The World Through the Eyes of a Dreamer
To those of us angered by reality
The planets come together in a kind of pattern that mocks death itself. They shed their light upon unseen bliss found only in the luminescence of stars. These too are empty, yet they never wane.
The trees of the forest raise their branches in vain towards a heaven they will never experience. The animals who find shelter in their irony are able to feel their pain, though they do not understand.
An old crone weeps upon her staff, thinking of her lives behind her and her life to come.
Within a pool of abandoned blood a giant battles a dwarf, though in the end neither shall find what they seek.
The very cosmos hangs its head in shame at the emptiness it envelopes, and is so enveloped it.
The hunger we feel will eventually pass, but our thoughts and feelings shall remain, staining the darkness of their creator’s minds.
A child weeping over the corpse of a lost mother brings tears to no one. The universe passes, the world remains as it is...
Or does it?
A world unchanged that changes every day hangs in the balance. We see it, we feel it, we know it; we simply do not care. We move on to present matters, living in the here and now. We refuse to remember our past, and what is a future without a past? What is a world devoid of love and faith? What hand will deliver us from this prologue to Hell? Can we escape it?
I have.
I find myself in a pool of others sorrows, trying to paddle my way towards dry land. I renounce an existence devoid of love, and fight for my freedom, embracing my faults and turning them into virtues. I ignore the universe’s pessimistic naturalities. I am one with all, though I know all too well the unreality of that statement reversed. I am alone surrounded by so many. Together, we could fight; evolve; change… But we live on in a vicious cycle of negative emotions.
I envy the nightingale who sings so sweetly to the inattentive audience that surrounds her. I envy the trees deep rooted to an ever changing world; still they remain. I envy the stars and the moon, who look upon us with shame in their tear stained eyes, eventually fated to fall into a fathomless ocean of hatred and nothingness...
And as I envy all of these things, as I sit here, changing yet avoiding a world passing me by,
I pity you.
(2006)
This is the first poem I ever wrote in this prose. I have heard it called Lunar Zen poetry by Jack Kerouac, who described it as some sort of language of the unconscious mind. I used to write a lot of these, but most of them are more than unimpressive, and I didn't bother to post them. This was my first, so I figured I would give it the honor of posting it. Not that I hold too much pride in my own work. But I will say that the interesting thing about writing these is that I don't remember writing them. I only remember feeling an emotion very strongly and then having a poem. I read my own Zen poetry as if I am reading the work of someone else. I suppose this poem has a good deal to do with what I was feeling at the time, which was hopelessness, as well as a great deal of uncertainty for the future.
