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I AM, WHAT I AM

Placed into a program world
Expected to capitulate
Conform to the beaten path
Do not attempt to navigate
Walk not in a manner unsecured
by traditional convention
Diverting from the well worn way
destruction, the contention
But if a soul will search their heart
for the truth in the desire
The courage will then be found
to dare a leap out from the mire
With racing heart and gasping breath
the individual ponders their fate
Standing on this virgin soil
concern begins to dissipate
When the stillness does come
a din will rise, an applause
from the heavens
for the one's who rise in trust, having faith
and ignore fear based lies as leaven.

LEARNING TO FLY

     Brought into this place thru
      flood and with blood
     Wide eyed with curiosity
     You are raised by children
     Values inserted
     Emotions surround and devour
     Peers accept and reject
     You choose and are burned
     You try and you learn
     Chastened by fear
     Values adjusted
     Then you fight
     Failing often
     Walls established
     Some erode
     Others remain, Perhaps forever
     Values tested
     Love is experienced
     and you know it
     Trust awakens
     Joy shows her face
     Mercy and faith
     Then pain
     Values refined
     Strength gives way
     Faculties fail
     Time to return
     One question,
     Did you learn how to fly?
                  © Dale Wicks

INNER EARTHQUAKES,
CAUSE AND EFFECT

Ordered events
In what may be thought chaos
Cracks form
Throughout understood world
When fear appears,
Realize and choose wise
In this prelude
To walls tumbling down

See image projected
Upon the screen of mind's eye
As dim-lit perceptions
Etched on encompassing sepulcher
Where dead things lay and decay

This razing a mercy,
A circumcision without hands
Now new and open
Among fore-cherished ruins
Sight without image,
Resurrection from the death
That once was called life.
©Dale Wicks

ACCEPTING THE BLUE

Misted shoreline

Perceptions altered

As memories fade

To walk on

dry land

Residing in the

vast sea

Threatened as waters rise

Struggles fruitless

Intellect found wanting

Spying the beacon

gives birth to courage

Raising hands

He accepts the blue

AWAIT THE RISING SUN

Following the stream of life

To the source obscured from sight

Halfway through, pausing to

allow the shadows flight

In the bright morning star

He gains anew, both bearing and direction

Clarity found within the shine

Conceives a glowing perception

The traveler commences on his way

As if life had just begun

He smiles and understands at once

Why he awaited the rising sun

FADING LIGHT

External light fades

Apprehensions increase

Clutching we steel the weak knees

As trusted forms diffuse in gray

Foreshadowing these must pass away

What to lean on henceforth?

How to cope with the change?

Can lead to diverse conclusion

One answer I've seen

Is the space in between

Not constructed of matter

Nor brought forth by man

A place without shape that is sure

Tho it touches no thing

From your center will spring

A great peace in the dark

with the knowing.

MAN OF STONE, MAN OF STRING

(man of stone)

Time after Time, Rigidity sets in
Bring down the hammer hard !
Crush inflexibility, Treat with utmost enmity.
Rocky Soul, void of mystery and wonder
Transformation unseen, Reserved for the supple
Be a living thing, let your countenance sing
Rigormortis is for the dead

(man of string)

Strings are pulled to set one off
on tangent after tangent
Manipulated soul, who's in control?
Rise and fall with puppeteers hands
Empowered by chaos, divided in state
Swing wide the sword!, Sever the cord!
Walk free on the path that's within you.

©Dale Wicks

LEAP OF FAITH

Only the fluid.......

The freed

Reckless in joy

Such acrobatics dare

The leap of faith

Spanning chasms

of mans finite mind

Linking mortal coil

with the eternal way

    The World And Its Forms
        Are Passing Away

    Release the burn
     to ease the pain
     Which grows if gathered in
     Be comforted in this transience
     By seeing beyond the skin
     Not mindful of the physical
     That was only born to die
     Nor caught up in familiar
     But to see with a new eye
     For the truth of myself
     and of others
     The big picture reveals
     at each bend
     We either learn and step out
     enlightened
     Or go round and do it again

RUNNING AGAINST THE WIND

I used to run against the wind

but now I'm worn and tired

On occasion I get fired up

when coffee gets me wired

On sagging days, I'm reticent

and think of time expired

Mortality will have its way

But so will that I've sired.

DEVOTION

The Eternal flame

labors to consume

all we place on the pedestal

that obscures it

WORKING ON MYSTERIES

Deep within

Disregarding the senses

Assembled by intuition

Grappling with light

Waiting for cognitive thought

To construct the bridge

to understanding

HOLD ONTO YOUR DREAMS

What is found in the heart and mind

External winds do blow against

Currents penetrate to contaminate

Or to challenge the status quo

Yet hope chronicled,

life's work upon the earth

Manifest realities from the internals

      Provide an anchor

      to keep me where I am

DEVOTION

The Eternal flame

labors to consume

all we place on the pedestal

that obscures it

Life poetry figures