ESCAPE BY D.H. LAWRENCE

When we get out of the glass bottles of our own ego,
and when we escape like squirrels from turning in the cages of our personality
and get into the forest again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright
but things will happen to us
so that we don’t know ourselves.

Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power,
we shall stamp our feet with new power
and old things will fall down,
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper.

(C) D.H. Lawrence

• What would be possible if you were free from ego? Explore the question in your journal.

• Begin a poem with the line, “When I get into the forest again…” What would you find? Experience? Know and feel?

• What old things do you wish would fall down? What new things would you like to seed? Explore your thoughts in your journal.