Soundtracks

The last couple of months I've been wrangling with all things non-poetic.  This may not be a big deal for most, but it's a lack of oxygen for me.  Another form of poetry I have intentionally silenced has been music.  I love to be immersed in music and its altering effect on mood, inspiration, memory. The soundtrack right now to this block of time is reflection. Can I just listen to silence for a while?  This has been quite informative, really.  I can trace soundtracks to every phase of my life and experience a total recreation of that time.  Sometimes I can take it and sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks.

The mix tape I made for my one-year-old daughter thirty years ago is probably my favorite.  I still hear some of the tracks when I'm grocery shopping at Kroger.  That's a good soundtrack. 

There are so many transitions happening in my life at this time, I have to be present to navigate them.  Sometimes the mix tape has to be my intuition: where do I turn; how do I do this by myself; how do I ignore what is no longer relevant?  

When I walk through the woods lately, I don't feel lonely with my thoughts.  I wonder how I will feel when I replay this soundtrack in a few years.

painting from the book "What's Left" by a participant of the Alzheimer's Art Therapy program