Imagination

What I know? That is all that confines me to any sensible reality! What I imagine, I paint blissfully: a satisfying world to my liking, people to my taste, quests to captivate, struggle to invigorate, and sociable engagements of highest degree. Love, hate, harmony and fate collide and swirl emotion. This fine head-clearing elixir provides my limbo: the sleep-filled hours, the cat nap, the momentary lapse of focus on now - a satisfying escape. It is the pleasing space between everything, a harbor in the ocean of my conscious mind where I am blinded by everything real and held captive by everything imaginative.

Judgement

With climbing you always have to DECIDE. Decision is a fickle creature that is often difficult for anyone, very much so for the climber, who has to manage risk, not just avoid it. When you can, of course you do, but that isn't always a choice, you take on a certain amount of risk. When you do, is it feet-first or head-first.

Jump! But I don’t
I’m afraid of landing
in a swamp
Diving! Now that has more style
a commitment to your convictions
and a determination to dance
with the consequence of your intentions
but why not just
sit and think
whittle away the hours
and do nothing
go the safe route
I guess I just like to test
the foundation to see if it is as
solid and I think
It creates confidence
that leads to success
This, of course, is a fruitation of risk
and any risk means that I need to jump
Either feet first or headfirst
The only difference is
with one you are smiling
while in the other
a grimace
is your sole companion...

The summit

Here is my first poem ever, and wouldn't you have guessed it, it's about mountains.

We lay our plans
We pick our peak
We assemble the strong
For the summit we seek

The mountain waits
For all who try
Some will live
Some will die

It cares not who
It cares not when
That’s the way
It’s always been

The mountain takes
The mountain gives
We will live to climb
We will climb to live…

Crossroads

There is this knowledge; it tempers a feeling of impotence. I cannot hide from it nor capture its strong odor - a whiff merely, enough to see the beast there lurking. But even I, the hunter, can never fully tackle this quarry: life and death, meaningless existence. In some ways like the great elephant hunters of old, I feel the fear and humility of my actions. I see them in the eyes of the hunted, accumulated and extinguished, and under the great gray lids, death rides. A man slays the beast, the beast humbles the man. In the end, when all debts have been paid, the sum of life tells. How did you measure up? What was your bounty in life? Did the low road lead you to deceitful paths or did you take the high road, with no guarantee? The knowledge that I hold is that of my direction, a crossroads, to which end I am left to speculate, but entrust that my efforts towards the high road will continue not in vain. This boredom I take as penalty for my laziness at least for a time. Eventually it spurs me forward, to do.

Soul Journey

I sail
my soul
across the seas
beyond home
I travel
my destination
to other globes
And while there in the night
silently laying
there beneath
under the sky
and seeing the lights
I imagine how it would be
if they were within sight
and I could see
---There would be CRaZy worlds
full of beasts
full of peoples
---There would be confusinggggg worlds
strange worlds
and lovely worlds
full of flavor and taste
tantalizing and full of grace
And others yet
neither colorful nor delightful
just plain rocks
strewn out
and scattered about
And yet my conscious self
my inner being
doesn’t pause long
when it comes to these
it just moves along to better things
Such as, a laughable
playable
magical world
I often delight
to encounter
while in flight
It is one of those
CRaZY worlds
Take the planet itself
it is virtually flat
and plain
nothing significant
or amazing
But below
just under the surface
exists a furnace
BLAZING!
BURNING WITH LIFE!
flourishing with beings
buzzing like bees
who at the dawn of each day
head out onto that surface
in a frenzy-like
mind boggling flight
to gather food for the day
And so in a matter of seconds
this dull
bland world
jumps ALIVE
And before the sun is too high
they are gone from sight
gone from our eyes
done before it began
done before you even know it
And at other times
I simply wonder
from place to place
traveling randomly
never in haste
And still in other times
I sit tranquil
and look from afar
not at the planets
or even at the stars
but at everything
all of it!
And during my travels
every time
and in every instance
this sight unravels
I am awestruck
all thrown amuck
by the beauty
by the bounty
this flurry
like snowflakes
swirling in the wind
fascinates me
draws me
and brings me back again
and in each passing second
I’m left enchanted
and enhanced in mind
I’m left restored in life
and happy inside
It’s so wonderful
so delightful
like a journey
through a waterfall
and as such
soon it is over
and I am back in realities clutch
I’m home!
and I smile to no one in particular
cause I am alone
I feel the chill
the cold of the night air
I shrug my coat closer
pulling it tight
until it feels just right
and then I gaze
like any man would
dazed
like any man should
when looking
peering at the stars
spread out
like shinny
bright
pools of light
And I laugh aloud
because being so earthly bound
can be so amazingly blessing
and yet so savagely sheltering
Myself, I think it best
because it breeds imagination
and everyone needs a bit of that
even I...

