Poetry from Midlife: Deep Bloom
Deep Bloom
by Angela Hite of One More Voice in the Chorus
Can I withstand this deep bloom?
The coming loose, the stripping down,
the dogged burrow, up
through all those frosty sheets
of gravity’s superior negation, up
through all those wilting leaves
of entropy’s seductive ennui, up
past all the knee-jerk creature conditioning
of fight/flight,
to pulsate the supernatural yes
arching ageless in my core…
Can I passionately, wholeheartedly
wane?
I want to! I want to live
right through to the end in full frontal
engagement, awake to everything.
I missed so much of the rise…
let me taste every bite of the fall.
Let me hold my focus, shout out to the ebbing,
“You’re beautiful! You’re the moon at sunrise!”
So I’ll try.
I’ll write notes to myself, in case I forget.
If I lose my notes, remind me.
For it takes a certain eye,
a stubborn, subversive eye,
to see through skin and bone and time
to the heart of the heart of the heart
where rosebuds burst
and oceans spill over
and life gushes effervescent,
eternal.
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“Can I withstand this deep bloom”? Beautiful! And such an accurate way of describing this time in my life – how did you know? Blooming but realizing it’s the beginning of the wane.
Thank you for sharing this!
Angela H. reply on February 12th, 2010 9:01 am:
@Barbara, Thank you! I’m glad you felt a connection. So many of us in this big transition and trying to make the best of it!
What a gorgeous poem! It hit to the true heart of what so many of us are feeling and praying about. It was the big, deep, long breath that resonated with the truth in my heart. Thank you, Angela
Angela H. reply on February 9th, 2010 9:18 pm:
@Mimi Peak, Mimi, thank you for your lovely words. My mom was the first “older person” to tell me that she felt the same age inside; it was just the outside of us that aged. I remember finding that to be an extraordinary concept when the gap between our ages seemed so much larger than it does today. Now I understand it completely!
There is a color in this poem that only the soul can recognize. Bless you for using your SELF so purely and wisely and sharing with the world.
Angela H. reply on February 9th, 2010 1:55 pm:
@Brenda Hillhouse, Thank you, dear Brenda. I like that idea – “a color that only the soul can recognize.” Very poetic! Bless you right back.
“You’re beautiful! You’re the moon at sunrise!”
You are beautiful! What a deep and gorgeous poem.
Angela H. reply on February 9th, 2010 1:49 pm:
@Diana Lang, Thank you, beautiful Diana!
One early summer morning, just as the dawn was breaking, I looked out my bedroom window and there was the full moon about to dip down below the mountain that is just behind my house. It was as huge and close and bright as it had been in the early evening the night before. I was so struck by it, that I scrambled around to find my camera and took a picture. In the photo, of course, you couldn’t tell that the moon was going down, not coming up, but it left an impact on me.
Blessings!