Self Discovery -the path to Freedom

Headline in Monday’s popular paper, the Daily Mail, is ‘Slow March to Freedom’. All papers are reporting on the expected relief from pandemic lockdown, noising on the one hand frustration to the cautious approach, and on the other -talking about the damaging effects lockdown has been having. We are used to living in a fast moving world -a world surrounded by events affecting our quality of life. Our personal actions that support and promote eating, sleeping, work, and the taking of pleasure -all of which have social dimensions, have us develop a ‘bubble’ environment, through which we absorb life changing influences of the world at large.

What lockdowns have done is damage and weaken our ‘bubble’ environments.

And the result is mental and emotional disharmony on a scale never before experienced. The restrictions forced upon people during the 2nd World War, of movement, availability of food, entertainment, etc. didn’t have the same effect, because we were able to draw strength and comfort from those around us, and we shared a common purpose; to defend ourselves against the enemy. Paradoxically war restrictions actually strengthened our individual ‘bubble’ environments. In today’s world the enemy is within, because the ‘threat’ is unseen, and by no means commonly understood or accepted.

I’m sure you would like to think when restrictions are finally lifted, life can return to normal -but it won’t, will it?

Quite apart from the expectation of regular vaccine roll outs, or of the controversy surrounding their efficacy, the damage done to our personal ‘bubble’ environments will take a long time to heal. People been physically affected by restrictions on movement, being less fit, eating and drinking too much for comfort reasons, the imbalance has weakened the immune system. Mentally and emotionally the effects are far reaching. Defensive attitudes designed to preserve well-being have the opposite effect -they erode one’s awareness and acceptance of Self.

In short -the BodyMind’s sense if its identity has lost awareness of itself.

Maybe not such a problem if we hitherto had full awareness of it -but the majority of people didn’t. In order to understand and appreciate the prime importance of self-knowing, we need to start at the beginning, from birth.

Birth in our physical world is governed by the vibratory light rate peculiar to all and everything our senses interact with. Unlike the inner world conscious of dark matter and dark energy where all experience is present, in our light-world perception is time-lapsed, and consciousness is divided between the present and the past, bringing to birth a hierarchical form of consciousness. Sensorial experience is forever changing and at a subconscious level we remember the sensorial experience. In turn by reaction, the subconscious reminds the sensorial mind (otherwise called the brain-mind) its remembered experience when like attracts like conditions occur.

Traits and behaviours develop as like experience is qualified good (give me more) or bad (once is enough), and from this activity identity begins to form. All identity has a moral beginning; initially that begins with an acceptance or rejection by the instinctual mind we are born with. As the subconscious arises it qualifies the instinctual mind experience, and as the interactive expression within the brain-mind grows stronger, a new form of consciousness develops. We call that the rational mind.

By the time the child is two to three years old the developing rational mind is in conflict with the instinctual mind, likes and dislikes changing, demands taking on character and Will (root of self-awareness) becomes evident in strong emotional moments. As the influence of the rationally-minded world grows and the child becomes a youth the instinctual mind ceases to develop its instrumentally born form of consciousness, and reverts to a ‘flight, fight, and procreate’ reactionary mind. When the youth becomes an adult the survival instinct will have taken root in the rational mind and will have a strong bearing on how their adult life will be lived. The soul nature prior to birth still exists, but its instrumentally tuned nature only interacts with the rational mind on a like attracts like basis -as such it forms what we call our unconscious mind. It can be channelled, but for most people such connections are described as inspirations which cannot be demanded or rationally explained.

What does this tell us about the human condition, which so often repeats the history of mistakes ad nauseam?

Can we change the process that develops the personality? We can’t change the process of energy intelligent creation, incarnation is governed by vibratory order of energies that form us prior and post-birth, but we can influence the balance of intelligent energies which make up the human condition.

Often, pregnant women in ancient Greek and Roman high society, encouraged by their husbands, would place statues of Gods or Goddesses in their bed chambers; believing such influences would educate and protect the child to be. Fanciful thinking? History would suggest not -the Greeks are acknowledged to be a seminal influence on the development of philosophy and science, the Romans, famous as architects, law makers and as masters of military prowess. Tribal cultures throughout the world in the past who lived close to nature put an emphasis upon the development of the unborn child; shaman would advise the expectant nature and directly influence their betterment prior to birth. And in the ancient civilised world, irrespective of religious differences, the astrological influence of strengths and weaknesses would be advised during pregnancy –all to the purpose of influencing the unborn child to emerge into the world aware of its soul nature.

