Art led to poetry
Stepping-stone back to college
An odd circle of friends
Dysfunctional, suicidal, cast aside
Indictment of the system
Of a life gone wrong
They taught me friendship
Self-worth to an underdog
Failed in men’s eyes
Caught off-guard by kindness
Here, now, I became wise
At the desert’s bare rib
The least is the most
This lesson learned from the prophet
At the feet of lost souls
Was it all as it should be
Or the freak fall of a bright star ?
An everyday crucifixion
Down hallowed hallways of learning
To bleak asylum stairwell
As snow fell that winter
Heavy on the bough ?
The mind’s web spun and unspun
All flaked in human thought
Is there somewhere a meaning
Or is the mind programmed
To seek meaning when there’s none ?
I know now the fallen
Don’t live in vain
As the seed stirs in the earth
Beneath the stone
Driven by sun and rain
Reborn over and over
Minute by minute
Nothing stays the same
I know now there is no death
Life begets life
Leaf and branch sway in endless dance
Seed and leaf, root and branch
Loved to death by a god
There is no death
But life
The wheel turns, I’ve lived my full span
Spun brief threads in words and paint
Among strangers and friends
In a society some say has lost its soul
A maker and limner
I sought and found the ground
Lies waiting within
”All may yet be well,” the poet said
Having the last word