Live Life On First Gear
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")