Category: Language

Beyond Here

Please strap me in, tight,
I am afraid of rollercoasters,
Runaway, lost in time,
Unanchored in the
How, what, when, where, who, why –
It is, I am, belong.
I dream of better days,
But the daze of dreams cannot,
Without concerted effort
Hope to materialize;
Reality is
A making space where things
Become only sometimes substantial.
I have staked my ideas in loamy soil –
Of inked paper, but little traction
My words have created, they slide
As if on brittle ice or hydroplane
Under driving rain, to be read
But seldom, perhaps never, again.
I believe in the Word,
I know nothing except language,
The romance of apt phrases long
Ago seized me taking most,
All the heart, mind, soul of me.
Who am I –
If not a creator, lyricist, poet,
Wordsmith, writer, an interpreter
Of things glimpsed, but rarely seen?
I am the shade of ink spilled,
A shadow in eternity,
Sent to speak, who am too weak
To fight, yet engage in
Extraordinary battles
In the war of the soul,
Continuously going on.
I must not eject injuriously
Now, though the rollercoaster
Sore abrade me, its brutality
Coaches me to fight my fears
Remaining a force for LOVE,
Understanding, in our
Destructively sybaritic world.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Cognition

What is harder than diamonds,
But fuels like coal?
The blatant disregard
We have for the dear things
Held sacred within people’s souls.
Often, we, unknowing
As a freshly diapered babe
Are only in ourselves given to see
What shines, brilliantly bright,
Though around us circle
Unnumbered universes of light –
Revealed in eyes that announce
Narratives of creation, creativity,
Inspiration, independently sourced.
We unthinkingly rush
In
Abhorrent uniform to wreak
Havoc with demands to conform –
The mountains, oceans, sky,
Beg, please have mercy on
Everyone, see, hear, know
All are brief and majestic,
Passing flowers of eternity.
We never exist alone, galaxies,
Civilizations, populations
Are inherently our home.
No strangeness is too strange,
For love survives all vexation,
Bringing reflections of potentiality.
Remember everything, every –
One of us is striving to graduate
To higher realms of becoming,
Being, meaning, which cannot
Block out or isolate the present.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Dues We Pay

Today will not lay down
Before you,
It is a gamble –
Turning cards, rolling dice;
There is a cost, a sacrifice…
You may have paid yesterday,
Or the price can come due tomorrow –
But whatever it is, anything you do,
The bill will be in the box demanding
Your hours spent making currency
Of your life, who you have become
Who you will grow further to be.
Smile,
Yes, smile,
Let go the doubt that troubles,
Even as you are, others too must be,
All are transcribing signals –
Determining how to be happy in
The constraints of our humanity.
As you stand before your mirror
Bless the image you see,
Recognize you belong,
A part of everything:
Snow-melt off the mountains,
Sunlight baking asphalt,
Electricity coursing through the wires,
Dogs barking erratically,
Grass growing until mown –
You are past, present, and futurity.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Who?

An owl flies over,
Again, my love, screeching, “Who?”
Do you have the question’s answers?
Sometimes
I do, others – the illusions, there
Is nothing to say;
I fail.
Knowing myself –
My soul resembles all the books
In all the libraries;
Without taking them, one by one,
Reading every page
The stories grow dusty, old,
The language begins to fade –
Knowledge withers; it never
Unfolds.
I believed when youth bloomed,
By now, I would know myself;
Exposed by this uncanny fowl
I recognize I have not grasped
Tools needed to understand life,
Even less, who I am – only –
Endless
Queries, abysmally pointless.
Every person posed similarly
An interview to take some time,
A chance of investing themselves with,
“Who?”
At present, I know why
I wish, “Who?”
To better myself, know the whole of me,
Never forgetting how I love you.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Life Applied

Doubt drives, boring a hole, through
The midst of dedicated lives searching
For fortunate answers, viable ideas,
Told in the harmony of truths,
Caught fast in the discord of loss.
We can open ourselves –
Gift one another with reality
Wash deception away with positivity
Discover the best of who we are –
Building value into each heart, soul.
Dancing as we are joyful,
Hugging when we need support,
Facing our dragons together,
Rising like Phoenixes from the ashes
Where nearly slain, we conquered pain.
No weapons fatal required, but reason,
Wisdom studied, prepared, applied,
Freely shared to light a path through
Spaces inhabited by shades of darkness
Securing the light of generosity, kindness,
Love to every area, corner, portion,
All quarters where precious humanity
In gorgeous beauty survives on Earth.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan