"...And now i can't be sure of anything
Black is white, and cold is heat
For what i worshipped stole my love away
It was the ground beneath her feet
It was the ground beneath her feet..." ~U2 "Ground Beneath Her Feet"
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Poem Without a Title
A single word can shimmer and rise off the page like a beam of symbolic light, a bulb of glowing meaning; any word you have held dear or given, lives a new life the size of two worlds. The kind that you carried with you over the cliff...the kind that helped you up. The kind that when you go away, the wind from it blows the clocks back to striking the same hour. The kind that makes perfume open its eyes to you. The kind whose letters become a bird. The kind that opens the window and dances towards immortality. The kind that leaves you sitting there like a lunatic, raving, standing on your head, living in three and four places at once. The kind that you cannot accommodate and cannot deny. The kind that passes fear from man to man unknowing, as one leaf passes its sudder to another...all at once, the whole tree is trembling. The kind that makes you remember what you almost heard.
At night, wrapped in a bed of ashes, I remember that I am falling, but somebody else has just arrived. Somebody else is writing this, letting the wild and the domestic combine, forming a dawn made of all the air I ever breathed...arriving late and on time.
I have heard the locks close, and the keys hang in the sky...leaving a poem this time without a title, in the wake of a beautiful, beautiful storm.
At night, wrapped in a bed of ashes, I remember that I am falling, but somebody else has just arrived. Somebody else is writing this, letting the wild and the domestic combine, forming a dawn made of all the air I ever breathed...arriving late and on time.
I have heard the locks close, and the keys hang in the sky...leaving a poem this time without a title, in the wake of a beautiful, beautiful storm.
The Bliss of Ignorance
How many of us ever actually grew up? Did anyone really want to?
Childhood is the best of what we are. Ask a child a question, 9 times out of 10 you will get an honest reply, whether an honest answer was particularly desired by you or not. In early years, the imagination is at its peak. Kids aren't held down by the restrictions of the cold reality that becomes more and more rigid as we grow older and lose our sense of wonder. Through the eyes of a child, a day can feel like a whole year. Time is still far behind them. Only when they advance in years, does time gain on them and eventually start to pass them in the race, leaving them breathless…and I guess today, I ran out of breath.
Life is the one obstacle that pushes each and every human being to a breaking point. Though controversy may arise about what happens after we die, we all have first hand experience as to what happens to us while living. We meet people we love and we meet people we hate. We experience almost every single emotion and are exposed to mind blowing things. Through the years we change. We change our perspectives, our physical appearance, and most importantly, who we are as human beings.
I wish I was that kid again that climbed on top of the refrigerator and not gave it a second thought about jumping off to see if I could fly. This was probably due to a lack of knowledge, or what some would call ignorance. As a child, I was unaware of the repercussions of anything…you know, like getting hurt. With increasing age, experience and education, I gained a little more knowledge and lost some of the "ignorance." Unfortunately, ignorance is perceived in a negative way. Perhaps the term "ignorance" is used improperly in today's society.
The definition of ignorant is basically being blind to one's surroundings. It seems people are using ignorance as a synonym for stupidity when all ignorance is, is the lack of informational knowledge. Perhaps people are afraid of the very label they give to others to excuse them for their lack of fear. If so, then those lacking knowledge and, subsequently lacking fear, are feared by those who are truly knowledgeable. So in a way, knowledge causes fear.
Anyone can be labeled as ignorant. However, in the constant search for wisdom, people may forget that "ignorance" can teach them a thing or two. After all, it doesn't matter if society views the "ignorant" as misinformed. Maybe it's those people who have been misinformed. Ignorance is a link to fearlessness.
Though my breath has been taken away, today, for some reason, I'm feeling alive…and that's bliss. Perhaps it's the thunderstorm...
Childhood is the best of what we are. Ask a child a question, 9 times out of 10 you will get an honest reply, whether an honest answer was particularly desired by you or not. In early years, the imagination is at its peak. Kids aren't held down by the restrictions of the cold reality that becomes more and more rigid as we grow older and lose our sense of wonder. Through the eyes of a child, a day can feel like a whole year. Time is still far behind them. Only when they advance in years, does time gain on them and eventually start to pass them in the race, leaving them breathless…and I guess today, I ran out of breath.
Life is the one obstacle that pushes each and every human being to a breaking point. Though controversy may arise about what happens after we die, we all have first hand experience as to what happens to us while living. We meet people we love and we meet people we hate. We experience almost every single emotion and are exposed to mind blowing things. Through the years we change. We change our perspectives, our physical appearance, and most importantly, who we are as human beings.
