FACING DOWN PAIN
We are strange
Surprised by sudden things
We yell out loud
But when we use mantras we get sedate
No more for me
I see emotion as the leading move
Today I faced pain
It was moving close to 10
Unbearable if sustained
Now its down to intermittent 2 or so
Emotion powered my success
2
Heart intent can let it all hang out
Pain is what I call a fantasy
A fantasy to nudge me correctly
Its destiny ‘s to be a butterfly
I’ll wish it well and let it disappear
It flies with gorgeous wings into the sky
Yes I am grunting
Improvising expletives
Endeavoring to overcome
I speak to pain from deep ambivalence
I love it but it’s time for it to go
This is the honest truth
3
I once refused to speak
Until I heard that woman say the same
She demonstrated in a podcast
Un-sedate
Noises signaling
A primal strain
Impatient sounds
A sudden yowl
Ancient Shamanic stuff
And in this blurting
I could see Reality
We face down pain
And love it just the same
4
Yes
We make our conditions
Good or bad
According to the aim of our intent
I could not soft talk my pain today
I spoke then toughed it out all of the way
I know there’s nothing I can do that’s wrong
And that experiment is my mission
And so I share the news of primal noise
Advising some rough diction from the root
A a rough hewn way to pain pursuit
5
I’m wrestling with how to speak of wrong
I know we create it
And I know it hurts and harms
I know positive is life
Past all alarms
I know the times have turned us
Tepid like
As though we could send hurt away
With gentle words
It’s time we see the width of our great feelings
And play an orchestra with all the sounds
Consult with Richard Strauss
And Radu Lupu
Observe rehearsing hands
Of Carlos Kleiber
6
For some it may be easy
Others hard
But it will be revealing
And prove
That heart intent is deeply physical
Ballet is involved
So too is boxing
Dispatch what needs to go
With love
And impatience
Do not repress a thing
Love is too beautiful to be short-changed
