Choices

 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost - The Road not taken

 
Oh how I long, dear poet of old
For that problem of which I was told
Two roads in the wood, diverging slowly
Seems so wonderful as to render it holy
Oh, how simple this life could be!

Life, as I learn painfully, is difficult
Bridges are burnt and later rebuilt
Paths are backtracked even while changing
Inconsequential decisions universally ranging
While we spend hours on matching paths

I see the beauty, I really truly do
On reducing the number of paths to two
But the campaign for honesty is here
To reduce the natural anxiety and fear
Of a man with only one difficult decision

Worry not, many-issued person of today!
I'll restate these lines in a more applicable way
A thousand sets of a thousand sets of paths diverged in a thousand cities, and I-
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has still made all the difference.

Credit for this poem naturally goes to Robert Frost - http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html

Second Language

Often we go through life without even a care
So let's take a moment, to be self-aware
What I do, as I commune poetically
Is possible only because of my vocabulary

Since birth I've been building my bank of words
The meanings and subtleties I've since inferred
That my poetry is a sum of me currently
Simply because to me life was locally lucky

English is my own language, and dominant enough
I've never needed a second way to express stuff
My privilege, my fortune, and in a way, my curse
Is I've never had to learn another way to express verse

As a result, I can be quite nuanced and complex
In a manner of expression which can leave others vexed
'cause I've had a headstart, of my whole life I guess
So when the domain is English I can seem to impress

But now to acknowledge the expense of my lucky 'gift'
I am verbally sparse in every other language to exist
Yet others manage, with such grace and intellect
That their non-nativeness becomes natural to forget

And then

They apologise to me for lacking a little, sometimes
Because their short learning doesn't match my lifetime's
While I have zero expertise in where they come from
They feel so bad for being ever so slightly wrong

So this is a shout out, to those struggling in a second tongue
You are wise beyond years, I'm linguistically young
Never feel ashamed if you ever have to enquire or ask
These verbal tricks of mine are a single language mask

You perfect man

You poor little thing, you impossible soul
You who hold the most difficult goal
That among every human on this decrepit earth
Only you have been perfect since birth

The rest of us mortals, we pale next to you
Engaging in things only you have right to
So clearly only thee, blesséd among all
Have the final say and ultimate call

I've never seen you step over your line
Knowing precise the justness of crime
Always in the right place, exactly the right amount late
With the perfect etiquette for first second and third date

If we differ on an issue, it's always me who is wrong
If we sing different tunes, then I know not the song
I've never seen you admit to losing any sort of debate
About who it's right to love, and whom I must hate

I'm trying to learn from you, I really am
From such an honest and uncorrectable man
You give me such much feedback and also advice
About who I am and why I'm not nice

So accept my sympathy, you poor little thing
About the day to day horrors this earth must bring
For it must give you much stress and cause you much fuss
To live among mortals such as us.

As it occurs to me

Life happens as it occurs to me.
Sometimes, life occurs gently.

Then life is blissful almost wistful running through clouds of mist I'll see each memory as it arrives and feel alive and so
I'll acknowledge the collage of colours life displays knowing that each and every day is just a collection of seconds yet
Each second is my first and life is not trying its worst it's just trying like each of us to get a grip or grasp on everything and anything
Although life is full of stress and somewhat a mess I swear and I declare that more than any other thing existing on this entity we call earth
Life is

Life is what?
It just is.
It exists.
That's the purpose of Life.

The rest of us
We find beauty in that meaning
Distil filter add what is our own and take away from that what we can
An elixir of essence

Then drink my friend
Down
Down to the last drop
Let it infuse with you and become even more you

Life is
We can try to plan or to panic
To fight flight or flounder
To stress savour or strive
To live or to lie
In the end life happens at its own pace
One second per second
As it always has
As it always will

As it occurs to us

Recommended listening with this one - https://carbonbasedlifeforms.bandcamp.com/album/refuge-original-motion-picture-soundtrack