An End Lies Over There

can you talk about disaster

with smooth alabaster?

can you ask a pirate's slave

what it's like to be a master?

could you know monstrosity

from a sacred place of safety?

can you see the cost of things

from our place of plenty?

could the desert ever know

of the waters that once flowed?

would you see the pattern

if it meant the end of you?

Author's Note

come with me

Reviews

[R.E. Ray]

Your last line/question is rhetorical to me (a self-admitted cynic)... The answer is no for most people. What you convey well here is our inability or refusal to see and appreciate what we've not personally experienced. I think it's more of a "refusal." We don't want to leave our comfy world, even for a few seconds, to experience something less. And, because we ignore what we don't like or want to see, the "pattern" is rarely seen, even when it's our own end.

[Davidgeo]

You're right, the answer is almost always no for every living thing that will ever exist.
read moreYou're right, the answer is almost always no for every living thing that will ever exist.

I think that kind of predilection is a shadow of what got us here. Life always tries to exist in even the most inhospitable places. Sometimes Tom Brady comes back from impossible odds to win the super bowl... other times not so much... the essence of that kind of effort in the face of extreme struggle is what defines the best parts of the human race in my opinion. I kinda forgot what I was trying to say... and I have to pee so, sorry if this doesn't make sense.

[‘Thoughts In Time..]

Sometimes it’s hard to understand the if’s, what’s of life but I do believe we have it in each of us to see past the fleshly materialism of this world and become more sensitive to those around us, it’s all a learning process but I think possible for all. Lovely poem makes one think🌹

[Davidgeo]

We are the end I think. Consciousness I mean. Time truly is relative... I'd like to think our last second lasts forever, giving us true reflection on our time (do what you love and you will be happy forever). The ending of American Beauty sums it up better than I ever could hope to. Kevin Spacey is obviously on of the worst human beings on the planet but good god damn could that b*****d act.

[‘Thoughts In Time’🌹]

Well said Time is of the essence not to be wasted🌹

[emipoemi]

interesting questions.....kind of has a Blowing in the Wind" vibe to it...(I don't know, that's what kept going through my mind as I read it).

[Davidgeo]

I do love me some bob dylan. I was trying to be more deterministic than he was. The answer to all those questions should be yes, with varying degrees of effort.

[Nipplegrinder]

I detected a disdain for the gluttonous in this. Could have been the pot, though.
I do like this, though.

[Davidgeo]

You are not who you seem to be.

[Nipplegrinder]

Who am I, then?

[Davidgeo]

A damn fine question.

[Cherrie Palmer]

A balance between survival and the ability to walk a mile in someone else's shoes

[Davidgeo]

There is no balance. Only opportunities recognized by the world weary and wise. I'm just thinking out loud with what follows... The greatest philanthropist's always know where disaster is inevitable.... replace 'philanthropist' with 'tyrant' - who got there first? ---- eh, you might be right after all... balance. Of course, "the center does not hold" - ever. Babies can't be born forever or something like that (physics).

[wordman]

would any of us,we are survivors by nature

[Davidgeo]

That's the obvious part. The next step must be beyond that. It would be foolish to expect things to remain the same... our current "nature" is devouring a future.

You strike me as a fellow who thinks for the right now.

[wordman]

yes,and the future

[Hebe]

We have the instinct of survival. ....all actions care driven by this force...

[Davidgeo]

The modern human on average does not have the instinct of survival. A byproduct of an extremely diverse labor force... if you are typing on a computer and speaking English or any Eurocentric language right now the 4th stanza definitely applies to you.

[Hebe]

Your right we don't gear our daily lives around survival anymore but the raw instinct of survival still exists ....