20 32 ICSA TODAY
I decided
to stop waiting.
Why should I continue to be
the good little girl
who waits her turn
follows the rules
and celebrates in season:
appropriately, wisely, prudently
**
I decided:
I will make my own Spring.
It will be imprudent,
Wild,
Uncontrolled
My Spring will have no boundaries
It will spill into everything,
run all the year through
each and every year full out
And in my Spring,
the one I conceive in my imagination,
the one I create
and will into being
In my Spring, all will be welcome:
the mangled, the broken
the damaged, the bent
the old,
the sad,
the lonely
All will be welcome
to come and dance,
twirl in the Spring rain
Unrepentant
Irreverent
Proud
under the sweet, soft, grace-filled showers
of the survivor’s spring
The survivor’s spring:
Seasonless.
*from Lucille Clifton

2319
About the Poet
Mary O’Connell was a member
of SGI, a Buddhist-based group,
for close to 20 years. Her life
was saved when she happened
to find ICSA (then AFF) online.
Subsequently, she met Lorna
Goldberg, LCSW, PsyA, and past
president of ICSA, who has helped her recover,
imagine a new life, and create that new life. n
The Survivor’s Spring
(dedicated to those born or raised in cults)
The survivor’s spring is seasonless
It has no bounds
Knows no beginning nor end
The survivor’s spring is without season
It stands outside the constraints of time
The survivor’s joy is limitless
Bottomless like the sea
Like the banyan tree
Capable of rooting in earth
In water
Even in air
Of the survivor’s courage
We cannot speak
We cannot comprehend
We stand in awe
We bow our heads
We cannot speak nor write nor paint
The survivor’s beauty, beloved of the Earth
People coming upon survivors
In their newborn, beautiful humanity
Stand stunned
Exclaiming over and over again:
Che bello Che bello Che bellissimo!
VOLUME 9 |ISSUE 3 |2018

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