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Butterflied

Wrapped in my shroud,  I am blind to Your brilliance. Larval squirmings, procedural dues, envelop mind and consume corpse so that all I feel is the pain of becoming; the razor-edge ritual, this infernal breakdown of internal structure, this corpuscle soup I slaver and squirm in throttles all impetus. But in order to fly, legs must be leashed.  In order to soar, wings must be hammered thin as…

pinebrilliance

Wrapped

in my shroud,

 I am blind to Your brilliance.

Larval squirmings, procedural dues, envelop

mind and consume corpse so that all I feel is the pain

of becoming; the razor-edge ritual, this

infernal breakdown of internal structure,

this corpuscle soup I slaver and

squirm in throttles

all impetus.

But

in order to fly,

legs must be leashed.  In order to soar,

wings must be hammered thin as air.  Remake me.

Reset each molecule, retune each cell, that each atom

would sing the frequency of its conception, that

restoration and healing would croon cocoon.

That larval limping and caterpillar

crawl would collapse, gutted.

And the writhe, be

 butterflied.

Responses to “Butterflied”

  1. Gallivanta

    Beautiful butterfly shape in the words. It’s ready to fly.

    1. melodylowes

      Thank you! I had to really play around with it to give it wings…. worth the effort, though!

  2. Robert Rife

    Easily one of your best. This one’s got real teeth.

    1. melodylowes

      Wow. Thanks, Rob…

      1. Robert Rife

        My pleasure. A bunch of these and you’ve got yourself a book.

      2. melodylowes

        Is 700 enough? I’ll hit that this week…

      3. Robert Rife

        Of this particular style? The non-rhyming, lyrical, meandering type with a mystical edge to them…

      4. melodylowes

        Mmmm – rather less of those. They way you put it, I want to read THAT kind! 🙂

  3. tiny lessons blog

    Really beautiful and thought provoking!

    1. melodylowes

      Thank you very much! 🙂

  4. Eric

    Love your take on this photo, Melody. I like your descriptive wording. It is an action poem and at the same time a moment of tranquil contemplation. 🙂 PS- with a slight tip of the screen upward, one man’s butterfly becomes another man’s black widow, pouncing on unwary husband that suddenly lights up in fright… lololol 😀

    1. melodylowes

      😀 To each his own interpretation…

  5. adaisygarden

    Wow, that is really hard to say with sincerity (“legs must be leashed… wings must be hammered…remake me”…). Reminds me of the old song, “Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me…Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.” Those are the original words, though they were changed a few years ago and they took out “break me”. Could it be that God is looking for that humility and willingness that you so eloquently wrote in this poem? Thanks for the challenge, Wendy!

    1. melodylowes

      Thanks Daisy. In order for the caterpillar to morph, its entire system is broken down to cell soup, to be rebuilt. There is something to this picture of nature that relates well to our spiritual lives, too – in order to be free, our old ideas and biases and nature needs to be remade. Pain may just be a natural part of this awesome process…

      1. adaisygarden

        You’re right. That is what the Scriptures tell us. …as painful as it is at times. Thank God that “His grace is sufficient, for His strength is made perfect in weakness.”

      2. melodylowes

        Ah, I needed that reminder. Thank you….

      3. adaisygarden

        Btw, I’m so sorry… I meant to say Melody! See? There goes my weakness showing up! haha I hope you were not offended, my friend.

      4. melodylowes

        Oh, no – if you meant my fellow poet Wendy, I’m honored rather than offended. Some days I can’t even keep my kids’ names straight. (And I only have 2!) 😀

  6. lvsrao

    Beautiful and thought provoking too.

    1. melodylowes

      Hmmm – I replied to this already but it popped up as not answered – so if you got 2, don’t be alarmed! 🙂 Thanks! 🙂

  7. Maria Tatham (Elizabeth Ott)

    First, I thought ew and then ah!

    1. melodylowes

      Ah ha! 🙂 I thought I already answered this one but it popped up as not – so if you get 2 responses, you know what happened!

      1. Maria Tatham (Elizabeth Ott)

        This was the first reply, Melody.
        This is a complicated poem, and it isn’t “pretty” – this is your intent. Becoming a butterfly is messy, sacred business.
        God bless you!

      2. melodylowes

        Wow – I love the way yo put ‘messy’ and ‘sacred’ together – a poem in the making! For that is just exactly the way I have experienced the metamorphal process!

      3. Maria Tatham (Elizabeth Ott)

        It came across, Melody.

      4. melodylowes

        Good!

  8. Caddo Veil

    I love the verb “butterflied”. Saying prayers down here, confident in faith.

    1. melodylowes

      Thanks…lots…

  9. momentswithmillie

    As always, lovely and beautiful.

    1. melodylowes

      Thanks Millie!

  10. Debbie

    I agree with Robert . ..this was an outstanding poem! I forget where, but read a post about a gentleman that kept a cocoon of a moth, and when it tried to come out, it was struggling so, so he helped it by widening the cocoon’s neck. The moth got out more easily, but actually needed the process of squeezing out through the narrow opening, in order for it’s wings to be pressed and able to dry. His moth never flew and died . Sorry, that was a sad story, but just reminded me of your poem, of what we need to go through in order to fly. 🙂

    1. melodylowes

      I’ve heard of that, too – such a built-in object lesson of how our struggles build up our faith and endurance!

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