While my prose may sometimes be passable, I have no talent for poetry. Unfortunately, that doesn’t keep me from trying now and again. A few thoughts rolled around in my mind in the shower after zazen today. My apologies in advance.
In this Genesis spoke well:
We are born from the earthen clay.
But it is ours to mold
into the likeness of God.Even in our youth
must we work the clay,
daily throwing ourselves
upon the wheel,
with each turn,
through the motion of our feet
and the guidance of our hands,
a fitter vessel crafting.If the clay should harden
into frozen stone
before the final turn,
and we find ourselves
misshapen, imperfect,
not fit for the final glaze,
let us not despair.Rather, take we chisel in hand,
and slowly chip our defects away.
For just as David emerged
from his flawed marble
a masterpiece,
so shall we.
Your bravery is to be commended- posting one’s work publicly is difficult; posting an introspective work of expression requires massive self-confidence.
I applaud your willingness to embrace your “whole mind”, to use Daniel Pink’s term.
Doing so will surely enhance your ability to understand and appreciate the world in its fullness.
As a fellow INTJ type, I find it hard to include non-rational expressions into my communication. This is a good encouragement to push myself to consider and use alternative expressions of understanding. (But don’t hold your breath for any poetry from me.)
Thanks for your words of encouragement, Jon. I hadn’t made the connection, but I am actually in the middle of reading Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind presently, so perhaps this was a subconscious attempt to strengthen my usually secondary right-brain thinking modalities. Perhaps I’m offering it in the same vein as Pink offered his own “before” self-portrait, sketched prior to taking the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain training.
I am, however, still applying to MBA, not MFA programs! The wisdom of that decision in light of Pink’s arguments on the dawning of the Conceptual Age in the West and the devaluation of left-brain skills in the flat world of Abundance, Asia, & Automation will be seen.
In any event, I’m not sure whether this bit of public poetry amounts to self-confident bravery or foolhardy self-disclosure, but for someone stifled by fear of humiliation, it’s probably a healthy exercise. And, given that I only have 4 occasional readers, no ambitions for public office, and no designs on becoming poet laureate, I figure I can’t do myself too much damage…