Stuff companies usually do NOT do: Go on an Ayahuasca company retreat.
I plan on writing an article about this with my coworker Candy for the happiness.com magazine. Here I wanted to share a “poem” I wrote shortly after the experience.
Poems seem to write themselves. I usually do not sit down and plan on writing a poem. I want to write down an experience to see clearly, to process it, and sometimes it takes the form of a poem. Is it real poetry? I don’t know.
Checking if I wrote the word Ayahuasca correctly, I saw the synonyms: Ayahuasca, Yagé, Yajé, Natem, Cipó, Daime, and Hoasca. Yagé!!! I read so much from William S. Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, and the beat generation.
Here I am, realizing that I participated in a Yagé ceremony I had read so much about only after I had done it. This is such a massive lightbulb moment…
Anyway. Here’s the poem:
Pattern recognition
I expected a big gesture
wished for a dramatic sign
feared the great unravel
yet
the change was subtle
I felt nothing
saw nothing
feared nothing
and
recognized the beauty in a gesture
the kindness in a look
the warmth in a word
the world didn’t change
and there was hope