Half-Lifetime Journey (a poem)

JoyfulAbandonJoyfulAbandon
in General

Hello dear ones, here's another poem:

Half-Lifetime Journey

When our breath cycles,
bodies widening and narrowing,
with arms wrapped around,
feeling ribs pushing into hands,
that's when we know,
we are neighboring trees,
friends in the forest of billions,
branches overlapped,
leaves dappling sunlight,
roots having understood,
that their intertwining,
in our separate sapling years,
was this half-lifetime journey,
already underway.

Postscript: To me, closely attending to the breath of another is intimate and sacred. In adulthood it requires trust and courage. It is a way to feel the comfort and safety we may have more readily felt in the deep roots of childhood.

Comments

  • jamesDCjamesDC

    A thoughtful, insightful, and imaginative poem. The breath is life itself, and your poem shows a long process in which separateness evolves into a commingling, as registered in the breathing of another. I agree that "attending to the breath of another is intimate and sacred.” It is equally important, I think, to attend to one's own breath—the inhale and the exhale—especially the moment of stillness and “no-thought” when the exhalation is complete but the next breath has not yet begun. For two people to experience this at the same time while observing each other is a special moment indeed.

    I hope you will keep writing, shaping your “joyful abandon” into verbal structures that identify it while also leaving it alone.

  • MeltMyWayMeltMyWay

    @JoyfulAbandon
    This really touched me. I’ve always felt a strong connection to trees, like I can feel the soul or energy in them. Even as a kid, some trees scared me because the feeling was so strong. So the part about being neighboring trees and having intertwined roots really spoke to me. Beautiful poem. Side note your tree drawings on your profile are amzing did you draw those?

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