I wrote this poem after spending a day with a close friend. It reflects my feeling of finding a place of truth, but then seeing it vanish and not knowing how to recover it.
It felt so free
the realm we dwelled in,
inhaling the peace
away from the world’s din,
I recall it had
the clarity of silence,
as sitting on the shore
we touched the timeless,
It felt so free,
that space.
Away from the
plaster masters
of facial expression,
the superficial busyness
and shallow pleasures,
Of machines racing
along a bed of bricks,
with their masked smiles
and selfie sticks,
It seemed so chained,
that chase.
But we,
we had escaped
from the concrete pool,
with its transacting currents
and aesthetic duels,
Into a more human
and more peaceful place,
away from the endless
running race,
And it felt right,
did it not,
to not be a machine,
to breathe more deeply,
just to be?
For sitting on the shore,
we made a realisation,
spun a fresh meaning
on the coast of creation,
Seeing for the masses
we were ill-fitted,
we grasped what we were
and transcended it,
To unite with the flame
of eternal youth,
for this space,
our place,
was a truer truth.
So how could we return once more?
How could we leave peace
on freedom’s shore?
And plunge back into
the artificial pool,
forgetting it was but
a counterfeit jewel,
As the outline of land
slipped gently away,
and our minds returned
to see only grey.
We lost our sight,
that night.
Look how we clutched again
at freedom underwater,
in smoke-filled bars
and mechanical laughter,
We craved again
for the light of before,
for a lost dream
on a distant shore,
then grasping for a high,
we sank to the floor,
floated down
a deep-sea well,
It felt so heavy,
that cell.
I know, my friend,
it was a brief dose of fun,
our bottled escape
from the humdrum,
Yet when I awoke I felt
more trapped than ever,
in the enclosed pool
of diluted pleasure.
Soulful Thoughts 