The Metaphorical Oracle

/ Rae Cod

I usually post a new rhyme on Sunday’s, but this week I must confess to enjoying myself too much and writing too little.

I’ve been spending a couple of days away with my husband. We’ve been mountain climbing – three peaks in a day! Okay, one was more of a gentle ascent, but my screaming legs are telling me that it was definitely three.

It’s also my birthday (yay!) and my friends are treating me to a weekend of walking, laughter and good food.

So with all those excuses laid out before you I will now repost a poem from my early days of blogging. I hope you enjoy it.

This one was definitely a mountain

The Metaphorical Oracle…take two.

Each and every morning I step upon the scale
I try to resist the calling, but always to no avail
The numbers it foretells hold a power over me
For they often can predict, just how my day will be
 
Should the number go up my day will be grim
I lose an hour to the mirror, sucking myself thin
My irritable mood will persist through the day
Affecting the choices I make on the way
Denying myself this, denying myself that
I don’t deserve anything, I’m stupid and fat
 
But should the numbers go down, even just by one pound
I’ll skip out the door, new confidence found
Today I am thin, surely all can see
The radical change that has happened to me
I breeze through the day, not a care in the world
Fall into bed, a contented girl
 
Then one fateful morning, after the oracle had spoken
I double checked the numbers and found that it had broken
No more numbers were forthcoming, the oracle had fled
I tried batteries and stamping, it was definitely dead

I went online to order more but delivery was a week!
How on earth would I last that long with no oracle to speak?
How would I know what clothes would look good?
Or whether to eat apples or chocolate for pud?
I dissolved on the floor in a heap of despair
Why was life so unfair?
 
Then a magical thing happened to me
A week with no oracle made it clear to see
I don’t need scales to dictate how I feel
Or keep me away from that stilton cheese wheel
I can listen to my body, which knows what it needs best
A few pounds here or there doesn’t make me more or less

I can trust my intuition and the instincts deep inside
I finally feel at peace in my skin, no reason I should hide
So if you have an oracle, please listen to my tale
It only tells a number which is not success or fail
If the numbers make you doubt yourself and the body you live in
I suggest you take that oracle and throw it in the bin

I threw my own oracle in the bin a couple of years back. I did get a new one, but I only entertain it once every few months, and it seems to have lost most of its power over me.

Nowadays I go by how I feel. I exercise regularly, which makes me feel strong, and I eat healthily (most of the time), which keeps my energy levels balanced and my mood steady.

I did have visible abs once, but this came from a combination of exercising six times a week and never eating cake. For obvious reasons this was unsustainable (life without cake?!).

If you’re new to my blog then welcome, please feel free to have a browse. There are plenty more rhymes like this in the poems section. If you like what you see you can enter your email to subscribe, or follow me on WordPress. I never spam, I honestly don’t know how. You can also follow me on Instagram.

15 thoughts on “The Metaphorical Oracle”

  1. Love it. I threw my Oracle away at least 10 years ago due to the same feelings in your poem. I realized 1 lb made a difference in the way I felt for the day and I did not like that and decided to like myself just the way I am and not worry about what others think.

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  3. I can totally relate to this. Years of yo-yo dieting have left their psychological and physical marks. I think I will abandon the “oracle “ and focus on self love and trust instead.
    Hope you had a great birthday xx

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    • I couldn’t agree more, self love & self trust can be hard to come by, but are worth every effort to cultivate.

      It was a lovely birthday thanks, good food and good company, what more can I ask for? 😊xxx

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  5. I like your poetry! It makes me smile. I’ve just stumbled over you in NAAS. I write a bit of poetry too. Anyway thanks for putting yourself “out here” because it’s encouraging and we all need each other. Also you so warmly welcomed me (and everyone) to your website, which is rather lovely. I’m in the north of England too, in Lancashire. Take care! 😘

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    • Well thanks for your lovely words Melanie, they’ve made me smile 😊

      I’m so happy you reached out, I only just joined NAAS & I’m a bit overwhelmed as to where to start so your words have been encouraging, thank you.

      I’ll connect with you on there if I can figure it out!

      Do you post your poetry on there (or anywhere?) I’d like to read some of you’re into sharing.

      It’s been very nice to virtually meet you 😊

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      • Thanks for such a sweet and personal reply.😊 I hope this email gets to you; I’m not the most tech-savvy person. I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you, just busy getting ready to go to Germany to meet up with my daughter and her 5 kids coming over from the US (where I’m from). I’m enjoying reading your poetry tho and will have more time to connect with you when I return at the end of March. Til then, take good care and keep being you because I think you’re pretty delightful. ~Melanie

        Sent from my iPhone

        >

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      • Wow, that sounds like an exciting trip!

        Hope you have a wonderful time with your family and thanks so much for your encouraging words, it’s amazing to hear you’re enjoying my poems as I’m never really sure if they hit the spot.

        I’m on a mediation course until mid April (10 days of silence, not don’t know what I’m letting myself in for!) but definitely connect when you’re back & look forward to hearing about your travels 😊

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      • Hi Rae~ Have been missing your offerings while you are away on your meditation course. But I bet 10 days of silence is fertile ground for your poetry writing! Can’t wait to read the fruit of it.
        You asked to see a bit of my poetry so here is my offering for yesterday, April 1st. Hope you enjoy it 🙂

        “Fools of April”
        April first is not for fools,
        It’s for devotees of ladybugs,
        And frog spawn in sky-filled pools,
        And the daffodil honking a lullaby soft
        to the bumblebee asleep in its chamber aloft;
        It’s for freers of butterflies trapped in sheds:
        (“Calm down,” I murmur, “don’t bang your head,”
        guiding it, flapping wildly, to the door, where it fled;)
        It’s for supplicants of the saffron-robed poppy
        With green leaf Kali-arms personifying shakti,
        Seated on her flowerpot cushion of earth
        My offerings of rain water assist her rebirth;
        Her acolytes four, with bowed heads surround her
        In the greenhouse temple where the warm air stirs;
        Maybe April is for fools who plant sweet pea seeds
        with snow in the forecast and, down on their knees,
        rehome hydrangeas; Goddess don’t let them freeze!
        Is it not the month for all holy fools
        Who smell God in compost and manure?
        Who feel Her in the first all-day sting of new nettles
        plucked from a raised bed, cast down on the pebbles;
        Who see Her as the chickens running for slugs
        that we poke through the wire with the garden pest bugs;
        Who taste Her in the chives that dwindled in winter
        but burgeoned in the light that now seems to linger;
        Who hear a prayer in the throb of hammer on wood;
        To be boxes for sunflowers in soil rich and good;
        Such a fool I am, Oh, such a fool am I
        To believe all nature is divine,
        All beauty, all power in what lives and dies.

        “Every plant that stands in the light of the sun is a saint.” ~Thomas Merton

        ~In celebration of April, National Poetry Month USA, with love & nature blessings from Melanie

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      • Hi Melanie, it was certainly an experience…my mind got creative but not in ways I expected, I think I may write a blog post about it all.

        What a thoroughly beautiful poem, you have a way with words Melanie, so many lines settled wonderfully into my imagination, thank you for sharing 🙏 x

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