The Voyageur and the Dare

I am about to embark on a voyage of self-discovery; I am going to throw myself into the unknown.

What is it, to be independent? I'd like to think that I already know, but in reality, I am just as needy as everyone else. We are all dependent. We thrive off of each other's love and support, whereas we shrivel when we encounter negative emotion: We are never truly in control of ourselves. Part of being human is being vulnerable; being susceptible to others. Allowing a complete stranger to bring you joy, while acknowledging that the person you love most can cause you agony. We need each other to survive.

If you were placed in the woods tomorrow--without your precious cellphone, your socialite counter-parts--what would you do?

I sure as Hell know that I wouldn't be complaining.

I would bask in the sunlight and ponder my youth. I would relish at my body and be thankful for my limbs. From the tips of my fingers to the tips of my toes, these little pieces and parts combine to form the person that I am. I would lay under a tree, and I'd let my pupils dilate while the sunlight strikes me between each wavering leaf, caught on the light breeze. Then I'd marvel at all that I am.

For a second, marvel with me. Marvel at your hands, at your toes. Marvel at your bellybutton. Marvel at the idea that your ability to survive all grew from an intimate connection between yourself and another human being, while all that remains in a blemish on your abdomen.

Now, I dare you to go find peace. Go appreciate yourself. Go appreciate others.

I dare you to love fearlessly and adventure daringly into the great unknown with me. We are all on a never ending voyage of self-discovery.

"If I can't change the world, I'll change the world within my reach." -Catie Curtis

Infinity

Like most everything, they come from a seed.
Sprouting, stretching and pushing up through the soil
A tree is growing here. First the height
Will increase exponentially, a teenage boy
Of a tree, having to be long and lean
Before it thickens in the midriff. Illuminated against the
Glow of clouds in the wintry nigh,
One can see each individual branch for what it's worth.
O, why art thou masked by leaves, fair tree?
While each and every branch offers bud upon bud of unending life,
A continuum of growth, an example of the infinity.
O, how many branches you can extend towards the sky!
O, how many people you can touch with those extensions,
While they all emerge from one central source.
I envy you, tree.
I envy your decorative leaves;
Your inability to go backwards, your ability to grow skyward;
The detail with which you are composed.
A piece of eternal life within a mortal millennia.
A slice of perfection within a world of tragedy.
Like you, my tree, I came from a seed.

Back to the Building Blocks

Ted Peterson, Forever Crystal

(Inspired by the changing of the seasons and the natural wonder associated with it.)

Loftily the grasses sway:
Held in mud, they'll never stray.
Drifting like the censored thoughts
I hold on to in this day.
Hexagonal webs of crystal fall;
Consistently original, uniformly small,
Losing their identities in the masses--
The idividual never existed at all.
With birth of young comes flight of old;
The botanic blooming, the Marigold;
The first few steps of a small child;
These the moments to which we'll hold.
O, cycle of death, and cycle of life
A time to fight the unending strife.          [M.K. Cook]

Baby

Is there no beat inside your womb:
Would you render it heartless?
Now it's left a broken tomb,
Tumbling down the precipice.
Yet you only saw a vision;
And dreamwork will lead fools astray.
This emptiness--perhaps an illusion--
Is causing your heartstrings to fray.
O, his passing will bring you solemnity;
You know he lives on above.
His existence is marked with brevity,
But also unconditional love.
Continue to feel, continue to be kind,
Within the deepest heartbreak, you will turn out fine.          [M.K. Cook]

Thoreau Impacts Me

Excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's Reflections at Walden

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

Henry David Thoreau's challenge of living an isolated, wholesome life in nature epitomizes all that I stand for as an individual. I discovered Thoreau during the summer going into my freshman year; his flowery language and deep appreciation for raw forms of beauty inspire me. Thoreau writes movingly and fluidly, and never fails to chill me with this passage. Associating my own thoughts with the views of many other transcendentalist writers, Thoreau's clarity with which he sees the world pierces me as striking and powerful.  If i could give you one line that best describes who I am--and why I'm here--I'd say: "I [do] not wish to live what [is] not life, living is so dear..."

Pedals

Inspired by Robert Frost, "Stopping by the woods on a Snowy Evening"

Blood that flows so silently,
Caught in creases of my knee;
Though you can't feel this wav'ring pain
It's succeeded to master me.
Pedals circling, up and over;
Peaceful fields, four-a-clover:
They're caught in my peripheral vision.
Expression blank, my mindset sober.
The bicycle swerved off some grass,
Metal against concrete yielded "Crash!"
I swiftly kicked free of its grip;
Please don't think my actions rash.
The asphalt was supple, a falling tide.
Downwards, wheels spun the ride.
Alone with phantoms at my side,
Alone with phantoms at my side.          [M.K. Cook]

Sarah

Character Sketch

While I wait for you
lost like a child
crawling, absorbed in the memory
of tiny eyes unblinking
and
While I wait for you
in your black dress
with sunken eyes
wishing for eternal life
like Heaven's existence will make or break you
I whisper
While I wait for you
you strong bull of a mother
once a giver of love, turned alien due to lack thereof
I reach out
through this heartbreak
I reach out          [M.K. Cook]