In Honor of the New Moon: Poetry by Mark Coleman; Art by Sarah Burkle

Artwork by Sarah Burkle

Threshold

If you knew you were about

To step off the cliff of the known

To slip from the safety of the familiar

Into the womb of darkness

That has no names

Would you still cross that threshold

With confident steps

Or hasten back to the old small house

That lies tight and cramped

Like an old snake skin around you.

The call of the abyss

Looms like a reapers shadow

And looks annihilating

From the telescope of the mind

But there secret treasures

Are sewn in the fabric of your skin.

To cross that line

Sometimes we have to trip and fall

Lose ourselves like mist at dawn

Or take the hand of a friend

As we enter unchartered realms.

What happens there is hard to say

Layers of silt are removed

Our palette gets washed away

And the house of familiarity

Feels hauntingly different

Roles and routines no longer fit

As we are cast like spawn

Into the oceans mouth

Or like light hurled in a starless sky,

Where there is nothing to do but

Yield to the tug of the waves

Trust the path that takes us to the edge

To the place we can break open

And discover ourselves anew.

Original source link. This poem was re-printed with permission by the author.

Mark Coleman is an inner and outer explorer, who has extensively studied in the Buddhist tradition since the mid-80s. He is passionate about sharing his nature-based meditation practices and has taught Insight meditation and nature retreats worldwide for the past twenty years. Mark’s love of nature and his desire to introduce others to nature-based meditation practices led him to found Awake in the Wild, an organization dedicated to sharing the transformative power of meditation in nature. In 2012 Mark co-founded the Mindfulness Training Institute with friend and colleague Martin Aylward. Together, they lead year-long, in-person, professional mindfulness teacher trainings in the US and Europe annually. The Institute has trained 300+ graduates in over 20 countries.

Mark loves to write both prose and poetry. He is the author of four books. His latest is A Field Guide to Nature Meditation: 52 Mindfulness Practices for Joy, Wisdom, and Wonder. His first book on meditation and nature was Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery. His comprehensive work about mindfulness is From Suffering to Peace: The True Promise of Mindfulness and his work on the judging mind takes form in his book Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic. His poetry collection is called Awake in the Wild. Read more about him at markcoleman.org and awakeinthewild.com