Prescription for the Disillusioned

Poetry is a life-cherishing force.  For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.  Yes, indeed.

– Mary Oliver

In light of “how you respond to stressful times,” the timely wisdom of Rebecca del Rio:

PRESCRIPTION FOR THE DISILLUSIONED

By Rebecca del Rio

Come new to this

day.  Remove the rigid

overcoat of experience,

the notion of knowing,

the beliefs that could your vision.

Leave behind the stories

of your life.  Spit out the

sour taste of unmet expectation.

Let the stale scent of what-ifs

waft back into the swamp

of your useless fears.

Arrive curious, without the armor

of certainty, the plans and planned

results of the life you’ve imagined.

Live the life that chooses you, new

every breath, every blink of

your astonished eyes

[from Prescription for the Disillusioned, December 2017]