“A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Friday, April 5, 2013

Negotiating Reality

 
Sometimes the sadness
overpowers me and blunts
believing in hope.

In a raw moment,
I surrender to despair,
losing hope's promise.

Negotiating
across the highs and the lows
challenges my will.

8 comments:

Karen said...

Hope may not come in a perfect presentatiom. Hope may come with ragged edges. When you think you are worn out, mend the frayed edges, and start fresh.

Laura said...

hope is often a balloon just out of reach, the tail of the string difficult to reach... but faith settles into the heart, ever near. This too is not simple to cultivate when desperate, disappointed feelings arise, yet it is safe in your heart, waiting for those moments when you can feel it beating out the rhythm of a song "in this moment I am safe. In this moment something beautiful has made me smile. In this moment I need to cry. In this moment I know that the tears will run dry. In this moment a tiny bud has opened and I feel joy. In every moment life is changing. In this moment I feels content." and on and on as your heart beats the lyrics change, May you find many moments of comfort or even a single one to open your heart to faith. And who know, perhaps hope will sail down within grasp again too.

Josè Antonio said...

Alwais, hope is the only one reality for us.

I stay with you, my best kis for you

Gail said...

HI JUDY - ohm yes...Hope......that feeling of 'when', or 'just not yet', or 'power of what may be', a sense of 'doing' while waiting for_________, and so it goes, the often drudgery of hope because as wonderful as it is to hope it always leaves me just a breeze away for getting 'there'.
Love Gail
peace.....

Muffie said...

As I've often mentioned -- hope is a virtue that eludes me most of the time. I try to believe that good will come of this miserable disease, but I struggle with the concept. I'm not depressed, not despairing, and not ready to throw in the towel, but I just can't see that 'hope' about which everyone talks.
Peace,
Muff

Travelogue for the Universe said...

Well Said and such a sweet little girl, how we feel in those times, like that little girl. have a great weekend on the bridge to better days, mary

Robert Parker said...

Hope is one of the constituent elements of the universe.

But what one can and can't reach... they are specific to each one of us. An acupuncturist used to ask her patients, "So, tell me why you gave yourself this disease?"

A complete paradigm shift: The answer does exist. It has always existed. Your answer, just for you. You don't need to create it, you need to find it. A completely different, and much more solvable, problem.

Judy said...

I often read your comments in awe, my heart full, as I consider how lucky I am to have readers like you who share such wisdom in your messages. Yes, writing the poem is rewarding, but my creation is not done until I receive feedback through comments. Then, I can say that I begin to grasp the full meaning of the creation.

Karen, everything you say in your comment is a quotable gem, but my favorite has to be “Hope may come with ragged edges.”

Laura, I really appreciate your distinction between hope and faith; the latter’s conduit, the heart. I will be pondering the wisdom of your words for some time.

Josè Antonio, thank you for sharing my journey with hope.

Gail, “…as wonderful as it is to hope it always leaves me just a breeze away for getting 'there'.” This may be one reason why Laura above chooses to focus on faith instead of hope. And why Thich Nhat Hanh says (paraphrased) that, as wonderful as having hope is, it can also be hindrance because joy lives right now.

Muff, it is not an unalloyed virtue, as you can see from the above. However, holding on to some semblance of hope helps me stop the slide into despair.

Mary, sometimes a child is a mirror that allows one to see oneself better.

Robert, thank you for reminding us that, however elegant any philosophical paradigm is, its value must be developed and measured by its use for an individual.

I also want to conclude by assuring you all that there is no new despair-creating set of circumstances at this moment in my life. My poems, as I say in the prologue to my blog, are not my daily journal, but simply a snapshot of a moment in time when either I or someone I know will have experienced what I address in my poem. Sometimes, a poem will not be published for a long time after its creation. In any event, I value dearly your sharing the poem’s journey with me.