Soothe (for Sunday Scribblings)

It is dark in my world

The walls are closing in on me

Painfully I stretch

Until my skin breaks open

I fight my way

Through thick layers of dirt

Try not to get eaten

By the creatures 

Lurking in the dark

Up and up I go

Until finally

I can see the light

There’s the sky

Wide open

I reach towards it

Longingly

But I can’t quite get there

Exhausted

I am just about to give up

When suddenly 

The sun comes out

Its warmth embraces me

Soothed

My tired body surrenders

I open up

And blossom

In the most beautiful colours

My favourite poem

Today I want to share with you my favourite poem. 
While there are others I also love, for the poet's skill with words or for their perfect rhythm, I chose this one, because it touched me so deeply when I read it the first time. 

Ultimately, that's what poetry is all about for me: touching people's hearts - and this one ripped mine to pieces (in a good way ;-)

It's by Derek Walcott.

LOVE AFTER LOVE

The time will come

When, with elation,

You will great yourself arriving

At your own door, in your own mirror,

And each will smile at the other's welcome,

And say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

To itself, to the stranger who has loved you

All your life, whom you ignored

For another, who knows you by heart

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

The photographs, the desperate notes,

Peel your image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

Explore (for Sunday Scribblings)

Travelling the mysterious lands of my mind

And crossing the unchartered oceans of my emotions

I’m facing raging storms and scary shadows in the night

I have no map and no survival kit

No house or shelter, no place to hide

Yet, I venture on with the spirit of an explorer

I know that there’s a treasure to find

Deep in that jungle of tangled emotions

Beyond the dust and dirt of wrong perceptions

Hidden amongst overgrown ruins of concepts of self

Beyond

Will I keep standing here

Like a deer in the headlights

Of a car racing towards it

And just get run over

Or will I be able

To tear myself away

From being fascinated

By this deadly illusion

We call life

And jump into the darkness

Of not knowing

What I will find

Once I start looking

Beyond

Flying home

Under the surface

Underneath all the madness

Of constant movement

Below the crushing waves

And burning houses

Is my true home

To get there I have to

Let go of everything

I hold onto

Transcend the boundaries set

By my definitions

Of self and others

Disengage

Then jump

And fly

What if?

What if I told you that this is all there is?

Would you stop searching?

Would you stop your relentless efforts

to improve things

and instead come to terms

with reality just as it is?

Would you be able to see

that everything is already perfect?

Or would you continue to choose

to follow aversion and desire

through an imagined maze

when there is nothing to find

nothing to achieve

and nothing to change?

Would you finally open up your heart

and let it all in?

The good and the bad

in equal measures

until it all becomes of one taste?

Would you be brave enough?

Would you hold tight

and withstand the force of the storm

to eventually reveal the rainbow

inside your heart?

Shining

Like a diamond hit by the light

Spectral colours

All-encompassing

Love