POETIC REFLECTIONS

I SEEK ONE TO LISTEN

All I ask is to be heard.
Yet when I look at you, you turn away.
You do not have time for me. Your world created my pain, and when I seek to share a glimmer of my experience, you look at me with revulsion.
Staring at the watch, pretending to listen, but really distant. And some of you seek to mock me further. Is it not the wish of us all simply to be heard? And because there is no one to listen, no one to understand, I retreat into myself, and I find my own to listen.

IF I OPENED THE DOOR TO PARADISE

If I opened the door to Paradise, would you choose to remain in Hell? If I gave you my heart, would you notice? Can you respond to that you never knew or had? Surrounded by the demons, yet truly alone. You recognize not your friends. Engulfed in delusions, seeking pleasure in that which but leads to more suffering. How I sought to change the wretched mind. A deafening silence, but then an echo, a constant echo. Are you too far away to hear it? Your hurt is now the hurt of others. You inflict your pain on many. Covered in stinking filfth, they say you are foul. Yet I saw what was within. I saw what was possible. You glorify the one who hurt you. You have indeed become him. A sick cycle. The wheel must be broken. Who are you? What do you see? A mirage. A false image, not you, but that which the demons say you must be to join their legion. You think they laugh and revel with you, they laugh at you, they scorn you. And now in the darkness, they flee, leaving you truly alone. If I open the door to Paradise to you now, will you choose to remain in Hell.

FROM WITHIN

From Within.
Without.
Withering.
Withstanding.
There again and again.
Repeating its haunting call.
Revise.
Reframe.
From Within.
A New Refrain.
Catharsis.
Renewal.
Withstanding.

UNLEARNING

f only I did not know, it would have been safer, but I would soon
find out or be forced to encounter it, the deserved
and undeserved sufferings of the world. Each with an
inward struggle, many striving to make their way only
to be crushed and to start again. Love is evaporating
from the earth, and there is nothing to yearn for but
survival. Meaning is lacking and we frustrate ourselves
in seeking answers to the unanswerable. Community
is no more, together, but alone. Where is the solace?
Who will journey with us? Maybe it will come, we
have waited a long time.