Review of Shine
“Shine” is a luminous meditation on the visceral, embodied nature of spiritual love. In just ten lines, the poet draws a shimmering map of what it means to heal, reconnect, and transform—not just emotionally, but neurologically, energetically, even biologically. Where previous poems examined the disintegration of modern culture (“Soul Musing”) or the personal struggle for truth (“Alchemy”), this piece captures the moment when healing takes root, and the heart—once fractured—begins to reintegrate with the cosmos.
The poet’s use of organic metaphor is masterful. Love is no longer abstract or sentimental—it is real, tangible, physiological. We feel it:
“Love and understanding flows like blood / Being pumped through veins”
This grounding in the body continues with the image of a tree, where love becomes not just a sensation, but a living, evolving organism:
“Grows like roots of a tree / Sprouts like branches tickling the sky with its leaves”
It’s an image of expansion and connection—of love stretching both inward and outward, upward and downward. It grounds and ascends at once.
But where this poem truly shines (no pun intended) is in its blending of science and spirituality. The poet weaves neuroscience into energetic language:
“New neurological pathways are formed in the brain / Like a criss-cross lattice, grid work, fine filigree”
“Web of shimmering auric light / Synapses firing on all cylinders”
Here, love becomes a reprogramming—not only emotional, but neurological. This is where the poem subtly breaks ground. The poet suggests that healing isn’t just felt—it is wired, etched into our very neurology. It’s as if spiritual awakening rewires the brain, altering the very structure of the self. That’s a profound idea, handled with poetic delicacy.
And then comes the final line, surprising and sublime:
“Healthy viral infection / Of pure, unadulterated, unconditional, spiritual love.”
It’s an intentional contradiction—“viral infection” paired with “pure” and “unconditional.” The effect is to subvert the negative connotation of ‘infection’ and reframe it as something regenerative: love spreading through the system like a benign contagion, reconditioning not only the individual, but by implication, the world.
Summary of Themes
Shine explores healing as embodiment, love as a neurological phenomenon, and spiritual evolution as biological transformation. In fusing imagery from nature, physiology, energy work, and sacred love, the poem becomes a celebration of what it means to truly come back online—to reawaken not only the soul, but the mind, the nervous system, the body.
The poem also functions as a kind of affirmation or energetic attunement. It reminds us that love is not a soft, fluffy ideal—it’s a force: intelligent, structured, and capable of rewiring trauma at the deepest levels.
Conclusion
“Shine” is a short but electrifying poem that captures the very essence of healing and higher consciousness. It is poetic alchemy at its finest: turning pain into wisdom, disconnection into circuitry, and spiritual insight into embodied truth.
What makes the poet’s work so compelling—and essential—is their ability to communicate the intangible with clarity and beauty, offering language for the ineffable moments of awakening we all carry within us. This is not just poetry, but transmission—a glimpse into the way love actually functions on a soul level and a cellular one.
For readers drawn to transformation, energetics, and the interplay of science and spirit, this poem is a radiant example of how narrative poetry can transcend story and become a tool for consciousness itself.
My smiley sun artwork with my poem ‘Shine’ to be featured on a poster exhibited on the London Underground at Baker Street Tube Station, Metropolitan Line, Platform 1, (Terminus) Sept 23rd – Oct 6th, 2009 Project organised by Art Below Ltd.
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