August 1 2023

@mondaynightpoetrynv last night. 💜💜💜

Prompt was Battle Born. I wrote this new poem and read an oldie from 2017 – Liberation of this Soul

The Battle Born state welcomed me into her loving embrace in 2006
I cracked, I fell apart, I broke into a million pieces
My body essence oozing into the soil, the rock, the sagebrush
My life fluids draining into Lake Tahoe and Washoe Lake
My veins melding with and becoming one with her roots

For 13 years I marinated within this Battle Born cocoon,
being pounded over and over by life
Marinated more, pounded more
Struggling financially
Living the day to day grind of advocating
For my special needs daughter, and her younger sibling
Until finally I was at peace within her embrace

She infused me with strength, sustenance, and knowing
Every walk taken, with the landscape, the breeze, the very air
Infusing me with life, populating my heart and mind with
The thoughts and words to write Words of Alchemy
to make decisions,
In fact, to carry on with this life.

In 2019 I emerged from the Battle Born cocoon into the cocoon of my home
Knowing I was to allow my physical body to rest, fall apart, and be healed.
With finally connecting to others who would finish what she could not.

And the day arrived in May of 2023 when the body became mostly healed
And it was time to emerge from the cocoon of my home,
Ready to create
Ready to live
Ready to continue appreciation
for this beautiful, stunning place
That I call home
Northern Nevada.

Photos by @sidewayseightprojects

Liberation of this Soul

She was tired.
Tired of trying to figure it out.

Tired of trying to make things work.
Tired of manipulating circumstances
to make things work.
Tired of trying to control situations to make things work.

Tired of living in confusion.
Tired of the suffering
created by way of her thoughts.

Tired of the chains that
bound her to the suffering.
Tired of dragging those
invisible chains through life.

Tired of not loving herself.
Tired of not being loved.
Tired of the responsibility of it all.

Tired of questioning her every decision.
Tired of hiding the Truth from herself.
Tired of running from her own self.

Tired of the darkness within.
Tired of the pull of the ego.

What she craved.
What she desperately needed.
Was … FREEDOM.

In desperation she dropped to her knees.
Crying to the all knowing,

Take this tired body,
Take this tired mind,
Take this confusion,
Take this suffering,

She let it all go.
She released it to the divine.

She asked for liberation
from her self-induced suffering.

Liberate this soul.
Liberate this heart.

Allow this heart to open.
Allow this heart to
receive and know unconditional love.
Allow this mind to know Clarity.

Liberation to the graceful
place of Knowing Freedom.
Liberation to the Place
of letting go.

Letting Go
And saying Yes
to Life. – ©Camilla Downs