Tag: healing

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMar 18, 202410:33 am

China Southern Airlines CZ329, on approach to Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia, Canada

Motion ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #361

To be in motion
Is my way of stilling thoughts
Stillness quells the pain

Poetry by Patrick JenningsFeb 16, 202410:35 pm

Treasures and Detritus, Cannon Beach, Oregon, United States of America

Discovery

Detritus and treasures
The flotsam and jetsam
Of mes forgotten
And discarded

Wash ashore

There to be beachcombed
Collected and collated
Discovering the pieces
For a me I can reconstruct

Poetry by Patrick JenningsFeb 7, 20247:00 am

Stone Islet, Lake Superior, Pukaskwa National Park, Ontario, Canada

Foundation

Stone breaks the surface
Of a void expanse
Empty to the edge of nothingness

The spare rock
Forms a peak atop a slope
Extending down I know not how deep

So I dive
Into the depths
To find the foundation

Of me

So that I might rise
Knowing the nature of self
And walk the featureless plain of me

Into being

Poetry by Patrick JenningsFeb 6, 20247:00 am

Clarity and Sediment

Occluded skies
Reflected in a secluded cove
Cold, still water
With the clarity of glass

Now I
In this diffuse, scattered light
See the depths in crisp detail

A bed of granite
Obscured by sand and silt

In this, I see myself

The bedrock of me
Beneath a sediment of memory

And these beneath the terrible weight
Of experiences so fully repressed
As to be rendered transparent

So I stir up the bottom
Cloud the water
See what patterns emerge
To reveal the dark matter that is the forgotten me

Poetry by Patrick JenningsSep 21, 20232:42 pm

Island off the Point of an Island, White Point, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

Drifting not Adrift

When I lost her
Some small but integral
Part of my being
Broke away

For a while
It floated nearby
Just out of reach
Yet a lingering presence

The current of time
The drift of the everyday
That Island of her
Receded further and further

Until one day
I scanned the horizon
No Island was there
A single tear fell into the sea

The sea was unperturbed
It said to me
You have learned to live without her
That is all

I understood
I had forgiven her
And myself
For our breakup

I’d allowed the blame
To drift away
Which made me
Whole again

Poetry by Patrick JenningsAug 12, 20237:00 am

Soft Like Velvet, Artemisia Stelleriana, Basin Head Provincial Park, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Velvet in the Sand

Be soft
She said
Like velvet

Bend with the wind
Like grass
In the field

So when others
Touch your life
They are not cut

And if they lean on you
A little hard
You do not break

All this broken glass
You wear
From your past

It harms you
As much as those
You love

And what is not
Already broken
Is brittle

With the slightest pressure
It shatters
Into shards you wield as weapons

Learn to be soft
Before you crumble
To no more than sand

Or only when
You are naught but dust
Will you ever be soft

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMay 15, 20234:31 am

A Crack in the Sky Let the Light In, State Highway 23, Johnsons Corner, North Dakota, USA

Cracks ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #341

There was a small crack
Which let the light in
Amber and warm
To dispel the gloomy darkness
But left the shadows
So I could see both
Where I was going
And where I’d come from

Poetry by Patrick JenningsAug 23, 202211:58 pm

Chasing Promise, Highway 316, Goosenecks State Park, Utah, United States of America

Chasing Hope

The road takes me through
A deepening darkness
Toward a near horizon
Of fantastical colour
Receding with the sun

I depress the accelerator
Hoping at least to keep pace
But wishing to my core
That someday
I will catch up

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJul 4, 202211:00 pm

Water of Life Deep in the Canyon, Lipan Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, United States of America

Depths ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #317

Water of life
Cuts into stone

Reveals depths
To be plumbed

A hard journey down
A harder journey back

Rewards every step
Even the most painful

Poetry by Patrick JenningsMar 16, 20227:00 am

The Eye, Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Self Remembering

Spirit cracks
Inner light
Pierces darkness
Reminds conscious
Extant spirit