Poetry Alchemy Infusions - For a New Beginning

(video transcript)

Hello and welcome to Poetry Alchemy Infusions, infusing you with the magic of poetry alchemy, to ignite the visionary within and to support you to bring your visions into visibility in the world.

Hi, I'm Rionach Aiken, founder of Poetry Alchemy and creator of Visionaries Becoming Visible. You can find me online at RionachAiken.com

So welcome, this is my very first Poetry Alchemy Infusions podcast, the first of many. I created this series of short poetry podcasts to share the power of spoken poems, which is something that I love to do. So to honor this new beginning the poem I want to share with you today is 'For A New Beginning' by John O'Donohue.

John O'Donohue is an Irish writer and philosophy, poet and priest. He's one of my Irish inspirations, and this is a poem that's very dear to my heart. It's one that I connected with in 2012 and it changed the course of my life. I came to it a time when I was really feeling off track and lost, and it reconnected me to my calling and to with you today.

For a New Beginning

 

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge. 

 

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown. 

 

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the grey promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this. 

 

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you. 

 

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire. 

 

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm

For your soul senses the world that awaits you. 

 

John O'Donohue

from Benedictus: A Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue (Bantam Press 2007)

Published in the U.S. as To Bless The Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (Convergent Books 2008)

So if you're someone who has a sense of vision and calling, this poem is a reminder to really check in with what's the next level, what's the next vision that's whispering quietly inside your heart. That's wanting to be brought into reality, into visibility. So it's easy to ignore that little voice, easy to override it, or just to put it to one side when we're busy chasing the busyness of life.

So this poem is a reminder to slow down, to listen and to trust that what you feel inside is real. There's a vision inside you, a next level vision that's waiting to be birthed. So use this poem as medicine to fuel your dreams, to find the courage that you need to take that next step. Even if you don't know what it is, even if your destination is not yet clear, this poem is telling you to trust it. And to follow it. To listen to your heart and to step into that new beginning.

And I look forward to sharing many more poems with you in this new Poetry Alchemy Infusions podcast. This is my new beginning and this is leading me to ... I don't know what destination, but I'm so happy to be sharing with you today.

And if you have a sense of vision or calling that you want to bring into visibility in the world, let me know because that's one of the things that I love to help with. You can book a call with me here

l look forward to hearing about what your vision is. What you would like to bring into visibility so I hope to connect with you soon.