Poem: Beloveds, Welcome to The House
of Authentic Belonging and Holistic Healing
for Wounded and Traumatized Souls 

The winter’s cold, icy winds
blow down the streets and alleys
where, once again, I find myself
ill-prepared for its raw sting,
wandering weary, challenged, a soul
wounded in the chaos of this world

Inundated with platitudes, hubris,
glory, triumphalism, denial
and indifference to pathos, suffering,
tragedy, lack of empathy and
compassion, relationships of
personality and raw oppressive power

Disengaging, taking absence,
seeking solitude with the soul and self
and its shadows, alternating  searing self
inventory and quiet contemplation of the soul,
hoping to glean some kernel, dredge up some small
grain, salvage a bit of flotsam, discover lost treasure

This self work in solitude, now alien in
our society of doing and having it all,
being always engaged and on the run for more,
one risk being viewed as anti-social, odd, abnormal,
mad, untrustworthy, an outsider, weird, undependable,
at risk for loneliness and social isolation

Yet, of course, no one deserves to be forgotten,
the outsider only wants to be accepted for themselves,
we must all return back to the community, periodically,
in our truth to further the healing
begun deep within, the community which help
define us through relationship in our wholeness

Beloveds, let us welcome one another home,
to the House of Authentic Belonging and Holistic
Healing for Wounded and Traumatized Souls
where we all share one another’s presence
and absence in our truth with no threat of  exile
and the righteous promise of being and belonging

Herb Stone
here & now working poetry
December 23, 2019

Image: Moose Creek Cabin in Alaska, unattributed