Freedom of Thought

Before the myth gets started
before a story is told
around the time when experience
meets impression
but
before they congeal
into a hardened mass -
into unshakeable faith
into irefutable truth
is around the time
when thought
becomes a possibility
a fleeting moment
a dream
unfamiliar,
freedom

Survivor

This war
like the others
isn't new
and
it isn't
a surprise

Your amazement
at my choice
amuses me, this
puzzles you in turn

I learned that war
is never new
It is a given
although
mistaking silence
for peace
is common enough

Its really
rather simple
than you perhaps
care to admit

Which war
would you
rather be in?

If I get shot here
it won't be because
I am a target
Neither am I
obliged to fight

In between
this raging conflict
there is still
room enough
for me to live

If eitherway death
is a possibility,
and survival
a game of chance

I'd rather live
before I die.

Inward in word

"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us."

Marshall Mac Luhan

Inside
there is no
purple sky
dappled clouds
yellow beams
and dazzling white
no crackling
sounds
or insects chirping
no humming
buzzing
symphony playing

How do we ever
endure
the abstract
as if
it was pure?

The letters
I use
to spell
the colors
and
the sound
are the same tools
we use
with precision
(of the clinician)
to think
as if
we do not feel.

Freedom as thought

"To think and to be fully alive are the same."

Hannah Arendt

Pauses
are rare down
the well-beaten path

Details
go unoticed
the sounds
drowned out by
silence
of overfamliarity
the comfort
and safety
of the well-beaten path
though only
imaginary
the illusion works
as it should
shielded
from worry

We feel
no pain
outside that
of our own