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.
poems, prose and pathways
Writer | Artist
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