Thursday, 1 November 2018

The Feet Are The Link: A Poem

On Saturday I begin my writing course, Writing the Wild Soul, so I will be away for a few days, and may not post at all next week. Before I go I want to leave you with another of my intuitive pieces written in response to a line from a poem by Robert Bringhurst (yes, I admit I am a little bit obsessed with his words). I hope you like it.

The feet are the link 
between earth and the body. Begin there.
~ Robert Bringhurst, ‘Sengzhao’

Begin with the sole 
with fleshly soul 
with the whorls of skin 
the tough skin that touches 
dirt. With feet brown and blessed 
we plunge ever deeper into soil
into earth-bound stone, which holds us 
with the tenderness of a mother

What trials, what sorrows must we suffer
to be brought back to understanding? 

—this beginning that births us—

What fleshly cares do we embrace?
What reality is ours? 

The real is a cauldron of possibility
resting on a fire of spirit
boiling, bubbling
giving form to life
The feet are our connection 
our human roots, which bind us to 
the larger body, the earthly realm 
of nourishment and knowing

We cannot ask for more 
than what is given
(though we do)
We should lie back in acceptance 
of what is. But we burn for more
because we’ve lost what we had
turned away from earth
from simplicity of body and 
ancient sophistication of soul
We broke apart what was whole
what was contained inside 
the circle of eternity

4 comments:

  1. i do like it---and it feels timely for me, in the northern hemisphere...turning inward, to the deep roots of the earth and of the soul...

    enjoy your writing course! i look forward to something from it in future posts.

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