Life's Essence

Life’s Essence

We think we’re so smart

Yet we really don’t even know what life is

Sure you can boil and pipet

You can microscope and experiment

You can hypothesize, theorize

We can discover

Oxygen, carbon dioxide, glucose

Neurons, mesons, electrical processes

DNA that tells us everything

Fourteen complex reactions for every photon

Processing it into vision

A hammer and nail, tapping morse code

Turning it into electricity and then to sound

We know all of this

Yet we can throw it all into a bucket

And not have one nanogram of life in the mix

All the ingredients

Simple, complex

But not one ounce of spirit

All of this material can exist in a corpse

But cannot regenerate itself anymore

So what is life? What is it for?

The scientists and philosophers have their own ways of knowing

But I like the poetic answer:

We don’t know

But it surely looks and sounds and smells and tastes and feels

Like love

8/24/19 kdc

Creatives

Creatives

Artists are  a lot like God

They come up to a great nothing

Blank and void and empty

They begin to see

They begin to draw

They begin to paint

Layers at a time

At any given point

You can hear the whispers from outside

“What is that?"
“That makes no sense”

And the ever present and inevitable, “Oooo, that is so ugly.”

Yet you are not done

You are not done at all

More tones, more colors, more light, more depth

A song, hummed in quiet peace

Artistry unfolds

Magic happens

When the finished product appears

There is nothing but awe in in the whispers

So it is with you

7/21/19 kdc

Pressing

Pressing

I need to write

I’m not sure why

All I want is to touch the sky

Yet all I do is squirm through the earth

I don’t want to hear all the caterpillar metaphors

I see what happens to the earthworms

Food for birds

Drying out in the hot sun

Dying on the sidewalks

Eating, eliminating, pushing on, dying

This surely cannot be what this parable is all about

I try to scream, I’d like to shout

But the sound doesn’t go past my canines

I sit here and stare

I’d like to wonder,

But I sit here and stare

I hear the sounds of children

Running, playing, talking, meaningless chatter

But everything means everything to them

Maybe it should be that way with me

Instead of worrying what is worth my while

Coming to the conclusion that all is meaningless

Maybe I should assume all is worthwhile

Embrace it all with wonder

Even those things of dark charades

All of life is simply a game anyway

Except there really are no winners and losers

That’s why the whole thing is a great mystery

For those of us seeking nothing but answers

We swim in an ocean of disenchantment, disappointment

For those who simply love to live

They splash in rivers of delight

What is the secret to leaving night?

I forgive myself and all who have known me

All who have left me out to dry

I hear the sounds of splashing waves

7/18/19 kdc

Resilience

 Resilience

Everything beautiful about you

Has been cut to the ground

The lines of the years now on your face

You feel like you are just one small disgrace

In a great big universe of order and shadow

But I see something

I see where everyone thought you were dead

Yet you are alive

You are branching out again

You are alive

You are wondrous

You are resilient

Anniversary Haiku

Anniversary Haiku

Marry me again, Love

Everything you touch, beauty

Our Love forevermore

Broke the rules again

Eight instead of seven there

Freedom is magic

Marry me again, Love

All you touch turns to beauty

Our love forevermore

A true haiku

kdc, 6/26/19

Grateful

Grateful

Ah, for so long I have tried to be the poet extraordinaire

But, alas, my books just sit on the shelf

Not going anywhere

I made all sorts of excuses

It’s the modern day

No one reads poetry anymore

There has to be a video

There has to be a meme

Vacillating from one to another extreme

I have finally realized

I’ve tried too hard to be someone I’m not

Do that for too long and your soul will rot

To the point where even you notice the smell

The stench, the pain, there is no gain,

The wrench

That finally breaks the bolts from the tightening

Then comes that feeling that is all too frightening

The feeling of panicked disarray

The feeling of floating in outer space

Knowing you’re a million light years from anywhere

And nowhere is where you’ll always be

Sure that floating feeling is free

But freedom without any boundary is nothing less

Than death by lonely wandering

And that death is very, very slow

How do I get past this vaudeville show?

I do not know, I do not know

This seems to be my favorite answer

More and more popular it becomes by the day

I’m told to read, I’m told to pray

Yet silence has forever greeted me

I wish I could be more upbeat

Instead of this deadpan sullen

Yet there are days where these perceptions must come forth

There are nights where the soul is broken

There are lives in which living is not seen

I think it’s time to find the green

The life that comes from seeking light

But I’ve said that all before

It’s almost become a daily chore

Not the majesty and the mystery that it should

I sit and stare at a piece of wood

Waiting for it to save me

Can I find true life within a tree

Is it living

Or is it dead?

These voices go on and on inside my head

I could probably go on like this forever

So before I drone on into a cumbersome blather

I am simply going to stop

To say

Thank you for this day

kdc, 6/8/19

Dead Amongst the Living

Dead Amongst the Living

I’m no longer writing poetry

I’m not sure why

I sit here on the front porch

Looking at the sky

And that is all I do

These thoughts are many

These thoughts are few

I just don’t know who I am anymore

Stillness can be heaven

Stillness can be hell

And often I cannot

Will not

Tell the difference

These dichotomies have created judgment in me

I don’t want that anymore

But this place where I sit amongst a sandy shore

Feels very unsettling to me

All I wanted was to be free

And all I got was imprisoned

The train blows shrill across the chasm

It’s a warning instead of an announcement

But he seems to be having fun letting it loose

Over and over and over

I look down at the struggling clover

That is surviving this summer heat

Nothing else here questions its existence

Nothing

So why do I?

Why do I sit and stare at sky

And wonder why it is I’m here?

To sing a song, to drink a beer

To play a game, to work a day

To walk on and on in this merry way

That leads to both great joy and brutal heartache

I hope that those that attend my wake

Will be there to have fun when they greet me

kdc, 6/2/19