Category: Words

Until the alien seems mundane

Travel takes me
To places I could never imagine
Experiences I could never dream
Worlds which seem alien

So I stay
Experience all I can
Give reign to imagination
Until the alien seems mundane

The truth is
I’ve rarely discovered
My own limits

Walls
Real and perceived
Have two sides

The one I’m on
The one I’m not

It is a rare wall
Which cannot be defeated
Which allows no means
To the other side

The fireflies
In the bottle by
My bed at night
Twinkle like
The stars outside

They power dreams
Of boyhood flight
To other worlds
Beyond the stars

Sometimes, the fire
It burns too hot
Can’t douse the flames
Can’t put it out

I walk away
And let it burn
It follows me
Burns up the world

But if I stay
And let it burn
It burns away
The fuel it’s fed

I wish I was
A bigger man
A brighter heart
A gentler hand

But every time
I find a wall
Which limits me
And makes me small

I push it back
A little way
Become a bigger
Man that day

The power, grace and majesty
Of the sea
Reminds me

Who I am
What I was always
Meant to be

Rock tumbled
Over the chasm’s edge
Like blood flowing
From a deep wound

Seeing the land in this way
I recognize the depth
Of my own trauma

You tear at me
In subtle ways
With unsubtle effects

Like the waves
Slowly undermining
A steep rocky shore

Sometimes I find my eye lingering
On the path I’ve already travelled

I remind myself

Look forward
Or risk running aground

I saw the Earth
Photographed from space
And was startled
By the whisper-thin atmosphere

I live on a smooth
Round globe
Of rock and water
With just a thin veneer of gas