepherds us as we follow the kingfisher toward a place of abundance and wonder. She has a rare affinity for nature and its heart-stopping immediacy, revealing the extraordinary within the everyday world.
Read Sara’s magical poetry in Synkroniciti’s Dignity, Vol. 8, No. 3, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Sara Collie (she/her) is a Norwich-based poet and psychotherapist with a PhD in French Literature and a lifelong fascination with the way that words and stories shape and define us. She writes about nature, memory, childhood, love and loss with as much joy and tenderness as she can muster in these dark times.
Her poetry and prose have appeared in more than 25 literary journals and anthologies and she is currently working on her first poetry chapbook. You can discover more of her writing at saracollie.wordpress.com.