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A Poem A Day #384: Autograph
My Poem “Wonderful World”
Black crows flying against
a bright blue sky,
as butterflies dance in the air
seemingly joyously
as if they had just emerged
from their cocoons
and were learning how to fly,
as daisies, dandelions,
and the leaves of every tree
gently sway in the breeze.
There is the welcome sight
of many different types of life
that has been absent for some time –
including what must be
one of the busiest insects
on planet Earth:
the always buzzing,
the always working,
the vibrant and the unmistakable
black and yellow bumblebees
who are all out and about
collecting nectar and pollinating
as they hover from flower to flower.
Life is resilient…
nature has it’s own cycles…
sometimes the most defeaning
of sounds is silence…
change is often the hardest thing
for people to deal with –
especially those changes
that leave echoes and reverberations
that can last for a good long while…
nothing complicated can be rushed,
nothing simple is as uncomplicated
as it at first appears.
Sunrises, sunsets, birdsong,
language, communication
between two separate
and yet connected sources
is ever-present and ongoing,
no matter the time of the day,
the day of the month,
or the month of the year,
the past, the present, the future
of everything and everyone
is contained within our pristine
crystal ball of a planet
that is the most beautiful of them all
because of the compelling complexity
that binds every form of life
of this wonderful world.
My Poem “For Bake’s Sake”
Because of the current circumstances
that we all find ourselves within
so many people have been forced
to stay at home, to stay indoors,
and to stay away from
close friends and family members –
and, as a result, there has been
an increase in the necessity for
Internet bandwidth so that people
who are at home 24/7 can continue
to remain in contact with
the rest of the world,
so that they can continue
to be entertained
by all the content that the various
streaming services have to offer,
and so that people can continue to
engage with rest of the world
via all the forms and all the sites of
social media and social interaction
while the majority of the planet
continue to practice physical
social distancing between one another,
and there seems to be no more
popular activity than people
daily posting pictures, videos,
and even live streams of what they are doing,
what they are making,
and what they are baking behind closed doors
while they wait out the time of being
locked down from the outside world
which continues to progress at
the only pace that it is capable of taking.
We all have to do something
to pass the time when we are being
asked to do as little as possible,
to leave the house as sparingly as possible,
and to not interact with anyone
anywhere other than with those
who live under the same roof as we do –
and some people have chosen to
become home bakers, artists,
social media streamers,
book readers, television
and movie watchers,
and they have chosen to share
what they are doing with their
time of isolation more so
than they would if they were able
to leave their homes if
and when they wanted to.
Time goes by so slowly
when you have to look
for things to do
to distract you from the situation
that you find yourself in –
especially when you and everyone
you know is attempting to live
under a shield of quarantine
in an attempt to protect the lives
of their family members
and the world at large –
and which is why the allure
of making things and using your time
to create something and to share
the process and the end result
of doing something worthwhile
is what so many homebound people
have chosen to gravitate towards
and will no doubt continue to do:
because if this troubling time
is reminding all of us of anything
more profoundly that usual
is that time is precious, life is short,
and our human societies are fragile –
and that is why I think what people
are doing to pass the time while
they at home is important,
and whether watching, writing, reading,
making, or baking, what people are doing
is for all our sake and not just
baking for baking’s sake.
My Poem “The Ambivert”
Everybody is a slightly different person
from one day to the next….
everybody occasionally experiences
days, minutes, moments
when they feel like they
want to be left alone
with their own thoughts,
feelings, memories, and emotions…
some people are more productive
and they excel at what they like to do
when they are left to focus
on what is right in front of them,
and there are some people who
like to work as part of a team
and explore a problem with
a collective mentality –
and then there are those who are like me:
who are neither exclusively an introvert
or an extrovert,
who like to dabble on both sides
of the line that sometimes differentiates
people and how they choose to behave
and express how they feel
as a result of what they may have heard,
what they think, or perhaps what they see.
Ambiverts, like me, enjoy living
both a life of peace, solace,
deep reflection, and occasional solitude,
as well as the experience
of getting out the house
and exploring the sometimes
challenging and chaotic places
where there is a mass of humanity
who are all more than likely
strangers to one another
but who all have so much
in common with each other –
among which being: the gift to be able
to comfortably be amongst
a metropolis of people
and not feel uneasy about
where they are, what might happen,
nor who they may interact with.
