Thursday, February 4, 2010

Keep Breathing


Yes...


Keep Breathing

I know
you have been cut.
And deep.
And such cuts
create doubt:
"Can anything of joy
ever come this way again?"
The moment of not-breathing
when cut
is natural.
But keep breathing.
Keep breathing.
Because
what gets cut
isn't really us.
It's why
all the buddhas
male and female buddhas alike
sometimes meditate
in the charnel grounds,
looking upon the rotting bodies,
burning bodies,
bones
they see:
"This
that is really me
is not this body
is not this emotion
is not this spinning mind-trip."
Keep breathing.
It does not
negate the feeling.
And when we are mistreated,
we are mistreated.
And when there is injustice,
there is injustice.
Objectively so.
But there is a part of you
and I have seen it in your eyes
that would be free
even inside a prison cell.
Thankfully
you are
a spirit
of the wide open spaces
and no one
has the power
to fence you in.
The wounding
and healing
that you are experiencing
is never in vain.
The boiling,
the simmering,
the cooking down
of it all
becomes a nectar
that will feed
and heal others.
But don't ever think
you have to do it
alone.
There are others.
Dispensers of
healing nectar
are all around you
AND
within you.
Correct me
if I am wrong,
but some part of you
saw all of this coming.
Maybe it was a small glimpse.
Maybe it was
a slight inner tug
that said:
"Brace yourself dear,
your next life is about to begin."
In any case,
I hold you
in this old lion heart of mine.
And I know
that
which has been
heaved upon you
is not
a matter
of deserving
or not-deserving.
You have so much love to give.
The Forces of Life
do not give such a Giver
without a Receiver.
Keep breathing.

_______________________________
from Tongue on Fire
(c) 2010 / Frank Owen / NEKYIA.POETRY

http://monocle-nekyia.blogspot.com/

1 comment:

Bruce said...

Keep..... breathing.....
yes, even when the breath seems to have left ahead of me.... and I can't seem to catch hold of it....
.... still worth reaching for.... because it means..... life.....

Frank Owens' poetry hits me square in the solar plexus nearly every time... and his openness in sharing the deep inner recesses of his experience shows me that I'm NOT alone in feeling many of these same things.... almost always there is an inner recognition I feel in what he says.....
there's that word again.....
resonate....................
keep..... breathing........