Make A Swan Song Of Your Life

Make A Swan Song Of Your Life

This poem is a slight modification of my morning daily intent, written on Sunday, May 15, 2016. The reference to Lewis Carrol's classic, Alice In Wonderland, appeared to me because I was scheduled to attend a modernized stage play version later that day at B Street Theater in Sacramento. The poem raises the question: What if your life were your swan song and every act was your final performance?

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The Poets

The Poets

Are you being called to a deeper life? The Poets came to me almost in one piece after hearing a poetry reading at Barnes and Noble on a full moon night in 2003. The poem highlights a sense of having two selves: one lives a surface life of habits and hobbies, of interests and interactions on a daily basis. This is the little “s” self. The other one, the capital “S” Self, lives a deeper, richer life of which I am only faintly aware.

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Ask Nelson Mandela

Ask Nelson Mandela

I wrote a draft of this poem before finding the Mandela quote about dignity at the beginning of the post. He devoted his life to freedom, to ending apartheid, and to elevating the lives of Africans. Freedom is a question of how we relate to the greater forces of life, forces over which we have little control, and forces under which we often suffer. I think Mandela's quote hints at the true nature of freedom.

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Only A Lifeboat

Only A Lifeboat

Becoming adult often means quelling our passion so that we can live in the world and get along with others. The unfortunate trade-off is that many of us suppress all of our passion, not just the anti-social impulses or unruly behavior that arise out of passion. Maturity reclaims passion and channels it into productive activity, creative work, and spiritual development, but this sometimes means leaving the social cruise because only a lifeboat can take you to your dreams...

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