Whispers in the Shadows and in the Sunlight

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OwlSA
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-11-07

Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

0 posted 2006-07-26 11:35 PM

WHISPERS IN THE SHADOWS
August 1999

It’s in the naked aggression of angry, human eyes.
It’s in the selfishness of double-parkers.
It’s in the rudeness of the ignorant.
It’s in the blindness of the comfortable.
It’s in the arrogance of fools.
It’s in the lies and evasion of the unfaithful.
It’s in the cruel arbiters of the reading public.
It’s in the acrimony of the shunned.
It’s in the malevolence of the compassionless.

It’s there.  It’s everywhere.
It’s right here.  No, don’t turn around.  It’s in you.
And you.  And you.  And me.
It’s in the butcher, the baker, the candlestickmaker,
Tom, Dick and Harry,
Mary, Jane and Jennifer.
We all carry it,
skindepth away from erupting.
It’s only the members of the human race
who carry and propagate and trade on
the seed of injustice, intolerance, vandalism, hurt, crime, torture, murder, war,
global destruction … ET CETERA.

WHISPERS IN THE SUNLIGHT
August 1999

I have sometimes encountered it
and it has always come as a surprise.

It can be found in the human race,
often and in many of the species,
especially if you look for it.
It comes in little waves, and slips away,
unless you hold it for a moment, and remember it afterwards.
If you mock it, it will be taken from you
and you will not recognise it again.
The secret is to notice it, to enjoy it and to pass it on:
altruism in its purest form.

- Owl

skyshine

Member Elite

since 2002-02-07

Posts 3058
Beneath the northern stars

1 posted 2006-07-27 02:15 PM

Nice comparison and contrast of human nature. All of us have it within; we only need to choose the good. Well done!

sky

I hope someday you get the chance to live like you were dying....
~Tim McGraw

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-11-07

Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

2 posted 2006-07-28 12:21 PM

Thank you, skyshine. Yes, contrasts of what there is, but also of what we see!

- Owl

Midnitesun

Member Empyrean

since 2001-05-18

Posts 28647
Gaia

3 posted 2006-07-28 12:31 PM

Diana, you've penned another one filled with humanity. Life thrives on sunlight.

The Lady
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-12-26

Posts 7634
The Southwest

4 posted 2006-07-28 12:36 PM

Perfect Diana. I love the movement
and passion of the Shadows and the
soothing calm of the Sunlight.

Jewels, both of them.

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-11-07

Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

5 posted 2006-07-28 12:38 PM

Thank you, Kacy. Yes, literally and metaphorically/mentally/emotionally/spiritually, life thrives on sunlight. You've touched the bud on the head!

- Owl

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-11-07

Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

6 posted 2006-07-28 12:53 PM

Thanks, Kate. I only saw your Email notification now, after I had replied to Kacy. (I still can't see your or Kacy's reply, except when I click on Print.) I'm glad you liked it. Can't spend much time on-line now, but I am sure Work will calm down a little from time to time.

- Owl

elisalie16
Member

since 2006-07-12

Posts 118
new jersey

7 posted 2006-07-28 01:05 AM

i did like it, and it was both interesting and thought provoking

but the pattern didnt seem to hold through the entire poem, it seemed to me. the first half "whispers in the shadows" was very repeatitive, where-as the 'sunlight' portion was not at all.

it was very good, all the same, pattern or not.

James_A_Fraser
Senior Member

since 2003-09-03

Posts 972
Out Making Anticlines

8 posted 2006-07-28 09:03 AM

Alas that you speak so very true~~

I wasn't in the mood to get doused with human nature this morning, having had my fill of it over the past couple of weeks, but now, strangely enough, I am in exactly the mood for it.

~~J

LeeJ
Member Patricius

since 2003-06-19

Posts 13296

9 posted 2006-07-28 09:12 AM

so enjoyed reading both side of this

excellent!!! Enjoyed...

Sunshine

Administrator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-06-25

Posts 63354
Listening to every heart

10 posted 2006-07-28 09:19 AM

Have read this twice...
and will likely
do so again.

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis

since 2005-11-07

Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa

11 posted 2006-07-29 03:18 PM

Thank you elisalie.  It wasn't one poem.  It was two.  There wasn't meant to be the same pattern or mood in both.  There was a nagging anger, frustration and disappointment with human nature in the first.  The first is what I/the world notices repeatedly.  The second is supposed to be imbued with the delicate and gentle surprise that one would feel at discovering a tiny wild flower discovered in a sea of tall grasses.

Thanks, James_A_Fraser.  Glad I could make a difference.

Thanks, Lee.  Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks, Karilea.  I so often seem to be surrounded by the worst of human nature and then I have to remind myself about the existence of altruism - and then something happens and I experience it without trying to discover it, and then I regain a little faith in human nature.

- Owl

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