Ho'oponopono

Ho…‘o…po…no…po…no…

before apology,

there is awareness.

before forgiveness,

silence.

before healing,

the willingness to see

not only what was done,

but what remains undone

withinasthru

there is a way

back to harmony,

not through blame,

not through judgment,

but through remembering.

Ho…‘o…po…no…po…no…

a wave returning

to shore,

a breath

of reconciliation,

a sound

soft enough

to enter the body,

strong enough

to begin again.

i’m sorry.

please, forgive me.

thank you.

i love you.

Ho…‘o…po…no…po…no…

each word

a doorway,

each breath

a bridge,

each silence

a mirror

where wound

and wisdom

meet.

let us be ocean

this moment,

complete.

what we release,

we also receive.

what we remember,

we may finally

set right.

Ho…‘o…po…no…po…no…

to the mothers,

the fathers,

the daughters,

the sons,

the ones who stayed,

the ones who left,

the ones who loved

imperfectly,

the ones who could not yet

say what love required.

i’m sorry.

please forgive me.

thank you.

i love you.

Ho…‘o…po…no…po…no…

may this poem

move three generations back,

three generations forward,

and all the way

into now.

may every story

seeking repair

find breath.

may every silence

seeking language

find song.

may every fracture

remember

it was never separate

from the whole.

never broken,

or alone.

Ho…‘o…po…no…po…no…

we are not only

what was done,

or not done,

said,

or left unsaid.

we are also

what we choose

to make right

here and now.

so let this spiral

return us,

not to who

we thought we were,

who we thought

we needed to protect

from world,

but to the love

that waited

beneath every wound.

i’m sorry.

please forgive me.

thank you.

i love you.

Ho…‘o…po…no…po…no…