Audio Version | Song Credit: The Earth Prelude by Ludovico Einaudi
I was thirteen When she first Let me touch her Years of torment The dark veil Came knocking early On this hearts door Something about scales Of deserving About babies Who weren’t born equal Incessant whispers Sewing invisible tapestries Of guilt and shame Into the nucleus Of every cell Year upon year It Corrodes the heart Displacing everything And everyone into A head so fucked up And desolate No creature would Ever wish to live there Reduced to a macabre circus Of circuits and patterns This body Moves about landscapes Here but not here There but not there Yet some small pocket Of it Still Longs for Still craves for The divine Like a seedling Buried deep in the soil This ravaged Bodily architecture Is searching for the light It comes by the side Of the M15 In the belly Of a fluorescently lit Medic van Everything And everyone Completely quiet Caught for a tiny moment In their infinitude Heart holding it all She reaches out And strokes my hand A tunnel A light So bright and soft It could cut a path home For every star in every galaxy The absence of wrong or right No need for good or bad Just pure Everything A vessel filling and filling And filling with the thing It was always missing But never knew Until it is time to come back To find a way to live here To find a space free from pain In the land of Being alive
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Audio Version | music credit: I Love You by Riopy
The day that Time was strangled Bark unfurled itself From ancient trees And the moon Turned black Breath caught In barbed wire Lost to the lungs That birthed it In a few words Child becomes adult Heart squeezed Into a conscious Kind of oblivion Soft young body Now rigid and old Hands white knuckling Their way, away From home Or was it ever really? Look through windows At faces of other children In homes of other families But always…Remember to Forget Then let the elements Become your eternal guardian As birds fly backwards In fifty-two shades of purple sky As nothing becomes everything As dreams and reality Switch places And all the colours Sing their long goodbyes. Alone,
Oh… Is this how death feels? Swimming In an eternal sea Of Nothing Heart ripped from chest Nothing to feel Eyes wide shut Nothing to see Reach into the void Of Blackness But there’s no one To reach back Only the empty echo Of something Less hopeful Than despair Falling Forever falling No one to catch you No one who even Knew you fell What’s the genesis Of unlovability? And is there a bridge From that to this? Give me hands To strike the match That burns that bridge Give me rage to Light a fire In my belly So wild and free It takes me Backwards And Forwards And Sideways To somewhere That’s not this Takes me into A Feeling of Something Takes me Away From this Dark & Hollow Alone How do you comprehend
The wounds of lovelessness? A pain that leaves no trace Only shadows that torment To birth belonging One must first Sit with its lack Let the sorrow seep Deep into your heart Let the unspoken years Of lost childhood Talk to you Let them make you cry Reach for a person Who isn’t there And never was Reach right into the void Let the tragedy inside It’s been at the door For oh so long Let it All in Take your time And then When you’re done Look the child That you were In the eyes Peer into your soul And remind yourself That you survived. A hollow heart
Within the hollow Of a tree, I sit Around me, The forest Teams with life But I have become Its opposite Past pain Numbs The Forest Heaves Breathes Life for my lungs Love for my heart But there is no one Here to receive it In solitude Freedom awaits In loneliness Death stirs thickly. I am a free spirit
Or am I? What lies inside me? Am I dark Or am I light? I used to move Through this world Like a dove Loving it all Not overthinking Floating In a warm current Of gentle intuition Things just were One way Or another Softly moving Nothing jarring Everything working The Way It Was Meant To Be Until the sky became black Knowing became nothing And over-examination Everything Life beneath the microscope Every decision Forensically examined Every thought Analysed And over-analysed Every feeling judged Small facial expressions Might make or break you Use of one word or another Revealing Your True Nature Every cell, and fibre Thought and nerve A delicate rain drop That could be crushed In an instant And change The course Of Everything Tip toe forever now This land is made Of egg shells Speak softly now This world is an Eternal china shop Your voice might Hurt those Around you Don’t stand out From the crowd now Someone might hurt you Or hate you Poisoned Forever Place your face To the mirror Of Judgement Look at yourself Change yourself Understand yourself Analyse yourself Think about Every step You take Every decision You make Do nothing Without thinking About it Over and over And over again Til your mind Becomes a ferris wheel In free fall Til every option has been Exhausted Every stone turned And turned Worn down Into nothing Til there is Nothing Left of you To be examined Anymore. I hold my breath