If Anything, what would I be?

One thing many of us take a long time to accept is what we are and that isn't always an easy thing to do.

(this poem goes way back to when I was a snot-nosed kid)

I sit atop a table
With my book and my fiddle
I play a little music
Where only I can hear it
And then a bird croaks
Out amongst the oaks
Such a loud thunderous sound
As it rises towards the clouds
Maybe I will play a song for it
One that it will think fit
And then a thought comes to me
Of how it would be
Poised like a bird of flight
Looking towards the farthest sight
OH, and this thought comes to me
Just like a dream
Where with flapping wings
I flew with the breeze
Just me with the mountains high
And the bluest of bright skies

Yes, indeed
A bird I will be
Just that if anything
At all I think

And all the while I am fiddling
A tune for dreaming
One to float away with
There while I sit
And then out in the grass
A deer steps there pass
It was a young fawn
Lost to its mom
It had white Polka-dots
Like tiny pieces of chalk
And glowing curious eyes
That looked so alive
Why would I wish to be a bird
It seems absurd
It is nice to fly way up so high
And follow the breeze
Above the trees
But this innocent fawn
Who hears my song
Would be to me
A better thing

Yes, indeed
A fawn I will be
Just that if anything
At all I think

My music changed then
To a slow melody
And not even a moment later
A butterfly paid me greeting
By landing astride my shoulder
And BEHOLD thought I
Such a simple creature as this
So colorful
So wonderful
That indeed I must be amiss
And this creature would be to me a better thing

Yes, Indeed
A butterfly I will be
Just that if anything
At all I think

Quite a spell later
My music halted
And I set my fiddle down
And picked up my book
But before I had read even a sentence
I stopped----
Oh yes,
---- and with that
A thought comes to me
Just like a dream
And it told me
That being simply ME
Was the best thing I could be
Not a bird nor a fawn nor a butterfly could bring
A more meaningful freedom
A more fascinating living
Or a more breathtaking liberty

Yes, indeed
Just me I will be
Just that if anything
At all I think…

Challenge

My eyes are open to the chances that arise
yet my mind is fearful to those I try
It’s funny the way one feels young and strong
no chance is deadly and never wrong
Most just walk on the edge thinking only of glory
one to be added to the best of stories
Yet each falls tumbling from the top
because they dared to dance with death one time too many
But does that matter is death our true enemy?
I don’t think so
If our enemy is anything
it is our single-minded determination to challenge
The seemingly impossible
and our will to conquer the unconquerable

The Lament of a Dreamer

Can I dream the darkness away that covers me whole?
Have I lost the dream that was my soul?
I am drowning from these dreams beneath a cold, deep pool
Blind me from this dream, and leave me dead, a fool…

Insane Asylum

The screams are heard from wall to wall
Terror and pain fill them all
You know the pain, you know the kind
It boils deep within your mind

It poisons and taints---tortures and burns
Rips and tears---twists and turns

Knows no mercy, feels no tears
feeds upon our mortal fears

We have all been there to different degree
This thing they call insanity…