Everyone starts with choices,
head filled with conflicting voices:
where to sit, how to feel
slowly the onion unpeals.
We divide ourselves into groups,
the doubting, the confident and those in between,
yet much is unclear, unseen.
Little flutters of doubt arise,
until everything we know no longer applies,
until through exploring roles
we stumble upon the unknown toll
of all that stirs inside.
As time winds on, people lose confidence
in their understanding of normality:
things shift under the skin,
no longer clear who is ‘us’ or ‘me’,
purpose stretched to wafer-thin.
Brains and hearts in constant collision
fumbling for credible decisions
searching for a new centre of gravity,
something about us that we can believe
around which all other flux floats.
Joined by fear of what might be
separated by assumed identities,
in transition all of us spurning
answers that don’t sustain, learning
about the nature of our core
and that all perception is flawed,
only one thing seemingly clear:
we invest in how we appear.
Others’ perspectives start to beckon
unravelling certainty second by second.
People listen and wrestle with meaning,
the words towards conflict leaning
only to find a new territory,
from a fixed disposition
hearts increasingly free.
Tears drop
causing ripples and waves,
resistance eroded, washed away,
letting us drop gradually down
to where our souls sound:
dissonance, trembles, songs and roars.
Loneliness becomes the common cause
individuals drawn into delicate democracy
of synchronicity and disparities.
A babble of eclectic voices gives rise
to a crude consensus that uncomfortably lies.
The process unpredictably flowing,
people on the surface and below
awareness in a state of feverish growth.
By an undesigned dance steered
we fumble through the fear
daring to pursue the unknown.
The raw unconscious ablaze
uncovers a network of psychic pathways
old experiences renewed,
layers of self-limit cut through.
A redefinition of self accrues.
Moving from one state to the next
new emotional muscles flexed,
a humbled knowing unfolds:
we are many people in one
our separateness thoroughly undone
everyone permeating each other:
her pain in another form is mine,
different beliefs slowly aligned.
At last ecstatically exhausted,
having hovered by life’s edge
everyone is infused with curiosity
hearts opened to whatever might be,
questioning now as comfortable as breathing.
