TO LOOK WITHIN
IS BY DEFINITION
NOT TO LOOK WITHOUT.

IT REQUIRES AN EFFORT
TO STOP THE CEASELESS ACTIVITY OF THE MIND
BY FOCUSING ON ONE THING
HOWEVER LONG AND DEEPLY
ONE MAY WISH TO DO SO.

THE RESULT
IS EVER REWARDING
AND SOMETIMES SURPRISING.

The commitment
is for the mind to serve,
and for it to self observe.

So many ways to live it,
so many ways to tell of it,
So many ways, each valid and true,
To live and talk about life.

As grains of sand on a beach,
Washed infinite times
By the returning waters of the ocean,
Each grain separate and distinct,
Too numerous to count.
Yet part of the whole.

Checking life's options, which do we choose?
With each we can win but also lose.
How to decide which to forego?
Which to select, with which to go?

I prefer to measure what losing will cost,
Not how much I win, but how much is lost.

Winning is fine if it were in a game,
But with life's options, it is not the same.

Putting out fires,
Caused by desires.

Mostly at night
They begin to light.

When starting to glow
It's best to say "NO"!

Allowed to remain,
Hard to contain.

Without any doubt
They never burn out.

A fantasy run, once begun,
Like a game, never the same.
Play and smile for a while,
Great, but before too late
Clouds appear where it was clear.
Questions and doubts come about,
Problems unfold, warm becomes cold,
What felt right is now fright.
Good is otherwise understood.
What we see, we want to flee.

So it goes in fantasy's throes.

I admit my blunders, not a few
They did happen, what can I do?
If I can't now correct and redress,
May I not repeat, but progress.

Though I would wish to say no more,

May
there
be
fewer
than
before.

Hitting bottom, bouncing back,
Coming up from a shark's attack.
Escaping the devil and his friends,
Swimming in depths, risking the bends.
Aware of tides I knew could be bad,
I experienced peril and was nearly had.

I came up into pure air,
Free from currents that ensnare.
In waters cool and calm
With proper precautions, no alarm.
I can swim, face any wave,
But I have learned not to be too brave.

I now realize,
Experience has taught,
Planning ahead
Can be all for naught.

For what lies in the future
It's best to wait and see.
Fate alone determines
Whatever is meant to be.

All that may be planned
Involving anyone,
No matter how well planned,
May yet be undone.

Much of my life has passed by.
Thinking back I want to cry.
Opportunities came and went,
So my years, so poorly spent.

No longer will this happen to me.
I now jump at opportunity.
I act on each that comes my way,
No more will I let them slip away.

My thoughts fly to far away places,

My muse follows wherever they go.

Words have flowed but are bare traces

of all that I have come to know


My soul's been stirred in all this going,

I love life as never before.

Now aware there's more worth knowing.

My thoughts fly on, ever more.

No matter what it is,
it is not enough.

No matter how much more there can be,
it will not be enough.

No matter how great it is,
it is not enough.

No matter how long it will last,
it will not be long enough.

BUT

Only of
beauty, truth, love ...
is there never enough.

To take charge of one's mind
Can be done.
Not only by the few
But anyone.

Having negative thoughts
First thing to do,
See them for what they are
As they pass through.

Then, to try these steps,
One, two and three,
One, try to think
Differently.

If that cannot be done
Then pray.
With your own words
In your own way.

Then as a last resort
Though quite far out,
Think your last day
Has come about.

You will be sucessful,
Surely will.
When one thinks of death
The mind will still.

If there is no future,
should I refuse the now?
If I know this full well,
not the present allow?
Should I walk away,
only try to forget,
Or should I enjoy the now, try not to fret?

Where I am and how I feel,
should I think of more?
Should I also be concerned
for what is in store?
When what I feel is joyful bliss,

Should
I
think
the
future
and
the
present
dismiss?

Weather worn but not weather beaten,
Weathering did my life sweeten.
Life's hardships, traumas, setbacks all,
Made me stumble but not fall.

I suffered much and felt alone,
Became hardened but not stone.
I've come through life well aware,
Better for it, not worse for wear.

Without a doubt life took its toll,
I'm weather worn but much more whole.

Setting the scenes
And designing the set.
Then staging the action
For becoming upset.

Self writing the script,
With self playing the lead,
Being the director
To make one's own heart bleed.

Oldest scenario
Having the longest run,
Titled - "Self Rejection ",
Played by most everyone.

So easy to see in another
what one cannot see in oneself.

So easy to judge another
without judging the judge.

So easy to deny another
what one would like for oneself.

So easy to expect from another
excusing oneself.

So easy not to deceive another
yet to self deceive.

So easy to ever be searching,
not knowing where to look.

So easy to seek to be loved
while not loving oneself,

So easy to go on living
never having lived.

A speck in time,
Just a dot.
Affer a while . . .
Forgot.


A pass through,
In a flash, gone.
A few tears, memories,
The world moves on.

So it has been,
Will ever be.
Whoever, whatever,
History.

This fact,
All have to face.
Gone and soon forgotten,
Only to bow out with grace.

Now coming into fruition
Is my delayed recognition,
That one's human condition
Is just another rendition.


Our lives from before
From times of yore,
As if a written score,
Are part of our core.

We play a special time role.
Naught's the same but the soul,
Under subconscious control.
All part of the whole.

Whatever we do,
There is more to view.
A carrying through
Of other Times we knew.

Very, very weird,
Yet nothing to be feared.
Another explanation has appeared
We may have been in other times reared.

As a tree can grow only so far,

As a bird can fly only so high,

so

am I limited

to go only so far

and only for so long...

I sit alone though I am with many,
I think, but my thoughts are not with any.

My time of life is the twilight zone,
Years have passed and left me mostly alone.

I reach out to those who are near by,
they do not understand or even try.

Pretending nothing's happened
When
it
has

...

Pretending all's the same
When
it's
not

...

It cannot last,
It cannot be contained,

W
H
A
T

I
S

...

is!