Memories and Secrets

 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?