Let me offer some hard-learned advice,
About struggle and sacrifice.
No matter how strong you are,
One day you will think twice,
And denounce every scar.
“Life is not worth living anymore”,
You will say…but you must endure!
For those few precious moments…
Of joyfulness…so pure.
Life’s in the experience,
So fight on with great valor!
K. Aldaya, 1/22/23
Picture: Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider; https://www.thefandomentals.com/why-we-need-vikanders-lara-croft/
No one needs you to fight for them.
They need you in their corner.
When they’re knocked down, and can’t get up,
And a loss is almost sure;
When they fear to get back up.
They need you to notice and stay.
To be there no matter what.
Who needs a friend who disappears,
When they get their deepest cut;
When they’re on the ground in tears.
They need you to simply care.
It’s really as facile as that.
Fighters need good corners there,
To help them up from the mat.
To tend to the wounds, but mostly,
To remind them they’ve got fight.
That they’ve got this. That they are strong.
That emotions are not trite…
Over-dramatic, or wrong;
Because falling is not failing,
And needing others isn’t weak.
For life knocks us all down sometimes,
Making us feel small and meek.
Everyone needs help sometimes.
No one needs you to fight for them.
They need you in their corner.
There are victories and defeats,
And oft’times a loss is sure.
Victories may fill the seats,
Yet losses are the surest way,
To assess how brave we are.
The only way to learn and grow,
Is to get out there and spar.
For struggle is not hollow.
Every person should feel assured.
That no matter where or when.
They’ll get through each imminent fight,
Thanks to their cornermen.
K. Aldaya, 8/3/19
Picture: By: Dan Burton on Unsplash; https://unsplash.com/photos/vuZi5zk5W-A
Once upon a time there were two men born out at sea,
And though began on different ships; Each stared down their destiny.
As sailors are want to do, by time, or just sore luck,
They fell into the churning sea when a raging storm had struck.
They both knew of the Isle nearby. All the sailors knew it well.
The Isle where they were headed, ‘fore their ships sank ‘neath the swell.
The Isle was where wealthy men built mansions out of gold,
And lived in luxury and peace; Ah, truly a sight to behold!
If only they could reach that place. They knew life would be grand.
They looked at the stars that night, and oriented themselves toward land.
One man had a mile to swim. The other: nine miles more;
Though both set off with conviction, to live and reach that shore.
The first man soon made it there, and lived until old age.
He wrote books, and sculpted art; And his story is now ‘all the rage’.
The second man: he drowned at sea, less than a mile from shore.
He’d fought hard and long for those nine miles,…likely harder then any man before.
Yet sailors tell his morose tale over drinks and platitudes;
Laughing at his misfortune with disparaging attitudes.
“What’s the meaning of success? What does it mean to fail?”,
One man asked as he sat down to converse o’er another round of ale.
“You may say the first man is clearly the success.
For he made it to the Isle, and lived in grandeur and excess.
Yet, the first man only swam one mile….so is success really the case?
Is success the result of outcomes, or is it more about the race?
For I wonder why the second man, who swam for eight miles more,
And didn’t give up for those nine miles, is a failure for not reaching shore?
He may have never reached the Isle. He may have died too young.
Howe’er he lived and fought far longer, then that man on societies’ tongue.
The man who swam the further…who fought until his last,…
Is he not the man who succeeded the most?
For in the end, all men’s ‘die are cast’…
Into the sea.”
K. Aldaya, 6/9/18
Picture: Artist:? http://picturefordesktop.com/stormy-sea-images-desktop-wallpaper/
My Soul is a Lock Without a Key 