Tag: poetry

  • Arrow

    Today I am like an arrow
    Sailing with grace through space
    Heart, held in my hands, riding shotgun šŸ™šŸ¼47684280_10155975291901444_4950786614298148864_n

  • Give Thanks

    When the defeating sounds of my mind subside

    After the thoughts stop tumbling all over themselves, I can hear the music again

    I feel my eyes relax in their sockets.

    Ideas, accusations stop firing away in directions that no good will come of

    No more grasping

    I stand

    Heart pulsing

    Lungs breathing

    Maybe or maybe not

    My mind is open, my heart is open

    Light falls on circumstance and my raised hands lift it up and out of me,

    Let it go, fall where it may

    Gratitude replaces wanting desire, I am full already

    Moments of dank emptiness evaporate in the warmth of the divine.

    Give Thanks, give thanks, give thanks šŸ™šŸ¼

  • Sweet Ache

    ā€œWhen the sweet ache of being alive,

    Lodged between who you are

    And who you will be,

    Is awakened,

    Befriend this moment.

    It will guide you.

    Its sweetness is what holds you.

    Its ache is what moves you on.ā€ –Mark Nepo

    I talk a lot with my clients about how most addictions are simply humans looking for an outside answer to an inside problem.

    I’ve had this hole that I’ve always tried to fill with substances, shopping, dating men, adrenaline sports, the glorification of being busy, desire… the list goes on. Anything I can I try to use to fill that void.

    The universe is not having that behavior from me any more and has systematically removed vice by vice from my grip. Until just recently when I am facing what feels like true aloneness, unable to fill this void with food, sex, or dating.

    Still got the sports thank God, but I better be careful and stay in balance with it otherwise I foresee an injury and removal of that outlet too.

    I did ask for this. Since I can remember every wish I wished was simply to be happy. Man has that wish come true! My life is amazing, but with amazing there must sometimes be suffering. (I think the difference now is that I am aware this too shall pass and there is now an underlying ok-ness even in the face of darkness that rarely leaves me now).

    Creator is making me sit in my shit and stew at the moment; it’s a little terrifying. But I’m learning. The practice of transmutation of suffering to light is happening.

    This hole, this woundedness as I’ve come to call it, seems to be the original deep gash dealt when I was a baby (or maybe came into this lifetime with) and that was reinforced as I grew up. It is made up of abandonment, unworthiness, the vision I get when I breathe into the area of my body where I feel the pain well up, in my solar plexus, is that of a baby or small child reaching up to be picked up, screaming for love and not receiving it and that of a little girl being bullied and told she was ugly.

    I am thankful that the therapy modalities I have been studying for the last decade have acquainted me with these parts of myself, over the years I have worked on acknowledging them when I feel suffering related to attachment or abandonment. Recently though I have been fortunate to get really close to these parts and start to begin holding this little girl part of myself when she reaches up for love and holding.

    I have gotten from the inside out on a body and energetic/ emotional level that attachment to outside answers to inside woundeness causes suffering. And it seems giving this little part what no other can give her is the only sane answer, since when ever I let her look to another human for love it causes attachment to outcomes and expectation, and inevitable let down as no one can always live up to those expectations and then: suffering.

    I have gotten some good practice with this lately. I’ve been dating someone who does not live near me and after each interaction I can spend time alone holding myself, providing containment and self love, I can let go of the attachment anew every time I see this person or even after we have conversations.

    To my surprise this does not diminish my caring, in fact when I can adequately take care of myself I feel so free and good that I naturally want to be available to him, to be sweet and good to him.

    I can really see the insanity with which I have been operating in my life thus far previous to having this set of tools to at least TRY to give myself what I so desperately needed without having to demand it from the other. Which is what I always asked partners to do in the past.

    Make me feel you love me, make me feel worthy, make me feel less abandoned.

    It never works, because the original woundedness is still there. Never to be filled by this outside answer.

