SIGNIFYING LIFE

SIGNIFYING LIFE

What does not frighten the young boy will seldom

grow to torment the man he must soon become.

Sitting on a porch on a humid autumn 

evening I thought about this and in doing

so unleashed a torrent of distant memories.

Though childhoods grown are never perfectly lived,

the moments that sustained us are those moments

that offered small comforts and securities.

Thoughts of wars, wives, the context of adult lives,

the setbacks and the gains, the joys and the pains

were given short reprieve by this autumn sky.

On the last day of my return to the home

they say we can’t return to, this Texas night

was taking me back to a distant time when 

sitting on another porch, where life gave us

a safe haven from nature’s more violent side,

we watched in awe as the sky pounded it’s chest.

Tonight it afforded me a return to 

those moments of comfort and security

when thunder and chain lighting strutted their best.

But as the awe returned reflections followed,

compelling me to consider the autumn

of a life being lived from Point A through Z,

and thunder turned to metaphor to taunt me 

now as  “a tale told by an idiot, full

of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

What frightens a grown man is his fear that his

life lived has not signified nearly enough.

Reviews

[maya_online]

The most terrifying thought when becoming an adult and growing older is wondering if you haven't lived life to the fullest, if you haven't done enough, you grasp this concept and make it your own and it's something beautiful. Lovely work, Willys.

[Black Branches]

This poem made me think a lot, it often reminds me of my home's veranda, where I would sit peacefully, the scent of walnut tree leaves reaching me, and I felt a sense of tranquility. A very human piece of writing!