Lindenhurst

[sparr0w]

He rests half awake upon the shore,
absorbing salty winds while he reminiced;
Slowly reminiced of happier times
though with a sad kind of apprehention.
He was now aware, perhaps for the first time in his life,
that the sun which now warmed his chest
is the very same
beneath which he played as a child.
Played the games children played, as it were,
back in the days before the internet and text messaging.
Before X-Boxes and MP3s and satellite TV.
Back then, children used to run in the streets
and catch fireflies in mason jars on the Fourth of July,
amongst crickets and mosquitoes-
back when we used our imaginations.
It wasn't all that long ago, after all.
Fifteen years, maybee seventeen.
Forest reserves and stolen cigarettes and Dirty Dave.
Lindenfest and heart attacks and Cackling Roxy.
I have found that strength, at times,
is quite a heavy burden.
A burden which sits like a rock upon my chest;
And the sun warms the rock
and I inhale salty winds.
Cry tears, even saltier than the winds.
I was born in 1984, but am at least a thousand years old,
gaining more wisdom with every new wrinkle in my face.
No, you can't see them,
but I can, and clearly so.
I have always been aware of them,
always clawing at them with these thousand year old fingers;
Resenting them with this thousand year old heart.
I always approach reluctantly;
Sometimes backstep, most often remain still,
but always reluctant in my approach;
Like a child trying to avoid repremand,
with shaking lips and butterflies in his stomach.
In recent years, I have begun to understand the sick pleasure I get
from the waiting.
Those horrible lingering moments between now and the inevitable.
I am perpetually awaiting that first stinging blow,
though I know that the waiting is most often much worse.
That horrible, adrenaline fueled anticipation.
One of lifes great unexplained paradoxes,
finding comfort in fear, delusional as it may sound.
The "Divine Comedy", as Dante wrote...
Rolling in the sand,
carried out, once more, to sea
with no promise of return.

[lucidnightmares]

another amazing piece sparr0w:thumbs_up
strangely enough this thought has been on my mind for a little while now that we are aging too fast and no one really seams to notice it, like i`m the only one afraid of the inevitable. well this is of course my interpretation of it.

i love how the memories are a melancholy joy, something in which we can feel sorry and yet proud of our selfs for what we have done.

"I was born in 1984, but am at least a thousand years old,
gaining more wisdom with every new wrinkle in my face."

i love this line as it, to me, describes how everyone must feel at some times, that they are beyond there age. maybe smarter than others there age or more aware of how life works, or something to that extent, it`s hard for me to explain but it`s like you know something that everyone else either doesn`t know, or doesn`t want to know. with age comes truth, and we learn truth before our time.

i could write about this poem for an hour if you`d let me:D
but as i have to go to school in a few minutes i guess i should bring this to a close
this is one of my favorite poems by you or anyone else, a source of inspiration
i`m going to have to read this a few times to get it all, and that`s what i like about it, it`s simply beautiful in a way my words could not describe.
thank you for this work of art:)

[NikolaiI]

Oh, and yes I forgot to post, but I read this. It is top notch, sparrow!

I love it-- the simple descriptive lines of him lying on the shore, conjoined with the linking of the past to the present, are wonderful.

"I was born in 1984, but am at least a thousand years old,
gaining more wisdom with every new wrinkle in my face."

This makes us question. Or, that is, I have to concur 100% with what lucid wrote. The truth is so odd, that we might miss it. But lately I've just had the feeling, so whelmingly, that there is more-- there's always more-- and, becoming aware of myself, the world, and intermingling layers of being, I become convinced that things are good, infinitely open, beyond my imagining, but yet within reach.

Wonderful poem, altogether.

