There’s nowhere else to be.
Stillness without ease.
With life-force energy
Perfection without performance.
The beating heart of our world.
“Listen” came to me while sitting on the veranda of the Adisa Ancestry Artists Residency in Jamaica. This poem offered a pathway for navigating feelings of inadequacy, comparison, and expectations of perfection. I was doing what I love, watching my prayers manifest in my reality, but I still felt like an imposter. Most mornings during those two months began with sitting on the veranda, writing, and listening to the soundscape of Jamaica’s flora and fauna. These moments of solitude soaked into my bones and softened them so that I could find rest — even just for a moment — and listen to the guidance that the natural world had to offer. I hope these words inspire you to listen to the green and accept its guidance along your journey.
Munachiso Obiefule is a Nigerian-born writer, environmentalist, and yoga teacher now based in Los Angeles, California. She is a 2025 graduate from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s in environmental studies and a minor in occupational science. She recently completed a residency at the Adisa Ancestry Artists Residency in Jamaica where she was developing two projects. First is a collection of poetry and prose chronicling the experience of a young woman on her journey of spiritual healing and self discovery. Secondly, she is gathering the stories of farmers and other community members connected to nature and to land for a documentary film spanning African diasporic connection to land. Her work aims to bring about environmental joy, healing, and an understanding that the human experience is inextricable from the natural world.