Light Satisfaction
05/21/20
by Amaranta Isyemille & Inka Lara
The home in Chicago where we’ve spent the last decade has been a creative and nurturing sanctuary for my young son and I. In quarantine, just as before quarantine, when we are here together we feel free to create, whether that be a song, poem, drawing, or handcraft. We generate joy through creation; both my son and I are fueled by the chaos and glee that creation can bring.
I have been singing old-fashioned doo-wop and folk ballads since my child Inka was inside the womb. A few years ago, I joined a band that met weekly to harness some of that chaos and glee. My son has been a constant witness, and our biggest fan. He listens to our recordings at night to go to sleep, and when I asked him to describe how he was holding on to joy these days, he answered, “I like to hear my mother sing, because it is peaceful and it is nice to have something so majestic in my house. I like the rhythms and the songs and the love.”
He chose this song, "Sand in My Shoes" (originally by the Drifters), because it has been his favorite for years. To me, the song oozes nostalgia and the soft ache we are all feeling for the realms that existed before this pandemic. The lyrics mirror the uncomfortable hope we are all desperately trying to hang onto, perhaps currently stuck in the bottom of a shoe.
I’ve also been writing poetry since before my son was born. To me, poetry is the building blocks of creation. Without it there is no chance for joy at all. During quarantine and specifically for National Poetry Month, I challenged myself to write thirty poems in as many days. Poetry and song keep me alive, which keeps my son alive, which gives us both the divine opportunity to keep creating chaos and glee.
Generating joy is not effortless. It requires patience, tenacity, and creativity. Being in quarantine due to such a global calamity tests all of these attributes. Even the value of joy is tested. Yet, particularly in the company of a child, the generation of joy is still natural, and comfortingly inevitable. I am grateful that we have this creative ability to sustain our spirits, and hopefully others’ as well. We are still here, together, and every time we sing or write or dance, we connect to all the other songs, poems or dances ever made, which is pure magic.
Tender
I'm trying to be
as tender as possible
with you most of all,
for if you are lost,
it will be as though all my
senses disappeared
and all laughter drowned
in ephemerality,
atomic dances
Our faces grin, our
teeth tell jokes. Our skins
witness rot. We hug.
We must be patient
with one another. We must
laugh the most we can.
- Isyemille Lara
Amaranta Isyemille Lara (she/her) weaves together universals to illuminate delicate connections we experience with one another, our home planet, and the divine Cosmos. Her poetry snorkels through the bleakness, grinning. She recently earned her M.S. in Linguistics, concentrating in ecolinguistics, which just as with her poetry, helps illuminate the connection between language and our environment. She loves to sing the saddest songs. The Big Bang never ceases.
Inka Lara (he/him): "I am a nine year-old kid. I’m in 3rd grade. I am smart, kind, and useful. I like to be helpful, active, and loved. I have a big imagination, and my family is very loving."