This is an old one, that has taken decades to finish, although I suspect it will never be finally finished and will always be a work in progress. When you’re young, and if you can stay young, there is always danger, originality, first discoveries, imagination and dreams in your heart for the future to deal with, and occasionally literal cliff edges, beauty, deep blue waters and places to escape to.
Memories and Secrets
Back then we all had secrets,
private and treasured
when we were young and new
with impetuous hearts
wide-eyed at life, drinking in hard
secrets of cliff edges that held our breathe,
hidden beauty we thought only we could see,
of secret places to swim in deep blue waters,
and to fly to at night, while others slept
secrets of fires, and fears and foolishness
some shared, confessed with strict boundaries,
loosened out at the end of exhausting days,
all those secret places are in another country now
does the recollection of summer bring a glow to your skin ?
do you have enough memories to keep you warm through the winter ?
now we are older and those secrets are lifeless, even the raging fires
without memories what is a man?
without knowledge of his own history
his anchors, his secret places
his pivotal moments and formative years
the crutches when his heart was broken, deceived,
or lifted in victory and triumph
without memories what is a man?
is he free, or merely a shell?
Unbound, or lost forever?
