Thursday, November 10, 2011

timshel

I recently finished reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck and I'm pretty sure this is the first book that I have ever read that in turn, actually read me.  I went through so many emotions reading it because it lays out humanity so clearly in the 600 pages of love, hate, anger, laughter, tears, and rage.  I almost feel like I have a lost a close friend now that I'm not in the middle of the novel waiting with increased anticipation on the next big twist in the story.  And as I've been chewing on the book the last couple of days, a short and simple poem started to form and I decided there would be no better way to share my heart about the book than by sharing this poem.  It's the very best way I know how to express the anguish and triumph my soul experienced and I hope that it resonates with an ability beyond words how immaculate the miracle of choice truly is.


Life is a deep, beautiful, and complex box
Only partially full with the world
Leaving so many questions to be answered
And so many answers to be questioned

Each of us are adding ourselves
To the box and let it be known
Without choice, we are all tragedies

Greatness is near, taunting our every breath
Maybe we can live with glory
Instead of just being poison-filled corpses

Our forefathers and beyond
Went their own way
But we can decide to go West
When they are all being herded East

Humanity writhes in the agony of decision
“timshel”
Is written in blood on every noose
That is tied around every man’s neck from birth
“thou mayest” the blood cries
And oh, hallelujah, that they can choose to take it off
But only they can choose

Perhaps poetry is not just for the weak
But instead for all of mankind
For the fantastic and the magnificent
The beautiful and the mysterious
For the lonely but the satisfied
The broken but the full
For the rejected but the authentic
The sick but the hopeful

What if the sky is closer than we first believed?

Laughing and crying
Running and crawling
Living and dying
We are climbing our ladders to the stars

And I am led to believe
That time is never better spent
Than when learning to dance.

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