Even after death, the self is contained
in a sheath of armor
A plastic rose defies decay
above an empty womb
Preservation of the outer
causes sterility of the inner
Yet we stand in reverence
of the the battle. The hero
who offers life
and takes life in valor
who said, “I have won this war”
for you
The sword powerful only
by the hands
now broken
to reveal the heart
For Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo prompt. If you would like to participate, please click here.
Let me show you the veil
how easy it is to step between
the illusion of clouds
yesterday on one side
tomorrow on the other
your life here
waiting for your renewal
take in the deep breath of promise
release, on the exhale, regret
anxiety and despair
you are not here to trap
space. Time moves
through you and everything
not to be captured
but to be lived
For Sue Vincent’s #writephoto prompt “Renewal.” To participate, please click here.
I nearly drove over abundance
six turkeys crossing under the crest
of the hill
slowing my movement of time
to observe royal feathers crowned
in folded gold. The wattle of pride
leading his blessings. Above
the sky breathes clouds
and my eyes take in fortune
trumpeting over darkness
and her calf hovering
above Earth
weightless molecules
levitating hope
My own body pressing
against division grounded by birds
pulses with infinity
while elephants dissolve
into the blue beyond
For Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo challenge. To participate, click here.
Beneath your weighty boughs
and those grains of time you pile
as though you have something to save
I wait for you
holding the mountains of your creation
the outer layers adding density to the inner
Pause
Take your breath beyond
let the weight of your time slip
into the river of glass
peer into the depths below
and see me shining back at you
For Sue Vincent’s weekly #writephoto prompt challenge. Please click here to participate.
Talk to me about silence
I can’t hear your words
A mind closed by fear shuts
the ears and averts the eyes
while the voice calling out
to be heard
becomes a child
waiting to be seen
[Futility]
↓
Last night, I must have been
traveling backwards
on this road we share
Fear holding constriction
the voice buried between
your mountains
[trapped]
→
I’ve decided to take a new turn
to the place called “Onward”
It lies just beyond those hills
where the air is open and free
And the sun spreads her fingers wide
to trace the valley of shadows
back into the light
For Sue Vincent’s weekly #writephoto prompt challenge. If you’d like to participate, please click here.
A healing meditation for all who may also feel the call to rewrite their stories:
Oh, my child, you are never broken
The light of you is whole, complete in itself
The darkness of the other who has desired to break you
is a denial of your light, but it is not you
Do not give way yourself to be broken into fragments
Gather the shards, and realize that when you heal the wounds
all that remains is the golden soul
Whole and complete in and of itself
♥
So I wish to tell you a different story
A story about a soul whose origin has no origin
because she always was and always will be
She is life eternal
as all souls are
but she desired to live in the body of a human being
to learn the process of becoming
over and over again, in different forms
She named herself, and so she was
the Light of Self as the Whole
She was never not whole
She was never shattered light
♥
Trace her origins back to your birth
and reform a new story
See her whole and golden
So vast that there is no separation
between where she begins and where she ends
♥
Take this story with you
back into the womb
Recognize the cord
is not a tie to the true self
Allow her to realize that any rejection and loathing
she feels is not a reflection of her light
It is not hers to own
or to take into her being as truth
♥
Allow her to expand her light beyond
this place called rejection and lack
Allow her to turn the loathing into love
See it coursing through the cord
bringing to her the fullness of its nourishment
♥
Allow her to leave the womb
and birth herself into the world of wonderment
Where all things are possible
and no codings of false truths exist
to take her away from her core of Truth
that she is love and forever will be
♥
Allow her to feel this and realize this
as she discovers the temporary state of separation
through the physical body
while knowing the soul
is never separated from the whole
♥
Allow her light to vibrate
in that wave of continuity with source
and forever ride it as a part of the whole
There is a tempest inside of you
a storm collecting every cell into being
yet you scatter them
rejecting
until they become the wounded
cowering in this cage you have created
its walls only as strong as your might
∇
The will to dissolve comes from the inside
see the nymph hovering in stasis
her exoskeleton an ugly sheath
holding the becoming
before she can fly she must crawl
waking one leg, and then the other
stretching into the whole
the eyes must learn trust
as they peer through the gaps
and gather the reluctant parts
take as long as you need
feel the journey new
the body moving outside of the shell
ripples the molecules
until they adhere into wings
when you are ready, spread the veins wide
allow the space in between to unfold
and open to the blue beyond
The mind fixes on a barren landscape
Bleak division
Life waiting at the border
Dreaming of becoming
A self
The feet hesitate to break
Untrodden uniformity
One step leaves an imprint
The eyes tell the truth
Of how far they dare to gaze
While the heart feels the tug of the hills
The unknown reachable only
By separation
For Sue Vincent’s weekly #writephoto prompt challenge. If you’d like to participate, please click here.
The ever-green is a ruse of defiance
To time that cannot stand still
The bare limbs stark
Bone-gray, curled & broken
Are also a ruse
Of death
Life stirs beneath the surface
Nibbling the nutrients of decay
Yesterday’s brilliant yellow will dim to brown
Fall with the forgotten
Piled into equality
The worm cares not from which tree it falls
Blind to what the eyes see
It feeds on what’s left behind
Recycling the outer
To feed the inner
My contribution to Sue Vincent’s Weekly #writephoto prompt. To participate, please click here.
They said it was a sacrifice,
but isn’t all life?
The tree pulled down to make paper to record our words
The hay threshed to fill bellies
Some say even water is alive
The clouds spilling it to the ground only to be swallowed
by some body that will eventually die
Only the bones linger
Hardened by structure
Fused to bear weight
Once stripped of the vulnerable layers they expose the effort
of resistance as a catalogue of time
We like to date our years lived
We like to think about lifetimes
in terms of expansion
The vulnerable layers we shroud
with creams and clothing designed to hide
and deny this thing we call age
But, when we strip ourselves down to what is left
Beyond the hardened bones that remind us of death
as a loss and that thing called density,
we are left with the essence itself
That bit of life that lingers over and over again
The cycle repeating itself to rebirth
in another form. Experience depends
upon this essence, as does growth and death
It is said that when the body dies,
the weight of the eternal essence can be recorded
after it leaves the form which held it close to call it a life
by itself. We can look at the dry bones and see the loss
of what once was, or we can follow the essence
back into the dance of life. Imagine
a breath of memories swirling into another form,
or perhaps dancing in eternity’s ocean
The individual heart eventually stops
That’s simply the law of nature of life in form
An idea that might make a single beating heart
skip into the throat to hide for want of eternity
of the individual. We don’t like to think
about nonexistence as we define our existence
but what of that pulse that beats through all life?
Can you feel it?
No one can say they cannot,
or have not, because
it is that essence that lingers
The before form and the after form
So you can study the bones and marvel
at the loss, or you can study the essence
that beats the eternal heart and recognize it
as your own too.
For Sue Vincent’s weekly #writephoto prompt challenge.
The Light Behind the Story 