Shedding my skin, I begin with surrender
to beauty that would emerge in me.

First: the vast letting go of illusion
that has bound me, fixed me to a flaming star –
that which once appeared so glorious
and the culmination of all
I had every hoped for.

  I let it go, and this unbinding is no
easy task, no act of certainty.

Next: a balancing, uncomfortable
place where I am uncertain, vulnerable, exposed
to a truth far brighter than that star
to which I willingly hitched myself.
Truth, now unveiled, shakes me.

  Comes a time without rhyme or eloquent words,
riddled with pain and infinite grace.

This childbirth of soul self requires
sacrifice. Tears are shed, rising up and pouring
forth from the endless ache of humanity
and my own humble expression
of what that means to me.

  Soul whispers that Love is found beyond the loss,
down long corridor of becoming.

And so I am reborn to soul, self
discovered through bold exploration, essential
extravagance. This day I pause
along the way to celebrate unexpected
gift of recreation.

© 2012, Dawn Richerson