Knots

Who am I to be a leader 

I’m a giant knot of fear, hope, love and pain 

Of joy and shame 

There are so many others 

Who seem to have untangled 

The knots of their lives

Or had far less of them to begin with 

I admit that sometimes 

I can jump over mountains 

But often taking a single step feels 

Like a fool’s game 

Like I’m in the middle of a shining winter lake 

Surrounded by cracking ice 

Wouldn’t the guy in charge 

Entrust important duties 

To someone whose stride is unfailingly steady?

He must like an underdog

Or a good story

Or something 

But oh man 

Do I sometimes wish for some spoilers  

Roller Coaster

It seems that everything I’m exposed to 

I soak up like a sponge 

Til I’m sopping wet

And can take no more 

And so escape to sleep

Where the drama is reflected

And continued in dreams 

Til I can take no more 

And wake with a gasp

And a shudder 

Breathing like I just got off

A roller coaster

And thinking 

“There cannot be any more space in my brain”

Shut Up, Brain

Without reason, 

Without thought 

Our species wouldn’t have made it to the Stone Age 

But if you try and think your way to answers about everything

You get trapped in a web of your own design

The only way out is to acknowledge that at end

Thought itself is wondrous and defies explanation 

And though it is a tool 

More vital than anything we make with our hands 

As an essential mode of being human

It comes in (distant?!) second to awe