The Art Of Life Poem by Masa MbathaOpasha

The Art of Life


It’s not life if you’re not free
If you live to please
the weird impositions
Of a cruel and senseless world
It’s not life if your doubts and fears
Determine the living color of your mood
If the image on the mirror
doesn’t half resemble
the real nature of your inner-self
It’s not life if your tears don’t wash away
the impurity of your soul
If your loneliness doesn’t praise
The mystic beauty of the universe
It’s not life if you don’t stand aside
once in awhile
quietly overwhelmed by the music of the earth
If everything you touch with your hands
Doesn’t break into flames
Fueled by the passion of your mind
It’s not life if at night, when seized by a panic
You cannot bury your face
in the soft legs of someone you love
or faint carelessly in their kissing embrace
It’s not life if you don’t have the art of living
The skill of making a little ritual
out of your own bad luck
If you don’t know how to light a little fire
Made of dead leaves
It’s not life if you don’t understand
That you’re lucky enough to be left behind
While the winners run ahead
To wherever winners go running to
Every failure is a pause,
an opportunity to reflect
A chance to look at one’s existence
With deeper insight and new promises
It’s not life if your want of happiness
Becomes your daily god
imprisoning your will
Flooding you completely
with the madness of arrogance
It’s not life if you refuse to live
Just because you are afraid to die