Choose Life

And on those night-daze,

when grappling demons

from blurred perceptions

to black horizon,

When objectivity

is a hypothetical concept

sucked into a vortex

of self loathing,

When despondent failure

lurks ominously overhead

like foreshadowed

conclusions of doom,

When pathos paints and taints

every invective,

pummeling the writhing spirit

of hubris conceded,

When mental crucifixion

of a soul defeated

becomes naked inconsequentiality

on distant and vacant shores

Enmeshed with grief,

shunted by disbelief,

failing to pass scrutiny and

due diligence of the heart,

 

Copyright © Henri Ferguson 2007

All rights reserved.

Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, at an arm’s length. It has always been watching you. It always will, until the day it taps you.

The thing to do when you’re impatient is … to turn to your left and ask advice from your death. An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your death makes a gesture to you, or if you catch a glimpse of it, or if you just catch the feeling that your companion is there watching you.

~ Carlos Castaneda

I read this passage by Carlos Castaneda, and it took my poetic imagination down the dark and lonely road of despair that most of us have traveled at some stage throughout our lives. Although most of us (I would like to think) do not take the left turn to self demise, some do. For the most part good and bad are retrospective evaluations and in the final analysis are just that; evaluations. Death, notwithstanding your beliefs about what transpires on the “other side”, has a rather permanent feel to it and those who choose this option, I’m sure would have a change of heart given a second chance. Every day we are assailed with mind numbing examples of human suffering where the will to live and overcome obstacles defy everything we assume about life and death. My poetic spin on our trials and tribulations is, choose life.