To Be or Not to Be

Perhaps we are

earth and all

a simple atom

within a greater entity.

 

This might prove

the absence of reality

as we know it.

 

Does grass green

scream

when we cut it

so silently

that we can not hear it

then does that mean

the call from the blade

does not exist either

as it is living too

it seems

or are these dreams

of reality

as we believe

them to be.

 

These things we think

to be true

could perhaps be a falsehood

a hoax

a mirage

for one and all

to make sense

of something

so abstract as even

the thought of reality

is to me.

 

The feel of June

on a summer afternoon

could this be

unreal

and placed here to

simply entertain us.

 

Although

a feeling of love

a smell

is that real

or all a concoction

of the mind

to make sense

of the dreamscape

that we live in

forever still I ponder

Reality

may not be

or is a construction

of desire

to make sense

of a world in which

there are so many

atrocities

sufferings

and fewer moments in time

as the clock chimes

counting out the rhythm

of our days

in moments

less full of splendor

but warm, soft, ache

sweet, hate, pain

are no more reality

than is the word

Reality

which means you see

or so they say

fact.

 

Well then

what of opinion

or fiction?

 

Do the blind

see reality

or are they also

deaf and mute

and believe not in

its existence

because they can not see.

 

Either way

reality

is as true as a dream

at night

and is as fleeting

as the words and memories

meant by an

Alzheimer's patient.

 

 

Reviews

[David W Moore III]

Or do the blind see past the veil to the 'real' truth. One hopes that many of the atrocities and suffering is in fact illusions and not reality. One day we will gain the vision to see the truth and such suffering will have to end. This is a well written pensive and searching piece, mine was quite a bit more self-centered, but maybe universal in it's application. Nice piece.

[OT]

oooo me likes!!! the philosopher in you shines here - I love the musings - and too think of such things - the idea of well is this even real - is it the pretence that you suggest - does that grass cry - are we merely unable to hear it or uncaring enough to not notice - it's like that if a tree falls and no one hears - did it make a sound - the conundrum of social-construction - how much is true and how much is something with a pretty label on it - things not labelled or known are generally ignored by us - is reality real or a dream, an illusion, hell are we even ever really awake! lol! nice!!

[Siddhartha]

Insightful and haunting questions, my friend. I am afraid that nobody knows all the answers as of yet. But it's important that someone has made the start...

[The Analog Kid]

"Does grass green
scream
when we cut it
so silently
that we can not hear it"

What a great line to make your point. This is a real thought provoking piece about reality.

[Wicahpi]

"Do the blind see reality" oh my yes...
we see this within Helen Keller and Ray Charles,
Ronnie Milsap, so many more who absolutely
have 'vision' beyond many a sighted folk.
They 'feel' what we can not see or hear!

I was intrigued by the question about a blade
of grass 'does it scream when we cut it' ...
some would believe this to be truth.

This whole poem was thought provoking.
Nicely penned.

[Ladysue]

This is a brilliant thought provoking subject that you have written well. I love the last verse.

[Pax Analog]

Well, according to the holographic paradigm, reality is neither wholly subjective nor wholly objective. The late Michael Talbot coined the term "omnijective" to refer to the peculiarity of the human instrument ordering a consensus grid to work with by constructing it from what is really just a blur.

Add to that the Buddhist observation that the attentive contemplative search for Source reveals "no-self," and the bizarreness of quantum physics yielding matter based on no-thing-ness, and it begins to seem that Reality is too strange to ever know -- although the wisdom tradition avers we can BE it more thoroughly.

By any measure, it all seems a fathomless deep. And as one prone to ordinary despairs as much as the next mortal, I can sense that perhaps all anything remotely approaching enduring happiness is, is surrender to this unfathomability.

Your poem is eloquently existential in this general mode, nuanced and reflective. Sound work.

[Boris]

some really thought-provoking questions are raised in this poem Siddartha. Excellent work and congratulations on this poem winning an award in the Spiritual Materialism contest.

[Angel Bird]

You masterly capture the existentialist philosophy in a wonderful flow of words that you drop down life's stream to a perfect beat.

Brilliant!

[Justin Tobey]

Flowing and powerful. You inspire so many deep thoughts with this one poem. Thank you so much for sending this one. It helps a lot. :D