A Place between Your Heartbeats

While getting my regular fix of blog posts this morning, I found a beautiful turn of phrase in one of Robert Avrech's Seraphic Secret posts. I commented and asked if I could use it for some poem at some future time, and was granted permission.

Now, it is rare for me to be inspired to write poetry. The muse seldom hits me, but when it does, I can very well be on a roll and will write one or more very moving pieces, some very personal pieces, or some very quirky pieces. And then there could be a lull of several months or sometimes a year or two before I take an inspirational cue once more.

Well, once I had that turn of phrase, I couldn't let it go, and within a few short minutes, this came from my pen -- um, my keyboard:

******************
To Find a Place…

As your day begins with the rays of the sun
The dark storminess of the night disappears –

Having been tossed and turned upon waves of sleep,
Waves of remembering,
Waves of grasping and grappling with truths
You now breathe a sense of calm.

But only for a moment.

You shudder, then grope for courage,
For the strength to shine like the rays of the sun.
To beam heavenward, as his smile forever beamed,
Forever beams…

You wrap your tallis around you,
Your cloak of beliefs
And with each word uttered in silent prayer
And with those words that come through moving lips
You find a place…a place between your heartbeats.

A place for Ariel.
**************

I just threw right back at Robert the phrase he'd thrown out to us. Only, I dressed it up a bit.

People often ask me how I can write such personal pieces, how I can capture exactly how another person might think or feel.

Empathy. Sensitivity. Projection. Using these "gifts" of empathy and sensitivity, I put myself temporarily into the person's shoes, looking out temporarily at the world that they must look out at all the time.

I'm glad that phrase crossed my path today, and I'm glad I felt inspired instantaneously to write something. You try working that phrase into a poem or into a piece of fiction...