A Key to Understanding the Selves We Left Behind

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A few weeks back I had a guest speaker at my graduate school share about IFS, Internal Family Systems Therapy, a modality that focuses on the 'parts' within our self-consciousness that are either at odds with one another or have been left behind, and how to heal from those rifts in our 'family of selves'. I connected deeply with this ideology and this quick jotted poem was the result of said lecture. I connected with the speaker and two weeks later we spoke on the phone for an hour and had a lovely conversation about IFS and mindfulness based practice.

To soothe the cornered inferno Consuming a sanctuary abandoned Spider's silk like snow kissed ground Walls caressed by a nurturing moss, A mausoleum of birth The detached ruins we carry A firefighter's hose spouts curses To cauterize a ghastly flame The fire fights itself separately So the lever pullers on the dispatch Call into the ears of a healer To douse themselves in gasoline There is no pain, for in Recognition there is warmth The exiles of the charred asylum Need something true to human heart An acknowledgment of all their parts

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