Conversation with my inner wisdom being (inspired by We Write Poems)

“We write poems” have asked us this week to write a conversational poem. When I started contemplating this prompt, it made me think of an exercise I used a lot when working as a Learning Mentor with primary school children. I asked them to close their eyes and visualise themselves going on a journey to find a wisdom being that lives in a cave. The wisdom being would then give them a present. I’d let them describe their journey, the cave, what the wisdom being looked like and what present they got and then draw a picture of it to keep. I told them that anytime they needed advice, they could go back to that place in their mind and ask the wisdom being for help and guidance. That way I hoped to enable them to access their own inner wisdom.

Today, I felt a bit down and found myself wondering what I could do to get rid of these negative feelings inside of me. I realised that everyone is doing this all the time: craving the good feelings and pushing away the bad ones. I then engaged into a conversation with my inner wisdom being about this and this is my attempt to present the resulting conversation in poetic form:

I don’t want bad feelings.

How can I only experience the good?

That’s a very good question

But how is it that you would

Even know what good feels like?

Don’t you need to know what’s bad?

I know good and bad, so I can compare

And I prefer feeling happy over feeling sad.

But how, without each other, could they even exist?

So is it foolish to wish for good ones?

You’ve left me in the mist.

With dualistic thinking

Your suffering won’t cease

Go beyond to the source

And you will find peace

From there watch it all

Arise and pass away

Don’t judge or hold on

That’s the only way.