Qualified As Identified Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

My place is where my footsteps are traced,
To validate as made to make known.
It took me a long time to see it that way,
Since I only adventured...
To follow my own curiosities unlimited.
Leaving to fear what I could not see,
Left to ignore someone else's philosophy.
That would label me from their point of view.
And squeezed to fit in a box from bottom to top.

My place is where my footsteps are traced,
To validate as made and to myself shown.
And if I had sought an identity others accepted,
To think it needed as a pre-requisite first...
I'd be following others like many do,
To never find a thirsting to adventure.
Or believe those experiences I lived to face,
Would not have me today qualified as identified.
And with significant evidence applied on a daily basis.