Free Roses has dozens of poems written during the pandemic and over the four years that Chelsea was in trance due to a profound awakening. From the mental wards to the magic of her family's land in Central Florida, these lush and insightful pieces will uplift and delight you.

Mezcalita Press

$10

The Song Remains is a collection of six books of short format poems written in Paris, New Orleans, Asheville and the High Atlas mountains of Morocco while living with the indigenous tribe, the Amazigh (am-ah-zeer).

Today I Asked the Butterfly

Today I asked the butterfly
what it's like to be a butterfly.
She perched on the purple skirt
of a petunia and asked -
What's a butterfly?

I blushed with shame
at the notion of assigning a name
to someone who never named herself,
someone who is so absorbed in being
that she doesn't need identity.

Because of her,
I started to move in ways
I had never moved before.

Losing my name meant
I could become the unknown,
a pattern, an echo, a prayer.

I mimicked the bear, the great moose,
the rhino, the squirrel.

I morphed and shifted,
but when I thought of the butterfly
I felt the most uplifted.

I didn't know the God in me
until I became the small,
winged one who drinks from
the hearts of flowers.

Chelsea Lynn LaBate