This poem has to do with the inclination, common among writers, I think, to live entirely in one’s own head. This desire to be a recluse is enabled by our many electronic distractions and playthings. Yet such a life is not very satisfying.
Here I play with the notion of mind and body, and consider how important both are to our happiness and sense of connection, even as we age and look forward to an existence of pure spirit.
Thanks for coming by to read.
Although I have a lot to do,
I cannot leave my Self behind,
A being, merely bodiless,
Ethereal, and only mind.
But while my tunes are ringing loud
And playing in my inner ear,
I block the sounds around me, and
I hear what only I can hear.
I’m like a flautist with his flute,
Whose breath composes but a part:
The shape of his thin cylinder
Enshrines intangibles in art.
So too, this flesh, it transports passion,
Ferries words and meaning, too.
So acts this body like a plane
I charter, bringing me to you.
And though ephemeral and short,
Our brief, bleak sojourn on this plane,
Our separate spirits can’t comport,
Without these aching bonds of pain.
We watch our aging flesh rebel.
Meanwhile, our mind, it sparks and flies!
No matters what the mirror tells,
Our Selves will be forever spry!
Copyright 2022 Andrea LeDew
For a poem about the value of an individual mind in the age of the Internet, read Hive Mind.
You express in great poetic form what I feel every day: my mind is getting younger as my body is getting older—but maybe that‘s a blissful illusion…
I prefer not to think so. Even those whose mental faculties decline, in the eyes of the outside world, are sparking away in their own interior space. We always seem to judge the most harshly, the things which we do not understand. So glad you came by!
This “anonymous” reply was mine—directly from your FB post. Glad you think that my illusion may not be one…
Should we all be so lucky as to live a life of travel and adventure like yours! I suspected that that anonymous visitor might be you! I think we all live in a state of pleasant delusion a fair amount of the time, so why should old age be different? As for FB or other ways of getting here, I’m just happy you’ve come to visit!
nicely done 🙂
Thanks prior!!