There is a way of breathing
That’s a shame and suffocation
And then there’s another way of expiring
A love breath,
That lets you open to infinity.
– Rumi
Sometimes we have trouble finding our words, they seem to evaporate like steam rising from a body of water. Giving a voice to the feelings that live down in the depths where we feel most vulnerable and revealed can be elusive. It’s easy to get lost in trying to express what we can barely understand. But we can look to poets for help in giving shape to what lives within us. Poetry is all about fearlessly opening up and getting lost in the experience of undiluted emotion, then finding the way back. Poems are a description of that journey and can help inform the path we travel, especially when things seem darkest. It is the work of the soul coming into its own. Although the work can be gut-wrenching, calling for heaps of untapped stamina and patience, it can also be life giving.
Poetry offers us pure experience distilled into its simplest form. The poet’s words reveal the path they’ve traveled and what they’ve found, giving hints and insights that help us make sense of our own life. That’s what the shared voice does, it helps us tune in to what we need in our lives, it acts as a salve that heals our wounds, and points us to our true north. When we struggle to find our own words that describe or define the subtleties of our self we can borrow the words that seem to fit us just right.
Our soul is not a commodity to be brokered, borrowed, or traded. It has a life of its own which demands honest expression. The paths to that expression are innumerable but we find there are also similarities. There is nothing like coming across another’s words that strike a hidden chord inside that makes us come alive. We may have to find our own way but we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we can build upon other’s experiences and understanding and see if any of it speaks to us. We follow where the words and feelings lead us, that is the work of coming into our own lives fully. It’s taking the journey, not arriving at the destination, that is most valuable. We are all called, it’s up to each of us to give our authentic answer.
The creative process brings us back again to the magic and mystery of living. The shared voice speaks to the experiences we all have in common, it’s the growth of consciousness and coming into being. The voices of what has been informs all that is yet to come and steers us closer to what’s hidden inside.
So let the breaths you take open you to infinity, let your life be the song your soul never tires of singing.
kb
