Saturday, April 9, 2016

POEM # 9916 OR SO IT GOES



NO COMPLAINTS
I have come
to land’s end,
never once curious
where the dragons be,
having passed off the map
inadvertently through their lairs
on my life long journey,
I’ve felt their fire
on my feet and skull cap
their wrath of scalding truth
upon my wandering mind.

This place
I have decided
is as good a place
as any to sit, to wait,
to no more query
that nothingness
now before me.

Turning a complete circle
I can see I am exactly in the spot
where all roads traveled
by all man lead to.
The place so many bleed for
and now
I grant myself
the perspective of time,
knowledge gained
in experience,
hated and sublime
as the omnipotent voice
directing me in my own ways.

I have the scars
to prove the pace of my journey,
the deliberate pace,
never too fast,
often too slow
but always arriving on time,
when counted in right.

I be no different
than any other man.
I see and am blind,
am blind and see.
The place I ended
was according to no plan
is as good as the one
I started when becoming a being.

I am tired of the fight,
fists have been broken enough
forgot how to fear react in flight.
I know there is more
I could of done
but that’s true for everyone.
I am not standing
on some longed for shore
or atop some mountain peak
those were all the metaphors
for all the waged wars
I’ve been through to get to
this place
I am trying to describe to you.

I never burned a village
or built one either
never pillaged another
or brought intentional harm
under the dark nights cover
though I think I may
have done some, some good;
I know it’s not for me to judge.

I simply trudged my way
to this place
called lands end,
found somewhere
here in space.
Every journey of man
is a private one,
every battle that matters,
the same. Few can walk
in another’s boots
or in their place
and understand
that for me,
for you,
for him,
for her
it’s not a race.

It’s simply arriving
at lands end,
which is where
one decides life is all
twists and bends
and that when
the time is now,
standing still
is the only place
where the straight
finally abounds
no matter the used up
lived in surround.

© M Durfee
4/9/16

18 comments:

  1. You've lived a good life. May this be a false horizon with more lands and adventures beyond sight, waiting for you to explore.

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    1. I am weighing the pros and cons of an Amtrak trip Jeff but I doubt the good would outweigh the many possible negative outcomes.

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  2. U 2 young 2 say all dis, Meowpoppa ... cuz there is more 2 give and take ... just look around da next bend, hmmm? Love U, cat.

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    1. Meowmomma when I see the next curve in the road I'll look for something different for now all i see is horizon.

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  3. Must be our age, or our battles behind us, that help us see this stage as clearly as you describe here. A good place to be, though, in a certain sense, you and I had fought to get to this point, to the clarity of this moment, and we should be honored by having made this voyage. Your words are wise, and rich, and instantly relatable. Thanks for this, Mark. And thanks for your continuous support to the companions (like me) who appreciate the company.

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    Replies
    1. Rosaria, I'll agree we did earn our way to this place. Mine is not all that calm and I dislike the issues my body wants to have while I am doing my best to disengage from the medical community.

      For me personally there is not much I would change from 4/4/72 to this day--it hasn't been an easy road but the fights were all moral and well worth it even when I lost.

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  4. Then take three more steps to the side and one to the front and end up in Nirvana.

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    Replies
    1. Alice--I have been there and they kicked me out for peeing on the grass.

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  5. Perhaps we all carry our dragons within

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    Replies
    1. ...or they carry us in talons we allowed to grip us Charles. Knowing what you know now, would you have been on your bike as much?

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  6. Replies
    1. Erik if it was an end fete that gave me much peace and comfort I'd take that salute--yet my body and mind are in two fully different places.

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  7. We will all go there one time or another ~ Lovely reflections Mark but this part is my favorite:

    I simply trudged my way
    to this place
    called lands end,
    found somewhere
    here in space.
    Every journey of man
    is a private one

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    Replies
    1. Grace all of my life and as I will continue to do is put one foot in front of the other and confront choices as they arose. Frost was right in that there are two paths he recognized but he was only a professor and poet who journeyed by rail and wing. I am not a wise man but I do know there are far far more than two paths and occasionally someone will blaze a new trail. Lands end is a thought that "well son, hope you can swim."

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  8. We do the best we can, mostly.

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    Replies
    1. Some do Jean I will agree, but most do not do their best. I'd like to live in a place where community came before self and all supported each other, but I have never found such a place. Too much knowledge of good and evil I am thinking.

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  9. Mark, you have definitely been there and done that. You have most assuredly impacted lives and made others think. I think many more good things are deserved and coming your way. xo

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    Replies
    1. Jodi--I am not sure I deserve anymore than what I have. I will agree I have known a lot of people along the way who took a bit of me with them but I never check back to see or wonder if it has grown into something worthwhile.

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So Walking Man I was thinking...