Into the fire: Words collected on the Road to Silence, Margaret Coyle Irsay

What do you get when you combine a dancer, with a spiritual teacher and a poet? A remarkably real set of poems that go to the heart of what it is to live and breathe and change. Again and again. Not that there’s an ‘again’ to change. This is a book of poetry in which the poems are combined with the dance of the author. Shown here one of the photographs used in the book to illustrate the poems. As you can see Irsay is an expressive lady who uses her dance skills to express the tensions in life. I’m totally impressed with this book. I’m trying to find the words to express why. One reason is that Irsay manages to make you feel like you know just who she is, without sharing one significant detail of her life. She manages to share all kinds of aspects of her life. From the vulnerability of being alive to the curiosity of what comes next. Including the strength of living true to your emotions, yet full of commitment to community – whatever that community is. I think I should let the poetry speak for itself:

I’ve been waiting all my life. I’ve been waiting to find my way home. Except, I have not exactly waited it’s more like I have run and hidden and circled and done just about everything but wait (first lines of ‘Oh My Life’, p. 36)

This next one is perhaps the most philosophical in the book:

The illusion is that you are some body responsible for suffering some illusion. Reality is peace and It is living joyfully and unharmed just behind your illusions. You simply are free. (‘The Illusion Is, p. 46)

This book made me feel like I’ve made a friend who knows just what my struggles are like, because hers are just like mine. Want to feel like that? Well, you know what to do, don’t you? [This is not a cheap book – it’s beautifully made with color photographs on nearly every page. As such it will make a great gift for some brave friend who is going through a lot. Or not.]

Images below from Irsay’s own website ‘One Body Inc‘