What Are Your Words?

What words

seep deep

into your skull,

calm the thought storms,

show the boulders the way out,

sky the way in?

What are your words

that cast spells,

summon the song of the stone

who wants to love you?

What words

can unearth

your buried pain?

What words are

dense   tense   untouchable,

scare others away,

even the bats and scorpions?

What words

are not yours,

are the inheritance

from your wounded lineage?

What words

are locked in a bleak, grimy dungeon,

sobbing their hopelessness,

dying

to be heard?

What words

thrill your wild,

won’t let you rest

until you howl,

until you claim

your fur and tail?

What words

paint the true shape of you

when you are broken

and

what are your words

when you are

One With All That Is?

What words,

spoken,

bless others’ pain,

soft-stitch the gashes,

kiss awake

the dormant shine,

offer a portal?

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Questions for Contemplation

What helps you navigate challenges and become resourced in stressful times? This poem points to beauty and creative forms of expression as ‘medicine’ for the mind, body and soul. How do you relate to this idea?

What creative forms inspire, nourish, balance and help you heal when you encounter difficulty?

If you’d like to explore this further, choose one form, for example, listening to classical music, and engage in free writing about the benefits to you mentally, physically emotionally and spiritually. You might also choose to write about the benefits in one or two areas rather than all four.

Take a few minutes to relax. Then write for 8-10 minutes, letting words, feelings and images spill onto the page without censoring. Don’t be concerned about grammar or punctuation. Have fun.

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