School of Thought

Poseidon's Trident

"The swell is steady", he ponders as he kicks off his sandals. He didn't bring much, he never does. As he walks ever so gently to the tip of the softened sand his eyes stay sharply focused on the horizon. As he lingers in the kind, quicksand like muck, he begins to settle and melt into it. Once he's made his print, he slides his feet, remembering that ole manta ray sting long ago accompanied by his truest love at the time. "Not today!", he firmly states. The water is cold, yet refreshing. You only freeze until you submerge in the belly of the first wave. Then, as if the ocean greets you as a welcomed guest, the temperature adheres to your favored degree.

His long, curled locks, now drenched in saltwater, drip in savage elegance. The first wave, an appetizer. This one, gently approaching will serve a swift battle. As it rises at least two feet above his waist, he braces with his left shoulder pulled a front. Two steps forward, only one backwards. He feels mighty, but Poseidon only tests his courage. After chasing futile breaks for a spell, he's ready to hitch back to shore. "This one's it!", he glides closer to its rising zenith. Then, right on cue, he's enveloped in its smooth crash. "Riding you home was worth the battles".

Just Right

The shell of a man is decorative yet extremely vulnerable. The passing of time strips and tears at the cocoon. Even working to blend it rough, hard and durable takes a toll on the system. I guess I understand the duality of it all. We were blessed with consciousness, awareness, agility to resolve and an egotistical endurance to survive. Still, I am baffled at the unfairness of it all. The Rhino was given a concrete-like hide, a stout, unbreakable horn as its free weapon for battle. Sharks, with their sharp, cavernesque jaws filled with rows of jagged knives and a muscled frame built to kill. While we stand bare, as they, with nothing to protect us but our wit. Which most don't regularly exercise for we are pampered infants surrounded in a world of coy danger, decorated in camouflaged layers by our cancerous, concrete jungles and fences. Yet our minds have found a way to fit in, become apex predators in our own right. So as unfairly as I once believed we were designed our weaknesses strengthen us at a higher frequency than that of our advantages. I now appreciate the poetry and intent of our creator.

Now, Then and Once Again

All the faces that I've known and all the laughters I remember still somehow echo along the empty halls and chambers, yet still I tremble. I ponder on the losses and fleeting memories, attempting to piece it all together. When I know it to be futile to attempt a venture all alone of this magnitude. I should have snapped a few frames. But I believed it, perhaps still do, with all my heart, that if a moment were important enough it'd have found a way to stick around. Now I float about in a shroud of memories I can not depict from dream or truth and I'm bruised at the ringing idea that I was wrong for so long. Still I didn't think to change my mind on a choice I made as a child, ignorantly and short sided. Deciding that memories are feeling and bleeding and that happiness only comes from now. Whether now was also pain, at least I had some sight of control in the present for a change. For if I entertained yesterday I'd only find someone to blame, because as a child you hardly have a say over anything those days. Not knowing then that someday I'd still have to pay. Whether with tears or in lonesome moments like this. When I'd force myself to feel. It surely leaves a sour taste in your mouth, life that is. But tasting is feeling, and feeling is living and the idea is not to live forever but create something that does. Creativity can strike at any moment, as it did on this print at the beginning of this poem, I decided to live.

I-II-III

I feel like I'm no longer searching for answers. I mean we all know, deep inside, what we have to do to obtain bliss. It's just a matter of following through. Something most avoid almost instinctively. I'm no different. I've procrastinated my future assuming immortality but I too shall perish and there isn't anymore time to waste! Now, knowing one is "different" is not enough. Talent, potential, all futile without consistency and discipline. That's when I lose the crowd.

We want our potential to do all the work. We'd rather get home from work. Sink into our couches. While our televisions entertain and distract us until a commercial convinces us to get food that tastes good but isn't good for us! To then easily over-consume cause it's easy and we love easy. To finally drag our complacent, over-stimulated shells to bed only to rinse wash and repeat. Leaving our dreams on the shelves to accumulate dust.

We just have to try! All it takes is just a little effort and curiosity to learn something from this seemingly empty vessel. Life isn't asking us for much. I believe life expects our simple happiness. Still most pawn happiness for cheap thrills and a dull existence. Don't disrespect life by being miserable within it.