Letting Go - A Poem

What is letting go?

It is coming up for air in the ocean

When you did not know you were drowning.

It is inhaling a fresh breath through dense black smoke,

You did not know you were choking on.

It is finding your voice,

When the music of your silence has been your only sound.

Because you thought you were being right by saying nothing at all.

It is remembering how to breathe,

Like a baby gasping their very first cry

This is your first moment to scream that you exist.

Letting go is cutting through the net which caught you.

Trapped you into a life you did not choose.

It's a net that grew algae around you,

Since you gave up struggling against it.

It is, untangling the knots from the rope which bound you for too long.

A rope which frayed gently against your body,

But never released you.

It is, unlocking the cuffs which enslaved you,

But which you surrendered to willingly.

It is, removing the shackles, leaving behind the chains,

which you dragged by your side without question.

Letting go is unwrapping yourself from that tight ball on the floor,

which you curled into as you dropped.

It is finding the strength to stand, after you fell

and crawled hopelessly on bare knuckles.

It is s finally feeling your shoulders rise,

Your head lift.

Your heart be wide open.

So unfurl yourself, like the main sail on a ship

Head for open water.

Unravel your mind like the endless string of a paper kite.

Open to the possibilities of the wind.

Open to the choices inside your own future.

Breathe, sing, dance, run, swim, sail, fly.

Be free from whatever held you back.

This is Letting go.

This. is. Letting. go.