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~ I wrote this poem 8 months ago and it changed my life ~

by john roedel

***


my brain and

heart divorced


a decade ago


over who was

to blame about

how big of a mess

I have become


eventually,

they couldn't be

in the same room

with each other


now my head and heart

share custody of me


I stay with my brain

during the week


and my heart

gets me on weekends


they never speak to one another


- instead, they give me

the same note to pass

to each other every week


and their notes they

send to one another always

says the same thing:


"This is all your fault"


on Sundays

my heart complains

about how my

head has let me down

in the past


and on Wednesday

my head lists all

of the times my

heart has screwed

things up for me

in the future


they blame each

other for the

state of my life


there's been a lot

of yelling - and crying


so,


lately, I've been

spending a lot of

time with my gut


who serves as my

unofficial therapist


most nights, I sneak out of the

window in my ribcage


and slide down my spine

and collapse on my

gut's plush leather chair

that's always open for me


~ and I just sit sit sit sit

until the sun comes up


last evening,

my gut asked me

if I was having a hard

time being caught

between my heart

and my head


I nodded


I said I didn't know

if I could live with

either of them anymore


"my heart is always sad about

something that happened yesterday

while my head is always worried

about something that may happen tomorrow,"

I lamented


my gut squeezed my hand


"I just can't live with

my mistakes of the past

or my anxiety about the future,"

I sighed


my gut smiled and said:


"in that case,

you should

go stay with your

lungs for a while,"


I was confused

- the look on my face gave it away


"if you are exhausted about

your heart's obsession with

the fixed past and your mind's focus

on the uncertain future


your lungs are the perfect place for you


there is no yesterday in your lungs

there is no tomorrow there either


there is only now

there is only inhale

there is only exhale

there is only this moment


there is only breath


and in that breath

you can rest while your

heart and head work

their relationship out."


this morning,

while my brain

was busy reading

tea leaves


and while my

heart was staring

at old photographs


I packed a little

bag and walked

to the door of

my lungs


before I could even knock

she opened the door

with a smile and as

a gust of air embraced me

she said


"what took you so long?"


(thanks to alexis for sending this along this morning. it was needed.)

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Comments

Pedro B. Gorman

Wow! This a perfect distillation of What Matters Most, past the relentless din of days. A new poet whose oeuvre I will discover! :) Thank you!

Jozias

Best read for a long time. Much love. Thank you.

Anonymous

Thank you

Anonymous

What a beautiful poem to start my birthday with today. Thank you so much for sharing it, Amanda. Much love to all of you from all of me. :)

Natalie Gelman

This was so needed. Thanks for offering this to us too. 💗🙏🏻

Anonymous

THANK YOU VERY MUCH ! I went to weekly Zen meditation for several years till we quit. This is a wonderful and entertaining way to describe my experience.

Anonymous

It is for this reason that breath is at the heart of many meditation techniques. It is simply of this moment. And as we breath deeply in the present slowly head and heart, past and future, reconcile and we know that we only ever have this moment. Nothing else and nowhere else but here and now.

Tara Timmsy

i loved reading this

Anonymous

Lovely poem 💚 So true and relatable. meditation carried me through many rough times.

Grace Beaster

I really fucking needed this RIGHT NOW. Ngā mihi nui.

Anonymous

I absolutely adore this🤍

Anonymous

This is so beautiful. I read it when you first shared it, and again this morning. I feel like I need to print it out and put it on my fridge or make some kind of framed piece of it and hang it on a wall. Thank you again.