Trying To Alter The Course Of The River Of Thought Poem by Jan Freundschuh

Trying To Alter The Course Of The River Of Thought



The Code is calling to my attention again,
The code of Life, that is -
I am struggling to decode.

I get the noun 'Time',
But what is the surrounding grammar?
Worry about the swift passing of time?
Don't worry about it......Relax?

I'll go with: Don't worry about it
As that is more consonant with
Previous passages.

But how? how to not worry in
The face of awareness
Of all of these, our troubles?

-Simple. There is no way
-Without the greatest of
-Paradigm Shifts.

Splendid! How helpful!
What shift would that be?
Pray tell, Know-it-all.

-Well, turn the whole thing
-Over on its head.
-If it is Death that frightens,
-Make Death itself the goal
-Make it the proud day
-You finally pen
-'The End' to your novel.

-If 'cruelty' scares you
-(This is truly a hard one) ,
-Make it very, very abstract.....
-Make it but a wrong turn
-In the Maze of the brain
-As we all seek
-A way out.

-If separation makes you cry;
-Mother from child,
-Child from mother:

(See, there's no way.....just no way....
To make this plunge, a floating!)

-Not so. If we're not the mother....
-But only dearly loved 'babysitter'....
-Don't be a usurper.....nor bewail
-Mother-Child reunion.

Enough of this imagining.
Cowards die a thousand deaths,
The brave man only once.

What did you call it?
The novelist's last page?
Guess I'll try to keep focused on
The narrative at hand.

* * * * * * * * *

Time......Time.......
Spring is in the air.
But I don't want to be lulled,
Silenced, by the beauty.

-Why not?

Because I try to separate out
What is me....what is She....
(What the great rolling
Of the planet's power) .

Cause I'm here......
.....Must be to make some
Kind of mark.

-Fundamental question now:
-Why?
-What does this tell you?
-This need to make a mark?
-What will it mean
-100 years from now?

It means, I'm part of a larger whole?
It means, contributing's the goal?

When I was young, I had no such thought,
I was some kind of animal
Rooting around for pleasure
And good luck.

The goal was for more 'spotlight'
On me!
World, pay attention!
Mommy! watch what I can do!

But I didn't do much
Because I kept getting distracted
By shiny objects, from
A book, a stroll, a song.

So I zigzagged between my plans
And the intrigues of
The mysteries.

* * * * * * * * * *

And now all is quiet
And I'm decoding life's message
And it speaks of Time

And it seems to say
'Don't worry'.

It says, - Life teaches through pain
-And it teaches through ease,

-If you've spent much time in
-The classroom of Dr. Pain
-Take your next semester
-With this very different teacher.

Here's the sad part....the hard part....
One would think this would be
Lovely to hear,
And very easily done
(A welcome task at hand) .

But I keep getting D's and F's
In Relaxation 101.

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