I have not bummed across America
with only a dollar to spare, one pair
of busted Levi's and a bowie knife.
I have lived with thieves in Manchester.
I have not padded through the Taj Mahal,
barefoot, listening to the space between
each footfall picking up and putting down
its print against the marble floor. But I
skimmed flat stones across Black Moss on a day
so still I could hear each set of ripples
as they crossed. I felt each stone's inertia
spend itself against the water; then sink.
I have not toyed with a parachute cord
while perched on the lip of a light-aircraft;
but I held the wobbly head of a boy
at the day centre, and stroked his fat hands.
And I guess that the tightness in the throat
and the tiny cascading sensation
somewhere inside us are both part of that
sense of something else. That feeling, I mean.
Simon Armitage
image Lucas Mordzin https://unsplash.com/@mordzin
the theme today is inner peace
There are a lot of ways to describe what inner peace means to different people. In today's poem, the author talks about a feeling of ‘tightness in the throat’ and ‘tiny cascading sensations’ inside us. He talks about experiences he hasn’t had, and others he has. He mentions travel and adventure, but also quiet moments of peace
what comes to your mind reading Armitage’s poem? what memories do you have of both adventure and quiet moments of peace?
walk down memory lane today. Write down a list of moments in your life that made you feel “that tightness in the throat and the tiny cascading sensation”. What really matters to you?
find something from that list, for example skimming stones, that you can repeat today