    (And just FYI, NO ONE is saying I do this perfectly, but the more I love myself the more I realize that I don’t HAVE to fucking do everything perfectly and I am still lovable even if I fuck it up, right?! Right)

    And then when a partner does give love or acceptance, it’s like a bonus. And I can really recive it now. That’s a by product I didn’t realize would happen. Instead of grasping the love and looking for what’s next, I’m able to bathe in it.

    Mark Nepo talks about each of us coming into these existences with a gift and an emptiness. That, part of the aim of living is to find where these two meet.

    I am practicing now falling into the void, into the emptiness. It is scary, terrifying. Logically my brain says to my limbic system that it WILL be ok. There is no actual mortal danger, but my small baby parts equate that void, that emptiness to annihilation or death.

    SO, that is where my gifts come in. My LOVE, my COMPASSION, my CONNECTEDNESS to the DIVINE. By loving these small parts and having compassion through my connection to the divine I am made whole and therefore loveable, truly lovable I hope, to others. And from that place may I be able to truly love others in turn.

    ā€œWhen we dig a hole or a hole is dug in us, we become preoccupied with all that is unearthed, even try to put all that dirt back, but the empty depth is waiting for us to shine a light in itā€ –Mark Nepo

  • Salt

    After the fall

    The light no longer beamed in my chest

    I found it harder to channel the light

    Sitting alone, I felt alone rather than full

    Missing the skin touching my own

    Even though it may have not been meant for me.

    In the face of the man I felt as if I was doing it wrong, too much sexuality, not enough sensitivity, not enough words, or at least the right words, came from my mouth.

    Round and round the words came from him making my head spin and it started to dawn on me that I’d done something wrong, blankness, seeing red, flooded by words I was, and this will not do!

    Reminders of times in my life when my big feeling body just could not compute, shut down would happen.

    My truth disappears.

    So now after the skin was here pressing near to mine, the breath was on my neck, fingers on nipples squeezing just right, making me shudder…

    I’ve had to ask it to leave…

    Because I want the light back.

    I’ll wait for the light and the skin to exist together in my house.

    A small sadness abides here now, parts that were weary of wandering alone curl up here on the couch in longing.

    I was almost ready I guess.

    Not quite I guess.

    When the man comes that is filled with light and can offer his darkness as a tool to more light, when he says honey let’s go biking, let’s go for a quick swim.

    When we don’t even have to discuss the fact that each day we must commune with the mountains.

    When there is a man that revels in my powerful sex, that can’t help but grasp my hand and hold me tight, when neither of us can resist feeding each other.

    When the salt of our skin continually mingles…

  • Antlers on your brown

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    Spring on my skin

    Nights like these

    My breath should be passing between

    My teeth in a rush

    Throat open

    Head back

    The goddess spilling out.

  • Whats to be done with all these rings?

    To be read in a Tom Waits voice…

    Whats to be done with all these rings?

    After the dust settles

    When there is no longer ANY chance of reconciliation

    What is to be done with them?

    There’s the child to consider.

    Maybe she’d want them?

    But are they cursed now?

    Destined to give her the fits?!

    What now should be done with these rings?

    One bought in a street market in Argentina

    when we cared about nothing but us.

    It turned my finger green and ate away the skin.

    I should have listened I suppose.

    The second with a giant fake stone surrounded by tiny real ones.

    A metaphor for our love?

    But still, the question still remains.

    What the fuck do I do with all these rings?

  • The In, Is Out

    I didn’t listen to music

    I didn’t remember my name, or the swing of my hips.

    My voice lay dormant in my throat, choking, contesting my being.

    I lay next to him dulled.

    My heart afraid of loss, starved of sun, but relegated to darkness.

    To get too big was a sin.

    To dance too much, to sing too much, to grow until I hit the ceiling and busted out the

    windows was not allowed.

    The outside called.
    The outside begged.

    And I saw suddenly my own reflection harbored the truth.

