Older, but no wiser
Andy Borrows' musings on life and all its confusion, contradictions, richness and opportunities
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Second birth
Oh, you who dwell within,
Perpetual foetus, so long hidden,
Will you hide for ever?
Do you not know
The place in which you find protection
Is not your home?
When courage you find at last,
When choice you make,
One home to leave to journey to another
- for in this matter choice is yours alone -
Be loving yet towards thyself.
Expect not fully-formed to greet the world;
Truly, your place awaits you there,
To fill it though you must yet learn and grow.
Your first expressions
Of ungainly limbs, unpractised voice;
These are but the precursor,
A necessary beginning.
Fear not their hesitancy,
Their unskilled clumsiness;
Whence comes skill, if not from exercise?
First though,
Before the lessons of the kindergarten may begin,
There is one necessary trauma,
One doorway through which you must pass;
It is necessary to be born.
To be exposed, become vulnerable,
To feel your shape,
The space your body displaces in the world -
For you are a body, not a phantom.
Put out your hand
Feel the touch of the world.
Perpetual foetus, so long hidden,
Will you hide for ever?
Do you not know
The place in which you find protection
Is not your home?
When courage you find at last,
When choice you make,
One home to leave to journey to another
- for in this matter choice is yours alone -
Be loving yet towards thyself.
Expect not fully-formed to greet the world;
Truly, your place awaits you there,
To fill it though you must yet learn and grow.
Your first expressions
Of ungainly limbs, unpractised voice;
These are but the precursor,
A necessary beginning.
Fear not their hesitancy,
Their unskilled clumsiness;
Whence comes skill, if not from exercise?
First though,
Before the lessons of the kindergarten may begin,
There is one necessary trauma,
One doorway through which you must pass;
It is necessary to be born.
To be exposed, become vulnerable,
To feel your shape,
The space your body displaces in the world -
For you are a body, not a phantom.
Put out your hand
Feel the touch of the world.
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