Easy it would be to curl in a corner
allowing all that assaults you
to make you fear and cower.
But then like your mother
always said about that pouty face
“if you keep it twisted that way
it will get stuck in place.”
Never think I have not tasted
the bitterness of my fears my friend.
I have and all that food
ever made me hunger for
was for my life to be at an end.
I don’t know why
I ever let that shit in my mouth
at the time, I didn’t realize it was all lies
learned in my youth but now,
but now I am older and strong
and I absolutely know
that there is only one right, everything else is wrong
Stand straight as only an old one can
fight them that perpetuate the fear
that forces you to cower over a future
you think you see is your impending reality
but in truth it is not one that has to be.
If you need a place to start to find your truth
then run towards the love in your heart
Fight that power by taking it away from them
you gave it to one day way back when.
I have my soul and I would like to have others with me
but if I stand alone that is alright
because another thing I learned as I grew
was how to stand grace filled straight and fight.
First I thought it was with my fists,
which are good for broken knuckles and wrists
but then I got smart and started to use the hours
to see the same weaknesses in them
that now have no power to wield over me.
The weakness they were trying to exploit,
to create fear in my heart aged and adroit .
See the beauty of having nothing left to lose
except a mortal life turned from weak to strong
is you get to choose whether you live your own life
or whether you will corner cower
afraid of the men with no real power
if you so find that you have been greatly wronged
That is where you push deeply in with all your strength and
might
your truth knowing, power of your own growing, moral knife.
© M Durfee
7/29/13
If you need a place to start to find your truth
ReplyDeletethen run towards the love in your heart...smiles...i like that tender message embedded in the middle...the only power they have is what we give me as well...that power over us....
Our world structure Brian has made it near impossible to live off the grid, because they made us unlearn our primal instincts and replaced them with fear. Lions, Tigers And Bears OH MY!
DeleteIt really is OK to take back that other which was stolen from you--the lack of fear of living in a society of the world that you find comfortable, fear free. They use money as our freedom and our chain, if we in our hearts devalued it the way most have devalued education or basic knowledge we would find our minds and more importantly our hearts changed.
An original message that could have come from Kipling or Henley, though I know you have not Kippled or Henleyed much.
ReplyDeleteMyself, I think I am "Mark Durfeed", a convert, and I am really thinking of republishing this somewhere with your name on it.
It's too good just to run on one blog!
Thank you Ivan *shrug* you're more the scholar than I, I simply write from two places what I feel and what I see. I am fairly certain anger is not a receding shore only one that has moved off the horizon.
Delete... hi ... cat here:) ... thank you for your o so empowering poem ... I think I'll print it and frame it and put it up on my wall ... awesome write, Mark! ... my biggest fears ever are thunder storms and perfums ... both make me turn from a regular person into a little suicidal dot in the landscape ... strange, I know ...
ReplyDeleteCat seriously? Perfume and thunder? I get the first to many people would rather bathe out of a bottle, which at times makes me homicidal if i could think of a good defense. But thunder has always been a sign of short term loss for a long term gain as long as it is mixed with the rain. Don't worry though fears change as we age, when you get to the point where your greatest fear is a broken hip you'll know that you have come to the place where your wisdom rules your emotion.
DeleteToo much fear in the world. I try not to add to it. Not sure how good a job I'm doing.
ReplyDeleteOnly you can look into your own heart and mind Charles. I find that most of the things i feared were placed upon me as baggage others owned but did not have the balls to carry for themselves. I have enough of my own to carry without carrying into the future those of the past that do not belong to me.
DeleteThis is what's known as the "rope-a-dope" theory. Fighting and resisting only makes them stronger. Refusing to participate, or even better, totally ignoring them altogether, sends them on to someone else with which to fight leaving you the victor.
ReplyDeleteRight on Carleton, giving up (not in) is winning the opening to simply walk away from what others want me to be afraid of.
DeleteYeah. Truth is truth.
ReplyDeleteAloha
Cloudia and that is right, everything else is wrong.
DeleteWhat a beautiful and uplifting message ~ If we live like we have nothing to lose, then we will fight for every truth & persevere because we have no fear ~
ReplyDeleteBeautiful poem. Funny, my mum used to say to the same to me about twisting my face! :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Thank you friend. May you find peace. Greetings from Detroit the land of the unreal real.
Delete"...baggage others owned but did not have the balls to carry for themselves."
ReplyDeleteThis strikes a chord out of the ether.
I am currently involved with a female, a honey badger, and I fear my balls are hanging in full view. :)
I am glad that my days aren't filled with trying to outsmart the power mongers. Life is pretty simple here. I like to keep it that way. No immediate threats to my little corner of the world. But the bigger threats out there beyond this island are huge. I take what action I can, but realize ultimately that stopping the greed machine will take an army of us. We write and go to zoning meetings, but in the end, greed will win out. I'm that cynical about it.
ReplyDelete