One thing I love so much about poems is their ability to contain paradox… Just as we humans are always engaged in holding conflicting truths in ourselves: Odi et amo, I love and I hate. These are not so much two feelings we grasp one after another, more feelings we hold at the same time. No wonder the heart breaks! When I wrote this poem, I was practicing how to relax into unknowing. And then, life, as it does, showed up as my teacher: In this case, a robin in the skylight. After writing the last five lines, I realized how much they were like one of my favorite rounds: “Be like a bird, who halting in her flight on a limb so slight feels it give away beneath her, yet sings, sings knowing she has wings.” Finding the Way With every breath today I let you go. I don’t mean this lightly. And with every inhale today, I let you back in. Softly. All day like this. Flopping. Flopping and falling. Oh the ridiculous failure of it all. And the wond...
Women's Spiritual Poetry