Rise, like all humans, but be aware!

Thoughts, like rabid hamsters,

Spinning in a cage of poisonous cheese,

The tangible death and joy zipping past their heads

In a free fall of delight and agony.

You must choose, mustn’t you,

Between the agony of the everyday,

The quests for fame and fortune,

Or the maudlin verities

Of one-step-at-a-time ennui and actual

Reality.

It seems the drama always wins out,

Even though you try to be normal,

Try to wrap your body and mind into eating cereal,

Drinking coffee, and passing it all down the toilet,

Where everything seems to go these days.

But, the light of creativity, that holy shroud that

Basks within you, as if it were indeed the holy shroud

That covers genius in every profession, comes forth

Once more. You radiate within, but nobody sees it. Yet.

When the pages begin to flow, the jewels start to shine,

And the pains and struggles leap on the page, in prose or in poem,

Life starts to make you into the vessel you were always meant

To be.

Your age, your past, and your agonies, fade into the day,

Or night, and you become one with the artistic expression.

Copyright 2022 by Professor James Musgrave