Synkroniciti is glad to welcome back poet Lori Lasseter Hamilton of Birmingham, Alabama with “Give me my dandelions,” a powerful poem about the lack of recognition and respect given to survivors. She speaks from personal experience with colon cancer and surgery. “If I could give myself flowers,/ I’d give myself a dandelion/ for every wheelchair ride I’ve cast aside./ For every time I used a rolling walker instead,/ I’d pluck a red rose from my mother’s rose bed.” Our society is uncomfortable with struggle and persistence–preferring narratives that either exalt winners or pity victims, ignoring daily personal miracles that come at a cost. We are often guilty of recovery bias–of writing off the survivor as damaged and not allowing them to contribute. Lori’s poetic voice channels a rage hearkening back to Sylvia Plath into slam poetry structure, producing rhythmic intensity and explosive rhyme that begs to be read aloud. Recovery is impossible without the will to do so and she reminds us to appreciate ourselves and the work we do to function. For many people, anger is a vital part of the recovery process and learning to direct it gives us fuel to exist. For others, the acknowledgement of our anger is comforting reassurance that we are neither alone nor malfunctioning. Lori’s vulnerability is cathartic and transformative, casting out societal shame and creating a space for further healing.
Read “Give me my dandelions” in Synkroniciti’s “Recovery” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Lori Lasseter Hamilton grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where she loved to pick dandelions from her parents’ front yard as a little girl. She is a 55-year-old rectal cancer survivor, rape survivor, and breast cancer survivor. Lori earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from UAB in 1998, with a minor in English. Some of her poems have appeared in Medical Literary Messenger, Ghost City Review, SWWIM, Poetry Super Highway, Avant Appal(achia), Global Poemic, The Steel Toe Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, The Stray Branch, and Birmingham Arts Journal.