Threshold

A veil
Separating two worlds
Of which, both I was created from
Of which, both I still reside
This cloth
Now a threshold
Lays over my body, gently
Casting its covering over my crystalized vision
I peer through each separation of thread
With a breath that comes in slowly
And an exhale that leaves me with more questions than I have answers for
Each one creating the liminal space that becomes me
With just one word
The unknown becomes existence, once more 
Around me and through me and in me
The torn garment slides downwards over my eyes
In the same way dawn pulls with it a blanket of light 
Over barren land come morning
It continues its path
Cascading down the blackness of my hair
Sweeping over the olive of my skin
Falling between the creation of my own hands
Hands that have grasped, and strived, and toiled
Struggling to reconcile all that I have once believed
In the silence between breaths
I hear the sound of The Eternal
Calling for me
In my stillness
I am carried out of the garden
Into the desert
Delivered out from my own will
Into the arms of The Burren
The wilderness of ancient hills
Built upon lamentations
That of my own
That of the world before and to come
My skin, now bare of its cloth
Stripped of all notion
Held to the bosom of the Earth
A relentless hold
Until I remember
Just Who I Am

LILLIE DUNCAN

Wounded Body

There was a new life that came for me
In a moment as dawn stretched over the sky
Bringing with it the weight of desperation
Deep pleading of the soul
The unforgettable sound of a mother
My mother
Weeping for the child she once bore
 A certain stirring came about
One could only experience 
During breaks in the timeline
 Moments where nothing is
As it once was
Where heartbreak weaves in
Without proper introduction
What new life had I not seen coming
This is the full human experience

Humbled in my sheer mortality
The frailness of life
The light bringing with it death
 My vulnerabilities
Precede me most days
A resistance I try to avoid 
The call to walk in this wounded body of mine
An invitation 
To balance somewhere in between two worlds
World’s that require me to sink into my own depths
World’s that are made up of questions with no answers
 Just silent surrenders
Day after day
Bringing with it the permeation of loss
 In the end
Perhaps the true price of love
Is the ability to bear its absence
When it is no longer there

LILLIE DUNCAN

The Lost Coast

Out across a pristine sand line
Earth paints its master piece of harmony
Land submerging beneath ocean
Sky bowing its will to the sea
Reflections of worlds barely seen
All the while weather comes and goes

I incline my eyes to see the crescent moon
Hanging gently on the last ray of light
Reminding me of my rightful place

Along the shore are rocks that come forth
Life stirring quietly around each pocket of sand
And beneath the rocks are hidden things
And beneath the hidden things are more hidden things
Simply the beginning and ending of life one existing only with the other
Such balance no hand could possibly grasp

This day of all days
I kneel while staring across the edge of this coast
My body sinks itself deeper into the sand beneath
Still warm from what I knew of this day
Even with the grandiose burden buried in the cavity of my chest
Smallness is what I feel with a hint of trepidation upon the merge of shadows

Just one step past my own threshold
I come into full awareness

That of all the oceans
This ocean could ruin me

With its depths and unknowns it could take me out where the sky touches the sea
Far beyond where I tend to keep myself safe
Each wave could take me under and leave me sideways back where I started
Along the shore of myself

And still, I am called here time and time again
To sit with each of my fears
Naming them one by one
Life and death and everything in between
Perhaps to face the timeless truths of this life
To learn the balance of fear and life
And beneath the truths are hidden things
And beneath the hidden things, its merely my own reflection

For me, there is no sea that parts this time
No pillar of cloud by day and no pillar of fire by night
No manna to feed the hunger within
Yet the pull is still bringing me further in
One wave at a time
One step at a time
To an ocean, this ocean, at this time

Everything I have ever feared
Everything I have ever loved
All within a force and weight so much greater than I

How do I even begin to trust the wave that can take me under 
Or rise my restless body up to touch the hem of a new day
Where the sky kisses the ocean upon the distant horizon
Framed by days end and nights beginning
Where fear meets mortality and transcends life

Upon no merit of my own
Upon whose waters will I surrender
Upon whose hand will carry me now

The world moves on,
The world moves on,
The world moves on.

LILLIE DUNCAN

The Sage and The Sea

Lost in between
The sage and the sea
Pushing past the depths
Searching the blackness
For some path back to who I was
Perhaps I’m simply a conduit of the age
A ship lost in its own way

LILLIE DUNCAN