#0117 - Tears

Implying that tears of joy and tears of woe
are different.

The smallest speck
of the expansive ocean:
saltine water falling indifferently
and unnoticed
in the span of the universe.

Yet, the consequence of their arrival:
as if their weight alone
plummets into the ground,
creating endless earthquakes
and tumultuous tsunamis.

These calamities will occur.
The question remaining is
whether they will drown out the world,
or if they will lift it all up
with the rising tide.

#0116 - Amoureur

Sans frontières,
voyage entre
cœ urs solitaires.

#0115 - "Blind"

Blind,
he began to hear
and smell
and feel.

He uncovered a world
which had always been there,
but whose presence he had never felt—
never thought to perceive.

#0114 - Child's Play

It wasn’t as if you could call it child’s play.

I didn't think it was haphazard.
I didn't think it was spontaneous.
I didn't think it was usual.

I didn't think it was that in-the-moment grace
that, yes, I love
but that kind of depends on how you interpret it,
and on the context.

This situation didn't need that in-the-moment grace—
it should have lasted longer than a moment.

#0113 - “Finding Meaning in the Face of Death”

“Finding Meaning in the Face of Death.”

That was the title of an article I came across recently,
and I'll admit I don't like that title.
Here's why:

I'll grant we live in a society
where motivation is scarce.
(Disagree? Look at space travel, Cold War to now;
voter turnout in the *perfect* democracy of the US;
the fact that procrastination is so prevalent it's become a joke.*)
Even so, I would argue that if you need death to arrive at your door
before you find meaning,
you probably haven't taken a good look around.

More importantly, it implies we're not all dying every day:
"In the Tibetan philosophy, Sylvia Plath sense of the word,
I know we're all dying, right?"
Right.
If you want death or lack of time as your great motivator,
consider that every second past is a second forever gone,
and that you live through 30 million seconds
every year.
That ought to give you a good running start, no?


* Google search: "procrastination memes"

#0112 - "Defenestrating"

Defenestrating
this pessimism and cynicism
like a rusted bucket
of malodorous sludge
that I wouldn't feed to a pig.

There it goes,
sailing through the air
like a free-flying bird,
or rather freeing me of its weight
and smell.

Let's hope it doesn't hit someone on the way out.

NaPoWriMo 2017: Retrospect

For the second time now, throughout the month of April I wrote one poem every day in recognition of National Poetry Writing Month.

I first wrote for NaPoWriMo soon after I initially began to write poetry, meaning that, with the completion of NaPoWriMo 2017, a milestone of 1 year of writing poetry has been reached. That is, for over 365 days I have been phrasing words in a prolonged attempt at creative writing, and I am happy that I have lasted this long. In any case, NaPoWriMo was a wonderful literary challenge—it certainly got more difficult to keep up with the cyclic passage of the sun as time went on, especially when I ended up being on an out-of-country that ripped me away from the wonderful (addictive and desensitizing) realm of the internet. Cheers to the passage of April 2017, and I'll be waiting happily for the arrival of NaPoWriMo 2018.