If this Poetic Interlude feels like a message or mirror, share it with someone who is looking to think about rest differently.
How is liberation possible in life and death? In this Poetic Interlude, Gauri Awasthi reads her poem “Prayer from a Non-Believer” in her debut poetry collection Mother Wound (Trio House Press, October 2026).
Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace our humanity and act on our truths. We in The Rest of Us community view this as a deep connection to one’s own agency — our definition of rest.
Settle into the work of Gauri Awasthi and even explore your own creativity, which we define as liberatory rest.
Poem: “Prayer from a Non-Believer”
after Kabir Das
I turn to Kabir again, dear god.
Let me be a kafir,
in all my ways.
Let me undo
dear mother who will not grow out of me.
Amma asks, If you love someone
won’t you set them free?
Is loving someone not enough
to set them free? I ask.
Who will be set free?
It’s my fault, I think of poems as prayers.
The boy I love says Kabir was separated from Islam
so his songs could be tuned to the Hindu burning incense sticks.
My mind blooms with my favorite story.
Where Kabir the poet, kafir, and saint, dies.
What he didn’t get in life, he finds in death.
A mystic, weaving garlands, is avowed by both Hindus and Muslims,
as a child of their own. On the banks of the holy river,
they quarrel about his body.
Bury or burn. Burn or bury.
Swearing to fight death with blood.
But when the sun spills the sky orange
his body dries to flowers.
A shroud of bougainvilleas.
They pouch them in equal halves.
Burn some, bury some.
The boy I love tells me if I marry him
I will not be buried, he will not be burnt.
The question he asks me: why can’t our bodies turn to flowers too?
You smell like a rush of night jasmines.
Reflections
Rest as liberation is central to this work. In laying someone to rest, the question of religion or any other thoughts that plague their existence comes back to the center. In one way, this poem asks you: how is liberation possible in life and death?
About the Poet
GAURI AWASTHI (she/her), born in Kanpur, India, is a multidisciplinary artist who is based in New York City. She has won fellowships from Yaddo, the Hambidge Center, Hedgebrook, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Djerassi, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. Her writing has been published in Best New Poets 2023, Quarterly West, Notre Dame Review, The Rumpus, Buzzfeed, and others.
Her debut poetry collection, Mother Wound, is forthcoming from Trio House Press in 2026.
WEBSITE: www.gauriawasthi.com
PUBLICATIONS: Mother Wound (Trio House Press, October 2026) The Punch Magazine (First published “Prayer from a Non-Believer”)
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Meet the Host:
Dana Tenille Weekes
Dana Tenille Weekes made the conscious decision to live in a mindset of rest as self-liberation after nearly 15 years as a lawyer-lobbyist in Washington, DC. In 2020, Dana faced the darkest period of her life, which eventually led her to resign from a top global law firm and take a year-long journey of rest in 2022.
In 2023, Dana launched Thrive Architects, a strategic advising and professional development firm building advocacy, organizational health, and well-being platforms for organizations, communities, and people to thrive.
The Rest of Us podcast is one way Dana is building community for professionals and advocates on the brink of burnout to think about rest differently. If you’re interested in embracing rest as liberation, especially after the podcast episode ends, join our community where we converse, connect, cultivate, and lean into our creativity.