The Inner Landscape

I hardly dare carve these words into this stone.
The thoughts come and go like those of the monkey mind,
bouncing around as if they belong to the moon.
Yet, all I can do is step inside my private chamber
and sit as quiet as the gentle rain on the lilly pad,
just noticing how I feel, what I sense, how I am.
One minute I am cradled by bliss and sweetness,
the next, tormented as I circle myself with bloody barbed wire,
ripping the skin off my psyche, in the grip of the persecutor.
But I know you now Mara. You no longer have the power
to wreck my landscape of loving kindness to self and others.
I know you. I wave to you. I smile and I say, I love you.
Then, when I look out through my eyes into the world,
my exterior landscape has also changed and I see
that I am in fact, free ~ a wild flight bird with a wingspan
for Life and Love….. I give you thanks, my Inner Landscape.
The gentle rain kisses my skin and reminds me I am Human.