I wish I was that kid again that climbed on top of the refrigerator and not gave it a second thought about jumping off to see if I could fly. This was probably due to a lack of knowledge, or what some would call ignorance. As a child, I was unaware of the repercussions of anything…you know, like getting hurt. With increasing age, experience and education, I gained a little more knowledge and lost some of the "ignorance." Unfortunately, ignorance is perceived in a negative way. Perhaps the term "ignorance" is used improperly in today's society.
The definition of ignorant is basically being blind to one's surroundings. It seems people are using ignorance as a synonym for stupidity when all ignorance is, is the lack of informational knowledge. Perhaps people are afraid of the very label they give to others to excuse them for their lack of fear. If so, then those lacking knowledge and, subsequently lacking fear, are feared by those who are truly knowledgeable. So in a way, knowledge causes fear.
Anyone can be labeled as ignorant. However, in the constant search for wisdom, people may forget that "ignorance" can teach them a thing or two. After all, it doesn't matter if society views the "ignorant" as misinformed. Maybe it's those people who have been misinformed. Ignorance is a link to fearlessness.
Though my breath has been taken away, today, for some reason, I'm feeling alive…and that's bliss. Perhaps it's the thunderstorm...
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Estrogenesis
"Women are complicated things. By turns absurd, giddy, tragic, the reason for living, and a reason to end it all, " a dear friend of mine said to me a few days ago.
Sometimes the hardest thing about being a woman is other women. Picture this: A little girl forbade some treat by her mother, climbs onto her father's knee, charmingly whispers to him, and wins permission. She looks over his shoulder at her mother, and her smile is one of triumph. A teen-age girl blames her best friend for stealing her boyfriend, but doesn't think to blame the boy. A mother-in-law sorrowfully observes the failings of her son's young wife.
As women get older, their motivations become more subtle, even if their methods do not. Rivalry is written in to the very nature of being a woman. Of course, we know this. It's in our bones...we know it. But why? Why do we have such a constant awareness of who is on top--and how to take her place? Women don't choose a leader and follow her blindly; we question all the time. We challenge all the time. And we don't like to follow orders. It's evident even in literature. It's filled with women who compete with each other or who are forced to show they are different. This goes back as far as Cinderella. Cinderella was ousted because she was "prettier" than her step sisters, and further ousted because she won the heart of Prince Charming--even over other more "well-to-do" girls.
In real life, we only have to see the catfights between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, or Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie--not to mention the uncomfortable attempts by lesser celebrities to outdo one another in drinking, self-exposure, and publicity stunts. So what's a girl to do to beat her nemesis at her own game?
Be the best. All high-achieving women prepare for the position they want and get it on merit. Beating the competition is nothing; being the right person for the job is everything. No wonder, then, that the first call of feminists is for women to be loyal to one another and to cease to compete for the admiration of men. Perhaps the day will come when women put aside their rivalries for good. And perhaps one day lions will become vegetarians.
Sometimes the hardest thing about being a woman is other women. Picture this: A little girl forbade some treat by her mother, climbs onto her father's knee, charmingly whispers to him, and wins permission. She looks over his shoulder at her mother, and her smile is one of triumph. A teen-age girl blames her best friend for stealing her boyfriend, but doesn't think to blame the boy. A mother-in-law sorrowfully observes the failings of her son's young wife.
As women get older, their motivations become more subtle, even if their methods do not. Rivalry is written in to the very nature of being a woman. Of course, we know this. It's in our bones...we know it. But why? Why do we have such a constant awareness of who is on top--and how to take her place? Women don't choose a leader and follow her blindly; we question all the time. We challenge all the time. And we don't like to follow orders. It's evident even in literature. It's filled with women who compete with each other or who are forced to show they are different. This goes back as far as Cinderella. Cinderella was ousted because she was "prettier" than her step sisters, and further ousted because she won the heart of Prince Charming--even over other more "well-to-do" girls.
In real life, we only have to see the catfights between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, or Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie--not to mention the uncomfortable attempts by lesser celebrities to outdo one another in drinking, self-exposure, and publicity stunts. So what's a girl to do to beat her nemesis at her own game?
Be the best. All high-achieving women prepare for the position they want and get it on merit. Beating the competition is nothing; being the right person for the job is everything. No wonder, then, that the first call of feminists is for women to be loyal to one another and to cease to compete for the admiration of men. Perhaps the day will come when women put aside their rivalries for good. And perhaps one day lions will become vegetarians.
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