Weight of Water — Art, Attention, and Creative Resistance in the Poetry of Samantha Wallen
A reflection on poet Samantha Wallen’s new book of poems, Weight of Water — an exploration of attention, tenderness, and creative presence amid grief, loss, and the fierce beauty of being alive.
This piece is part of Quiet Inspirations — a gentle series where I share the people, books, and soul-rooted work that resonate deeply with me. If you’d like to receive these occasional letters, you can join the list here.
Samantha Wallen
I recently met poet Samantha Wallen in Sophy Dale’s relational-marketing roundtable. There was something about her energy that stayed with me — calm, grounded, quietly luminous.
Her new book of poems, Weight of Water, invites us to return to intimacy with life itself — to not look away from what feels difficult, but to stay gently present with change, loss, and the fierce beauty of being alive. Through her words, Samantha reminds us that creativity is not only a balm, but also a quiet act of resistance — a way to reclaim our attention from the noise of the world and bring it back to what is real, sacred, and shared.
In a guest post by Michelle Puckett — social justice coach and facilitator — Samantha describes how easily our attention gets pulled away, how quickly we can give ourselves over to the world of screens and noise, until clarity and creative possibility are quietly harvested by systems that thrive on our distraction.
She writes:
“Our most valuable resource is our attention. Writing poetry reclaims my attention. Any creative act — any act of making rather than consuming — is an act of resistance to this system and its relentless pull.”
Learning How to Listen Again
Her words speak deeply to what I feel, too — that our work, in its many forms, is about remembering and reclaiming ourselves, and returning our attention to what truly matters at the heart of our being. Whether through poetry, embodied awareness, nervous system presence, or soulful connection, we are all learning how to listen again — to our bodies, to each other, and to the quiet intelligence within life itself.
Samantha reminds us that creativity, making, and collaboration are not luxuries; they are lifelines. They help us stay human, attuned, and connected to what truly matters — and to the sacred whole we belong to.
FromWeight of Water
by Samantha Wallen. Shared with permission.
I don’t know how to say goodbye
to a glacier
how to become a traveler
of the undefiled
open mandibles
into birdsong
follow the glacier’s disappearance
accompany it as it drowns
go under a continent
of white silence
I don’t know how to hold the weight
of water
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Julia Kyambi is a bilingual (English / German) trauma-informed intuitive guide and soulful embodiment coach who deeply honours the connection between body, mind, soul, and spirit. Her work bridges inner transformation, embodied awareness, nervous-system attunement, and intuitive guidance to support people to come home to themselves, ground in their essence and feel whole. Learn more here