The witness : spiral path

I see it all now

From a far wider view

There were levels of pain

You had to descend to

And face

And at the very core was a destruction

That was so utter

It stole your breath

But breathing here is not as impossible as it seems

And the breath does loosen

When

You move forward to unbrace the tight band of repression

Like a blocking brace

Tightly woven around your chest

Holding back your full breath

So if the body

Jerks and spasms and spins

Perhaps it is uncoiling

There is a descending and an ascending

We undergo on this spiral path of healing

Darkness and lightness

Surrender and control

Despair and joy

Are reflections of each other

Within this life of duality

And always the pulsing of vibrant life

Present in compulsion, repulsion and impulsion

We need to witness

Finding a way over time

To ride its rising and falling tides

There is a spiral pattern to healing

That linear culture

Can neither articulate

Nor understand

It is made more discordant

With every attempt me make

To split instinct from expresssion

Repressing us so deeply

Burying our vibrant life

Beneath the waves

And obscuring the origin of the current

Sending it flowing backwards

Until we feel we are drowning

Beneath a tidal wave

And within that deep sea we ache

For the longing to live

We had to bury or deny

Along the way

Honoring each faltering attempt

And every tentative and frenzied step

We take

Around this

The spiral path

Of our becoming