We are supposed to be
Children
All our lives
Even as we handle grownup
Things
But hurt and lies and vanity
Make us doubt
Our childlike nature
And so we pursue
Things that make us
Jaded.
Faded
Are our memories
Of when we were
Free
To be
To explore and see
The beauty
Created all around us
And in each other
And in ourselves.
Most times
We wear a grownup face
Which is to say
We adopt conventions
Full of intentions
To live and let give
But not to give
Ourselves away.
All the while
We starve
Our childlike heart
Behind the art
Of hiding
Our vulnerability
And our reality
Gets submerged
In the mishmash
Of "getting along."
We can't be strong
Because our power
Our joy
Is an offense or a threat
Or just an ugly reminder
Of the lives not dared
In the faces
Of those around us.
Some challenge, some boast
But the most
Good
We can do
Is to disarm
Those hurting the most
To be so real
They dare to enter
Where only fools survive
That is, to come fully alive.
Joni was wrong
In her song
We can't get ourselves
Home
By striving, conniving
Scheming or even dreaming.
We just have to let go
So we can grow
Younger again.
The Garden never left us
We ran away
But today
I say
Click your heels
Stop making deals
Stop spinning wheels
And FEEL
Touch, smell, listen and sing
Get into the swing
And dance
And the romance
Of breathing deep
Will show the yellow path
Back.
Duggan Flanakin, from Infinite Galaxies:Poems from the Dugout
Duggan Flanakin is a small-town boy from the segregated South whose love of freedom matches his love of people. He has fought for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam (and other needless wars) and against the takeover of America by an insensitive bureaucracy. His life's real work though has been equipping and encouraging those in his orbit to find their futures through love and trust to become their best true selves.
