Thomas

I have not given up. Through the loss, depression and loneliness, I have persisted and endured. Life has given me a lot to be bitter about: the loss of my father when I was six; the sense of alienation I experienced growing up different in a small, working class town. But I have chosen not to let my burden warp into something toxic, venemous. Where sorrow dwells, where despair and hopelessness flourish, I can aspire to be a voice of calm and comfort, and share my message that even in the ashes of death, something beautiful can breathe. Shadows do not endure. Warmth and compassion endure. 

And I am a poet. I can take this utilitarian thing, language, and I can render it into something beautiful. I can be a conduit, conveying sentiments and impressions that emanate from a place beyond our Earthly concerns. I can take the love of all lovers, the hope of all hopers and the dreams of the dreamers (all these things that, at times, I feel so deeply inside) and I can be part of that invaluable choir of artists that sings our human songs - songs that rebirth a broken world of ugliness and hurt, Christening what is already within our presence by blessing it with the Bibilical light of perspective.

Fundamentally, in my most lucid and divine moments, I am egalitarian and fair minded. Tolerant. The product of a mother that gave her love in such abundance, a mother that never waivered in her love, that used all her enterprise, effort and strength to selflessly advance the interests and welfare of her sons at every opportunity. A humble, attentive, kind and patient mother that never strayed from a position of respect and deceny. I have inherited an understanding that nobody is better or worse than anyone else. People are people, and that the labels we use, the categories that we use to oppress people and harm their dignity, this is, in many ways, the only unforgiveable sin. To deny someone their humanity.

The above is just a fragment of my truth. A shallow attempt to understand some of the better aspects of my persona. There are many good things about me. I am witty, quirky, interesting and sweet. I care about things. 

I write not out of a sense of pride. But to remind myself that each life, my own included, is a gift donated to the world, to The Society of Man, and that failure to partake, a renunciation of this world, must surely be wrong. If there is no rational framework which can illustrate this, let me say simply that I don't care, it is so in my heart. And my heart is the life I choose for myself. My heart is my world, and God is in my world and my heart.