Day 361: Pain Body
∴
Eckhart Tolle speaks of a “pain body”
as the collected consciousness
of a group of people:
women,
jews,
african americans,
soldiers,
slaves,
orphans –
the unborn, even –
any group
that has shared deep cultural
or circumstantial knowing
and trauma
that was suffered
silently in the world
and profoundly
in the soul.
it is as if the heavens heard
all of their screams and songs
and collected them in a celestial choir
in which every voice
was finally accounted for.
it is a concept i cannot get out of my mind
for the resonance it strikes in my heart.
i wonder to how many bodies i belong
as my own
does not feel
and has never felt
exclusively
my own.
i have belonged to masters
and to tyrants
to children born
and babies buried.
i have belonged to longing
and to hunger.
to sold hair
and hidden treasures.
i have belonged to war
and the peace-less
peace time that followed.
how do i know this?
i, a glass upon the shelf?
what earthquake have i weathered!?
and still,
somehow,
i know this.
in ancient voice
my young flesh
cries out
like a tuning fork
that intones the
voice of my mothers:
“to the one we all belong
we have returned
and are still singing
and are still screaming
and are still living
and are still loving;
can you not hear
what we say?
give voice
give voice
and the world
one day
will listen.”
∴
