Author: agkuba

You’re only 22

You’re only 22

It is easy to fall into despair

When you look at your life and can’t tell what

You’ve done that matters. Why anyone should care

If you disappear. When it sinks, your gut,

Realizing that the things you want most

Are always floating just out of your reach.

When it feels your work is nothing to boast

About, that you have nothing you can teach

And it feels like you don’t know anything.

But that just means that you must press onward

And build, grow. You’re young. Your heart might yet sing

With happiness, more beautiful than birdsong.

Life’s a journey you’ve just begun. It’s true.

Never give up on yourself, you’re only twenty two.

The Divide

The Divide

It’s not worth my time to always chase you
To always be in pursuit of a person
Who, no matter how hard you try, what you do,
Will never have an inkling of what you’ve done,

The small invisible things that make life easy
Always take care Because you care deeply
How you disguise the pain so they don’t see
The disconnect that you feel completely

Like nobody sees you for who you are,
Like nobody understands how much you care
Like you’re staring at the world from afar
Hoping they dont notice how much you stare

Trying not to expose your heart to harm
While protecting everyone else under your arm.

Wounded

Wounded

It feels like all our lives we’ve been searching

Always trying to find something

Like there was a part of us incomplete

A deep wound we couldn’t treat,

At least not on our own.

That ache in our marrow, deep in the bone

The wanderlust that we cannot shake

No matter what title we achieve, how much money we make.

This hole can’t be filled with material possessions

Shallow relationships, scuba lessons.

It can only be filled by love and good deeds,

Love given without any heed

To reciprocation or personal benefit.

Only then will the darkness be lit

And the emptiness filled with peace.

Breaking Through

Breaking Through

I’ve always craved closeness, always pulled away,

Always held back things I couldn’t say

Feeling like I observed the world around me

Through a pane of bulletproof glass: I can see

But never touch, never feel,

Never really know if any of it is real

or in my head. Always at arms length

Using every ounce of my strength

To try to break through the barrier,

To truly feel connected, understood.

In a way, I thought that no one ever could.

Sometimes I tire of the struggle, want to weep

Lie down, give up, but I can’t. Won’t. I will keep

Fighting to break through to someone, anyone.

Who knows? Maybe it will be you.

 

New Dawn

New Dawn

The sun sets as I begin my journey-
A single step and there’s no going back.
In five years time I’m not sure who I’ll be
Who I’ll miss, What I’ll have, what I’ll lack.

Will I make new friends or new enemies,
Will I lose those I already hold dear?
Will I wake, see the mirror and freeze,
Paralyzed by the reflecting leer?

Will I recognize the man staring back
Or will I lose myself on the way
Or will I find what I now lack
And every one of my demons slay?

Forward into uncertainty, move on.
That’s the only way to go, towards a new dawn.

Live

Live

 

Give friendship, give trust freely and without cause-

Make fast friends, slow enemies.

If others hurt you, take advantage of you, persevere:

Succeed even when they stack all odds against you.

Forgive others who harm you, but remember to protect yourself in the future.

Keep your expectations low and be prepared to do it all yourself

Let kindness from others amaze you as the wonderful gift it is.

Help others, go above an beyond expectations

Not with any expectation of benefit, but because you want to.

Take joy in raising others up and raise yourself up even when others push you down.

Realize that this is your own personal truth, not the same as anyone else’s

Not better, not worse,

And that the only universal wrong is the intentional harm of others.

Live this life. You may not always be happy. You may not always succeed.

But I truly hope that you will always find peace.

 

4am

4am

In the early hours of the morning

When the city is wrapped in deep slumber

When there’s no danger, no need for warning

And the minds of dreamers, giants lumber

 

Silence smothers the city, a deep embrace,

Everything clear as finest crystal

No need to hide away your truest face

Finally free to tear down every wall.

 

Alone with your thoughts, your mind buzzes warm-

Free to think.

Listening to the beat of your own heart-

Free to feel.

 

Finally able to hear your heart’s whisper…

I love her. I am finally sure.

Breadth vs Depth

I’ve spent so much time with my head just above the clouds, in a world of my own. Watching the world from a distance, never stepping forward and taking control. I never tried to penetrate the surface, never tried to dive in deep. I just observed everything I could and hoped my surface knowledge, surface interactions, would fill the hunger in my soul.  Now I’m behind, but not out of the race. It’s time to take the plunge, it’s time to plumb the depths, it’s time to grab control of my life and participate. It’s time to leave my comfort zone. It’s time to be present as a doer, not as a watcher. In pursuit of more depth and less breadth.

Written Fall 2015

No escape

No escape

It’s the strongest cage that exists
The prison you can never escape from
No matter how hard you fight to resist
You can not stop the way your heart strings strum

You can’t escape the Alcatraz in your head
A prison made with bars of strongest steel
And every time that you go to bed
You will not be able to help but feel

The loneliness seeping into your heart
The emptiness creeping into your soul
But it doesn’t matter, you will do your part
You will stoke the fire and tend the coal.
It’s not about you: it never will be,
You don’t want it to. This way you are free.

Transience

Transience

The meteor streaking across the sky

Through the dwelling place of uncountable worlds

The rainbow sphere bubble that floats and flies

Tracing invisible currents as they whirl

 

The flower that is all too quick to wilt

But leaves its fragrance lingering in the air

The laughter of a child, musical lilt

Lost in the moment, joyful beyond compare.

 

Balance is best achieved in motion

But we can’t stop chasing after eternity

Never stopping to pierce the commotion

To find the truth that will make us free.

 

Sometimes in life the things most beautiful

Pass through most swiftly, that’s why they’re special.