Slipping into Light

Yesterday I had a biopsy done on my left breast and the bleeding wouldn't stop for many hours so as I lay there holding my bleeding breast I wrote this poem in my head:

Slipping into Light

I slip so easily from this spell of darkness
into a poem of soft tender wings
lifting me effortlessly
toward the light of the sky.

Wings secretly nourished by death and decay
surprise me today as I rise up and take flight.

I look down and see my old life disappearing
as I fly beyond the tears and pain and struggle
that brought me to this bright and light-filled sky.

I throw away the dark, tattered cloak
that enveloped me like a cocoon
and watch it glide down to cover
the past and devour all the fear and lies
that were woven into its cloth.

In one gentle movement they are all gone.

I have had a challenging year that has expanded my art and my heart all at the same time. Something happened to me in that hospital room, I let go of a lot of stuff that I was still holding onto from the past year. As I felt it all flow away from me an incredible sense of peace and release filled my body. I am still savouring it. The other day a friend said to me, "I am what I leave behind" I like the idea of releasing as I grow older as opposed to accumulating.