Susan Storey.....: Cooking Lessons

23.2.13

Cooking Lessons

Standing in the kitchen, slicing vegetables for dinner,
subtle shifts stir in the cracks between my
sleeping mind and my waking heart.

Internal shudders softly quake, loosening the ground
beneath the me I believe myself to be.
Solidity lightens and I delight in its fragility
as the blade of my knife pierces the soft yellow flesh of summer squash.

This mist of a shift in carefully spun dreams
is celebrated in whispers where mind and heart meet,
as a gauzy blur of stillness loosens the moorings
and concrete illusions vanish before they have time to topple.

I am wrapped in gentle arms of absolute clarity and profound love.
I breathe this moment deep into my being, savoring every awareness
as I reach for the onions and wipe a tear from my eye.

Susan Storey

I have come to realize that who we think we are is in the way of who we truly are. Art and verse are the braille I use to explore a psycho-spiritual blindness that I find myself emerging from.... and falling back into, though each time a bit more awakened than the last. The words here are, as am I, figments of an active imagination attempting to awaken itself from a dense dream called 'reality'. I use blank verse as a practice in presence; a meditation where I quiet the mind and wait on the words that arise in the heart. Often they reflect esoteric and introspective aspects within the illusion of form. Other times they address specific situations I am facing and serve as breadcrumbs leading me back to center. From time to time I cull the pages of my notebooks and randomly choose several pieces to share here. As for the imagery on this blog, it is a kind of wordless poetry; visual stories awaiting the teller. Each of the pieces are original. More of this work can be seen at my website and blog.