a poem for EnHansen Performance

it’s been such a  busy year that i’ve forgotten a lot what i’ve written and where i’ve written it. lately i’ve been digging; when i come across a poem or snippet or entry in a notebook, it usually can mean one of two things: a delightful squeee of serendipity or a good old cringe at something i’d neatly forgotten about.
both reactions are tremendously good for the soul, i’m told.

in the week before i left australia, i was commissioned to write this for EnHansen Performance, a company that specialises in the neuroscience of leadership  and “is a coaching and training company that works with leaders and individuals to transform performance using a structured coaching model, that is brain-based and solutions focused…” the corporate leadership industry is not normally the type of industry at first glance you’d associate with poetry, but Kristen was keen to use a poem in her opening at seminars and workshops as a creative way to highlight  the need for business owners and managers to be present in the moment in order to engage efficiently with employees and staff, and still remain balanced in themselves. i was very excited to be asked to be part of this – i love that there is room for the melding of the creative and corporate.

with her briefing, this is what i cobbled together:

 

As that last frenetic thought of the day

rows you on that last ferry home

amid clamour

and crowded demands,

the mind returns to roost

in the brain’s blue still,

that grotto concealed between

decision and performance.

 

At first light

breath hangs on the clear air

filled with the promise of clarity

until the blue begins to ring

with hammers, habit;

at this crosscurrent

distraction floats by

ripe as false reward.

 

Performance takes wing

snatches the larger morsels

from the blue

and makes the heart beat unfairly,

fills the spaces between

with grains of misused time –

 

These spaces need not be filled

with anything but breath

and a measured meeting of eyelids

(remember what it was like,

just this morning

before the noise).

 

Slow down, pull in your oars,

let the tide flow, lap

against your hull.

Stretch out your moments,

be receptive

to the sun’s whole reflection,

its leadership,

pulled together and smoothed

from its dazzling

gamma ray scatter.

 

Let the distractions buoy

and buffet around you

There are worlds enough and time for them –

they have their place outside of this moment.

Pool your leadership into the centre

of the blue still

in between.