Poetic Healing Archives · Ashley Barnes

Darkness, My Friend

Dear darkness, my friend
How does this day find you?
Me, I’m feeling crumpled
And on the mend,
Fighting for every breath
To see that I don’t simply survive
But rise into the light
Yet you stop it from becoming so

This heavy veil be lifted, I cry
Those words, fall on deaf ears
Hollow, empty
Ringing in the hallways of my mind
Yet there you are, still reaching a hand

With disdain I turn
And hit the wall ahead,
And hear the voice inside my head,
“Be still, breathe
And know that I am with you,
You are the darkness
And you are me”

©SpiritLed 2019

Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash

How to Rest

Poetic Healing

Remember when we were children
And we put down our shovel
To stop our digging for just a moment
And we laid spread out on our backs on the ground
And watched the clouds above
Deep in our own worlds as they floated on above us,
They never stopped to ask if we needed their shade
Or quiet attention,
But they provided it nevertheless,
And we rested, but we didn’t know it was rest
It was our work

And now as grown-ups
We rarely stop to look above us,
Much less do we dare to lie on the ground
Or place our hands against our chest
And feel how the rhythm of life
Beats to the pace of the clouds above
Nor do we enjoy their shade
Which we didn’t ask for but nevertheless they offer
We don’t know how to rest
But we do know how to work

©SpiritLed 2019

Photo by Eunice Stahl on Unsplash

What To Say?

Poetic Healing

What do I say at a time
When words don’t seem to matter,
And hearts are suspended in air
Waiting for their chance to return
While others bleed openly in the streets
What words can encapsulate this pain?
What words can take it away?

©SpiritLed 2019

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

A Brighter Path

Poetic Healing

On this day, I purge the grief
Which so hauntingly stole
My younger years,
Disguised as busyness and misdirection,
The fear of loss so great
That I could not move forward,
Clinging to a past that no longer existed
Even in my mind,
Thinking I was living in today
Yet without the constant stream of freshness
To cleanse the words of yesterday
And make way for more tomorrows,
That stream stagnant for so long
Finally loosened by words buried deep,
Expressions of the love I could not speak
Yet was always at the ready
To spill from frozen lips,
These words, not just for me
But for all who’ve lost,
All who grieve,
All who seek a better way,
A brighter path to live today

©SpiritLed 2019

Photo by Karsten Würth (@karsten.wuerth) on Unsplash

Songs of Freedom

Poetic Healing

These songs of freedom
Locked inside her aching heart
Longing to be released
Yet held captive by the key
Her racing thoughts like horses
Galloping through her dreams
Leaving only dust behind,
Their hoof prints a haven
For each little thought to take root and grow
Beneath the thundering in her ears,
A tiny notion,
A hope,
That freedom lies beyond
And the only way through is in

Photo by James Wainscoat on Unsplash

Little Surprises

Poetic Healing

A moonrise over trees
No clouds on a dark night
So that each star seems to visibly dance
And shine across the vast blanket above
A call out of the blue
From someone you love
The words, “I love you”

These little surprises
Dot the ever-widening landscape
Of our innermost being
Connecting each small moment
To something larger
More momentous
Than even our brilliant minds can hold

Connection, the antidote
To all we see as insurmountable
Found each day in little surprises,
Small moments
With big purpose

Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash