Walking North

Walking North

No matter how I turn

the magnificent light follows.

Background to my sadness.

 

No matter how I lift my heart

my shadow creeps in wait behind.

Background to my joy.

 

No matter how fast I run

a stillness without thought is where I end.

 

No matter how long I sit

there’s a river of motion I must rejoin.

 

And when I can’t hold my head up

it always falls in the lap of one

who has just opened.

 

When I finally free myself of burden

there’s always someone’s heavy head

landing in my arms.

 

The reasons of the heart

are leaves in wind.

Stand up tall and everything

will nest in you.

 

We all lose and we all gain.

Dark crowds the light.

Light fills the pain.

 

It’s a conversation with no end,

a dance with no steps,

a song with no words,

a reason too big for any mind.

 

No matter how I turn

the magnificence follows.

 

A Question to Walk With: Describe a time when you felt liberated and then ran into someone in need. How did you feel? What did you do?

shadows

Last month, Sounds True published a major collection of my poetry, The Way Under the Way, which contains three separate books of poetry, gathering 217 poems retrieved and shaped over the past twenty years. These poems span my life’s journey and they center on the place of true meeting that is always near, where we chance to discover our shared humanity and common thread of Spirit. The above poem is from the book.

 

*photo credit: unsplash.com


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