Title:  Mindfulness

Author:   aic76
Category:   Free Verse
Keywords:  depression, hope

Views: ( 616 )

I - Descent

I have been there where
past and future collide in an unholy symphony of agony and grief.

I have been there where
one’s sense of self uncoils like a venomous snake,
blind to blood and madly intent on devouring itself.

I have been there where
hope evaporates into a cavernous vacuum of loss and despair,
twisting perception, warping the soul and occluding the possibility of present joy.

I have been there where
the desire to escape one’s self overpowers the desire to be one’s self;
overpowers the desire to be anyone or anything at all.

I have been there where
death – solicited – lingers at the door.

II - Survival

But I am here now.
I breathe in and I breathe out.

My eyes open to inhale a cascade of colours colliding,
laughing in the light.

My ears resonate with waves of solid sound,
savouring the tranquil echoes of silence.

My nose wrinkles in a sea of acrid aromas and sweet stenches
that speak of paradox and paradigm.

My tongue tingles, drenched in an ocean of tastes and textures,
aware of the bitter, the salty and the sweet.

My body relearns the basics of life-giving breath,
letting go of what has been, releasing what may be, and
accepting that which is before the senses of me.

Thank the universe I am here now,
breathing in and breathing out
on purpose.