Rest This place of letting go and entering the space of being the great – I am the slipping into slumber the trust that you will return even though you have handed over full control to this unseen force unseen but restorative you yourself hidden […]
Loss Loss rages unexpected as a bushfire it burns the water dry cardboard drops stick inside my blistered throat The world once upright overturned I walk legless and catatonic Even months from now after I have strained singlehandedly to push these monolithic buildings back into […]
Photo credit: Denise Smith “Italian Style”. Follow Denise on Instagram @deniselifeart or on FB Denise Smith (Photo Album – My Streets)
Grace
Grace knows
Grace knows
how to stack
your vertebrae
one above
the other
Align the spine
when the haters
cry to have you
stooped and bent
when all expect
you to spit
back the venom
that was aimed
directly at
your good intentions
Grace knows
that dignity
is the precursor
to love
grace knows
to hold firm
smile and wave
walk away
remain upright
but not uprighteous
poised and elegant
compassionate
above the fray
Petrichor The wilderness was once visible a hooded darkness of caves and woods monsters concealed in logs or behind shadowy rocks A lonely place The wilderness is now invisible a place of tall buildings and people milling a proximity of connection but utter disconnection a […]
Empathy Don’t wrap me in your pity or stifle me with sympathy the lion’s roar may well seem silenced but it’s alive within my core Don’t smother me with platitudes or shroud me in condescension sympathy will only invoke my rage my wounds will scream […]
Photo credit: Denise Smith “Simple pleasures”. Follow Denise on Instagram @deniselifeart or on FB Denise Smith (Photo Album – My Streets)
Abundance
It’s easy not to trust
to doubt that
all that you need
will fall into place
It’s effortless
to fall into the fear
and miss the signs
of the quiet blossoming
We are led to
believe that support
and love come in
large packages
with bells and whistles
and cards signed
by the entire cast
of your life
and perhaps
a celebrity hero
thrown in for
final
confirmation
We fail to see
that abundance
comes in small seeds
easy to dismiss
as flecks of nothingness
these tiny specks
that hold the light
need to be planted
in dense, dark soil
their code hidden from
the naked eye
but watered, nurtured
and nourished
they flourish into
massive oaks
of joy
The beginning
may not foretell
the grandeur of the end
that wisp of an idea
that glimpse of shy
inner knowing
that defies logic
can only
burst forth
and grow
when held
in the candlelit room
of your aloneness
Be brave
go into yourself
embrace the silence
and in the gentle
rustling of your
own creation
you will find
the magic
of your intentions
manifesting the
abundance
your heart desires
Sanctuary We are all fleeing from something even those who appear to be standing still Even those who are planted in the same spot as the moment of their birth these rare beasts who seem to be happily grazing on their less than green grass […]
Homecoming isn’t the same anymore the furniture has been rearranged and grief sits in your empty chair The spoon has leached its metal into my tea and the milk seems curdled even though it’s in the halcyon days before its use by date There is […]
Photo credit: Denise Smith “Sky lines”. Follow Denise on Instagram @deniselifeart or on FB Denise Smith (Photo Album – My Streets)
Reflection
I hand-picked a
constellation
of stars and
hid them
in my heart
they shine
reflected on
the lake inside
my mind
This is the place
where you
will always live
even as the wild
geese cry in flight
even as the moon
rises on lonely
landscapes
and planes
take off
leaving a vapour
trail of all
we wished
to say
but didn’t
And when
morning cracks
another sky
and all the stars
appear to fade
you’re still there
Venus rising
hanging near the moon
Soul Invisible and some say non-existent I know you are out there somewhere in a place where time has no clocks hovering over me wispy, wise benevolent When the opinionated ego with its petulant wounds withdraws its magic and sulks inside its bruises you nudge […]
Promise The shadows were long in the setting sun and you had kept all your promises to the ones you loved You had even honoured the ones to whom you only admired or less And yet You had broken many made to yourself Not the […]
Photo credit: Denise Smith “Made for Love”. Follow Denise on Instagram @deniselifeart or on FB Denise Smith (Photo Album – My Streets)
Longing
You have wrapped
your desires
in an invisible shroud
of your longing
under layers
of regret
hidden tightly with
all your losses
shame and pain
Your hooded
vulnerability now
buffered from the wind
forges ahead
missing someone
you have never met
Winter is
your safest season
skate over
the lake of frozen tears
stay on the edges
of your longing
near the guarded trees
and the reliable rocks
keep your eyes ahead
ignore the signs
that scream you are
beloved
the thaw will come
the cycle will complete
nothing is lost
when you let it go
Thrive You are there though layers of adulthood may have concealed you But it does not take an archaeologist to unearth you chip below the psyche’s dust and there you are shy, sensitive child who could not watch a Western movie the fighting between the […]
Miracle When on grazed knees you sink begging for a miracle raise your eyes to the left and see the people in your life the random meetings in what were billions of statistical opportunities yet you stumbled on this one that holds your heart even […]
Prophecy What if you knew? Deep intuition that every fibre inside of you confirmed with every heart beat But there were those who used facts and science to pave over your wild, raw and unmeasurable knowingness What if you knew your prophesies could unseat the […]
Freedom It’s not the handcuffs or the prison walls it’s the silent glance hastening your compliance an eyebrow a tilt of the head assumptions you run beliefs long past their use by date keeping you second guessing in your own head the norms that form […]
Permission The first cracks of light started on the inside thoughts that rubbed together and created a spark piercing through the dark armour I had been forced to don The cloak the mantle of the good girl the ‘Bless me father for I have sinned’ […]
Eternal The owl came last night it’s never been before the sliver of the waning moon hung right above my door the moss had grown beneath the rock you once stood on the gurgling creek still moved along the course it always knew the dragonfly […]
Photo credit: Denise Smith “Transported”. Follow Denise on Instagram @deniselifeart or on FB Denise Smith
Retreat
You were always
striving
to find the pinnacle
the mountain
the river
the ocean
that would
make you
whole again
the elusive source
from which
you sprang
The external
the answer
in a book
in a face of another
and yet
it eluded you
Until
You turned
and took
one simple
inward step
Where the vastness
of the retreat
to your own
stillness
fed the parched
desert of your longing
Sonder This life I find so big is merely the backdrop of yours prop-like I am drinking a tea while you are in the café deep in life-changing conversation I am the extra in the movie of your traffic jam the one you sat next […]
Gratitude Such an easy sentiment to lean into on lazy summer days but the truth and its power is summoning it in the midst of pain The gratitude at a funeral having seen you just before you faded into memories Deep illness cracked open compassion […]
Photo credit: Denise Smith “Ghost on a Train”. Follow Denise on Instagram @deniselifeart or on FB Denise Smith (Photo Album – My Streets)
Whispering
In the babble of the world
the assault on your senses
ears tuned externally
it’s almost impossible
to hear your own heartbeat
Your own truth
suffocated by
the desires of others
and their ‘truth’
about you
spoken
so loudly
Yet your heart never ceases
silently in your chest
echoing your deepest longing
On pale pink mornings
you should rise with the sun
find a rock
a beach or a tree
close your eyes
as the rays whisper
through the leaves
or dazzle the water
And listen to the story
your heart has waited
for so long to tell you
Synchronicity There are times I am convinced parts of my soul slipped down to earth to play hide and seek with me This playful universe loves a surprise and waits hiding sometimes for years behind the curtains giggling like a child hoping to be found […]
Becoming Younger beliefs that I would in some magical year halt and form develop into a static person who had arrived and then remain cast in stone Become Now I see that each year starts in a haze with a shimmering light somewhere in the […]
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