    Embracing my belly, embracing my shattered mind, closing eyes that searched for

    judgment and turning my gaze inward.

    In, in, in.
    In is out. In is out.

  • Heart Warrior

    Lay down your weapons.

    The luminous sun is shining on your young face of promise.

    Heart beating; drum beating, wings beating, cry!

    She will open wide

    She will contain the beast

    Love will pour forth from her smile, from her gratification

    Her body shining, full and embraced

    Are you finished with the pain young woman?

    Let go, come away, and dance

    She weighs her own heart in her two hands

    It is you who has come to save your soul.

    Heart beating; drum beating, wings beating, cry!

    Stop now and turn your eyes inward, look in and see

    You will never need another

    The battle is over

  • This Man

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    So much, so much to write about this man.

    Like an ocean wave, I attempted to wear him down, what I did was distill myself.

    All the while demanding of him what I now know he cannot provide, and thinking it was I that was not worthy.

    So long and so much learning I’m not sure I could document all that I’ve caused myself to learn by throwing myself against the rocks of this man, these men, myself.

    When you look for love outside of yourself, and you choose those to demand it from that do not have the right wiring to give it, or even the responsibility, you’re gonna have a bad time, man.

    He was coolly destined to teach me this.

    The way he looks, the way his energy feels to me, what he is, were destined to lure me in and make me think he was the answer.

    I wanted to acquire him. This is a learning I got.

    All his gifts, I wanted to own. When I finally realized this after years of prostrating at his feet, I thought I had found the answer. I don’t need to acquire him, I can become him! Right?

    When we are attracted to others it is because we want to be them. They have qualities we would like to emulate.

    I was an incomplete being still forming, still healing, newly sober, an infant. It makes sense to me that I thought he was the Sun. It could have been anyone I suppose.

    This went on for years…

    I built a habit of loving him, of infatuation, using him, escaping from my life as a partner and a new mother into fantasy from which no amount of trying to deconstruct the truth around the reality of my fascination for him could save me.

    Therapy, seeing him, not seeing him, cutting energetic cords, not cutting cords and trying to lure him in, building energetic brick walls around me, getting angry with him, accepting and just loving him for the wonderful being he is, nothing has seemed to quench this fire, this construct, this belief I have about this person.

    I set about becoming the things in him I love in an attempt to stop the need to acquire. This helped, it was self-actuating and in the meantime over the years I have gotten to see him more and more of just a man with normal faults than someone on a pedestal. Rather than looking up I’m mostly looking dead on as an equal these days.

    I’ve worked on arch type themes around him, daddy issues, the pattern of continually choosing men to be fascinated with who are unavailable, making me long and feel wanting and maybe not good enough. This is a pattern that I notice in myself often.

    Unworthiness, when imbalance strikes in me that’s where I go.

    I’m an alcoholic/addict so actually I do very black/white, up/down thinking sometimes. I am either the greatest angel to myself or most disgusting gutter tramp in my mind.

    I realized I’ve been behaving towards these men as if I am a little girl; from my child like parts that learned to feel not good enough/unworthy by many different mechanisms in my family of origin.

    When I do this behavior, this needy, unwomanly behavior, when I act as of I am less than them, when I energetically am trying to force from them the antidote to my unworthiness, it repels them.

    Also if I’m being fair, I choose men that I can play out this behavior with, so I choose men who are intrinsically unavailable, distant, aloof; I want to MAKE them love me. I want them to SAVE me. Make me feel worthy; unconsciously obviously, I’m not THAT crazy.

    I’ve succeeded in this behavior on a couple of occasions, but the underlying energetic dysfunction once I acquire them is so exhausting and is always there in the relationship and I realize that my grown ass woman parts are repelled by a man who is aloof, and distant, and unavailable. Because that sucks, yo.

    Just like they are repelled by my less than savory behaviors’! Well, look at that!

    Putting the big girl pants on…

    I want someone to meet me. Partner with me.

