Can You Feel the Pain?

Can you feel the pain?
Are you aware of what is coming at you now,
What is coming from inside you out,
not just to heal you, but to heal me,
and heal our whole world?

Once, I met a man who drove
a fig stick into the Earth
to let some of the pain out.
The people who lived there
suppressed their pain;
they never expressed it.

The pain went down into the Earth
and became a gathering place
for all the ignorant spirit in the world.

You, you get angry.
You feel. You are sad.
You get mad.
You like me.
You do not like me.
You are alive.
You are whole.
You are broken.
You are breaking open.
You are remembering how to stand
on your own two feet.

Sometimes, I see you try and hide from the pain.
You try and hide but you cannot escape
the feelings that come because
you are love.

Sometimes you find the courage to love.
Sometimes you just want to run away.
Sometimes you know it is best not to
be involved because you have it up to here
and you know your limits.

It is all good.
It is all fine.
It is all exquisite
and wet and good for life
because you are expressing.

I feel so lonely.
I feel so helpless that I believe
my words are going no where
in the world.

This is such a minor thing in light
of all the pain hiding
in the world.
I am feeling my pain
so there can be a little less pain hiding
underground in the world.

I will no longer hold back or imagine
that in feeling needy there is something
wrong with me.
It is just the pain, and it wants to come out
it wants to come out so war will go away
and not exist anymore.

Feeling the pain is to be alive,
and I am scared for these moments
when I wish I were not here,
but then you my friend come again
and save my life.

—Leslie Goldman (c) March 25, 2003 [Dr. Jensen's Birthday, 12:36 pm]

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