The good days
The bad days
The days that broke me
The days that healed me
The days I shone
The days I withdrew into shadow
These were the days which made me
These were the days of reckoning
These were the days which guide me
I carry them all
In my burgeoning knapsack
A dull weight
On my shoulders
Then one day
I realize
I carry a burden
Impeding my progress
So I stop at the side of the trail
Open my knapsack
Look inside
All these days!
All these dark days!
Why do I carry them?
I take out the bad days
Leave them beside the trail
Take out the broken days
Leave them beside the trail
Take out the days of shadow
Leave them beside the trail
The knapsack feels lighter
I walk easier
Manage even a skip in my step
So I seek the beauty
In every moment
To an age before
This silence of spirit
And its sorrows
These days of hardness
And slight assurances
Back to a time
Of no small beauty
When time itself
Came in an abundance
Applied to the creation
Of wondrous things
While wonder was divinely inspired
Meaning was no fleeting connection
And purpose a life’s rendition
Before profit and growth and ROI
Became ends and means and purpose
A time long before
The remains of this pier
Were ever a pier
Before ever a ship
Sailed these waters
Before any European left the shores
Of a land not yet named Europe
Gently floating
I let waves and bird song
Dominate the frantic race
Of engines on the highway behind me
Breathe the ocean deeply in
Exhale millennia of progress
For a moment, at least
I exist in a time before
All that I am
Was ever possible
Can I let this self die
This day
Allow a time before
To lead me
To a time that follows
Crossing terrain and distance
The minutes pass as days once did
For greater men than me
When only Prometheus
Had tested the sky
The land rolls by
All the while stoking awe
Not just for historical men
Bound to Earth
Also for this small speck of stone
This mote of blue
With its invisible billions
In an incomprehensible emptiness
Then, awe too for this small speck of flesh
His hubris of no small magnitude
Believing he matters at all
For the mere fact of knowing his existence
His feeble attempt for eternity
Words released into the twin fantasies
Of consciousness and silicone
Now what is near
Seems quite clear
But far from here
Is more obscure
Detail lost
Colour sallowed
Though sun breaks through
Its presence mellowed
Yet, still
Now as an adult
I am dominated by the fear
I learned as a child
Pix to Words 