Live Life On First Gear

Travel I must to distant lands

Experience first hand

Nature's stark beauty 

With naked eyes

Admire craftsmanship of

Ancient times without tools of any kind

Masterpieces crafted by ten fingers

For without travel life is like

Moving on first gear

Stained glass creations in Churches,

Temples, Mosques, Synagogues 

Massive bridges made of granite stone

Intricate carvings on pillars and domes

Iconic buildings once royal homes

Photos, paintings cannot capture

What the eyes explore,

Without travel, life is like

Moving on first gear slow

Risks I take without weighing

The consequences, for living, cocooned 

Is no living at all, like eating the same

Food morning, noon, night

Tastebuds unawakened soon die

Music plays in my mind 

Jazz, Rock, and roll, hip hop

For without music it's 

Like moving on first gear

Leave me alone with books, any genre

Fiction, autobiographies, or thrillers, 

Hardbound, paperbacks, dogeared 

Whatever condition, whatever looks

I disappear into each character

Living the life of a Priest, a sinner,

Detective, serial killer or jilted lover

For without reading books its

Like moving on first gear

To quote Pablo Neruda 

The Nobel laureate 

Without all of this, it's like 

Dying 'in small.doses'.

And while there may be many constraints

Money, ill health, lack of interest,

To live life to the fullest 

One needs to move out of 

Their Circle of the circumference 

(Inspired by Pablo Neruda's poem "Die Slowly")