*****

Recorded Reading (2:47): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2aahl42gnv5tbh554x96n/Gently-to-Begin.mp3?rlkey=f3xa4tocxv7bupdm32l1bhx1c&st=li2jbc1a&dl=0

*****

Gently to Begin

Place others a bit further off
Don’t be afraid to be alone
Take some of your own sweet time
Your inner skills to hone

No longer jumping to the snap
Of society’s finger,
On the things which really matter
Find you longer linger

Hearkening unto the whispers
Of that ‘still, small voice’
Saying you feel accurately,
Telling you you have a choice

In every single little moment:
To capitulate
To all the false conditions to which
Others wish you to relate,

Or go with what your heart is
Telling you’s the only way
Our culture — and our planet —
Will ever see a better day

And then — go out and Be your Self
In this world of clones;
Reminding the complacent
That there are more unknowns

Uncovered by our sciences
Each and every day —
Think what you desire to think
Sing out what you have to say

We’ve still got a right here,
Even at this last,
To advocate opinion
But — look around — it’s going fast…

There is no one like yourself
Humankind among:
If, all your life, your personal
Talents be unsung,

Your contributions taken for
The easy granted, and
Then more than you can really give
Be the next demand;

If, rather than be grateful,
Others disrespectful are —
When afar, they want you near,
When you’re near, afar

If expect you parrot to
Their every preference
Nor tender, if you do not so,
Any measure of defense;

If they see you as something
Undesirable —
Anything except what you are:
Genuinely wonderful

(As are we all, looked on with love,
Every single one,
No matter what we cringe to think
We have or haven’t done) —

Then put them further from you
Keep them at the gate
Decide the when, the how, the where
In which you will consent relate

Make good use of this Moment
In our cosmic calendar
Withdrawal in — discovery
Of Who you really Are

And then emerge, when life
Resumes its busyness again,
A brighter and a warmer world
Gently to begin

*****

The poet/editor of this website is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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