12 Dec Wound Turned to Light

Wound Turned To Light

by Andrea Thompson

The light of witnessing existence
makes everything beautiful again –

brings rebirth to those disowned parts of self
those shattered fragments the world has deemed

unworthy – those darkened days and tired nights
of soul-deep weariness become refreshed

through the act of simply
recording what is

what it is to be ourselves, unabashed and
naked, living on this crushed ball of stardust

what it is to be us – hurtling through the universe
bouncing up against each other like ideological pinballs

at a time when the polarity of this planet has sent us all
off on our own diametrical trajectory away from the core

when the weight of interpersonal animosity has become
staggeringly crippling, when the term “respectfully disagree”

is about to become extinct. In this moment I bow down
and thank God for bestowing us with the gift of creativity

for endowing all of us humans a life-giving method of release
to the pressures of simply existing, a way to translate pain

into beauty, a way to open up the valve on it all
and begin to let off steam –

what a gift it is to be given this
moment, to be invited to express

all the colours of this jagged emotional palette
without judgment, to simply say yes

to the raw red of rage, yes
to the yellow of hope, yes

to the bruised-hearted blues, yes
to the unfathomable purple, yes

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
yes and amen to it all.

[The title is inspired by Georges Braque, “Art is a wound turned into light”.]