I have been called heroic
for merely surviving,
which is like championing an eagle
for flying to its nest
and I have been condemned as selfish
for following the call of truth,
which is like blaming a turtle
for finding the deep
and I have escaped death more than once
but not the dying.
x
I have been worn slowly by experience
and torn apart instantly by crisis and revelation
and all I can say is Life is Food:
to love is to chew; to forgive,
to swallow.
I cough up these bits:
the heart like a wing
is of no use tucked
and distrust in the world
like an eye swollen shut
stops the work of love.
x
Like a worried glassblower
trying to refigure his clear and shattered heart,
I have cut myself on all that I was,
surprised at the wisdom
hiding in the edges.
Excerpted from The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting by Mark Nepo, published by Sounds True, November 2016.
*photo credit: Pixabay
Originally published at medium.com