Stone Hearts Poem by Skylark Woodrow

She looks young,
So young, standing there with the wind in her hair.
But then you see her eyes,
Her ancient eyes that have seen things far beyond their years.
They are full of things deep and dark,
Things we have forgotten,
Things we wish to forget.
Truly she is one of the ancient ones who knows, and learns, and is all that we have forsaken.
Her heart still beats and bleeds while we have become as stone,
Impenetrable,
Unfeeling.
We wanted to become the strongest,
The most resilient.
We wanted to dominate the world and bend it to our will;
But instead we have become nothing.
We have turned ourselves into stone thinking that stone is the strongest best thing,
But have you seen the sea?
Waves made of water crash upon a shore,
Their constant ebb and flow molding and shaping,
Wearing away the stone of cliffs and boring through to create secret places we have yet to behold.
Have you seen the trees on the mountains,
Tall, majestic, and strong?
Their roots finding their way through stone and taking what they need to survive.
In the desert, stone cracks and crumbles with the change of the temperature.
You see, not even stone is without its weaknesses.
And what if our perceived weaknesses are what make us strong.
What if things such as kindness, compassion, and gentleness were viewed as what they are?
What if we were to embrace all of our soft spots and come alive again?
What if we were to allow ourselves to feel again?
What if we too sought to know, and learn, and be these forsaken things,
These ancient mysterious things?
What if we were to forsake our hearts of stone and were willing to bruise and bleed again?

(2019.5.15)