You can’t run away from ghosts. They’re too sly for that.
They slip and slide after you, seeping through cracks
In your consciousness. That grey silence just before dawn
Where your fears rush in and create a gap?
That’s their favourite place. Their space.
Throw yourself into your work. Go on.
Add hours to your day, have a full calendar.
They don’t and won’t care. They’ll just stay,
Half formed, opaque, happy to delay
You have to pause for breath sometime, don’t you?
They know this. They know you better than you care to believe.
Paused between dream and day, between think and say
They’ll find you. At your lowest, they’ll remind you
Of all the memories and fears you thought
You’d so cleverly left behind you.
Try this. Welcome them in. Face them down.
Stop, and slowly turn to gaze directly in their eye.
Say ‘hi, come on then, I’m here, do your worst’.
Say ‘is that all you’ve got?’. Because it will be. Burst
the spectre of fear. It isn’t scary at all if you soak it with love
