girl&life

My Life

Sometimes I am so present to every living thing in the world.
I love the sense of feeling so small and insignificant.

The light and vibration of the universe envelops me.
I’m suspended, held up by the current.

The pulse of our planet is a subtle throb I can feel in

my solar plexus and my heart.

I breathe deep, luxurious breaths.
Inhaling. Exhaling.
Sharing the air with my six point eight billion
brothers and sisters.

Sometimes I can feel the earth breathe a sigh of contentment.
A moment of Samadhi.

Naked on a mountaintop I raise my hands and as the sun kisses my skin and wind rushes through my fingers

I know I am not alone.
That this sun, this wind has caressed them all.
It connects us all.
We are one.

melissa b zeligman 2007©

Learning to Love the Questions

I wanted all the answers.
Answers to everything.
I wanted someone,
something to blame.
A trial, a jury, a conviction.

I spent forty years gathering evidence.
Combing through the world.
Asking questions, insisting on answers.
Exhibit A. Witness. Judge. Defense.

Litigation is long and yields no truth,
No answers. Only more questions.
The questions keep coming.
Like the next breath.
Again and again and again.

The answers give pause.
It stops the inquiry,
the conversation,
the breath.

The questions grant being.
It is an opening,
an invitation.
An inhale and an exhale.
Connected.
Timeless
Eternal.

It was just his job to ask the questions.

melissa b zeligman 2008©

The Ghost

He never really made it back.
I met a ghost, not a man.
Maybe that’s how he was
able to permeate my every cell.

I felt him like a twin feels his other.
Safe passage through his mind
was not possible.
A tangled, dark, sticky bog
of his fear, pain and shadow.

There were glimpses of joy.
Moments he almost broke the surface.
There was a real heart there.
Of that I’m certain.
My ghost with a heart
that came to save my heart,
and did.

melissa b zeligman 2008©

theghost/2008

My Rules for Living

Be Kind
Double the Vanilla
Hold Hands
Cook with Love
Just Breathe
Gratitude Rules

melissa b zeligman 2007©

Enough

I knew exactly the moment he left.
I made him promise not to die before I died.
I’d lost so many so far.
I couldn’t bear to love another that would just leave.

But all the poems and paintings in the world
couldn’t keep him here.

The hours and energy preparing potions and

tonic and food weren’t enough.

My will, my faith, my prayers, my declarations
and promises. Not enough.
My bargaining and negotiations weren’t enough.

Even my love, my deep-rooted love for him wasn’t enough to interrupt his destiny, his choice, his path.

The Prelude to ‘I Forgot’

The blessing and the burden.
I love being a woman.
I’ve been so busy trying to live up to those
who went before.
Wanting to have it all.
Feeling like if I didn’t want it all, I would

somehow forsake all my sisters.
That I would be less than.
That I would betray them.

And on the 6th day God made Man.
What a mixed message the last 20 years must
have been for you.
I don’t imagine knowing what it has been like.
Was it confusing or am I assuming?
Was it lonely?
Do you resent me?
Did you settle?
Did you go away?
Perhaps it didn’t matter.

A Whore No More

You know the moment
you first sell yourself.

It seems like a fair transaction.
You think there is balance.

Then you settle.
Then you start to sink.
You’re so far down.
The distance between you and the
rest is growing every moment.

It becomes automatic.
You don’t even realize you are
selling and settling all of the time.

You’re complacent
You’re resigned.
You’re numb.

You wake up-
It’s the breaking point,
but you didn’t break
only the pattern did.

Someone bigger than you.
Someone who knows what it’s like.
Someone who loves you.
Grabs you by the face and
tells you- “You’re nobody’s whore anymore!”

It’s not a suggestion.
It’s not a demand.
It’s the truth
and your life begins in that moment.

Your face still warm
from his hands.
Your mind drunk with
the new liberation.
Your spirit spilling over
for all to embrace.
And your precious heart open for all

there is to come and go.

girl&muse

inspiration for a life