A Blessing All My Own



Awaken from dreams

to this form of mine

blood and sinew

bone and sweat

this word, mine, mine, mine

edge of dark mountain

echo of sassafras



Behold this frail body

watch as I stumble

stutter, flail

roll and crawl

and know the world in my way

mineral trace over leaf surface

the ways things appear separate

yet retain of the same



Racing thoughts

have wrested peace from

my waking hours

these impulses

towards self-destruction

and life erasure

know of them, how my life

has changed through them



Listen to abuse

hurled with vicious glee:

"broken object,

worthless idiot,

insane lunatic"

see the onerous journey

over deserts, barren dunes

sulfurous craters, across dark forests



Through aching limbs

and a troubled mind

from sense to sense

from beginning to end

like an unfolding forest fern frond

releasing spores

that tell of ancient sea beds

I rejoice in these gifts of mine



How I clambered

my way to beauty

to the immovable source

despite callous, scornful cries

see how from insults and oblivion

I've made madness

a blessing all my own

and witness glory