{"id":2954,"date":"2024-04-24T15:26:48","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T15:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/?p=2954"},"modified":"2024-09-04T21:05:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T21:05:45","slug":"the-first-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/the-first-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Anne C. Totero<\/em><br \/>\n<em>UW Hospital, Behavioral Health Department<\/em><br \/>\n<em>2020\/2024<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Poem<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are the first therapist I am coming to.\u201d<br \/>\nThe Gift. The Dance. The Prose.<br \/>\nA beautiful dance.<br \/>\nYour life as a piece of art.<br \/>\nI prepare the materials so you may paint your own piece.<br \/>\nWe are greeted with uncertainty.<br \/>\nFurrowed fear on their temples with gentle hands to shake.<br \/>\nHello, welcome to your fate.<br \/>\nFate in the hands of a stranger.<br \/>\nFate to large feat.<br \/>\nSit where you feel comfortable.<br \/>\nIn a cold, unfamiliar room with dimmed lights.<br \/>\nWhere others have confessed their sins outside of church.<br \/>\nConfessed their stuck and complexities.<br \/>\nOthers have bled their truth onto the crocheted carpet.<br \/>\nExpression without strings attached.<br \/>\nIt is uncomfortable and new.<br \/>\nYou spin into this whirlwind of disaster where you\u2019ve written your sonata.<br \/>\nYour series.<br \/>\nYour saga.<br \/>\nLunar eclipses lapse and here you are.<br \/>\nPatterned.<br \/>\nYou have figured out how to forgive, you think. Forgetting, well.<br \/>\nCapacity and sufficiency are all questions.<br \/>\nSwimming to the shore yet out of breath.<br \/>\nRipple waters look high for you yet calm by the shore seekers.<br \/>\nGentle kicks below the surface to stay afloat.<br \/>\nTake my hand.<br \/>\nI know it took trust to take it.<br \/>\nIt took you 21 years to get here and the current comes in a short meaning of time.<br \/>\nFocus on the tide. I promise it\u2019ll find it\u2019s way back.<br \/>\nRide the waves.<br \/>\nRide the one wave.<br \/>\nDuck under.<br \/>\nTry not to float but enter with intention.<br \/>\nDo you see yourself on the horizon or on the beach where you\u2019ve come from?<br \/>\nSwim with your feet up, eyes forward, and forceful arms to the horizon.<br \/>\nThe current is underneath us. It\u2019s scary here.<br \/>\nAnd hopeful.<br \/>\nThe water seems dark and anything but blissful.<br \/>\nSwim for the horizon.<br \/>\nIt\u2019ll get worse before it gets better.<\/p>\n<p>There you are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anne C. Totero UW Hospital, Behavioral Health Department 2020\/2024 Poem &nbsp; \u201cYou are the first therapist I am coming to.\u201d The Gift. The Dance. The Prose. A beautiful dance. Your life as a piece of art. I prepare the materials so you may paint your own piece. We are greeted with uncertainty. Furrowed fear on&hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/the-first-visit\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read <\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,10],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-2954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2024-issue","category-writing","tag-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2983,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954\/revisions\/2983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}