Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Experiment

Experiment

Release one of your anxieties. Try.
Lift up from it slowly, as you would pry

cold fingers from a steering wheel.
Are you willing to experiment, to feel

a practiced fear floating like smoke
away from you. We get nervous, provoke

in ourselves the jitters, the shakes.
We wince at the noise a siren makes,

avoid speaking to an entire room
of people we have not met, consume

ourselves with concerns over pets,
traffic, kids, money. The body digests

muscle if it is worked and not fed.
Anxiety strengthens anxiety. Instead

of anticipating fear, could we carve
away what eats at us, allow it to starve.

7 comments

  1. Oh, that opening! You've captured anxiety so well.

    And what a memorable line this is: "The body digests/ muscle if it is worked and not fed."

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  2. This needs to be immortalized in needlepoint. I love it.

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  3. This is such incredibly good advice. I am going to print it out for myself and my husband...xoxo

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  4. I need to print this big and put it one my wall.

    thea.
    xx

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  5. An interesting notion. I wonder...?

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  6. Oh, so very true. This should be woven into a three-foot long sampler, Hannah. It would just fit the space above my desk and I would see it every time I looked up.

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