This month I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge, blogging every day of the month of April, except Sundays, on a topic from A to Z. I’m posting short-form topics meant to get you talking and sharing! Join the discussion in the comments.

If you’re on my email list you’ll know that I decided to skip the letter X. (If you’re not on my email list, sign up to get my free e-book about staying motivated creatively at the bottom of this post.) Instead, today I offer some buried treasure, with a little rust on it, a poem I wrote a very long time ago as a teenager, I believe as some part of exercise where we had to find a way to use particular phrases. I won’t claim to be much of a poet, but perhaps you might enjoy the sentiment.

The Moon Is Not That FAR 

by the young Rachael Mare

Start leaping life in a circle, child.

Don’t breathe in between.

Spin and scream through your teeth.

Stretch to the moon

while you grow

with your tongue.

Smoke with the spirit of relaxation

while the birds drive you mad.

Dissolve in the ocean.

Twist under the rocks and break,

your life bolting up like lightning

Force yourself to pull love out of empty space.

Ignore the shadows, the chains.

Discover your heart and mind instead.

Explode into quiet rain.

Try building, changing into stone.

Welcome light, see magic — be curious

and work hard at your questions.

Stand tall like glass, hard but with

wings that kiss the peaches on trees

and wishes in the background.

Swim the mountain and climb the sea.

Celebrate these companions;

find a different peace.