Today I started my fourth round of radiotherapy treatments. So I am sharing a poem for radiotherapy. My first round of radiotherapy treatments was in 2013. This poem, ‘Breathe’ was written in 2014 as I was healing. The beauty of nature is healing. Breathing in clean air is healing. Listening to birds is healing. Being inspired to paint and to photograph nature is healing.

Over the intervening years, nature has continued to be my healing force. It will be so again. If my visions of nature interest you, I keep a nature blog Fifteen Acres as well as this art-based website.

‘Breathe’

The crystalline form of last night’s dream
fragments as I shake off drowsiness.
Lost insights float into the chill morning air,
drawn upward by the possibility
encased in a clear blue sky.

Slivers of dream catch on generations of leaves.
High above the earth they glitter,
out of reach but fodder for contemplation,
possums, and passing birds.

This morning it’s still.
All my senses fill with promise:
with rustling, crackling, fluttering life.
I realise I have all that I need.

Resting my fingertips on fissures of bark
I lift my face to the sky.
Breathe in sunlight,
breathe in birdsong,
breathe in the scent of the bush.
Just breathe.

© Lisa Hunter 2014

To read more posts in the 100 Days of Art series, click here.