Selections from "Look Into My Mirror"

Look Into My Mirror

1. The question
In this there is nothing "for" me; but "of" me. It is yours.
For you to look inside of me; inside of me... And you.
Let me be your looking glass.
Discover what a new and different person,
Who you've never known before,
Dwells within, without, with all around one central core.
Humanity from man to man and inhumanity...
Competition runs between / betwixt...
Compassion once and rage again run hand in hand in me;
A vacuum where contrasting forces mix.
A lilac in the early spring surprised by winter snow..
The blossom of a dying tree in crumbling to the earth.
The funeral procession and the laughter as we go about
Forgetting death... Has life such little worth?
We go about to fill our ears with business not our own.
We seek to know of tragedy; but not concerning us.
Yet, striking home a hurting blow is worse than worsest bad,
And no one knows our plight. We're drowned in dust.
In dust our eyes see dizziness inside our spinning heads.
The road unclear, we do not care, in part, as much to know
In which direction footsteps lead. We stumble through the dead
Until the dealer calls our bluff... It's time to go.
Life in a vacuum, struggling for air.
Mind of confusion going nowhere.
Mingling feelings... Vanishing hopes...
Time revealing tangling ropes
Of tied up ambitions offering naught
Of that satisfaction for which life has sought.
Confusion! Confusion is all that I see;
Sadness and happiness all around me.
Eight hour days and eight hour nights...
Land and sea and free-falling flights.
The oceans of air swirling round in my head
With the burnt leather stench of the things which are dead.
Decaying of man in his own burning flesh
While our visions of harmony want for a fresh,
A new, and equal start...
While peace through destruction seeks to depart
From peace through peace,
Which we never have known,
But have longed for and hoped for and needed so long.

Are we coming to end?
Will we ever begin to find the world we've waited to see?
Is it only our dust that will set us free?

2. The need to simplify

With all the world in apathy, still optimism dwells in me
Along with pessimistic views of this world which was meant to be
A paradise for man to live, and not to die beneath its crust.
But we have seen that all are fated once from dust to dust.

The contrasts mixed within our souls...
The paradox of life itself...
The mysteries explored by minds, explained by man
To no avail.
The love and hate... Both different, yet one...
The beauty of ugliness... The giant. The elf.
Success and failure in reaching our goals,
Though even succeeding still we fail
To grasp the meaning of it all.
We rise to a peak... We stumble and fall;
Yet pick ourselves up and continue our search;
To live life and love it for all it's worth.

For life in itself is a beautiful thing,
Meant only to bring out the best within men;
The love within man;
For the beauty of life is always at hand:

The free and unbound flight of a bird...
The soft sweet silence of new-fallen snow...
The great chameleon forest of green and yellow,
Of orange, of brown and gold...
The joy of a child,
Or an off-colored joke...
The thrill of a swim, or a ski-riding boat...
The summer walks with the one you adore...
Just watching TV on a carpeted floor.

The simplest things in this world seem to bring
The most joy to my heart through the winter and spring
And summer and fall.
No matter how small
I laugh at them all.

They give to my heart a lasting song,
And I'll sing it and love it my whole life long.




3. The need to laugh

For I...
I am a wandering minstrel;
A jester of a thousand nights,
And days if day permits me
To jest in folly as the world is passing the day
One moment to next
Laying up its gain.

Oh, world! I cannot understand you...
Coveting more... Forever more.

True. True.
It's something to do.
A thing worthwhile for some men.
They smile
And go about
To gain more and more.

I long for more...
For a better life.
I crave all the pleasures that life has to give.
But not so important I find them as most.
They're not to break one's back to gain.

I merely say, "what I have, I have.
What I gain, I gain."

What I have not makes for another day.
It's better not to fain desire
For those things which are out of reach...
Out of sight.
To desire and not gain
Is to gain only pain.

To let pass by the folly in a smile,
In a laugh,
In a roar of mirth is a sin...
But to capture a moment for levity's sake
And to laugh at yourself
Is to win.

4. The game


As the days may seem long, so is life just as short,
And time so fleeting that too soon it's gone;
But living should still be a joy,
Not a chore,
And if life is a task, then it's wrong.

For he who is always too busy to live,
Who lets selfish anger and greed rule his mind
Is missing so much of the meaning of life,
And so doing betrays his own kind.

So, let us think what can be done,
And let us all then act our parts.
For are we all not actors in the game of life
From the very start of life
As life we know and live.
Have we all not something to give:

A song, a poem, a moment of mirth.
The simple act of kindness is worth
So much in troubled times as these.
To think we can turn our heads with ease
Makes my blood run cold with fear.
When men turn away without lending an ear
To his brother in need,
And walk calmly away,
And ease his conscience another day.

5. Winning

In the tempest of life I serenely saunter,
Picking up bits and pieces of humanity;
Interring in my mind the facts and figures before me.
I walk in the realm of reality,
With the knowledge of ending mortality;
To make the most of the time at hand,
And to not live a life of fatality.

The creature of age creeps into my life
With slow steadiness,
And I look back to ask,
"Where have I been?
What have I done?
Have I accomplished my goals?
Have I won?"

Life is too short to tread on triviality.
The things held most dear must come to the front
And lead us along through the light and the dark.
We should always be able to make the remark,
"Today I lived and laughed and loved;
Took each thing as it came and put it in place;
Recorded each smile, each frown, every face."
Then we can say that our life is worthwhile
And face the next day with a smile.

Within these lines my lament has its start
In scanning the surface of love, truth and art.
I beckon to this generation of man,
Take a look at yourself if you can;
To see where you're from and where you must go;
To see what you'll reap from the seeds that you sow.

Look in my mirror and see my heart,
But don't be surprised if you see a small part
Of your very own heart... Your very own soul.
Then look to yourself.
Seek to find your own goal.



Time

Time is a wandering sailor
Forever roaming across the sea.
Ever seeking the new, the unknown,
The untraveled. To be a part of that sea.

Knowing no past. Seeking no end.
Longing to know the answers of life.
Never caring what made it begin
To wander in space. It seeks out no friend.

Unforgiving; moving...moving.
Running away with life and breath.
Yet giving us just enough of itself
To realize the meaning of life and death.
To pass to posterity knowledge of mind,
And pass ourselves to the annals of time.


The Good Samaritan

If you encounter a stranger
Wandering through your life,
Not knowing where he is going,
And not remembering where he has been,
Don't turn him away
Without first giving him some direction.
That stranger may be you.


War

Serpents creep...
Men sleep.
Tigers walk...
Men talk.
All is quiet...
Men fight.
Birds fly...
Men die.
Creatures sleep...
Mothers weep.