Exuberant Youth

[qimissung]

You flew too close to the sun, so close
That I could feel the hot wax
Splatter onto my face
That day you managed to land
But when I looked next
You had let the ocean current sweep
You far out to sea
I could see you
Floating, swimming, diving
Calm as an angel, a dolphin
In his element
Then you were sitting on a castle wall
Arms flung wide
Sending your war cry to the sky

When I could bear to look again
You were climbing the most treacherous
Mountain, no guide, no rope
Fresh snow impeding every step
Yet there you are, pausing
Gazing upward, hands in your back pockets
Your look merely speculative
Why do you wake each day
So sure you can walk the
Tightrope without a net when one
ONE misstep will send you
Careening down the mountainside
Sailing to the sawdust circus floor
The ocean depths
Toppling off the castle wall

Your arms and legs spread wide
As if you had deliberately
Leaped from a plane
You tumble and swoop
A hawk seeking its prey
The wind a friendly giant hand
Ruffling your hair
The world at your feet
You still so full of
Unwarranted confidence
And exuberant youth
That I can no longer look

Will it still be so when you land?

[PrinceMyshkin]

How gracefully you sustain the narrative, and the last line is just tonally so right.

[Virgil]

What imagination Qimi. This soars with flight of fancy. I kept feeling the danger surrounding the subject youth. :) Typo in the first line, you mean "too." I loved the war cry image and I thought this section was the most fascinating:

When I could bear to look again
You were climbing the most treacherous
Mountain, no guide, no rope
Fresh snow impeding every step
Yet there you are, pausing
Gazing upward, hands in your back pockets
Your look merely speculative
I think the pacing in those lines really accentuated their meaning.

[~Sophia~]

Daredevil for sure!!! Is your poem about free fall base jumping? Gives me goosebumps just reading it. Crazy the things we do when we are young and invincible! Gold Star poem Ms. Qimissung.

[qimissung]

Thank you Prince,Virgil,and Sophia. Yes,Virgil,I saw that when I was re-reading it.Thank you for your sharp eye. That reminds me of a friend of mine who read a letter I wrote and came running to me across the school library with it, having circled "an" when I should have written "a". I really do hate making those little obvious mistakes!

Sophia, it is about the young and invincible. They are so sure! And so often so breathtakingly wrong...

[TheFifthElement]

I love this Qimmi, like the subject matter it soars.

Is it wrong to be reckless? Hmm, I don't know. Is it better to have kissed the sky for a short time or to have spent a long lifetime grubbing in the dust? Good question. Whichever, it is still a beautiful poem.

[qimissung]

Thank you Fifth. And thank you for suggesting that this is thought provoking, which is what I usually intend. Rarely do I want my poetry, such as it is, to be narrow in thought. There are, after all, many realities.

While this does describe someone's particular reaction to someone who is behaving recklessly, never would I wish to imply that we should not climb mountains or skydive or free fall base jump.

I like what Joe Simpson wrote in his book "Touching the Void": "I often wonder what would have happened to my life if we had not had the accident on Siula Grande. A part of me thinks that I would have gone on to climb harder and harder routes taking greater risks each time. Given the toll of friends over the years I'm not confident that I would be alive today...Life can deal you an amazing hand. Do you play it steady, bluff like crazy or go all in?"

We must take risks to be fully alive, to, at the very least move out of our comfort zone.The trick, I think, is to make them calculated risks.

[TheFifthElement]

We must take risks to be fully alive, to, at the very least move out of our comfort zone.The trick, I think, is to make them calculated risks.

Oh I don't disagree Qimi. It's a fine balance and it's pretty hellish on the outside watching.

[qimissung]

That it is, Fifth, that it is.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thank you Fifth. And thank you for suggesting that this is thought provoking, which is what I usually intend. Rarely do I want my poetry, such as it is, to be narrow in thought. There are, after all, many realities.

While this does describe someone's particular reaction to someone who is behaving recklessly, never would I wish to imply that we should not climb mountains or skydive or free fall base jump.

I like what Joe Simpson wrote in his book "Touching the Void": "I often wonder what would have happened to my life if we had not had the accident on Siula Grande. A part of me thinks that I would have gone on to climb harder and harder routes taking greater risks each time. Given the toll of friends over the years I'm not confident that I would be alive today...Life can deal you an amazing hand. Do you play it steady, bluff like crazy or go all in?"

We must take risks to be fully alive, to, at the very least move out of our comfort zone.The trick, I think, is to make them calculated risks.

To quote a favourite saying of mine by the theologian AJ Heschel:


"To be is a blessing; to live is holy."

[qimissung]

Wow. That is beautiful.