If the most important things in life were easy, would they in fact be the most important things?
I have spent countless hours playing the piano, often struggling, not infrequently hating that struggle, but in the end, I have had some of the very happiest moments of my life sitting alone in an empty concert hall, simply playing and losing myself in that joy.
This, I believe, is a truth of all that we hold dear and meaningful in life. We cannot take it for granted, but must work, and appreciate that work, and glow in the joy that we make for ourselves.
I lie beneath
A pool of rippling
platitudes
& gemostone-glittering-empty words
And sometimes see
The distant, shifting surface
As it casts mother-of-pearl shadows on my
Half-closed eyes.
(When did I get so deep?)
Occasional brilliant bursts of
Laser-light strike me —
Rouse me from my daze.
Instinctively I kick & fight
For fear of drowning
But peace, though fake, envelopes
The drowning man
& it is strong and safe
And the candle-flame is weak.
I did not ask to hide myself,
But fear and muffled will prevailed.
Nor did I know I’d lost myself,
Until —
The suffocating weight of water
Forced my enfeebled lungs
To expel the stale
Breath they had held
Far too long.
I choked on reality.
And now neither drowning,
Nor suffocation are the option.
Rather, it is time
To break the Surface,
And be Free
To breathe at will, and finally —
To grow.
