sound healing on the solstice

we gather to heal, we gather to hear

sounds, feel waves, reconnect, start

anew on this longest day

I say I have no expectations

I lie

we lie on mats covered with fleece

blankets and warm socks, we spray

rose water and burn palo santo, the

scene is set

we are ready

a ripple of sound, chimes tiptoe

in, like stardust sprinkling, I can

feel the peace

like a weighted blanket

like clean mountaintop mist

until a helicopter rumbles

overhead, it circles round

and round, I tell myself

this is nothing, only sound

only, these sounds hold

memories, stories of hostages

and releases and protests and

a war that still rages

the helicopter rumbles and

by now my older wiser self

has no words of hope, even

she feels the flutter of unhappy

butterflies inside, screaming

for release

then the crystal bowls shake

the ground where my body

rests, and then an ocean drum,

I am riding waves, then a gong,

I am shaking

I am safe

I hear myself say, on this carpet

of green under this night sky

nearly black, lying alongside

a woman new to me who smiled

a smile of reckoning when I arrived

I know there is love here

the helicopter rumbles, I feel

energy under my feet, now

the rumble become another

instrument in this symphony

of sound, the breeze through

eucalyptus leaves, blades

of grass, the inhale, exhale

there is meaning behind this

night, an ending and beginning

the waves of sound an invitation

I begin to hum