Look into the mirror and what do you see?
A reflection of now and what used to be
You stop and stare and reflect for a minute
Is that the real me that I see or somebody else in it?
Your mind quickly scans a life that has passed
Brought to the present where you ponder at last
The meaning that reflection has hidden inside
The things that you cherish, the thing you despise
The things you see right there before your eyes
Too many things to consider
Too many things to quibble
Too many things to reflect upon
Too many things to meditate
Too many things to ruminate
You come to a conclusion and rightly so
There are some things in life you hold on to
There are some things in life you have to let go
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Life  can only be understood backwards;
But it must be lived forward.”
Soren kierkegaard

When distress, hurting, and suffering
Arrive at your door, and enter your life
And the unbearable pain cuts like a knife
Just when it seems that life has
Nothing to remain, and the stress and
Strain are driving you insane, never
Let your life be defined by your pain

Take that drug. Take that pill
Take it as you will
A temporary relief that’s what’s in store
But it always comes back begging for more

You look around as the world spins around
Hoping for a cure, but never for sure
You ask yourself how much a body can endure
Your body filled with searing pain
You groan in anguish, but never complain

No matter what they say or do
No one experiences your pain but you
You bear it and hold it closely inside
Playing the victim is something you never decide

You hope for another future another day
For someone or something to take the pain away
But all of us have our cross to bear
No one is exempt no one is truly free
You begin to understand there is no other plea
Life has worth life has value not to disdain
So never let your life be defined by your pain

Death arrived when I was born
His umbra my blanket of darkness
A veil that can’t humanly be torn
Left me helpless, sullen, and forlorn

Death transcends all imaginations
No one knows of his location
You see him in the eyes of every mourner
You’ll find him waiting around every corner
He appears as quickly as he goes
Taking with him a life he has chose

Released from the garden easy to describe
Death is dark
Death is empty
Death is cold
Death the antonym of alive

Death has no respect of person or class
No one is ever given a pass
A one-way ticket you must save
A final journey destination the grave

They say that “the wages of sin is death”
Yet man always seems to forget
The one that death claimed, but has risen
And has released man from death’s prison
But few will escape, waiting to be saved
To be redeemed from that one-way ticket
To the grave
**************
“It is better to go to a house of mourning
Then to go to a house of feasting
Because this is the end of every man
And the living take it to heart”
Ecclesiastes (7:2)

Time won’t let us erase the scars of our youth
The ones we forever replay
The ones we carry the pains of our yesterday
Lasting scars that never go away
Scars of our disappointments, loses, defeats
Scars we never impart
Scars of the heart
Scars of our youth
The ones we need to address.The ones we need to confess.

And although they have become the fingerprints of our hearts
We can never let them destroy, tear apart, or impede,
What love has determined what love has decreed

So don’t let scars harden your heart or take
Away the joy that love can impart
Be diligent in love remaining aware
Not to bring scars into a new love affair
********************************************
“Scars have a strange power to remind us
That our past is real”
Cormac Mc Carthy
“All the Pretty Horses”

Time and change take away
The things that we love one by one
The things we so cherish under the sun
They gently replace them with things
That are new
But the new may not please us
As the old used to do
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Time changes everything except
something within us which is
always surprised by change”
Thomas Hardy

Man often thinks he can go at it alone
Living in a world unto himself
Never knowing or seeking, reaping what he has sown
Placing all emotions upon the shelf

Going thru existence, emotions in check,void of feelings, locked in a vault
Full of gentleness, kindness, love, humility, and respect
Seeking self- satisfaction, all others at fault

Friends for amusement, always for props
A vicious cycle that never stops
On a merry-go-round, but never a brass ring
Round and round it never stops for anyone or anything.

But when the merry-go-round ride has ended
And it becomes time to step down
He stands alone, No voices, No sounds
Looking around he finds a lifetime of envy
And pride, but no one to share or touch by his side
Never knowing that a man’s fulfillment in life
Doesn’t mean much without the feminine touch
************************************************
“No man is an island
Entire of itself”
John Donne

As age quickly descends a curtain closing the end of day
I reflect on the moments spent in childhood at play
A longing to return home a place where my dreams always seem to roam

The smells of the burning autumn leaves
The smells of the kitchens thru the open windows
The sight of the iceman, the vegetable wagon, the shoemaker with his rolled up sleeves
The smell of the city buses as they roll on by
The mothers with their supper cry
Are cherished thoughts of days gone by

We’d sit on the stoop cloaked in innocent youth, dare not a care in the world
Our thoughts always the same
Our lives lived for only just that moment
A childhood game
We shared each other’s desires
We shared each other’s thoughts
A closeness everyone sought
Nothing it seemed could break the bond of that friendship we so depended upon
A lasting that enveloped our days and nights
Never was there a moment of doubt that we would ever be without

But time could be rewarding,or time could be cruel everyone has to play by the rules
Puberty robs us of our innocent play, as life entraps us in so many ways
Looking thru bars, as fate leads us on ,fate is all we have to depend upon
Our destiny mapped out in the soul of our being
Predestination is what our tired eyes are seeing
Born into nurturing arms, living to survive, all that God should be glorified

As age quickly descends a curtain closing at the end of day
I reflect on the moments spent in childhood at play
Though friends are gone, all to the grave, our destinies our traveled on roads forever paved
For somewhere in eternity we will share each other’s desires share each other’s thoughts
A closeness everyone sought
************************
“I never had friends later on
Like the ones I had
When I was twelve,
Jesus,does anyone?”

The last words of  Gordie on his computer
“Stand by me”(1986)