Anne’s Zen Transformation
Free Verse on Illness and Becoming
Anne’s face, once sharp as the wind against January skin,
has softened, a gentle moon swelling beneath the touch of medication.
Her body rounds, moves differently in the world,
each curve a quiet rebellion against past angularities,
as if the cosmos itself has decided to cradle her with new lines.
Her worries, once darting minnows in a shallow stream,
have slipped quietly into deeper waters,
where silence ripples and even fear is lulled into calm.
The old preoccupations – what if, why me, how long –
have dissolved as if erased by gentle hands,
leaving her present, luminous, startlingly unburdened.
She is Zen, not from any book or master,
but from facing the slow, unhurried tide
that draws her past pain and worry
toward the mystery that awaits all of us,
her gaze both inward and infinite, serene as dawn.
Zen:
If you feel like keeping track of Anne’s cancer journey, I’m chronicling it here:
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/news/
