Far Wiser Than Most
A free verse poem
Intransigent, unbent,
even when humbled
by winds of nature itself.
Perhaps that’s just my nature
beaming as all tiny,
unremarkable dust motes do
when captured within a sunbeam,
reflecting cosmic sum of
life’s chaotic energy,
adding a message of my own;
do your worst; I’m right here.
Sure, I once gleamed as
sleek marbled dreams and
spires of unfulfilled ambition
rising, unmitigated
into stratospheres,
but as we know, as goes pride,
so goes the fall, and there are
few things as satisfying
as smugness and arrogance
– even the benign,
seemingly quietest type
– taken down a peg or two
or a few kilometers.
Only in failure’s rubble
do we truly know;
Order is the dream;
chaos, our unblinking reality.
I’m told that every failure,
every painful trauma is
a valuable lesson;
that the fruit of all calamities
yield seeds containing
teachable moments
– to view these lessons
one need only to
bend their heads to the good earth
in humility and equanimity.
At this, I laugh defiantly,
emboldened by banalities,
feeling my spiteful resolve return.
For if these things are true,
then this old fool rises
yet again, wiser,
poised to become
far wiser than most.
©2023 Barry Dawson Jr. IV — All rights reserved
