Category: Courage

Life Cycle

As day begins pain
Arising like the sun hours
Ago; now, let go
Find the power to persist,
Suffering, positivity
Do not co-exist,
The will is stronger; survive,
Thrive fully alive.
Be bigger than the challenge
Sink the free-shot, all net, whoosh.
Play like the champion
No one knows in these plain clothes,
Name always unknown.
It is the will which
Drives achievement, victory,
The self knows what must be done
It harbors no moment for defeat
Competition is against no other,
What must happen is proving stronger
Than yesterday’s best effort
Over and again, without pause,
Living to be a better person
Never content to give up
Never willing to contemplate
Quitting, forcing the pain small –
To relent enough to strive,
Finish all that was begun
With a conquering flourish,
One can overcome and grow.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Yesterday’s prompt on Poetic Asides was “cycle.” I am experiencing a bit of difficulty right now and felt I could do no poetry yesterday. The pain is not gone, but I am more forceful than my pain. I have never let it stop me. I wrote this today. Thank God for music. I might not make it without my Inspirations.

Alien Versus Humanity

The world slips further
Away from firm foundation
With each day imposed
Separation of us from
The who, what, how, where, we are.
Nothing is as was
Before the invader took
Lives from all of us
In action so vast, fast, cruel,
Unexpected and powerful
We are defenseless.
Our strategies to combat
The conqueror languish
In defeat because no remedy
Prepared vanquishes this unknown.
We are set apart
Distanced, often on our own;
Encouraged alone
Social creatures that we are
We have a failure to thrive.
To go on living
We set ourselves without touch
Not coming near, beside,
But in isolation, we suffer harm
Needing the love of one another.
We are not forever ruined
No alien, whether creature
Or deadly virus has ever
Withstood the corporate
Function of human beings
Acting in concerted
Determination of Love.
It is not over, God,
In His wisdom will in time
His many blessings align
With our monumental need,
And we people will break free.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Another bit of late-night musing. Bleak, but no, overall victorious. Hold on to all you hold in your heart, love will overcome.

Strength

Quiet pours down, light
As the lock of hair
Grabbed and swirled round
Index finger and thumb;
Numb, numb, wilted
In the stifling of late day
March heat, barely able
To forego the house,
Walking buoyant dogs
Whose muscles ripple
Like a wake under sinew.
Ensconced uneasy in bed
Never invalid, never stop,
But the strength, it erodes,
Still, that is a no; push, go,
Various ways to give the ankle
Purchase to convey upright
This reason that is a being
Unwilling to acquiesce to
Anything against progress
Fighting always pain, doubt, fear,
“Begone, leave this one be. Strength
Remains, life retains, love stokes
The vision, all abides, stand – over-ride.”

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

The Prompted Positive Poetry prompt for today was “Strength.”

Perceive

Turn yourself around
Look to see,
Not what you want,
Recognize
The depths of reality.
The picture
Is clear if your heart
Is engaged,
But it is much simpler
To only observe
The surface.
Vision lighted by love
Is seldom
Encouraged by those
Who maintain powers
Over bulk humanity.
By grouping lots
Together
The individual is masked,
Hidden behind layers
Too numerous to comprehend.
Persons alone
Dealt disadvantageous
Circumstance, pain,
May be maladapted
To herd mentality.
Every heart beating
Real,
Soul aching to be filled
Has ability, creativity,
Beauty enough
To withstand trouble,
Triumph and overcome.
Look to see
Inside the spirit
That infuses life
With all the joy
One chooses
To partake,
We are beloved,
Let us celebrate.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

This poem was written during the morning’s wee hours. The one previously posted was written in daylight. My schedule encompasses much of the night. The fact I sleep so little is a bit of a bother.

Driven to Prosperity

“Live long and prosper,” quoth Spock,
As I sit on a tan imitation leather sofa
Watching a small black & white television
With the minty smoke of Daddy’s KOOL’s
Wafting around me like misty swamp fog.
“Forgive them,” He said, “for they know not…”
My parents bought an air conditioner after
Being told I would die without I had one,
But cigarettes, he did not know, at least maybe.
“Live long and prosper,” quoth Spock,
I wish his Vulcan self could have intervened,
Kept me safe when all my books were scattered
Over the pavement of the street and I was
Knocked entirely off my feet almost daily,
I got a suitcase for the books because damaging
Those hurt me in a way I cannot explain,
But I said nothing to justify the scrapes
Usually, I tried to limit the sight of my body.
“Live long and prosper,” quoth Spock,
His words were encouragement enough to try
Picking myself up repeatedly and pushing hard
To learn, learn, learn, I kept my mind in hiding
It could not be bullied, abused, stopped, turned,
It was a well-tuned engine fueled by possibility
And every particle I gathered and consumed
Made my hunger and thirst grow for something
Further, rarer, richer, deeper, more.
Prosperity only measured by my constant
Cultivation of the thriving garden of knowledge
Gained in a quest, I maintain even to today,
To live long and prosper without cowering again.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan