Fear
In Your Bones, Poem 1
“You know that the best time to strike is when I am soft and my mind is open like an empty glove…”
The inspiration for this poem…
In 2018 when I looked at the poems piling up for years on my office floor it looked like a disaster, but as I sorted them into piles I began to see the timeline of my life emerge. While some were stacked with pain they fanned out in an array of every stage of healing. While I did want to share them I knew I would have to start at the beginning, and fear was that starting point. And yet, it was a small poem now condensed into 10 lines during that vulnerable time of sleep. It also had a shape to it starting with a full line of text and ending with a single word showing how even from the beginning of the book I was moving toward letting go. The act of putting my fear down into words on a page and manipulating its size and shape had healing effects. The idea that we lay open like empty gloves and something like fear can infiltrate our minds and bodies, especially when we are not watching, is nothing short of sinister. Yet, the acknowledgment of how deep something has gone, and the experience of extracting it with such a powerful tool, is a lovely antidote for anything that may creep into our souls. Poetry is a sharp sword.
Note: While something was once part of my 3 dimensional life wielding a lot of power, its move to the 2 dimensional renders it powerless on the page. By the time it pours out it no longer holds the same power. One of the superpowers of poetry!
Writing/Meditation Prompts:
Think about your starting point and how your life fans out in front of you. Watch it play out. Just notice and breathe.
See yourself as an empty glove and wonder what might be filling it at night (or at other critical times).
Notice how I talk directly to my fear? Talk directly to your emotion of choice and see what pops out.
Think about giving shape to something you’re writing to diminish, extract, or release it. Do you have one last word for it?
How might you share your writing (an important part of the extraction process, not to mention the writing process!)? Hang it on the wall to see its chronology…