So many real world events have turned
so many extroverts into introverts
and so many introverts into extroverts –
especially those events that have had
such an impact that the effects from which
have reverberated all around the world…
there are very few people
in this modern world
who live a life removed from
the actions of others –
you would have to be a monk living out
a vow of isolation to not be influenced
by the noise of the technologically
obsessed nations of the world;
however, even someone whose life
is dedicated to a higher purpose
these days has also had to adapt
to the practice of connecting with people
in many forms of communication.
I like having my own time to think,
to remember, to write,
and to express myself through my art –
however, I do also gain
a great deal of inspiration
and insight about the world
from being around people,
from being amongst nature,
from being someone without
a specific thing to do,
and without there being a specific
place that I need to be,
at a specific time,
when I can be what comes
naturally to me: an ambivert.
My Poem “Another Insight Into Life”
I often think about the fact
that there are other worlds
out there in the universe
with their own future,
their own present, their own past…
I often wonder, as I marvel at
the human endeavors that take place
to land on another planet,
what stories await to be unearthed
and retold about the who, the what,
and the where of an alien place
that is also our celestial-neighbor…
I often wonder about our connections
to the other planets of our solar system,
and why the myriad planets, moons,
comets, and asteroids call out to us
to visit them and understand them…
I often wonder whether it is the universal
human compulsion to explore the unknown
and learn as much as we can about what
we don’t understand that compels us
to keep staring up at the night-sky
and wanting to reach out and touch
and put our footprints into the soil
of a world unlike our own…
throughout my life I have often dreamed
about escaping the gravity that holds me
to this spinning sphere of rock,
water, life, and hope –
but even if I never get the chance to do so
in my life-time I remain optimistic
that within the life-span of the next generation
children will know more about the universe
than any era of human history ever has before…
I often share the belief that we yearn
to return to the stars, because that is where
all life came from long ago –
but the best thing about wondering
what lies elsewhere in the universe,
and about where all life came from,
is that, at this point, nobody knows
the answers to the fundamental questions
of existence, and in my opinion
we as a species, and as a planet,
have only just begun to scratch the surface
in our discovery of an insight
into what gives the light of existence
its spark of life.
My Poem “Connecting…”
So much of life is about finding connections…
so much of life involves beginning from somewhere new…
so much of life is about making choices and decisions…
so much of life involves everybody having to dig deeper
and further discover more about something that they never knew…
so much awaits those who do not listen too intently
to the voices who vehemently proclaim
that something cannot be done…
so much can be attained by those who choose
to look beyond the horizon for the answers that they seek…
so much music becomes un-muted to our ears
when we listen to the hopes and the dreams
of those who love what they do
because they do what they love…
so much can be expressed when we no longer surround
ourselves with the walls and the barriers
that can sometimes make us feel claustrophobic
and like a Goldfish in a fish-bowl…
so much needs to be seen… so much needs to be said…
so much happens instantaneously and beyond our control…
so much comes easy to us when we put our faith and our trust
into that which calls out from within us to be allowed to shine…
so many people do not have the confidence in their own voice
and they shy away from any and all opportunities
when and where they can open up their soul
like a flower that becomes their most alive when they are blooming…
everyone in this world is a work of art in the making –
and like the sometimes hidden meaning of a piece of art,
the only way to see what is ever-present
is to reach out with all of your senses
and embrace every moment with which you are connecting…
My Poem ‘The life of an idea’
Sometimes it comes like water-drops;
sometimes it comes like a flood;
sometimes the idea is born
from that instant when the words
just don’t want to stop;
sometimes creativity takes time
to grow from the seed
that you planted or sowed
before it can be something
that you, or anyone else,
may someday choose to look with love,
and go with it on its journey
wherever it goes.
A writer waits… a writer looks…
a writer listens… a writer finds things
in the outside world
and then takes them inside their mind
and then generates and regenerates
all that they have seen, heard, and know,
and creates something brand new –
they write a story, they make connections…
they assume and they presume,
and then they fill their time
with the fruits of their imagination,
and they give their creations
a piece of their spirit,
and in doing so they give their idea a life.
Some ideas only have the life of an instant of time;
some ideas, no matter how hard you try,
you can’t let go of;
some ideas come into being from a single sign;
some ideas look up at us from below,
and some ideas look down at us
and are just waiting for us to notice them –
like the stars that can only be seen
when the sky is black above.
