A Daily Joy To Be Alive Poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca

A Daily Joy To Be Alive

Rating: 3.2


No matter how serene things
may be in my life,
how well things are going,
my body and soul
are two cliff peaks
from which a dream of who I can be
falls, and I must learn
to fly again each day,
or die.

Death draws respect
and fear from the living.
Death offers
no false starts. It is not
a referee with a pop-gun
at the startling
of a hundred yard dash.

I do not live to retrieve
or multiply what my father lost
or gained.

I continually find myself in the ruins
of new beginnings,
uncoiling the rope of my life
to descend ever deeper into unknown abysses,
tying my heart into a knot
round a tree or boulder,
to insure I have something that will hold me,
that will not let me fall.

My heart has many thorn-studded slits of flame
springing from the red candle jars.
My dreams flicker and twist
on the altar of this earth,
light wrestling with darkness,
light radiating into darkness,
to widen my day blue,
and all that is wax melts
in the flame-

I can see treetops!

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Mahtab Bangalee 24 December 2019

I do not live to retrieve or multiply what my father lost or gained. I continually find myself in the ruins of new beginnings, ......../// greatly written, great poetic expression

0 0 Reply
arvin 07 February 2018

what year is this poem anyway?

3 1 Reply
Castle Biggar 12 September 2013

loved it it was inspiring

12 9 Reply
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Jimmy Santiago Baca

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Santa Fe, New Mexico
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