I used to drink,
my bottles hid from view
beneath the sink,
the secret kept from you.
My friends were few.
Today I pray
befriended. He
says look away.
The heart’s sincerity
means hiding me from me.
As I wrote last, Iain McGilchrist’s two-volume work The Matter with Things, which I am reading, is a day-to-day prod to me and even to my prayer life.
It turns out that the latest neurological research supports Jesus’ suggestion that we not let our left hand (brain) know what our right hand (brain) is doing. The self-consciousness and indeed self-righteousness of the left brain inhibits the spontaneity and truthfulness of the right.
Beware, poet, of overthinking your verses!