As the seasons transition from Winter into Spring, a friend of the Trust shares this collection of poems, with the images that inspired their creation.
Birth
They said to me, ‘Listen,
in this life the light is strong in you,
it always is in people who are going to
have look their demons in the eyes…
and so it started, in an oxygen tent, in a hospital
in South East London, with a hole in my heart.
Experience
I have experienced a lot
and much of it I have learned from,
but I haven’t yet found time to stitch it all together into a quilt,
it’s still ragged in places, more of a work in progress,
just tacked together for the sake of appearances,
maybe it’s something I will only really finish in the after
where I’ve heard they have special threads that can hold things together in love.
Stars
Each of us starts as a speck of Love,
oblivious to the Light that sent us forth,
streaming stars and glory behind us as we pass
and gradually we collect those stars and make them ours again
until we have amassed enough for them to absorb us,
rather than us having to absorb them.
Psychotherapy
Over the decades my profession
has amassed an enormous collection
of experience, knowledge, ideas and opinions
and it’s all available in books, papers and articles,
but when these things are in the wrong hands
being on the receiving end of them can be
like blunt force trauma or attempted rape.
So what are the right hands?
The right hands are the hands of your Soul,
soft, impossibly gentle and infinitely knowing,
hands that have very little need
of the opinions of others
because they are connected
to a different source of wisdom,
one which touches the world lightly
and leaves it better for having been touched.
Suffering
I don’t believe that all suffering is meaningful
meaning comes from beyond the realm of suffering,
and when we start to see our suffering as meaningful
all it means is that we have started to heal.
Immigration
I was listening to a defecting politician
on the news telling us (once again) that Britain is broken,
I disagree completely, Britain is a beautiful country
filled with opportunities, possibilities, treasure and hope,
and Britain’s greatest treasure has always been its people,
particularly those who come from other cultures,
without them there would be no depth, no debate,
no Health Service, no diversity, no curry, nothing to share
and little to receive, and anyway, let’s face it,
from the perspective of soul if you’ve been born
you’re already an immigrant.
Perfect
You may not
be perfect
but your Soul is,
and it’s bigger than you are.
Being
What can we do
at times such as this,
when everything is changing
and the outcomes are uncertain?
Those of us with lanterns must keep them lit
the grandparents, the elders and the peacekeepers,
there’s little else that we can do, just keep our lanterns lit,
so the world can see tomorrow.
Times
There are times
to be the rock
and times to be the water,
times to be the plough,
and times to be the earth,
there are times to walk away
and times to take a stand
but there is never a time
when you cannot profit
from being still in yourself.
Lilies
The past is what it is
and the future is yet to be,
neither can be changed save in the present
so look to the still pool in your garden, look to the
tightly bound buds of the lilies, deep oily jade,
waiting until you are ready to bless them
with the light of your attention,
waiting until you are strong enough to
bear their blooms in your heart
and who knows which colours they will bring?
All you can know is that they will.
Your original self
The real journey
isn’t the outward one,
it happens much later in life
when you want to understand how
and why you got to where you are now,
when you look back and retrace your steps,
back though every pain and every joy
and you look each one in the eye
until you can see your original self
looking back at you with love.
The needle
Your body can’t pass through
the eye of a needle and neither can your wealth,
but beauty, tenderness and peace can,
your memory can, especially your memories of love,
your life experience, your thoughts and feelings,
your hopes and your fears, everything you have learned
and everything you have yet to learn can come with you.
Death
I asked death
if this was my time
and the raven on my shoulder
said nothing, it just looked away,
through the trees
and into the distance.