Poetry
I have written a lot of poetry over the years. Here is a small sample of my favourites.
Moving home
Packing up our lives
into little boxes,
keeping the necessary and discarding the past:
old phones, cords for forgotten technology,
train tickets, cinema stubs, receipts
for our first date, when I paid and you thanked me,
that long leisurely spring walk
at the butterfly farm - you fell in the rain and bled
on my handkerchief.
You dither and I shout stupid words,
meaning nothing
except I am stressed and please move faster and that doesn’t go there and I love you.
Don’t pay attention to my words.
Tomorrow we will
move out and move on
to another life and a new relationship.
One more will join us and explode our calm,
a little bump in the road
covered in ice, crystals of light and love waiting
to make us slip and slide and swerve,
dangerous in its beauty, covering the old
in bright brilliant white, cleansing
and making ready the next, the shiny new.
We will start afresh
and welcome our evolution -
from two to three
we will be home.
Just for today
Just for today
I will be
Calm, composed when things do not go his way
And unruffled when the milk is spilt.
I will wipe noses, dry tears,
Overcome this realm of motherhood
As if it is natural, comes naturally,
And is my purpose.
I will exist
In between moments of panic
Deep breaths will steady me as I am forced
Into this box.
Perfection is not real,
yet I strive for some form of it,
grasping at the image of myself
I cannot feel, yet hope to be.
I will survive
The exhaustion, the tantrums, the tears, the touching,
The constancy and inconsistency of toddler minds,
Who need and want
And give their love so freely and fully
To me.
I am not always worthy.
They are worth it.
The Reiki in me
Reiki is not a constant effortless flow;
it ebbs and leaks,
takes work and demands time.
I don’t often initiate daily self-treatment.
Time is a luxury.
Self-care is selfish.
I crave more.
Reiki is in me.
It is unguarded moments or unintentional touch,
It moves through me without effort.
Is it subconscious or unconscious?
These moments of touch initiate a quick flow and burst
as energy leaps from my hands to my control centre
demanding attention,
demanding use.
It feels neglected,
hiding in the shadows of my person
waiting impatiently.
Or perhaps the Reiki is patient
and I am not.
