Claire V. Bogdanos

This juncture in time converging slowly with pride

To sort out the goals that are rebelling inside,

Emotional waves flooding the vision obscure

Mediocrity blames an environ demure,

For truth be it known dwindles and fades forbidden

Like the sun from the eyes by a storm cloud hidden.

To seek what is real a task worth compelling

With a righteous anger rising and swelling,

That choice which is made with its judgement deriving

From the depth of the heart and object surviving.

To settle for less, but continue existing

With an absolute will and madness resisting,

Or to strive for a course which endows not our aim

And lies beyond the reach of skills from which we came

Thus find this brief want an indelicate desire,

Arrogant thought amiss, in our race to aspire,

Zealously working in a manner fulfilling,

Escape not the ruse with the subject unwilling.

An apparition that clings to motive intense,

This spectre of a dream persists in seeming sense

Yet knowing in the end, we chose a path unreal

With a wish to consume and the need to conceal.

Hence, settling for less with a passion abounding

Accepting a road steeped in safety astounding

Reaching a moment of decision too callous,

Reality demands truth, bred without malice,

To desert that hope for which we struggled too long

And so seek out a place where our cares can belong.

It’s a delicate ghost of this longing we share

That we’ll call second best adapt, rather than dare,

And stand before the signpost, caution force delay,

Crossroads of our lives can our weaknesses betray.

Of might and men and giant things

Or repasts set for lordly kings

In all of this I disavow

These luxuries but one allow

To bide with me and be content

My life in joy thus it be spent.

With man’s best morsel to indulge

That life its good, time will divulge.

Of kind and gentle beings see

Grow with its own posterity.

Enlikened to sage words and true

The calmer days thus to pursue,

Within life’s rise be satisfied

With conquests met and love implied.

To bear the yoke, humanity

To strive with pride and vanity

And not be bested by the two

Keep heart within the mind’s eye view

To count the days within recall

Wherein love’s gentle tear did fall

And not forget the times long past

When kindness shew’d its tender cast.

Let man be such among all men

The bearer of but good omen,

A friend to all, in deed a friend

For all to sadden at his end,

Yet none lament his passing ways

Dwell he among the lost we praise.

This be the will I grave for me

May friends as these but number three

My mother who now gray and old,

Retains the will to chide and scold

As often did in times gone by,

Yet loving me she would e’en die,

A mate with whom years swiftly pass

As shadows in the looking glass

Who’ll walk with me on God’s green earth

Accept me for my human worth,

( Breathe not a word about my faults)

Whose tender smile my heart exalts,

The little child with loving care

That God has deemed my life to share.

For awkward though the times may prove

And grief my eyes to sadness move,

Yet still a song to gladness sing

For all the joy life mayhaps bring,

What need have we but nought to fare

With courage strong, and so declare

Within the gates of this recluse

Here lives the gift men fear to lose.

It wills the beggar scorn a crown

And molds a smile of each man’s frown,

One strives to buy with Midas’ gold

Once bought a gift one cannot hold,

Elusive nymph where do you flee

Why dwell thou in such poverty?

Of all the gems for which we’ve paid

And all the plans that man has made,

( Too many ofttimes gone astray)

Of all of this man cannot say

Within his soul, if truth compel

That life with him in fullness dwell

And fear he not a lonely end,

Nor peace abide without a friend.

For all the goods that man shall strive

To keep him warm and safe, alive

Are but to ease his body’s need,

The will of which to supersede

That man is more than gainful goal,

He’s heart and mind and kindred soul.

‘ Neath my window a rock wall sits

With hidden doors and window slits,

Replete with active teeming sound

Vast citadel beneath the ground,

That harbouring foreign lifestyle

Wherein performed dull task worthwhile.

I count the species large and small

Barely some I can see at all,

Dirtbound hordes reckless and gleaning,

Through small channels rapid streaming,

The weariness of numbers grows

Past my fingers, beyond my toes.

I query do they toil by night

How do they see without sunlight,

My thoughts grow restless and weary

To fathom such deep mystery.

Oh grub, and worm, and ant, and bee

You are great wonderment to me,

This feeding place for hungry bird

No din of war or hatred heard

What do you know of compromise

In your safe sheltered paradise?

Oh, wearisome flesh, that tires of life

Struggling this way with unbudging strife

A lonely task filled with loveless dismay

Discouraging thoughts wake pacing each day.

Active minds dealing in lifestyle mundane

Surviving practice with actions inane

Leaving nought of power and grace as such

Neither ladders to climb nor stars to touch.

While fantasy speaks, our need to fulfill

Believe peace begins at the crest of the hill

Just a pleasant cot by the roadside’s bend

With the warming fire and the faithful friend.

Each man dreams and it plagues his waking hours

Like hummingbirds whisp’ring to wilted flowers

Of unbound contentment, paramount joy,

A tinge of delight, indelicate ploy

Those masters of freedom, telling us true

Encourage your heart, its wish to pursue

To mayhaps find some other simple way

Live with self-respect merely day to day.