Heather Pound

Abide

This is what I chose to do

with you

Forever and always in my heart

Choosing today, each day

to remain

This I will continue to do

as long as I have breath to breathe

I will stay

Because you have been

you are

and will always be

my abode

my home

~~~~

-inspired by John 15

©Heather Pound 2022

You can feel it clanging in your head

that uncomfortable, light-headed, perplexing noise of

‘something is not right.’ Two or more voices vying

at once for attention in your brain. It might be anger

and ‘I should forgive,’ or grief when ‘I should

be positive.’ Whatever it is, it’s not helping

you to avoid how you really feel and the ringing

in your mind will harm you in the end

~~~~

When dissonance arrives, the constructive thing

is to throw that ‘should’ into the wind and allow

whatever you think and feel be what it really is

‘I am tired of the anger, but today it needs to breathe

–and that is still okay.’ ‘Good vibes only’ sounds

delightful, but will ultimately scramble your brain

~~~~

You can calm the sound by being honest

even if your values or beliefs are not at ease

with where you are at today

Speaking the truth to self now is not easy

but is far healthier in the end and will allow

the alarm bells to stop ringing and paves

the way for peace

~~~~

-long term cognitive dissonance can damage us physically and unattended holds us back from processing our thoughts and feelings making them increasingly heavy to carry in the end 

©Heather Pound 2022

-after all, you would never hire an advisor who was wrong 99% of the time

©Heather Pound 2022

image by Canva

~~~~

©Heather Pound 2022

I wonder what it will take

to rewrite the story that

you hear inside your mind?

~~~

As you speak

you hear ‘victim’

I hear ‘survivor’

you see failure

I see endurance

you smell fear

I catch the scent

of courage

You touch the tears

on your face with shame

–and apologize

I understand how your

heart needs release and

how weeping is a sign of

someone brave enough

to recall and speak of painful things

~~~~

Words create stories and my hope

is that by re-weaving consonants

and vowels you may rewrite yours in

your own unique way and in your

personal time into something similar 

to what others can already see

~~~~ 

©Heather Pound 2022

There is a space where the disquiet sits

random thoughts about pandemic,

poverty and war with a few worries

of my own carelessly sprinkled in

like pepper and salt

~~~~

The ingredients simmer away whether

I am there to stir the pot or not,

and while a watched pot may not never boil

an unwatched one most certainly will

~~~~

It will overflow and splatter and burn

making quite a mess in the end with a mayhem

that could have been avoided if we had only

tended to the uncomfortable, stayed with the

disquiet and tasted of the ways that even

uneasiness can nourish our character, season

our passions and invite us to live our lives

~~~~

–We have corporately had enough and yet the world keeps on spinning and producing more angst for us to digest. But if we tend to all the parts of ourselves, we can then remember that there is still beauty and light to be found, and these are the things that we are hungry for.

©Heather Pound 2022

Love first blooms fresh and sparkling with dew,

but fragile like a tiny shoot that must be

tended and nourished with care

But over time, oh, the places that love can grow!

~~~~

Roots deep in the soul, souls intertwined,

bonded together by memories, experiences

and adventures shared. Home. When you can

say, “Remember when?” and talk for hours,

or sit in content and not speak at all,

when you can catch one glance and comprehend

the depth and breadth of meaning therein

When you have chosen daily for years

this person, this relationship, this life,

then you will know more of what love is,

what it can be and what it is not

~~~~

Love is a holy work, and work it is,

but a treasure beyond price it becomes

when protected, when nourished, when cherished,

and consistently chosen over time,

worth every moment invested in the end

~~~~

—-for the hopeless romantic as well as those who may have given up on love

©Heather Pound 2022

You can do your utmost to persuade me

of all the world’s ills, but this, my friend,

you need not do. For I have seen

with my own two eyes–depravity,

malice and greed. I have heard

with my own two ears–the cries of beatings

and the keening wails of grief, of bondage,

of hope defiled. I have held the hands

that death will visit soon and seen children

as shadows begging for bread granted

apathy in return. I have attentively

observed over time what human beings

are capable of and I lament

~~~~

—I am still

But then—

~~~~

The song awakens in my chest,

softly first, but louder grows

and no matter what I’ve seen and heard

or felt with my own frame,

music bursts forth from my soul once again

–alive–and from my lips an Ancient song

And with the hope of a thousand generations

past and of children yet to come, I cry,

~~~~

“There is light, there is light there is light!”

~~~~

And this, no darkness can steal

Call me a dreamer or call me a fool

—-this will always be my song

~~~~

—–Light overcomes darkness at the break of every dawn, constant. No amount of darkness can extinguish even one spark of a flame. This is hope. This is holy work, and gifted by Divine.

©Heather Pound 2022