Tommi Simmons
May 2024
Tomi Simmons, a poet, spoken-word artist, and 200 hour yoga trained teacher, shares her personal experience with healing from trauma through her poetry. Tomi has a passion for helping her community and is a nonprofit development professional. She was McPherson College’s first poet laureate in 2019 and served as the president of the writing club where she helped publish creative literary journals, and led virtual and on-campus writing workshops. Simmons has been a featured artist at the Las Vegas Book Festival and at poetry shows in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and California. Her work has been published in McPherson College’s literary journal Inscribe and The Petite Hound Press Issue 42.
Today she hosts and organizes Orange County’s only monthly poetry slam, the OC Poetry Slam.
Tomi can be found on Instagram @tsimmswrites and her website tomisimmonspoetry.com.
BUTTERFLY GIRL
We met on the corner of the coffee shop and fremont street
Butterflies in season
We met in the morning as I woke up in the midst of chemistry textbooks never read and letters to my sister
Cocoons embedded in the blanket and pillows
We met in the mirror between walking past the bathroom and to my mother’s room
And here you are
Doe eyed
Fearful
Butterflies popping out of you
You force caterpillars to grow before their cocoons are developed
Doe eyed
Butterfly filled
You
There’s a glisten in your eye that reflects strength
As you are me
How could I be afraid of you
How could you be afraid of me
Butterfly girl
Caterpillar filled
Let them grow
Out of all of the times we met
You never failed me
You hurt me
when you believe failure is in your capability to me
I failed you for fearing your power
For rushing you
For not accepting you
And I have let pride go
To say I am sorry
We met on the corner of the coffee shop and fremont street
You put me on the microphone and spread my wings
You drove me to wake up in the mess of my room and get to my mother’s room
Butterfly girl
Saved me
It’s time I started saving you
WHO I WANT TO BE
I want so much for my life
My heart is embedded in this earth
Beating in the water i drink
In the ground i walk on
In the love i show
In the words i reflect
And sometimes i forget
But no worries i always remember
I want my ability to forgive to conquer the ability to hate
Especially within myself
Mistakes are consistently made
I tend to put self worth
At the bottom of the totem pole
As if i'm the bottom of the pole
I want my ability to love push away fear
Being who I am is constantly a question
As if i need reassurance
As if assurance means love
When fear walks by
I want to say goodbye
I want empathy over apathy
Sometimes generosity swallows me whole
Empathy becomes my blood
Apathy is one thing i'll always afraid to be
Because not caring enough
Is something i can never be
I want acceptance to defeat doubt
As in when they come into the ring
Acceptance is always named champion
No doubt
I want joy to overshadow distraught
Because with so much bad
There's so much good
We find another everyday
Connect and reconnect and heal tremendously
I want my voice to outshine the silence I breathe
As in times of when I believe
I speak
I want my heart to control the body
Because too many times
I overthink
I want my vocabulary to do away with sorry
Because apologies cannot come empty
I want generosity to pass recognition
I lead by example
Not for praise
I want values to delete ignorance
Because my whole life
Values are embedded in my heart
Therefore embedded in my world