In our modern world, we get told of the negative prior-birth influences

-children born with physical and mental handicaps due drugs the mother had been taking, and only indirectly are we told of the mental and emotional difficulties of young children in society whose birth has been fostered by ‘addictions’. We must remember that our behavioural nature is not only influenced by what we eat and drink, it is influenced by our environments -they too can and do affect the unborn child. We accept that children can be strongly influenced by their parents, by religion, politics, and ways of life generally, but it doesn’t occur to us that the child in the womb can be influenced to retain its pre-birth soul state, whilst at the same time developing a harmonious relationship between the instinctual and rational mind –yet this can happen.

In next week’s post I’ll advise ways in which we can positively influence the child’s development -not only the parent and offspring scenario but also from within your adult self.

As I’ve been talking about the enemy within, the damaging effects of negative thinking, the healer is love. the poem I’ve written champions that power. The Snow Moon by the way, is on 27th February.

Love’s Credo

Fuse emotion and thought into one
their hidden sounds are in harmony,
words and actions unwedded rest
in our past and future memory.

Stand and shout and jump for joy
the Snow Moon waxing sets the tide
moves our mind and seeds our life,
the twin of soul we cannot hide.

Tomorrow comes tomorrow goes,
Time cannot erase or change
this union that the Law agreed
was right to be a binding creed.

To Know Oneself

Photo by jonas mohamadi on Pexels.com

In last weeks post I wrote about the health damaging effects the lockdown is having -whilst the News maintains and reinforces ‘stay at home’ messages on the one hand and encourages you to believe all will be well when everyone (including children) are vaccinated. The ‘Sword of Damocles’ (fear of the unknown) not only engenders negativity -it represses our energetic nature, which is root and branch to sensible life.

Scientists tell us that our energy comes from food -that chemically we are machines, and from input we form adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the primary source of energy for all body functions, and our stored chemical energy is used to replenish the ATP we require for sensible life. The scientists are right but only partially right -the tail is wagging the dog!

Last week I proposed this question – Can we identify the energies we feel within ourselves? And my answer was -it’s bio-magnetic, interpenetrating every cell of the body and is a movement of force, and its emotional character stimulates thought. Environment is everything. Individually we generate environments from within ourselves and by interacting with ‘foreign’ environments. When we are prevented from doing this -as we are by the lockdown measures, the ‘machine’, lacking the stimulus, behaves badly. We overeat, under exercise, get depressed, get bad-tempered, and lose hope.

Personality changes.

Personality is defined as a characteristic set of behaviours, cognitions, and emotional patterns evolving from biological and environmental factors -as such it is generally referred to as our character, and as you might expect there is no generally agreed definition of personality, most theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions with one’s environment, defining personality by its traits and behaviourally based approaches. My understanding of personality has developed from the interaction I have with other species of earthly life, higher forms of life, and the awareness of parallel worlds.

All life is cyclical. Time measured observations show life spans vary enormously, from micro-seconds to millennium. The human physical cycle has a potential of 120 years that has rarely been achieved because the inheritance at birth, and the environmental mix of outward and inner demands exert influences to shorten life span. The human personality begins as a formation of characteristic traits in the foetus, comprising parental physical, emotional, and mental conditions, and higher vibratory influences varying in accordance with environment the foetus and its mother occupy. In the pre-natal state, the child’s Earthly Will nature is absent -at this juncture of life the child’s soulful nature is all things to all men.

The bond that most mothers feel during pregnancy is created by their own nature needing to bind their Earthly Will with the unborn infant. From the moment of physical birth, the child is in conflict with its inheritance -activity that will ultimately shape its own Earthly Will.

Initially, a child is only outwardly interested in food and comfort. Instinctually it knows that food is necessary to survive. Comfort arises from the satisfaction of receiving food, and it generates awareness of energy as a source of protection. The ego is born -the new born child aims to survive. As the child grows, day by day, week by week, the environment it occupies attracts; initially the mother, then the father, then other siblings, family etc -all of which is based upon a like attracts like basis. The child’s reception is governed by its instinctual mind, a complex of physical emotional influences that draws upon the soul nature’s demand to support survival.

