Wednesday, April 27, 2011

"Clear Side of the Storm"
Spring, 2011
Lizziemax
And then, despite everything:
Life.
You turn a corner, and there's 
Life.
An orange cat.
A yellow bloom.
The woman laughs.
You see a big man with a tiny saxophone, just breaching on its potential.
Despite everything, 
Life begins to return.
A purple flower bursts up through the cracks in the pavement.
A lizard wiggles his way, makes his own path, through the old cobblestones. 
The hypertensive orange cat is, once again, terrified to see you and darts off in her own direction;
        Yes. Being terrified is a part of Life. 
        Running is a part of Life.
        Laughing at the orange cat is part of Life.
        At some point you can't deny it: 
        Despite your sadness, 
        Despite all the grief and horror and emptiness,
Life continues.
( ( ( ) ) ) 
Despite everything, 
Spring is here.
The sun begins to shine more brightly,
The days are longer,
You are warmer.
You can still be pissed about this, if you want.
You don't have to like it.
But still: Life won't wait for you.
Life will carry on Her trumpet second line, whether you join the parade or not.
You can see it everywhere, if and only if you pay attention.
I know it's hard, to 
Push through your own sad walls, to 
Look outside, to 
Be Here Now, but if you can....
You'll hear all the animals who made it through the winter 
Clucking along their own happy brigade.
They must be shocked - 
Imagine if you had no sense of time, no sense of knowing....
When the snow thaws,
When the earth warms,
It's glorious enough to start making everyone do Mother Nature's sexy dance.
And you can join,
If you want ;)
Honestly, she's begging you, taunting you, teasing you everywhere. 
She's imploring you with the green grass,
She's enticing you with chilly blue skies and a warm red heart....
She's saying:
"It's here.
It's ok.
Wake up.
The winter's over.
The worst has past."
And you have to know that, in the deepest part of your heart.
I know it's so very hard hard hard:
To push past all the Mourning of your wintertime.
It's tempting to stay locked in the temple of Blues, 
To give in to the horror of the depression,
The lack of faith,
The one where your world is the only World,
Your sadness is the only Sadness,
But see, none of that is really True.
If you can manage to, 
If you have the strength to 
Lift your head just slightly, 
Look around just a bit, and you can see - 
You weren't the only one mourning this winter.
You weren't the only one who lost something.
The trees are naked too,
And raw,
And scared.
And hold all the hope and potential of the Spring deep inside them already, just like You.
( ( ( ) ) ) 
And of course:
There will be other winters.
There will be more sadness.
Sometimes, you just have to go back in the woods.
But for now, it's ok to enjoy the spring.
Take a big breath.
Be outside.
Write a poem in the cloister.
Lose some of that heavy clothing and walk around naked for awhile.
The sun will come up again.
The earth has never stopped turning.
And despite all your heavy sorrow, 
All your irreversible experiences, 
Despite all that has happened and will happen:
Life.
Life.
Life is rolling on.