B. Andrew Kelly Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

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.

A Key to Understanding the Selves We Left Behind

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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