Can you hear it?
Sometimes it presents such beauty
as to bring a tear to one’s eye,
or innumerable horrors
that chill to the very marrow,
a sense of wonder beyond wonder,
as though everything were redefined,
and sadness, so deep that aching is not enough,
so that even death, itself, could not end it.
Stand tall and fearless,
you, so fragile and full of life,
and when The World tells it’s true name
don’t you dare fucking blink.
Lord David
November 2007
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Very beautifully sad and true.
It’s a beautiful poem. Have you, yourself, had the privilege to see/ hear The World blink, recently? I think that, sadly, I’ve met quite a few many folks who would much rather “fucking blink,” because they don’t have the guts to keep their eyes open. Oh, but you know what, sometimes I don’t have the guts, either — and I keep my eyes shut, too! (I’ll avoid any reference to the phrase/ abysmal film “Eyes Wide Shut.” Ugh).
So, where do I get off pointing fingers at ANYONE ELSE? I have found that it can difficult to be ready to receive a transmission EXACTLY when it is delivered. If folks like you are always ready and AWARE, exactly in the moment, then know that you are very fortunate indeed!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment on some small free verse.
As for the world blinking, well, it just never does, hence the poem.
And as for being “always ready and AWARE, exactly in the moment”, I think that we ALL are, as much as anyone can be, in that we are never prepared, yet we are born ready, never completely aware, but always recieving more than we can process.
In retrospect, I find that there are moments of clarity for us all, brief and fleeting, when we see through our issues, hopes and dreams, to a world of impossibly beautiful potential, and blood freezing horror, from the birth of a child and the opposing thumb we take for granted, to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives through natural disaster and human genocide.
The trick, for me, is to catch the smallest glimpse of a postive nature and hold it in my heart & mind, cherishing that image in the hopes that somehow, sooner or later, it will tip the balance towards that potential that we have
within us all. It is in the viewing of that image that I choose not to blink. And it is in our collective ability to do this thing, that our fortune really lies.
Thanks for helping me to work that out.
Sincerely,
LD
And this, Lord David, is one of the big reasons that I invited you to be a part of the HumidCity team!
Lord David, very well put. I’ve been accused lately of not living up to my potential, though in a much more material sense. Great stuff.