To hold the world Envelop it in my chest Protect it from Everything that wants To corrupt and Hurt it I hold my breath Like an armour Against the pain Raging around me A fortress Of strength And solitude I hold my breath Without thinking Like second nature Just to be For a moment Outside of everything A pause in time To not think Not feel Anything I hold my breath When I don’t know What else to do What else to say How else to feel Like pressing pause On a movie That is moving Far too fast I hold my breath When the suffering Gets too much The hold lets me Float above it And see things From a different view I hold my breath When I can’t think Because the voices In my head And all around me Have become too loud I hold my breath In anticipation of The worst Even when there’s No objective reason To fear But then I can’t Hold it in anymore My lungs go soft The air comes rushing out My body melts Into the surrounds A little more And then I must surrender To the world. The alarm screams
Each beep Cutting a painful Incision into my brain I reach for my phone Through the cold and dark To shut off That piercing Soul-destroying Sound Get up! My mind screams Get up Now! My body becomes A tight elastic band Eyes previously fairy lights Are now lamps Heart racing Mind revving It’s 6am and I am already Behind The cogs in my head Are spinning At too many miles per hour Clanging, whirring, banging Against my skull My head hurts As I wake to the reality Of this life I sit at my desk And open up Pandora’s box A million tabs A billion unread messages A trillion emails that Need a response Now My chest is pounding Shoulders rising A sip of dark Black coffee The heat warms my chest The steam and aroma Fill my nostrils A moment of calm My heart slows briefly As the caffeine Seeps into my blood And then Everything rises at once Like an orchestral crescendo Heart pumping harder Lungs expanding like A hot air balloon filling with heat The veins in my forehead Pulsate like a Beat boxer Rocking a baby in a crib So it can do What it has to do today Without even feeling it Back and forth Back and forth The momentum in my body Takes over My mind takes a backseat All the reasons not to be here Not to be doing this Not to be scraping From the depth of my soul To eek out another day Of backbreaking work All the reasons not to think of The million shattered neurons That will eventually collapse And bring me faster to death Than I should have arrived All of the reasons not to Keep doing this bullshit Are gone And I am at one With the absurdity And destruction Of it all. Shame, you thrive
In the shadows Pulse in the silence Of our dark And troubled minds Quietly strangling Our calm Joy never had time To set roots before You spread your Cancerous tentacles Squeezing and suffocating Everything that is Good Gripping and clenching Day by day, You dig us Into a premature grave Hiding our bodies Our hearts and our souls Taking us from the world Whose hearts and understanding Would send you drifting away Into nothing but a distant memory An imperceptible flicker In the cosmos from whence We came. Why do we chase things
That don’t exist Rather than embracing Our true selves In all our messiness, And beauty Are we not already perfect Like a rose that smiles at the sun Does it fret about its petals Thorns and leaves Or does it sway in the breeze, Knowing it is a part of life As it was meant to be? Why do we seek love Where it cannot be found Buy things that we do not need Climb career ladders That take us to nowhere But stress and sadness What about the sea turtle Who swims through the salty sea Does it not know its own majesty Isn’t it aware of its happy place in the Universe of things Does it not view the rainbow fish Darting around its shell and belly With admiration rather than envy Why do we compare Ourselves with others Knowing full well This always makes us feel Less than who we are And the love that we deserve That we all belong That we’re all connected To one another And the earth Why do we look so harshly Upon every action we take Telling ourselves the next will be better When each action was as perfect As we could muster for then As brave as our bodies and minds Would allow for now Heaving beneath the weight Of all that the world Piles upon us Hour after hour Day after day Year after year Why don’t we instead Learn from the trees Who don’t judge The straightness of their trunks The smoothness of their leaves The brightness of their flowers Nor sweetness of their fruits Their bark is rough, Their branches break, Their leaves fly everywhere Their fruit splatters over Pavements and pastures But their worth is not measured by this Why don’t we smell the red ros Swim with the green sea turtle Hug the great dark trunk Of an enormous tree Knowing full well That we are perfect Just the way we are |
Charlie WoodHuman. Activist. Facilitator. Therapist. Student of Life. Trying to do my bit to build a kinder world. Archives
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