[sparr0w]

Wow, MANY MANY thanks to both of you! I've never gotten such good praise. To be honest, I wan't really sure if I was even going to post this one or not. It fealt a little rushed (I wrote this one in about five minutes less than an hour before I posted it). At first, I was going to stew on it for a couple of days and then look it back over for any changes I should make, but something in my head told me to just go ahead and post it as it is. Guess that worked out. This one means a little more to me each time I read it. This may sound weird, or make me sound soft (though some would say it is okay for a poet to be overly sensitive), but over the last year I have been horribly depressed, because I feel old, like all the good times are over at this point, though Im only 23. I think back to childhood vacations, riding my bike down the plaza in the summer, and even high school... Pretty much all good memories, and I start to cry because that was my childhood and how it's all over. It tears me up that I can think of such great memories, and feel pain instead of happiness. That's where this poem comes from. I've tried dozens of times, in poetry, prose, and music, to express it, but nothing came anywhere near as close to painting it out as this did, and that's why this one is very close to my heart. Endless thanks to both of you for your support and whatnot. It really means the world to me. Peace!!!!

[ampoule]

I really like this sparrOw. Your childhood is still within you. Don't just mourn for it but pamper it, nurture it, love it. It's not over, it's just different. I know the feeling a hometown can provide. You painted a very good picture. You also helped me with the introduction of a song I might sing tonight. The words will be my own but the feeling belongs to you and me and so many.

[Pendragon]

"I was born in 1984, but am at least a thousand years old,
gaining more wisdom with every new wrinkle in my face."

Good lines, but the ones I love are:

"Back then, children used to run in the streets
and catch fireflies in mason jars on the Fourth of July,
amongst crickets and mosquitoes-
back when we used our imaginations."

Because I was born in 1960, and we didn't even have a TV. Oh, they were availible, my mother was against them. I read. The old pulp magazines were begining to reprint as paperbacks, and there was a used bookstore in town. I grew up on Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, G-8, Tarzan and various others. The Phantom ran in the newspaper with Dick Tracey. The Birth of the Comic Book arrived. I never ran out off heroes to imitate!

Then came the Internet and I wrote Shadow Short Stories for a site for years. It is scheduled to close down in March. I had about 50 stories. You never know.

Pen

[kiz_paws]

sparr0w, your poem was brilliant. You wrote so many beautiful thoughts/phrases that I cannot pinpoint a favorite. Just wanted you to know that your poem found a special place in my heart.
Cheers, Kizzo :)

[sparr0w]

Ahhh, I am loved after all... ;) OK, where to start? Ampoule- Yes, I definitely agree with you, but at this moment I am enjoying this depression on the level that any intense emotion brings about revelation, and for me, revelation brings about art... It souds strange, but it works. I actually made reference to that in this poem (as well as a few others, not yet posted). There's a brilliant line in the movie "Bandits", where Terry Collins is talking to Kate Wheeler about phobias in a motel bar. They are each discussing their stranage fears, and Kate Wheeler says "I'd rather feel too much than feel too little", to which Terry Collins replies, "I never thought of it like that". They sum it up perfectly, at least for me. And now to Pendragon- Thanks, I think this is the first positive review I've gotten from you, so it really means alot. Yes, of course TV and the internet existed when I was young, but it was different then. Back then, as you well know, very few people had PCs, and the ones that did spent little time online. The same goes for TV. I remember I had two or three favorite shows in the late 80's and early 90's, but the grand majority of my time was spent outside playing. These days, it seems, kids spend most of their day watching reality TV, playing video games on their $400 consoles, texting, talking on the phone, etc... I rarely see kids over 5 years old playing outside. I guess I was born right on the brink of it all, but I still feel seperated from the new "information" generation. Oh, and I remember Dick Tracey, I used to have all the toys and still have a number of the comics. I also remember stuff like "Conan", "Fraggle Rock", "You Can't Do That on Television", etc. I used to collect Daredevil comics. We never had the internet (until much much later), and our TV came through an antennae until I was 10 or 11. Thanks for your relations! And Kiz, Im glad you could relate. This one meant alot to me and it warms me to know it meant the same to someone else as well. Im thinking about posting another one tonight sometime, but I might hold off a while... we'll see. Peace!