Ryleigh Bennett

"This piece connects to the theme of empathy in an ever-capitalizing world by slowing down. I drew inspiration from prayers by using the affirmative language 'may you' repeatedly but I also drew on my experiences with yoga and meditation to write something that is immediately soothing but has longevity in its ability to serve as a reminder of humanity. It turns the idea of negotiating geographical positionality into sitting still exactly where you may be, feeling the things around you and using those sensations to take life for the gift that it is in order to recognize the human condition in the other people and things that ultimately form the backbone of your experience as an individual. A lot of the time, especially in a capitalist world, we try to experience the global all at once without ever noticing the place or time we're in at any given moment - that's the trap of it all. I believe the first step to unwinding this within an individual experience is to be in one place and to experience just one thing at a time. I do this work by making larger themes of humans and the world fit into small moments and noticing's in this poem with surrealist imagery and sensory moments of being or feeling loved by things that are shared like the moon. I believe this piece would be a meaningful inclusion in the next edition of the Global Gazette because it guides the reader in one possible way to slow down in an infinitely accelerating world and it places emphasis on the fact of being a 'human being.'" - Ryleigh Bennett