{"id":2115,"date":"2017-05-11T16:36:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T20:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/?p=2115"},"modified":"2017-06-04T21:20:52","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T01:20:52","slug":"wolf-fur-a-poem-about-immobility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/?p=2115","title":{"rendered":"Wolf Fur, A Poem To Soothe Anxiety (Read This to Calm Yourself Down and Increase Self-Presence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"a

Be very still<\/p>\n

like a cat<\/p>\n

waiting on a mouse,<\/p>\n

like the snow blanketing<\/p>\n

at dawn.<\/p>\n

Quieting.<\/p>\n

Breathing.<\/p>\n

Allow the cords of pain writhing<\/p>\n

to stop, to yawn, to gaze at shadows dancing on a safe child’s ceiling;<\/p>\n

allow the panicked what-ifs squeezing your mind<\/p>\n

to hold teacups instead<\/p>\n

and to contemplate the<\/p>\n

steam rising into the air, in a quaint caf\u00e9 on the corner of here and here,<\/p>\n

now and now,<\/p>\n

and draw finger circles on the window.<\/p>\n

Still the thoughts<\/p>\n

in the midst of their<\/p>\n

gripping certainties<\/p>\n

their clutching, heart-stopping<\/p>\n

march of tears; still them even as the<\/p>\n

flags of terror are snapping<\/p>\n

in whirlwinds of cacophony.<\/p>\n

Be with one muscle.<\/p>\n

Be with the bracing intestines;<\/p>\n

Be with the heart so lost but beating the rhythm of life<\/p>\n

nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Be with the tiniest muscle you can find.<\/p>\n

Quiet the lies fountaining forth an endless sermon of doubt,<\/p>\n

nightmares<\/p>\n

upon nightmares<\/p>\n

churning stomach<\/p>\n

black boxes<\/p>\n

of twisted code tumbling from unholy heavens.<\/p>\n

Open all the boxes.<\/p>\n

Throw their contents into the humming heart of your cultivated presence;<\/p>\n

ask the one-who-stands-with you always;<\/p>\n

ask the tree whispers falling around you;<\/p>\n

ask the small leaves glistening, finding you;<\/p>\n

ask the wolf radiating the fierce heat of the center of your heart through its fur;<\/p>\n

ask them to hold your entire experience, every moment.<\/p>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

Heidi Hanson is an artist and writer in Asheville, North Carolina currently working on an illustrated book chronicling her journey healing from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Be very still like a cat waiting on a mouse, like the snow blanketing at dawn. Quieting. Breathing. Allow the cords of pain writhing to stop, to yawn, to gaze at shadows dancing on a safe child’s ceiling; allow the panicked what-ifs squeezing your mind to hold teacups instead and to contemplate the steam rising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":[],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"iawp_total_views":186,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[33,188,31,80,9,124,198],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-fight-flight-or-freeze","tag-freeze","tag-immobility","tag-poetry","tag-ptsd","tag-tonic-immobility","tag-wolf"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.new-synapse.com\/aps\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}