Show Me

Poems of self compassion, self healing, self expression and the collective unlearning

Writing & Storytelling around Town

  • A poetry collection zine that explores the body, puberty, relationship, trauma and healing

  • Chosen to perform “Becoming Mother” in June 2023 and “It’s So Fluffy” in September 2023

  • Musings from roots that wander wide and deep. Blog from 2019-2023

  • Published and edited the bilingual magazine La Revista Zero while living in Cuenca, Ecuador for 2 years

  • Apeiron Review & Cleaver Magazine

  • Weekly Newsletter of nature messages and musings on parenting sent via Substack

Watering

Rainwater becomes groundwater
becomes rainwater becomes us.

We are creatures of water
but we don’t see ourselves as fluid.
Bloated with the weight of pretense
we take a sop of ourselves
when we do not know
where else to dig.

I am thirsty
in deep parts of me,
a drought that remembers
what it was like before.
I don’t know where
before is anymore.

Kristen Sawyer

Poetry for those of us who grew up questioning, “Is this something I can talk about?” Exploring sex and sexuality, trauma and healing, silence and laughter, masturbation and labia minora, love and longing,vibrators and vibrations, mothers and daughters and more.

“These poems are amazing; I want to share them with everyone. ”
— A Loved One
Photo by Fran DiPietrapaul

Arrival

It’s here!

A quarter-sized smudge
of red, pink love
bleeding its way through my undies.

I’m at a family reunion
My second cousin is my pediatrician.
All limbs and braces and budding
I run up to her and let her know:
Now, I am officially grown up.
Now, what do I do?

My mom gives me an American Girl Doll Book,
The Care and Keeping of You, to teach me
how to insert small plastic spaceships
how to apply deodorant to keep from stinking
how to not pop the pimples growing
how to identify breasts becoming
how to exercise and how to rest.

I sit in the bathroom and begin
alone with the book pages splayed
open on the floor instructing
my flying eyes and prodding fingers.
There’s too much to learn; I try
to teach myself and wonder,

What does it mean
to grow up anyway?

Kristen Sawyer

Performances & Writing Workshops with…

  • F*ST

    FEMALE STORYTELLERS

  • Crooked Tooth Brewing

    LOCAL BAR & COMMUNITY

  • Equinimity

    SOMATIC HEALING W/ HORSES

  • Mama Nature

    TELLING STORIES OUTSIDE