The world of Men is the major force of attraction because instinctively the child knows that from the focus its mother has given by her Earthly Will. The child has has an inborn knowledge of the natural world, which was received during womb life; it is accepted without question because it is naturally instrumental -the conscious mind has yet to develop rationality. As reception of outside influences increase it will change and re-evaluate the dependencies it has on human influences, and develop a Will of its own.

From this beginning the personality takes shape, traits, and behaviours develop in the instinctual mind, and will form the basis upon which consciousness will develop. The influence of family and other human beings is critical in determining how that child will develop in later years. Human consciousness begins its development from the moment a child is born, and it is radically different from the consciousness it has prior to birth.

In the pre-birth state, all influences, whether they originate in physically transmitted DNA of human character, or they come from other soul-like sources, are not subject to the formulation of an identifiable character -ego is absent in the foetus. What is present is an instrumental form of consciousness that acknowledges, accepts and releases without establishing choice. As such it has a universal nature, and its direction and life span is determined by the balance of influences present at any one moment of time.

There’s an old saying; to know where you are going, to determine your future, you must know where you come from -or to put it more simply; to go forward you must first go back.

I will continue this theme of self-discovery in next week’s post.

As I’ve been talking about self-discovery, here’s a poem I’ve written that makes a comment on that. By way of explanation to aid reading, Azoth is the name given by ancient alchemists to mercury, the animating spirit hidden in all matter that makes transmutation possible, and Hur is the name given to the Earth’s inner chamber -its ancestral heart.

Azoth’s Daughter

When your eyes hook to the morning star
still and shining, free from tears;
sleep warm lungs slake the cold unfeeling air.
Untold thoughts of troubled dreams disperse
and the earth untrammelled by your feet awakes.

And as your senses find their root in earth
The pretence of knowledge dies;
you become the bride of nature -the soul
formed dream, all true and understated.
Your voices stilled by heavens majesty.

And when you have gotten empty
the worldly oyster smashed in search of pearl;
your body becomes the honeycomb chamber
for every seed bearing tree.
Your love a legion of unlimited power.

And if your senses can remain alive
To dissolve the last of human care,
love weary worshipping truth is discovered
with every fish, fowl and bee;
in the wheel forming heavens of Hur.

Truly the daughter of Azoth;
at one with the life giving earth,
shape shifting intangible air.
in marriage to the polygamous sea
aflame in the untouchable fire.

Spiritus Animatus!

It’s with great pleasure that I can announce the publication of a new book on Astrology by my wife Pam, who many of you know is a professional Astrologer. The book ‘THE MAP of LIFE’ is available in bookshops and on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Map-Life-PamAshenden/

A flash of light in the universe and a new soul is born. See your map of life simply explained and unfold before you with this easy to understand guide to Astrology. This easy to understand guide shows you how a horoscope is put together. Examples of famous people give insight on how Astrology provides maps of life which can guide and advise the best course of actions. Pam’s spiritual approach gives a deeper understanding of natal charts, shows how to know yourself and others and encourages you to be your own astrologer. Know yourself, understand your strengths so you can overcome your weaknesses and live a happy life.

The Sword of Damocles

This time last year we would watch or listen to the News -now it’s no longer The News -it’s the Pandemic News! What else is going on the country or the world is largely not reported, unless of course it’s about clashes between high powered politicians. The way the psychology works is first the good (pandemic) news, then the bad, finishing up with an anecdotal ‘lets make you smile’ piece. And if you are a persistent news watcher -the weather forecast is an upbeat finish, storms, floods, and snows notwithstanding.

In the latest round of ‘messages to keep you safe’ the expectation of a return to normality is carefully downplayed by ‘events’ due to happen, which include social distancing measures, pubs with no beer opening, and gatherings of any kind limited. The success of the vaccine roll out also means they are likely to give it to you again in six months’ time as a ‘booster’. Why? The virus is mutating and here to stay until further notice.

Whatever your view of the lockdown measures, or for that matter, the health threat of Covid-19 and its variants, the need to ‘shut up shop and stay at home’ is having serious health damaging effects. ‘What if’ has become central to currency of thought and feeling. And fear of the unknown engenders negativity.

