Three years ago, I published a slim chapbook of poetry titled 13.
I didn’t name it after the number for shock value. 13 had always followed me, stirred something in me — a number heavy with mystery, often misunderstood.
Last week, without much thought, I ordered a copy of my own book. Maybe I was feeling nostalgic. Or maybe I was being quietly guided. Either way, the order was simple. The meaning wasn’t.
Today, the package arrived.
June 13.
Of course it did.
Why 13?
In biblical and spiritual traditions, numbers speak.
Twelve is completion. Divine order. Structure.
Thirteen is what comes next.
It’s transition. It’s stepping past the edge of what’s known.
It has been tied to rebellion — but also to redemption, transformation, and spiritual awakening.
I didn’t know all that when I wrote 13 – a chapbook of poetry.
But now I think I was naming a threshold.
A space.
A kind of sacred silence.
The 13th Poem.
I opened the book and turned to the thirteenth poem.
Its title: Gold.
Our silence is gold.
Lying in this darkness,
I drink your caress
of my soul and spirit
across the realms.
I hear you whisper my name,
and I call yours the same.
Over and over, softly, sweetly,
again and again,
our silence is gold.
We drink it
so that this love never grows old.
…
I wrote it three years ago.
But today, it felt like it was written for today.
As if the poem knew I’d come back to it on this exact day.
As if it was waiting.
When Art Speaks Back.
Sometimes we think we leave our creations behind.
But what if they never leave us?
What if the poems, paintings, ideas we make live on — and loop back around just when we need them?
That’s what happened to me today. 13 came home. And with it came a sense of renewal. Of listening. Of softness I’d forgotten how to hold.
A Quiet Invitation.
Maybe you’ve created something you haven’t looked at in years.
Maybe your voice feels far away.
This is your invitation to return.
To open that folder, that notebook, that part of yourself you once poured light into.
You might find it’s been waiting for you all along.
13 waited for me.
And on the 13th, it whispered back.
Share this post