Say The Word

today come around to telling me
and I will believe

you say you’re better in email
but a word
is hollowed and lost
blazing through starry cyberfields in the night hours
constellations overflow, echoless
a dipped arrow lands nowhere, pierces no heart
the would-be elixir never encounters the throbbing soul

light through a drop of honey is radiant sweet
your voice carries the sun

a tear distilled travels on a breath
your eyes once revealed a medicine

Gail Nielsen holds a Master of Arts Degree in Religious Studies from the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada). She works as a psychotherapist, coach and education consultant and her interests include classical mythology, music, nature and medicine. Having worked in the mental health field for over two decades, Gail spent a number of years as an online counsellor for a large EAP company, offering asynchronous text-based counselling. This allowed her to blend her love for writing with her clinical work and to refine her ability to hear the “person behind the words.”  She co-authored The Control Freak’s Guide to Living Lightly: Manifesting a Life of Total Trust which was featured on the national morning show, Canada A.M., and her work has recently been published (or is forthcoming) in WECAN’s Gateways, Kindling Journal, Flights, Academy of the Heart and Mind, The Courtship of Winds and Wrath-Bearing Tree. Gail is currently working on her first collection of poetry.