The Urban Wanderer

[PrinceMyshkin]

There’s a café where he hangs out
where everyone has some different,
fanciful notion of who he is
or of his history.

To one he is a lonely figure
whose family just drained away;
to another he’s a formerly successful financier
brought low in a particularly seedy scandal
or a would-be poet
who could never rise above a level
of fixed mediocrity.

He is the embodiment of all our crippled hopes,
our grandiose desires. We wanted more
but learned, sadly or cheerfully,
to settle for less, much less.

But the truth is simpler than that, the truth
is always a little more simple
and a little more complex than that.






Jerry Newman © 27Oct07

[ampoule]

Well, to me you are The King. ;)

A beautiful, thought provoking poem. Indeed, we are all of us. Keep them guessing Prince.

[symphony]

And again a strong closing stanza.
...and again a "wow" from my part. ;)

[Xillus_Xavier]

Very thought provoking.
I liked how you ended this poem.

[TheFifthElement]

Yes! Are people ever what we think they are?



But the truth is simpler than that, the truth
is always a little more simple
and a little more complex than that.



Amen to that.

[blazeofglory]

There’s a café where he hangs out
where everyone has some different,
fanciful notion of who he is
or of his history.

To one he is a lonely figure
whose family just drained away;
to another he’s a formerly successful financier
brought low in a particularly seedy scandal
or a would-be poet
who could never rise above a level
of fixed mediocrity.

He is the embodiment of all our crippled hopes,
our grandiose desires. We wanted more
but learned, sadly or cheerfully,
to settle for less, much less.

But the truth is simpler than that, the truth
is always a little more simple
and a little more complex than that.






Jerry Newman © 27Oct07

Of course the truth is a little more simple and a little more complex than that. There can not be a better line than this.

This is with everyone, so common to all that at times we do not take account of or become forgetful of how others see us.

I could be a friend, a very amicable one, a very understanding one
I could be an enemy, a very ruthless one, a bloody and revengeful one

I could be anything, friend
What I am is a frame, not me
The frame designs me
I am not what I am
and what I define or confine my self within a structure
A physical, intellectual or cultural frame

I am everything yet I am nothing
I can not define what I am
I am what you see now,
Someone sharing with the other one

I am in ostensibly everything
But deeply and in a matter of factly way
I am nothing sheer void
I am the potter's clay
who can give me a shape and form,
Just that and no more to say.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I especially liked these lines:



I am everything yet I am nothing
I can not define what I am
I am what you see now,
Someone sharing with the other one

I am in ostensibly everything
But deeply and in a matter of factly way
I am nothing sheer void
I am the potter's clay
who can give me a shape and form,
Just that and no more to say.

Strong. Strong. Very strong!

[blazeofglory]

I especially liked these lines:



Strong. Strong. Very strong!

Thank you very much for it.