Such a dreary mood upon me now
- I wish to be free
From memory,
Hopelessness,
This surging, riling, anxiety
Swirling heart and stomach,
Free from all that I know:
Running away would not suffice,
I wish to be reborn.
I escaped for a moment through another's life,
more suffering than mine, more confused, more lost -
Yet the soft light of hope pervaded
And potential shone, an open door.
Why, when I have so much, does this suffering descend?
No, not descend,
It comes from within.
This waking life in all its glory
Withholds explanation
Focus on the breath, lost one,
"The movement of air,
Into bodies, out of bodies, through lives,...
The great exchange"
Feel the swell and dissolve
The tingling that dances, the pain, the heaviness,
Let it all fall away
Let dreams clear that which lingers now
Worries dissolve into symbols and stories
Slip through the curtain to Morpheus's realm:
This heaviness may yet disappear in the light of a new sun.
"The movement of air... the great exchange" is quoted from Janet Frame - an unfinished poem or perhaps simply a poetic stream of thought, mentioned in the foreword to 'The Goose Bath' anthology of Janet's poems. It has long been one of my favorite poems.