Thank You

by John Siddique
From The Book ‘Signposts of The Spiritual Journey’

Thank you to the broken road that led me here.
It seems no other road would have got me home.

Voices around you tell you to be spiritual, 
talk a sweet certain way, heal quickly 
from all things. Find the positive, be present, 
But

I need to say thank you to my lost self, 
to the fractured homes, the addictions,
the co-dependence, the bottles, 
the drugs, the lust.

I want to thank you – nights 
with a knife held in my hand against myself.
So many nights not wanting to be here.

Thank you road.
Thank you lost friends and
thankfully failed relationships.
Imagine if they'd have continued.

Thank you lost.
Only lost can lead to found.
Only the broken can know the liquid meaning 
of mercy or show another how to heal.
Only bad love will know the distance to good love.
Only the divided can know the whole.

We don't have to build and live in a house
on Broken Road, instead
we make the journey through the inner war.
Somewhere in the heat of the noise, 
there is the silent sacred heart.

Finally you listen, for there is nowhere
else to hang your coat.

You wash your face
Place your hand where your heart is
and say I love you. Thank you.
I know the way home now.

From ‘Signposts of The Spiritual Journey’
Published by Watkins Books, London 2021
All rights reserved.