When a soundbath stresses you out – a poem by Ryan Service

When a soundbath stresses you out

because it reminds you of being on hold for DWP.
When you cocoon yourself in the duvet 
to make it feel like a retreat but it’s more 
Kafka’s Metamorphosis than you expected. 
When you play a healing soundscape on 
Youtube, in imitation of posh spas, 
with jungle drum and bird song. How it mixes 
with the sound of your own back garden birds, 
sparrow and wood pigeon. Reliable even 
if not exotic. Until you can’t
decipher between the real birds and the 
recorded real birds. A captured birdsong 
no one can copyright that is carried into
future ears years later when the nest is rolled 
away and the hedge is cut to its bones. Might
the bird song come later when you 
get your one and only lie in that week.
Might one day wellness well up in us
without being contrived; that we take up 
our place and hear our body sing in an
accompanied chorus. Might we bathe 
in the pool of our humanity and
let acceptance seep in and hug us
as tightly as the big toe fits the tap. 

Ryan Service is a full-time priest and sometime poet based in the Midlands (UK), finding his vocation somewhere in between the world and the word. His work has been published in Theology, The Sociological Review and other journals. He received a prize for his entry in the Jack Clemo poetry competition. Before training for the priesthood in Rome he read English at the University of Warwick, where he found the sheer variety of worlds created by authors opened up a way into faith.