poem

12/26/04 Reach Past This - by Desdamona

Reach
past this
flesh
Those who create have mastered the art of living forever
even if they only exist to collect dust
Up in attics there are stacks of inspiration
Down in basements where there are lost archives
singing, playing, speaking, moving
patiently waiting for someone to find them again
Reach past this flesh
This is your chance
to tell your story
My father told me that the greatest thing that I could give the world
is my story, my voice, my perspective
because no one else can tell it
So, go tell it
Reach past this flesh
Poets create new life in new worlds
because this one seems so hard to survive in
so they write new realities
turning casualties into martyrs, heros and myths
This is beyond any one culture or any one belief
These stories belong to the people who receive them
not to the people who speak them
These stories come from cities and villages all over the world
There is no culture or continent that has no story to tell
reach past this flesh
and rest inside so that you can better understand
your reality
It is not whether the story is true or false
It's the story that matters
the expression and existence, the proof that we were here
We have no right to stop the story
to abandon or misplace it
We must tell the story
so that it can continue
Tell a story that does not yet exist and watch it turn into reality
Reach past this flesh
and you will know that life is eternally spinning, weaving
and creating new stories and new life
Look into a babies eyes and you will see a life that you cannnot even begin to imagine the span of
cannot predict the future for, cannot fully give them the story of the past so that they can truly grasp all the lessons that should have been learned in the process
Reach past this death
and know without a doubt
that your story will change lives
no matter how slightly
and be confident that your breath had purpose beyond it's capacity