The parable sword of Damocles is an ancient moral parable popularized by the Roman philosopher Cicero, now commonly used as a catchall term to describe a looming danger. The tale in summary, centres on Dionysius II, a tyrannical king who ruled over the Sicilian city of Syracuse during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. Though rich and powerful, Dionysius was supremely unhappy. His iron-fisted rule had made him many enemies, and he was tormented by fears of assassination—so much so he slept in a bedchamber surrounded by a moat and only trusted his daughters to shave his beard with a razor.

The king’s paranoia came to a head one day after a court flatterer named Damocles showered him with compliments saying how blissful his life must be. ‘Since this life delights you,’ Dionysius replied, ‘do you wish to taste it yourself and make a trial of my good fortune?’ When Damocles agreed, Dionysius seated him on a golden couch and ordered a host of servants wait on him, treated to succulent cuts of meat and lavished with scented perfumes and ointments. Damocles couldn’t believe his luck, but just as he was starting to enjoy the life of a king, he noticed Dionysius had also hung a razor-sharp sword from the ceiling. It was positioned over Damocles’ head, suspended only by a single strand of horsehair. From then on, the courtier’s fear for his life made it impossible for him to savour the opulence of the feast or enjoy the servants. With mounting feelings of impending doom, he asked to be excused, saying he no longer wished to be so fortunate.

Rightly so, many writers have been stressing the need to develop positive outlooks, usefully advising how you can switch off negative trains of thought and promote positive helpful thoughts. All good, but as you may have noticed yourself changing your way of thinking 24-7 is a bit like eating chocolate, initially you get a good feeling from doing it, but it doesn’t last. The determined try and try again, the not so successful put on weight from eating too much chocolate.

I was taking a walk on the beach at the weekend -there was a lot of socialising going on -between dogs. Us humans were carrying our ‘worlds’ around with us -some less introspective than others. The dogs were not taking a blind bit of notice, cavorting and carrying on, kicking up sand, chasing balls, getting wet in the sea. The owners on chasing, after pets who had slipped their leash, becoming over friendly with strangers, and rescuing them from ‘boy meets girl’ conflicts, were changed from inward looking people to outward looking ‘care for others’ kind of people.

There’s a how to do it clue here -let me explain.

Thought, however you want to describe its cause and effect, is a movement of energy. Before you think (if you can for the moment accept thoughts as singular entities) there is already a movement of energy which causes you to have thought. Can we identify that energy making movement? Yes we can. It’s bio-magnetic, interpenetrates every cell of your body and becomes a movement of force within which we feel with our emotional mind. Simply put -this is energy we have which generates our sense of feeling. Its emotional character stimulates thought. Ok… so we may be talking nanoseconds of difference here, but the point is this –the source of change is feeling not thought.

Have you ever wondered why young children can cry one minute and laugh the next? Or why you can scold an animal, one moment its tail is between its legs -the next looking to gain your approval? The reason why is because their instinctual minds are strongly governing their emotional reactions. For a variety of reasons (which I won’t go into here) as adults we tend to possess our feeling mind influences, which inextricably binds to our thinking mind and, by so doing, prevents us from clearly acknowledging causes of change.

Right now, as you are reading these words, millions of people are mentally and emotionally at variance with themselves. Outputs are widely different, some have periods of depression, others generate anger and physical violence, some aided by medications live in a ‘half awake’ world. Physically some may lose weight, lose their appetite, develop a reliance on stimulating or alcoholic drink. And some may be overweight pandering to the feel good factor of eating. Needless to say if the body labours too long without restoring its needful balance, something serious can go wrong.

Environment is everything. Individually we generate environments from within ourselves and by interacting ‘foreign’ environments. If you spend most of your day in the same place, and with the same people, your own feeling mind will become neutered by it. Yes -I did say neutered; loss of your sexual identity, or as you might more generally term it, self-awareness. What happens here is the feeling mind which has its roots in our instinctual behaviour, interacting with the sameness day on day, hour on hour, lacks stimulus -and the more it lacks, the less aware it becomes. Hence why so many people reach for stimulants of one kind or another to reassert themselves. Of course this problem is not peculiar to the pandemic -but the restrictions imposed make this problem much more widespread. If you don’t think you can change it -you retreat into the thinking mind, and like a kite pulled by a gust of wind, fly from your grasp and tumble about the atmosphere at the mercy of the air currents.

