31 Comments
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J. Clark | BLK Room: Source's avatar

I enjoyed reading this. It felt like you were describing what it means to experience the world deeply.

Gill Dunkerley's avatar

Thank you for reading @J. Clark | BLK Room: Source . It’s exactly how I experience the world. Too deeply sometimes but it’s nice to put it into words and read it back to myself. It kinda gave me permission just to be me! Raw skin and all! So grateful for your input! 💜

Antonio Castellaneta's avatar

“Tea tastes as comfort” is such a simple line, but it grounds the whole poem. After all the intensity of touch, music, longing, and rawness, the return to small things feels like a quiet act of survival.

Nitin Raghuwanshi's avatar

tea as comfort through dark gloom next to burnt orange to crimson flames, that contrast between quiet and burning is the strongest stretch of this for me

Night Cracks's avatar

That was unexpected. And awesome!

The lack of skin fragment is so sweet 🖤

Muffs to Muffins's avatar

absolutely stunning piece of work. i felt every word.

Brandi Lynn's avatar

"I have no skin / It’s illusion" hit hard - such a raw, stunning way to describe what it feels like to move through the world absorbing absolutely everything ✨

The Bathrobe Guy (Robes) 👘's avatar

Gill, this feels like a poem written without skin, everything arriving at once, light, touch, music, memory, longing, tea, moonlight, bark, flame. I especially loved the movement from sensory overwhelm toward presence; the ending turns what could have remained fragmentation into a kind of wholeness. “Pre sense / Presence” is such a beautiful little hinge. This felt deeply lived, tender, and brave.

Stay entangled, my friend.

—The Bathrobe Guy

Gill Dunkerley's avatar

Robes! (May I call you that? 😊). Thank you! I tend to write from a feeling rather than thinking space so when people make comments about what they noticed I’m always astounded by what gets revealed. It’s been a real lesson in personal interpretation! I see that now. I loved your points about movement to presence. And Pre sense, presence being a hinge! A hinge!!!! That’s just fab! I did live it and feel into it as I wrote. Thank you for seeing that. 🧡

per LEY's avatar

There is so much feeling in this, Gill.🥹

“I have no skin” says it so beautifully... when the world reaches you without much distance between you and it.

And I love that after all that intensity, you bring us back to something as simple as tea, a rose, being here.

Beautifully felt and written. 🫶

J. Ell Nightfall's avatar

This is soulful and so incredibly beautiful Gill! 💜✨️

Gill Dunkerley's avatar

Thanks so much lovely friend. Your words mean the world! 🌍 💜

Capry Cains's avatar

Ohhh Gill...this was absolutely beautiful.

The last line..pheww 👍

Your tea is your comfort.

Very well said dear friend.

🙂❤️👍

Kristine Templeman's avatar

Love this Gill 💜

Gill Dunkerley's avatar

Thanks lovely! Really appreciate you reading/listening 💜

Chi Emmanuel's avatar

Beautiful.❤️

Gill Dunkerley's avatar

Thank you @Chi Emmanuel ❤️

Soft Bound's avatar

This is beautifully alive. You made every sense feel like its own language, but “I have no skin” stayed with me. Do you think feeling this deeply is a gift, or does it sometimes become too much to carry?

Nadia Barghout Brown's avatar

Wow. Dream-like, Gill. And yet so very visceral. How do you do that? Gorgeous. 💫💖

Gill Dunkerley's avatar

Thank you! I appreciate your comments and for reading/listening. 💜

F S Butler's avatar

Thank you for connecting me to my senses.

Gill Dunkerley's avatar

T’is a pleasure! 💛

F S Butler's avatar

T'is 💜

Ann's avatar

Wow. Gorgeous poem. Beautiful words and thought provoking as ever ✨.

Pre sense, presence. Love it Gilly D