The Immortals Are Ignorant

To sadness and death

The immortals are ignorant

As the price of mortality

In trading heaven for ashes

Could never appeal to them

     And learning the losses

Of temporal relations

And tragic emotions

In the most intimate ways 

      In the flesh of this world

Becoming deranged with heartache

Completely ruined by loss

      No one signs up for that

But it reveals a secret to life

To know everything ends

Gives us this present

These moments in time

How it all becomes precious

Is to know that it ends

And we ain't gonna like it

     What makes the immortals so jealous

Is that they have nothing to lose

No concept of heartache

No knowledge of loss

Without sadness or death

What could they possibly know about life?

Author's Note

Reviews

[H L Rose]

I like your word choice. It’s a very beautiful sounding poem, but I can’t help but give my two cents on such an intriguing topic as immortality.


Whose to say immortals can’t feel pain?If one is immortal mustn’t they experience the death of the mortals they love? Whose to say an immortal can’t love a mortal and feel their pain? Perhaps mortality is only desirable in an unfulfilling world where time is everything, and even immortals may live in such a world, which is why being immortal in such a world would not be appealing, because they cannot feel the preciousness of the thing that is everything. Or perhaps I’m just rambling.

[Davidgeo]

I'm not actually addressing "the immortals". It's just a device to underpin the main theme... that is - to appreciate life one must be aware of death; you cannot know of beauty without knowing of the hideous, you cannot know where up is if you don't know where down is... etc. etc..

As an aside... how could you say immortals can feel pain? No mortal has ever met an "immortal" and remained, so, aren't you committing the same fallacy that I did? Who's to say? indeed...

[H L Rose]

I was making my assumption on the assumption in the poem that immortals exist(assuming it meant exist in this world among us). However, I understand what you're saying about not addressing "the immortals", and only using the hypothetical concept of such beings to further your point, so my making of such assumptions was invalid to the point. I do think that your usage of the concept makes the poem more interesting.

[Davidgeo]

Believing or not believing in a higher power is a very personal choice, it's all speculation and I think that's a very important thing... otherwise "believing" would lose all it's meaning. Knowing the end defeats the purpose of the journey and renders belief irrelevant. I believe we all eventually turn to dust and then it all eventually happens again in an unavoidable way on time scales we cannot even fathom. I consider the laws of nature to be deified... but I cannot rationalize attributing that divinity to a clearly man made story. Have I ever recommended the book "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut to you before? It deals with that question quite nicely, no matter what your belief that book will be meaningful.

[H L Rose]

Are you just trying to trigger me? Lol I mean that in a joking tone. I don’t believe you’ve recommended it. Perhaps I’ll look into it.

[Davidgeo]

"Triggering" people is kinda what I do. People who think similarly for the same reasons while vilifying any other interpretation they aren't comfortable with are not only boring to me, but insidious as well. I think those types of outlooks paralyze natural growth.

[Davidgeo]

You should try and trigger me sometime... it's almost always interesting if not comically ridiculous.

[H L Rose]

I don’t find truth boring at all. There’s too much to discover.

[Davidgeo]

Think as yourself and you will probably never be boring. I think it's the only to find yourself in whatever your discovering.

[H L Rose]

Your “true” self?...

[Davidgeo]

Yes... the unfettered incorporation of your shadow self with your everyday self. It's very hard to honestly mix your front stage with your back stage. A legendary sociologist named Erving Goffman conveys that concept much better than I ever could.

[Travis Gibson (poetic h..]

This was fantastic and my hat goes off to you here... I very much look forward to reading more of your work.

[Davidgeo]

Thank you Travis. I look forward to reading your work as well.