douglas Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 Tonight at the sink I caught myself thinking Who am I? And what should I be? And this is all taking place After 41 years of being conscious Or is that an arrogant thing to say? If I’m still confused after all this time Then surely I must be relatively unconscious But I digress! So I am thinking Oh so is it about time and experience? Is it about how much knowledge I’ve assimilated? Or how many people I’ve loved? Is it perhaps about what I believe in and can expound upon Full of pomp and pride At dinner parties In front of people who don’t really care what I’m talking about Because they’re just thinking about the next thing That they want to say Anyway Call me melodramatic Or Woody Allen’esque if you want to But the fact remains that Tonight at the sink I caught myself thinking Who am I? And what should I be? And this is all taking place After I almost lost my life One evening when I saw a truck’s headlights hitting me When I flew through the air feeling the Most intense lack of control As my soul was hurled toward death Seven slow times Around and around The crushing metal and the breaking glass And the hissing of the ground And so I think It’s perhaps about Karma Or Buddha Or Zen Being in this moment No past, no future Just the present After all this is all there really is But being stuck in a dimension ruled by space and time Can make it rather difficult To put into practice This presence And so in trying to answer myself I realise that I actually do Indeed know nothing about these Grand existential enquiries It would be nice to be able To attach myself To become ‘something’ But would that in its self be the end of enquiry? It really doesn’t matter what I think actually Or what you think Or what I think you think of me Or what I thought you thought about what I think I said What it’s about Is the end And the worst part is Nobody really knows When it’s going to happen Quote To receive love, you have to give it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Hello Douglas. How refreshingly different. Introspective themes usually mean someone bleeding all over the page. You however, have touched salient personal points as well as philosophical ones. To do this in an overt way in such a short and honest poem is an achievement. “Just another brick in the wall” doesn't cover it and don't worry about being confused. I can assure you that the answers do not come with age; only perhaps a certain tolerance of the human condition. :icon_eek: Benjamin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 I love the objectivity, the resoluteness, and the realization, Douglas. Some sage words from Benjamin, too. Tony :) Quote Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Hi Douglas, Wow, this is a way to get us all asking questions we thought we had answered a long time ago. I loved how this piece so smoothly moved me down the page, deeper and deeper into thought. Nice. ~~Tink Quote ~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~ For permission to use this work you can write to Tinker1111@icloud.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatekeeper Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 This is an interesting poem to read in reverse order- last line first and then on up the page until the first line is the last. It can be enlightening to read your own poem that way. Try it. You might find something revealing there. Quote from the black desert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 interesting and original work-well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
douglas Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 thank you all very much for your time reading the poem and your rich feedback. Quote To receive love, you have to give it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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