So, how do you fix this -prevent this from happening?

Very simply -and to be fair for those not so simple-minded it doesn’t only require a determination to change -you have to keep at it. CHANGE YOUR ATMOSPHERE!

Change of environment will stimulate the feeling emotional mind -it will generate an atmosphere of self-awareness you can take back to your home and/or your workplace. For some it can include interaction with other people with whom you are not connected with daily, but for most it means interaction with nature. The only requirement nature asks of you is -be present in both mind and body. The world of nature doesn’t have yesterday’s or tomorrow’s -it doesn’t have hours in the day. It is present constantly.

Get good at doing this and your thoughts will not stray into negative territory. Get good at this and others will be attracted to you, perhaps next week I can tell you the more of it.

Since I’ve been talking environment , here’s a poem I’ve written as an example of how nature can interact and benefit us.

In Fangorn Forest

Come; lay down your head on my brown roots,
cease the heavy stride, let anger dissipate.
The shroud about your form does not belong;
would leave, if you allow my shade to soothe,
the aromatic air transport -as my leaves
rustle and tap to the Green Man’s music.

What short and troubled lives you have.
What fantasies I hear you sing.

Man, you are so sad, so full of woe!
I’ve heard your feet pad against my earth
many-times before -and not once have I known
you understand the purpose of your Beings’ worth.

You are more like me than you will ever know.

Let every organ recalibrate and renew;
go naked underneath my Sun Star canopy.
Let not age concern you, as it does not me.

You are not the first biped to pass
me by, or spread the self about my bark
to drink the peace -yet I think you different
from most I’ve known; a link you have
that still might couple in the green
and undo that darkness common to your ties.

Come, lay down your head and let me share
the secret, that unburdens men and makes trees wise.

It’s with great pleasure that I can announce the publication of a new book on Astrology by my wife Pam, who is a professional Astrologer. The book ‘MAP of LIFE’ is available in bookshops and on Amazon

A flash of light in the universe and a new soul is born. See your map of life simply explained and unfold before you with this easy to understand guide to Astrology. This easy to understand guide shows you how a horoscope is put together. Examples of famous people give insight on how Astrology provides maps of life which can guide and advise the best course of actions. Pam’s spiritual approach gives a deeper understanding of natal charts, shows how to know yourself and others and encourages you to be your own astrologer. Know yourself, understand your strengths so you can overcome your weaknesses and live a happy life.

Common Sense -Intuition & Inspiration

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

As I write this blog the papers and TV are full of the concerns arising over the new strain of Covid-19, namely the South African variant -and yes another one that’s got the scientists scratching their heads. At the same time we are being informed of groups congregating and being fined. Where is their common sense -has it ceased to function? Now common sense isn’t simply an instinctive awareness of what’s right and wrong as advised by peers and close family -it’s the outward awareness of a born ability we all have called intuition.

Intuition –what is it? -It’s a power of mind & body –we can term as ‘Soul Power’

Does everyone have it?

Yes –capability is not limited or excluded by disablement of any kind.

Are humans the only forms of life that have it?

No! All soul bearing forms of life have it. Man is conceited in thinking that his power of reason makes him uniquely able to be self-aware.

How do I know if I am expressing it?

In lots of different ways you will be expressing intuition -here are some examples:


Déjà vu. Awareness of place, persons and things not consciously experienced before and cannot be identified as a return of memory.
Rightness or wrongness of feeling. Having definite feelings about someone or of a place without prior experience –and this may manifest before actual contact or visit.
Precognition. Knowing what someone will say before they speak. Expecting communication or something to happen without reason for why it should occur. Having dreams that don’t make sense until an event explains the meaning.
Knowing you made a ‘wrong or right turning’ after the event and for which reason cannot satisfactorily answer.

Is Intuition my sixth sense?

Yes and No –Yes in that it’s a receiver and transmitter of consciousness and No it’s not a sense additional to and common with the five senses we ordinarily know. It’s the brain if you like of the higher senses.

So can you give me a definition of what Intuition is?

Yes. It’s the power of mind able to manifest unrestricted by time and space a present knowledge, and functions whenever the conscious brain mind is in harmony with environment -and not biased by its expectations.

Is there any difference between intuition and inspiration?

