Thoughts from a Quiet Day in Solitude
“We do not learn from experiences; we learn from reflecting on experiences.”—John Dewey
As I walked along the
Cracked city sidewalk
A fall leaf fell before my feet
My eyes followed it to its fall from grace
I bent over picked it up and held it to my nose
Just then the exhausts of car engines rose
I felt a pang within than sang a voiceless song
Replete with frustration
I closed my eyes and breathed wishing a rush of wind
Would sway my fragmentation
Wishing the backdrops in the back of my head were
Orange sunsets and undulating silhouetted mountains
and soaring creatures….
But sounds of car horns opened my eyes and
And an android with a cell phone
Pounded into me
Ignorant of the flamboyant fall leaves flirting with alacrity
I know, I know….
Alluding to ANYONE as anything other than a “human being”
Is reductive and divisive,
But I must NOT dissemble in moments when “truth” can heal the victimizer
And unite a cooperative of victims
I read a decisively severe literary shellacking that wreaked havoc on
The paradoxical and philosophical and inhumane ambiguities
Protruding from our bungling orifices
Why must we identify with
How we look
What’s between our thighs
Who we sleep with
What we do and
How much we do it for?
Less you want to create the illusion of knowing anyone
If you know where they come from,
This tells you nothing of their humanity
It’s time for someone to address the mundanity in questions like
“Where are you from, what do you do, where’d you go to school?”
All nonsense questions to create the illusion of a meaningful conversation
when I’d much rather talk about my study of the pragmatic stoics like
Hellenistic philosopher and founder of the Stoic school of philosophy Zeno of Citium or
Epictetus another Stoic philosopher best known for his works
The Enchiridion (a handbook I possess in my library actually) and his Discourses,
Both foundational works in Stoic philosophy, etc… His most famous quote was:
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows”
Is that you? Is that me? Is that we?!
Broom away the dirt from your soul to reveal what you probably “think” you knew all along…
How can giants sometimes speak so gently amidst the grandest calamities?
When thoracic arteries with sublime complexities sees humdrum atrocities
in that moment of clarity
see the grandeur around you
And surrender to its glory
J’aime mes livres (I love my books) for they are the map to my soul
Books that I wrote myself for posterity
That my literary art would serve as an
Edification to usher the future to find and know me
For what I was and will forever be in infinity…
Disease of the spirit is when you fail to recognize
Your own growth
Entombed in barking and carping at your failures
You fail to listen to gentle songs of wisdom
From the herds of insanity!
There will come soft rains
Pure and clean as a bucolic silver spring
To wash away the pain
There will come soft rains
Attired in metallic grey and
Be it be a cloudy day,
Brings in the rainbow
To keep the clouds at bay
There will come soft rains,
Run naked and carefree in the torrent
Rediscover forgotten moments of juvenility
Wash away those strains of merging maturity
There will come soft rains
Like a melodic refrain
As I board the regressive train
Back to a place where
Pain no longer reigns
Remember that surrender is
The key to letting go
Remember that surrender is
The key to personal freedom
Remember that surrender is
The key to personal power
I surrender
Jousting childhood memories
I surrender
Pungent adulthood discrepancies
I surrender
Mounting life adversities
I surrender to the divine
All those who are maligned
May they (and I) find the peace and serenity
Of the pious and the holy…
Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian-American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming , Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Spirit of Change Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at: http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.