Ideas are like children –
sometimes you have to keep them
behind a boundary so that they don’t run away;
ideas can sometimes be like rockets –
they take off, but they do not know where they are going;
an idea can be like a loyal dog –
if you feed them, if you give them attention
and if you show them love,
every day they will always come to you when you call them,
and when you tell them to stay they will stay;
to an artist there is no such thing as too many ideas,
because to an artist no matter how many ideas there are
there is never enough.
There are Ideas that evoke and differing and varied reactions
depending on the person who is exposed to them;
for some people, their idea’s come more during the day
than they do at night;
there are ideas that come, and then they go in a flash,
and they are never seen or thought of again;
some people always have ideas every how of the day,
and there are some people who struggle
to come up with anything creative –
however, in my opinion, though at times
for an inspiration-starving artist
it might be hard to pull anything out of the fire,
no artist should ever feel discouraged…
because just as a new days
brings a brand new sunrise,
so does a new moment bring new ideas –
though each and every idea
may have a different time of life.
My Poem ‘Light of your life’
Life is a symbiosis;
we may be one person,
but we are not meant to be alone;
life can be counted in sunsets
and sunrises –
however, what truly counts
and what everybody remembers the most
throughout their life
are the times that they share
when they felt the most
comfortable and at home.
Our memories are like candlelight
flickering in the wind;
our dreams are like old photographs
that have faded over time;
our fascinations and our connections
from our childhood are like breadcrumbs
of where we have been;
our thoughts and our emotions
carry farther than the seemingly small,
but in reality near-infinite,
confines of our own mind.
However young or old you are,
sometimes life can feel like a struggle –
and the greatest cure,
and the thing that you crave the most,
when your life feels like it is a rocky road,
can be as simple and as special
as a wonderfully-long hug or a cuddle;
sometimes the pressure of living can feel too much
and it is then when all you need
is that phenomenal and incredible
loving caress and touch.
Everybody shares something with everyone else;
love is universal and amazing
and is not meant to be unrequited;
even prisoners can still hold on to hope
behind the walls and the bars
of their prison cells;
those who are meant to be
must do all that they can to remain united.
Technology soon becomes out-dated;
time goes by in a flash;
some things are random,
and some things are fated;
the days to come always have echoes
within them of experiences from the past.
Never give up hope that you will one day
fall in love with someone who loves you too,
and when you find that perfect person
you will find that they understand you,
and they will want nothing more
than to orbit around you like the moon.
The things that are meant to happen and work out
the way that they are supposed to always do;
what is truly important to you
is what you carry with you
through your entire life;
and like the one in your life
who loves you the most,
until your dying day,
everything and everyone
will always be with you
and be the light of your life.
My Poem ‘Infinite Stories’
There is no greater story
than a true story;
there is no greater true story
than the story of someone’s life;
there is no greater way
for an individual story
to touch another person’s heart
than to tell it true
and to see it run free;
there is no greater epic
than a death-defying survival
to stay alive.
We all have stories;
we all love stories;
we have meet each other
because we need to;
we all know someone
who has a story from their life
that is so amazing and incredible
it is almost unbelievable to believe
that it is even true.
Passengers on a plane,
passengers on a train,
strangers on a journey,
strangers on a trip,
who can truly be honest
about who they are,
because the only thing that they share
is the shortest of connections and history –
brief encounters, stories that matter,
short exchanges, instances of new changes;
new chapters, fresh banter;
a rush of endorphin’s;
marks of beauty,
like freckles on person’s skin.
Because life is constantly asking
something new of us all,
new stories are being made all the time;
because people are constantly meeting new people
life stories are constantly inter-twinning;
because the rain will always fall,
and the sun will always shine,
somewhere, everywhere,
the pen, the keys, the fingers of a storyteller
will always be writing.
New stories begin every second;
old stories continue and are shared
time after time, day after day –
as if they are once again brand new;
legends are made for us to find
that allow us to see things
in ways that we can understand;
for every story to be
there must be a me and a you.
For better, or for worse,
all of our true stories
are ours and no one else’s;
fortunately, or not,
all of our memories are ours –
our losses, our tears,
our smiles, our glories;
for the best, all of our living days
will one day be like grains of sand on a beach,
and like the countless stars of the universe,
and that is what makes them truly ours
and truly special;
for all of our collective spoken and recorded time,
everything and everybody will always be the reason,
the source, the microphone and the speaker,
not to mention the writer and the reader,
consequential and important
in sharing the world’s inspiring
infinite stories.
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