Wounds & Scars

An old poem, added by requests after a recent performance. Click the link below for a video courtesy of the multi-talented Cris Rogers. The video might deviate slightly from the script below... that's down to my impromptu edits/bad memory. Trying to get it all right in one take is utterly terrifying! I hope you are blessed by this offering.

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Wounds & Scars video

Every scar tells a story

Every scar is a lesson learned

It doesn't hurt

Anymore

Each glance is a reminder

Of what to do

Or what not to

And how to go about it

Next time

A scar is done with

Something that's over

Cut closed

Unrestricting to the here and now

Memory of a painful time but now that pain is gone

Only the lesson in memory, sparked by the sight of that scar, lives on

A wound is messy, present, unpredictable

Each open wound is painful still

A wound inhibits, prevents, disables

Any unsealed, unsorted wound can keep one from carrying on

A wound slows progress

No continue

The present pain and uncertain outcome at all times, whether known or unknown, conscious or ignored, still debilitates

And without the proper treatment

A wound will never heal

If no desire to move forwards the convalescence slows

If mistreated, in the absence of purifying water, and instead the presence of the profane, the unclean,

Recovery period stretches further into the future and may never become reality

Held back, incapacitated, afflicted constantly

Wounded permanently

So here we lie each one

Some multiply-ly wounded

Others with only one

Nobody emerging at this point unscathed

Everybody scarred

The task, the quest from this position in order to complete the mission, fulfill potential of this commission, is all wounds to heal

And of all scars be wary

For what fool takes or makes the same wound twice?

From that which causes no further pain but is a source of monumental memory, let's learn

Celebrate the scars,

By paying them respect, response, return

But don't reopen them

Don't make new old wounds

To restart recovery does no good

And what of wounds still open?

Well, treat them well, and do not cling to them or pay them too much heed

For soon they too will be only scars moving us forward

Reminders of lessons learned

Exactly what we need

So here we lie each one

Some multiple-ly wounded

Others with only one

Nobody emerging at this point unscathed

In this great hospital of Life

Hope battered, but not barred

The task: to heal the wounds of another

And have yours mended by no mere 'lover'

But by fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers

Paralyzing infection of these wounds to catch

To reach a point of celebration after strife

It's okay, it's alright,

Everybody's scarred.