Wednesday, June 22, 2016

NUMB? NO. OLD? YES.



HAVE AT IT

I don’t get overly concerned about much.
There is no point in sweating such,
not my pleasures, pain, contentment, nor grief.
I have constructed a life by touch,
adapting towards the current problems relief.

No one ever asked me
what I wanted to be
if I ever, by chance, grew up.
Never set a course on the sea,
simply got on the boat and put the sail up.

I know there were eras where I circled round,
lost for a while, needing to lay my anchor down.
Had to stop for a bit to catch my breath and chart the sun.
Soon enough the breeze rose, slowly I began to move on.
Here I stand now knowing soon enough my day will be done.

What sense is there in fear or great joy?
I passed well beyond those charted bouys.
Now a man old enough to see that I had released
my youth through being both troubled and poised.
I have come to that distant horizon a vagrant at peace.

Except of course for the anger that keeps my heart beating.
Most mankind it seems spends life not thinking, yet ever eating
everything in sight. Goodness, kindness, air, forests, body, and soul,
wonton consumption of everything that could be swiped by cheating.
I don’t get overly concerned about much, your life is yours to control.

© M Durfee
6/21/16

19 comments:

  1. No one ever asked me

    what I wanted to be

    if I ever, by chance, grew up.

    "Never set a course on the sea,

    simply got on the boat and put the sail up." ... I like dat, meowpoppa ... cuz me know 'bout setting ma sail just so ... no matter where the wind is comin from ... smiles ... Love, cat.

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    1. Meowmomma--few people can be fearless in the face of no set destination or plan. My philosophy is I am never lost; if I wander aimlessly long enough I will get where I am was headed.

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  2. Yep, there sure seems a sore lack of thinking in the world.

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    1. Critical thinking Charles. People have become so disoriented thought is visceral.

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  3. Lives tend to overlap. For example my cheating might hurt your ability to get by. At some point you can't just let the people around you live their lives. Now and then you have to give them a little shove.

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    1. Alice true enough, lives do bump and chaff or soothe one another. I have been cheated enough to know that if it affects my ability to get by I was too kind or too trusting. As for the shoving part--I have given my kids and a few close friends a hip check now and again but for myself the operative word is adaptation or course correction.

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  4. Hopefully not just anger to keep us going, but also a passionate heart.

    I really admire this part Mark:

    I know there were eras where I circled round,
    lost for a while, needing to lay my anchor down.
    Had to stop for a bit to catch my breath and chart the sun.
    Soon enough the breeze rose, slowly I began to move on.
    Here I stand now knowing soon enough my day will be done.

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    Replies
    1. Grace--not an out of control just explode anger but I do operate at times under a cold fire of anger. I do not think of inaction or silence as bad, but comes a time when I must act, I will without mercy or remorse.

      Growing up, no one ever said I should do this or be that so it became a necessity to stop and look around. In the depth of my own heart i have been only with one spirit and mind so at times when I was aground, I knew only the breezes of my faith could pull me off the shoals.

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  5. Most mankind it seems spends life not thinking, yet ever eating
    everything in sight.

    Too true for comfort...

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    1. Vesper I look at it as our times, mostly brought about in this era by my generation, society has been through this before and recovered but I see today's disaffection to be spreading like a plague. I don't think we need another dark age, which is why I write about it so often.

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  6. I like your images from the sea, or more correctly, from the inlets that provide access to the greater world.

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    1. You know sage I spent far more time on the open sea than I ever did traversing the inland waterways but those times for me was a job, your times afloat are mainly to relax you.

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  7. We relinquish too much control...and then hurry to point the blame on others.

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    1. Trying to maintain control over my own destiny is not an impossible task Jean, but it does take a lot of learning.

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  8. Consumers. Of everything in sight, in range of touch and want. The things out there are too big. I'll rest on this veranda, at night, breathe and recharge, to gain strength to continue watching the spectacle tomorrow.

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    1. Shadow I have always looked at a much wider world than the one I live in--an information driven thought process I suppose. Though my veranda is also the night surrounding me as I smoke on my porch.

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  9. 'a vagrant at peace.'

    ah, so that's who you are. i kind of knew already. xo

    i agree with alice about a now and then shove and i agree with with grace about a passionate heart.

    i read your words and i find a comfortable contentment in them. i just don't want it to be fueled by resignation: we're both still too young for that, mr. walking man. i say that even from the mists of one holy current mess
    love your pal
    kj

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    1. kj, vagrancy is against the laws of man but in complete accord with the rule of nature. Some may have shoved me without knowing they were doing so. There are people I met decades ago who helped shape my thinking, they are so far in my past though I could never find them to thank them.

      I am resigned to only one thing kj, one day I will see my last day--I will not hasten the day nor beg for more. Until then i will simply do as i have ever done, live.

      I know your mess is very stormy at the moment bu always calm seas come after. Look to those days.

      Love you too

      mark

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  10. I too would like to be a vagrant at peace...

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So Walking Man I was thinking...