After We've Gone

After we've gone
shadows still will bloom upon
The dusty surfaces of our rooms
stemming from lamp and leg,
The silent echoes of inanimate things
which survive us -

Rising and falling to the tune of the sun.

Night Comes

Night comes with no subtle ceremony

ushered in 
behind a parade of altered brilliance

Each moment asserts its distinctiveness

then bows before the next

As the day quickly evaporates

leaving only

Pools of light, scattered and spread

across this world of countless surfaces

No longer a place

you could tie any sort of name to

Walking, suddenly

Walking, suddenly
I sense mortality
looming
over me like a tower.

It will not always
be so effortless, these
move-
ments; the ease
with which I
exert in-
fluence over
the self.

The Sun is warm.
This is good
to think about.

Good Questions

In grade school my classes were repeatedly told that there are no bad questions, and while there are exceptions to every rule, I tend to agree. It seems an important thing to know at a young age, for in the absence of answers, children have an exceptional amount of questions. Like questions, answers are also a good thing most of the time, but they are not enough in and of themselves. Every answer requires a sufficient explanation in order to fully satisfy its query. "That's just the way it is," stunts curiosity, our primary motivation for learning.

To my mind, a childlike curiosity and wonder is a healthy and natural response to the ambiguous nature of the world. We are not born with an understanding of what we are, why we are, or how we came to be. The sky cannot tell us these things. Answers rarely prove readily apparent, and observation quickly leads to investigation.

A recent observation: often, when we use the phrase, "Good question," it is in response to a question without an answer, or without a clear or easily declarative answer. Now this phrase can be delivered sarcastically, as if to say, "Who knows." Or it can be used sincerely, suggesting that the difficult questions are the questions most worth considering.

Difficult questions are not to be answered lightly, and often have as much to teach us as the answers themselves. Each proposed solution has implications that must be carefully weighed. Wisdom, then, has less to do with producing answers, and is evidenced more in the manner with which we respond to questions. Do we acknowledge uncertainty when it crosses our path, or do we rush to dismiss it? There is nuance in everything. An honest examination requires a suspension of certitude; at which point we might look again with childlike eyes, and learn to embrace the ambiguity that we find.

The Narrow Gate / Outside Looking In

           There is more to life    than the denial of death

      Here. On the other side    of acceptance.