    I really do not in the end ever want to be with someone I have to talk into loving me, that I have to come get out of their shell, that I have to continually make the first move with. That part wasn’t even the real revelation for me, the revelation is that I have that choice.

    Love should be a practice of meeting each other by choice. On the daily.

    I want a heart centered grown up warrior that wants to play with me in these beautiful human forms while we have them! Am I right?!

    I fully value relationships as teachers. I ultimately believe that relationship is my tool for growing.

    I’m looking now to practice relationship rather than to jump right into enmeshment with the first willing and compelling stranger, (I love men more and more as grow older, so there are quite a few compelling specimens out there), but I digress.

    I want to practice taking care of myself in relation to another human being and gosh it would nice to find someone who would let me do that and wanted to support each other through this experiment of being curious towards one another.

    For example: Man and woman would have conversations about where we are coming from in the present moment, like how our wounding has gotten us here and where we are at now.

    We would try to get to know each other and build safety and trust.

    Which by the way I have realized is a MUST for the next go-rounds. What?! You might think this is a no brainer, but it’s taken me this long to get it.

    I so often let myself fall into relationship too fast because I can feel and envision the intrinsic goodness and higher self of a man, (have I mentioned I’m an empath?), without building any foundation with which to trust this other human that I’ve never met before. I just let the passion and the attraction carry me away; I’m sure you have too, but I’m trying not to project all over you.

    With trust and communication, I want to be able to take space when I need it.

    I need a lot of space, at least I always have. I’m open to a love that doesn’t drain me causing me to need to withdraw and recharge. But we’ll see.

    I’d like that space taking to be ok, that’s the experiment part for me. I’d like to be able to notice when I’m getting too enmeshed, overwhelmed and be able to safely ask for space and be able to take it. And maybe if I’m doing really well, allow the other person have that too

    So much adulting going on here, eh?

    I used to be fond of pointing out my previous experience of myself, in that I used to think I loved being alone, that I didn’t need anyone. I’m thinking this must have had something to do with being an addict plagued by a sense of self that required me to be separate and special and different, aloft or in the gutter.

    Some years back after getting sober and working on my recovery that changed, suddenly I was experiencing visceral aloneness and separation; I needed people, liked them even, which is an experience I’m not sure I’d had probably since I was a child.

    I thought I had grown to know myself better and I said things like ā€œI’m not here to be alone this time around! I am here to be in relationship! Relationship is where I learn to evolveā€. Hands on hips.

    This may have all been true but I don’t’ think I was being entirely honest with myself, really am I ever? I think self-centeredness; attachment to desire and a terror of being alone was driving it.

    At least somehow after the last 10 years I feel more like myself. There is a growing density of self-love that I operate from more and more that has to be a safer more sane way to operate.

    I know I must be changing/growing, as I am developing a gratitude that the Men/this Man let me go, or I caused chaos that forced them to let me go, especially this man.

    I may never have garnered all these tools I’ve learned and delved this deep if I hadn’t been suffering; if I hadn’t been, at least in the beginning harshly judging myself as not good enough for this man and forcing myself to grow up to feel like I was.

    Thank God he didn’t love me the way I wanted him to, thank god he couldn’t let me in so I could acquire him as another notch on my belt. The growing that happened as a result has been more than any actual relationship I’ve ever had.

    I put myself through hell at times in relation to this man. I realized it is not about him, it’s about all the men and it’s all about me and the beliefs I hold about myself in relation to, well, relationships with other humans!

    Thankfully another layer of the onion has fallen away, and I didn’t have to destroy another man to get it.

    Some months ago I began praying for this man and this pattern/belief about him and myself, not to come with me into the next phase of my life. Let be so, harming none and helping all for our highest good.

    Think I’m almost there.

  • Skin

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    Someday, if you’d like.

    I’ll write poems to you

    about the deliciousness of your body

    and the way your scent makes me

    grateful to be alive.