Archives for posts with tag: purpose

i should have plenty of muse these days. after all, i reached the holy grail! i chased that thing that i thought i needed and that would define the next chapter of my life. and i caught it. see, isn’t it gorgeous?

okay, now what?

i’ve written at least three “first posts of the new year” and haven’t published them. i haven’t published much of anything lately. probably won’t publish this. ha! and i haven’t been tweeting profound or comical #sixwords. haven’t been reading too many of the blogs i usually follow. i don’t think i’m depressed, just relatively uninspired. apathetic.

also in a way i feel like i’ve already written it. nothing seems new anymore. i think that’s the downside of knowledge & growth sometimes. unless the answers inspire more questions it seems almost pointless to come to any firm conclusions, at least from an artistic standpoint. and so i have to wonder if i’m just missing the new questions. am i ignoring them? have i forgotten how to listen?

submerged in a mire
obsessed, i sought every distraction…

i know expectations have stolen away some of the magic. expectations from others but mostly my own. i miss the anonymity of writing under pseudonym. i miss the fun and tragic necessity. now i find myself questioning the quality and interpretation of everything i write, so instead of posting i’m just putting them in “the vault.” if i even get that far.

so something has to change. i need new revelation. i need to write for me again. and i need to find that voice again. it’s too late to go back to writing anonymously, although that is very tempting. but that seems like a step backwards instead of forward. no, i think i need to continue my journey right here. i put my name on it so that i couldn’t run, and i won’t.

sorry, i don’t really have any optimistic & heartening words to start off 2012 with. i don’t have any beautiful dreams, tragic romance or painful humanity to paint for you today. and i might not for awhile.

i’m just a boy with an old raggedy leather-bound journal & a dull pencil. sometimes when i sit by the river i jot down words that bloom in my mind like mysterious seedlings, swept here by the wind, caught in a barely moist rocky cold place.

i hope it makes them feel pretty to find a home.

“hold on to everything you own that owns you too…”

by JTW
©2012 JTW “jtwhitaker.com” All rights reserved.

at this point my eyes are wide open. too far maybe. and i see that cabin in the dark, the one surrounded by black mossy trees with boarded windows – charred & rusty. the grey path glows under toe.

maybe this metaphor is my mind’s way of projecting where i’ve been living the past two months into my consciousness and out here for display. or maybe it’s just a dream.

the kings stand there
stalemate
interpolate
un-emasculate
avoid probate
create a mistake

for just a few days
i’ll be back in someone else’s dreams
dust rolls around on the floor
creeps through the beams
down to jungle streams
feeding willow trees

if you believe
you may perceive
no intent to deceive
but if you want me to, i’ll leave
in the end
what we get is what we need

soft lips
certain shapes of hips
late night trips
a little thrill in the mix
call it my favorite fix

well i see more faces & butterflies
roots that go on for miles
sun dials dialing up trials
mascara and fingernail files
matthews, marks, lukes & lyles

garden wall or mountain tall
waterfall & tenant law
i put my knee in his paw
the long line of his jaw
could you see what i saw?
it doesn’t melt my heart
but it helps the chill to thaw

for just a few days
i’ll be back in someone else’s dreams
dust rolls around on the floor
creeps through the beams
down to jungle streams
feeding willow trees

if you believe
you may perceive
no intent to deceive
but if you want me to, i’ll leave
in the end
what we get is what we need

“here we are both half-starved…”

by JTW
©2011 JTW “jtwhitaker.com” All rights reserved.

artwork courtesy of bly.

some silence is a choice
some is a gift
some narrows the gap
some widens the rift

there are times when silence is mandatory
when we shouldn’t fight it
times for healing
though we try to hide it
at the worst of times
and just to spite it

we may understand what we see before us
but do we know why
do we just give up now
did we even try?

radio silence
or talk to push
if we extinguish the fire
will it spare the bush?

and then there are some things
that not even silence can silence
they just are
they just will
like the paint that chips
off an old windowsill

who knows what emerges
as the layers fall away
the best you can do
from day to day
is laugh at the ruin
love the decay

“cause i remember…”

by JTW
©2011 JTW “jtwhitaker.com” All rights reserved.

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