Choosing What's Inside (Poem)

Choosing What's Inside 

What I know
I hold close the way
the body
contains heart,
its bone cage expanding space
enough to hold off

what gets missed.
Not every arrow's
virtual,
or goes in
deep. I know how exit wounds,
heals but leaves some scars

you won't see
the way you don't see
how my mind
makes choosing
what's inside you the one gift
still to bring you near.

© 2011 Maureen E. Doallas
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I'm participating in the Domino Project's #Trust30 challenge, an online writing/reflection initiative for which a prompt is posted daily. All of the prompts to date are here.

This poem, written in Shadorma form (stanzas of six lines following a 3-5-3-3-7-5 syllabic pattern), is my response to the 21st prompt from Jen Louden, author of The Woman's Comfort Book, The Life Organizer, and Comfort Secrets for Busy Women:

You Know

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We live in a society of advice columns, experts and make-over shows. Without even knowing it, you can begin to believe someone knows better than you how to live your life. Someone might know a particular something better — like how to bake a three-layer molten coconut chocolate cake or how to build a website — but nobody else on the planet know how to live your life better than you (although one or two people may think they do). For today, try asking yourself often, especially before you make a choice, "What do I know about this?"

* * *

I've used all the prompts as inspiration for new poems. My responses to prompts 16-20 are:

The Seventh Day

Alternatives

Dreaming 

Looking Elsewhere

Pressing It

You'll find my response to prompt 15, "Truth Be Told", and a list of poems answering prompts 1 - 15 here.