Open Poetry #47 |
Simple (Slam Poetry Competition Winner) |
Joe Houck Member
since 2001-04-23
Posts 324california |
Simple I don't want simple. Not yet, at least not while I'm still in my first half of life: or what amount of time contemporaries allot themselves with each undeserved first breath. I know children with gray hairs, and I hold no contempt for finding happiness in sadness, only contempt for dusted thoughts that wait to settle once again through learned regimen and due process. I don't want simple. I can't. You see, a simple pleasure is a reduction of a complex one, before it dies in its own arms that can no longer support it. Simplicity is both liberating and confining, depending on which door you enter from, and the door that stands before me, well, it ain't for the simpleton. Simple fun, to me, most times, ain't worth the nickel, son. sure, in the way-back-when, a nickel had more clout in a person palm than now, where you could get more for much less, but there was so much less to take in from a smaller crowd. There is strength in numbers, and the numbers grew strength but that's in every new generation, where the children grow up and proceed to be the predecessors, until they themselves are too old, AKA outdated, and the complex that they once hung hats on is the new simple, and the adage of old dogs and new tricks slips its way in through a crack in the window as nostalgia kicks the front door down and cries "I am here to stay!" And being a kid of yes-ter-day, the move to double back and cop a squat is far from far away. One day I'll stop to smell flowers and take it all in, replace climax for exposition, and sit and listen to the new youth preach about how they know better, and I, like you now, will say "O.K. kid, whatever." But I'll give benefits to the doubt that maybe most things just seem complex at this age because the context at this stage is foreign and new, and what's boring to you, old man, through familiarity is this young man's genesis. You might call it grandpa's parody Having said that, I won't accept it as fact until I feel it in first person. Till I get old and question the path that the wide eyed youth keep traversing. Down not necessarily the right path, just the new one that, by default, I am well-versed in. Not by my doing, I, like you, was birthed in. Keep flying to the sun with these gargoyle wings. Joe Houck |
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© Copyright 2011 Joe B. Houck - All Rights Reserved | |||
Mysteria
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328British Columbia, Canada |
I too do not accept "simple." I hate to tell you I have reached that sort of old age you refer to, and if you stick to your convictions, simple just isn't in the equation of life. Enjoyed this, and it should have won! Kudos. |
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BluesSerenade Member Patricius
since 2001-10-23
Posts 10549By the Seaside |
Brava Sir!! Yea, you got my vote. I enjoyed reading your poem very much!! Great stuff!! |
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katahdin Senior Member
since 2010-07-01
Posts 1196ME. In the Shadow of the Mt. |
Nicely done! Kat >^..^< |
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Joe Houck Member
since 2001-04-23
Posts 324california |
Thank you all for reading and your comments. I agree that "simple just isn't in the equation of life" that's a great string of words. =) [This message has been edited by Joe Houck (10-11-2011 01:16 AM).] |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
Enjoyed...James |
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