Hollows and ditches

Emptiness can feel like hollow

and hollow can feel like space

and space can feel like a luxury

unless it is crying for company

which mine rarely is

The expanse can open up on a perfectly comfortable afternoon

chasm yawning wide as the book closes

the movie ends

And for those first few minutes the problem of what to do extends past the limits of an abstracted untrained focus

When this happens

a person has but a few milliseconds to figure out how they feel about space

Before the emotion begins to swell inside

Because if there is one feeling a restless soul can’t abide

It’s the black hole created by a vacuum in time

And the mind writes thoughts like notes, dashing them off, one after another after another

building momentum released finally with a sigh

and here we go again

filling holes in the soul

with pieces of my mind

tossed into the void

and left fluttering

*Some of us have an addiction to thinking which is why it is so peaceful when it slows and even (sometimes) stops. Photo taken of a sunny spot where I was resting after a particularly good hike up a hill – the exertion and morning spent walking and thinking by myself had drained my mind of junk – so lovely when that happens.

11 thoughts on “Hollows and ditches

  1. Love it! I love the picture and this one is one of your best. I fly fish because I think of nothing else while I do it. Same with playing the piano. Tap dancing. But I don’t do the latter two much anymore. And I haven’t gotten to fish much in the last two years. Yoga is close by the end of a routine–at first I can’t turn it off, until I can focus on the positions. But by the end, I find I have stopped it for a bit. Not too many things can stop it.

    • I love the mind picture that fly fishing conjures (which I just miss typed and it ended up as sky fishing which was also a lovely mental picture 😁) I think that when I walk or hike long distances eventually it just wears out and gets to the end of the record, then gaps start appearing where I disappear into the landscape and eventually peace arrives. Yoga – oh wouldn’t it be lovely to switch off but I can’t really and you’re right – there isn’t much that switches off a chatty mind.

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