This poem is also a song, to be heard with a blues melody, both melancholic, proud and strong, and also gentle, reflective, kind and warm. I dedicate it to the free, resilient, knowing, warm Spirit of my Kabylie:
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It was a cold, clear day, the kind that makes the naked trees ache as the sun quietly arches its light across the sky's pale blue frame, as I was going my way across the frosty blades of grass along the stone path waiting for that moment where I would hear nature's voice have its say.
I heard the song of a Spirit bird echoing its melody as it flew from branch to branch of a tall evergreen tree, and that bird must have read my mind's musings because this is what my heart started to feel it say:
"Hear me, human standing there so alone and full of interest and curiosity, as you try to decipher the notes of my song to you, hear me, and heed my words, for I am a Spirit bird. I've come a long way on tired wings, through storms and darkness, through sun and rain, so listen to my refrain:
If it is real, the warmth that fills your soul, the fire that lights your heart, it must also set them free. The world is full of illusions, and love's intentions too can be dressed as such, can be in disguise to gain your trust, to blind your poet's spirit so weary from so much travel, so, beware, and do not mistake its flowing shadows for healing light.
If it is real, human child, so hungry and tired of fighting so proud and hard for so long, against the dragons of the seven seas, if love is real, it sets free. Oh, if it is real, it does not weigh you down, it does not demand or control, it does not envy, or imprison, oh, no, when it is real, it sets you, oh, so free.
But the world has so many clever rules, that make us believe that all else is taboo, that a heart that is light and free, is a threat to society. The world does not want the heart of the poets and the artists to be free, no, it wants to put them in cages, heart, soul and spirit, and paint their voice with the tin that shutters, that echoes its woes, that will numb the heart longing to be free.
But know, human child, that my wisdom is true, and you will know so when you listen closely to my song: when love is real, is deep, is free, it will feed and heal your heart's hunger, its dreams, its spirit its soul..." And I left the forest, knowing, without a doubt, the truth, eternal and strong, of the magical bird that left me the words to its beautiful song.
So, now when I go see the tree, and the magical bird that there painted me its dream, I can sing with conviction what my heart wanted so much to hear: "If it is real, if it is true, love will make your spirit soar, it will give your soul wings, all its heavy chains will break, all its painful illusions flee, and you will know the ecstasy that no tyrants can rule, you will live, breathe and know, that love that sees the heart and the soul, sets free, free as a bird in this world, and the worlds to be."
Trudi Ralston
"I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other." Rainer - Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
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