Not in the way we generally use the words –but there is a difference –inspiration is the act of arousing consciousness by actively relating to an idea –this can shift our consciousness to facilitate intuition knowledge.

So how might I be inspired?

For instance –the example of another person’s action or output can inspire you to attempt what they have done. A work of art can inspire you to paint, a mindfulness practice can encourage you to meditate, somebody’s work profile can interest you to study the knowledge portrayed.

Can you make intuition work ‘on demand?’

I thought you would never ask –yes it can! And this is how:

Your mind and body being is a receiver and transmitter. The brain mind is a communications centre that spends most of its time responding and stimulating physical, emotional and mental activity of the five sense world we live in. We have to use the human system differently if we are to encourage the intuitive principle of action to manifest. Develop the attitude of listening – acknowledging – letting go. This will encourage the reception of LIKE need and facilitate intuition.

Don’t assume that intuitive awareness is about serving your own needs –it does do but -by the way, rather than directly. It operation effects the law of Karma, the law of Attraction and the law of Regeneration and is manifested by the desire for union of The Self –and that’s always more than what you may think is contained within you!

Force yourself out of character… Destroy some sacred stones!

According to the bias of your nature either give time to yourself or give it to others. Work on your weakness – time is one of Forms ‘sacred stones’ – shift in consciousness can start from here… Introduce ‘something for nothing’ into your life – brain mind reasoning justifies itself by recognisable beneficial actions – something for nothing breaks the cycle and introduces higher mind reasoning. Give something away that means something to you – this is more difficult, objects are proof of logical development, again by doing this you destroy a sacred stone! Stop thinking what you are not doing – even harder, this says that thought without action is not yours, not in your control. Self-reflecting is the Form mind re-asserting itself.

Assume you are going to ‘die’ before the day is out! This is the greatest blasphemy of all – No future and no past – these are the pillars of form consciousness.

Make your Self and the Environment – Self – Sufficient!

Stop being a user! Treat everything and everyone as essential! Some people are users more habitually than others – but we all will, pressured by time, in making value decisions and most of all when we are not in control of our own thoughts!

Look out not in – even when it’s painful!

Cultivate your emotional and physical responses by projecting your self being –these system bodies of energy are the intuitive voice box of our conscious life. When we hold thoughts in and suppress our emotional responses we become minders of machines –watchers of who we are and that makes us vulnerable to being used by others.

Dispense with boxes – buy in to tubes instead!

We are used to owning the ideas, actions, statements and commitments arising in ourselves as they represent the “I” of our conscious being. Strike “Ownership” from your language –if you must be attached – be attached to everything & everyone! Be tubular, be instrumental!

To live holistically is to be guided intuitively, it gives CHANGE the title of King and FORM becomes the ruled subject. Do this and your life will be enhanced; healthy, creative and forever interesting –oh, and by the way the body doesn’t age so quickly!

Since I’ve been talking about Intuition and Inspiration, here’s an example of how those two forces combine. I wrote this poem for my wife many years ago -it still gives birth to my universal Self every time I read it.

Love kept from Death

Here am I at fifty-two praising a cornfield spread with red poppy,
sucking the stalk of green rye, browning my white legs thinking of you,
not looking for a poem, absorbed in the singing oblivious of time,
soft in the arms of my Blue Gowned Queen breathing the Tao.

The dog runs and a rabbit leaps, a nesting bird wings to blue sky;
the trees sigh over dry, shadows laze, dissipate and thicken,
insects hum, the ground crawls, and my throat prickles with pollen:
the wind is a hot lover’s tongue wilfully breaking the form of my words.

I am thinking of you how peaceful things are, not wanting a poem,
words to name things, to remember how, when, and why chosen.
Knowing my communion is heard, tasted in another place,
asleep to my sounds. Seen by you in the same speechless way.

You cannot see as I do the distant mill seized by a man’s breath
stamped on the hills blue edge, stilled to the cloud race and the birds wheel,
or the train clacking on the hill slope repeating its times table under bridges.
Or know my thirst and my next intention, the last emotion, this present smile.

I have stopped thinking of you. I am being with you: a poem without words,
a syllabic sound in the throat of my Blue Gowned Queen,
a man poised ever to fall upon a rusted sworn blade.
A known soul in a shared silence, in a form happy to be still,
un-phrased, unsung, in a love kept from death twenty-four years.