F I N D I N G  Y O U R  N O R T H  S T A R  is just as much about losing it.  and the path you must follow to reclaim it, where with every step - an intake of breath and its release - you will find that you are moving... moving the shadows to clear the pathways, your rhythm and your focus, to push away distractions and to make way for clarity and light to fill spaces long lost and forgotten and desperate for air. When I struggle for breath, I write. and some times I try new ways of writing, playing with words. I love this part of my practice - the practice of trying new things as a means to grow out and up from the old. Here, I try my hand at poetry:

HARD TO READ

I can’t text

words knit with kisses

like knots between beads on a necklace

ellipses in texts

the clever and quickness

of words clipped

like stitches in etchings

and sketches,

the peaks and the ditches.

 

Words, when I find them,

and a tendency to think

are like the experiment

with invisible ink: 

a page is dipped in it,

lemon drops dripped on it

for words well-hidden beyond it.

 

Match lit and words surface

an exchange and a purchase

Like breath to the drowning,

a direction, a purpose

the words always ground me

like signposts around me –

the lost and found me -

pointing away, way beyond boundaries.

 

Part Biology Part Chemistry

Straight lines from within me

the ink like a mirror placed under the stars

whose light maps the wonders, the curves, and the scars

like round-back cartographers with rusted-cap jars

full of fancy, colors and nibs

to make sea monsters and sirens

where the world ends…

and where Life begins.

 

If invisible words are the journey

and the page is the map

then candles and lemon drops are alchemy,

the roads, and the path

to mermaids’ lost lands, impermanence,

and joy in its patches

over oceans and boundaries, experiments and scratches.

 

Destiny’s not mine to control -  

Destination is par for the soul

so it matters not where I am going

as long as I’m there

where bended lines have replaced all of the squares

with sunrise and sunsets and seasons and air

the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, and the shore

but only and always just Now. Never more.

 

 @CarolannPatterson GoodGirlGoGoGo.com