Structures and Surrendering

A man buys an old house

Every year the storms blow in

And he hammers

Repairs

Underpins

Every year more parts of the house are destroyed

It is untenable

Yet he fights on

Determined not to be

Defeated

Until one day

After a particularly bad storm is repeated

The man throws his arms in the air

Surrendering

Let’s it go

He loosens all the nails

Watches the iron lift and blow

Until all that is left is debris

Piled in a heap down below

And when it’s cleared away

He builds a brand new home

With strong footings

Deep walls

Designed to take the load

Some structures are doomed to fail

Houses

Relationships

Places

They reach a certain point of decay

The repair of which is too great

To personally expend

Financial loss incurred snowballs

No longer can we gloss things over

They are what they are

It is what it is

Let them go

Build something new

Let the old crap blow away

As humans we expend a lot of energy

On holding on

People

Jobs

Things we have out grown

Instead of like nature

Letting go

What blows blows

Let it go

See what stays

Work with that

*i was reading a book called “the Magicians Way” that spoke about structures. How a cube is difficult to roll, how a sphere does it naturally.

How humans have these same structures that sit just below the level of where they’re making decisions from. What these structures mean for our decision making processes.

I often weave philosophy into my poems because that’s how my subconscious speaks to me and I believe poetry also speaks to the subconscious in others.

Having said that once the words have left me, I have no control over how the reader absorbs them or layers the words into their circumstance.

I am not inciting anyone to demolish anything – it is merely an invitation to look at structures.

30 thoughts on “Structures and Surrendering

  1. In economics they call it “the point of diminishing returns.” In life, we might call it “the point of diminishing emotional growth.” Philosophical points enrich your poetry. Thanks for sharing it.

  2. I love this – material things can always be replaced but people cannot. We cannot hold on to things, because there’s more to live for than that. Thanks for sharing this piece!

    Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me

  3. Structures. Wow. I’ve a picture in my mind of ‘The Unshakeable kingdom of God… things that can be shaken away/ things that remain…” cant remember the quote from bible. Profound post here.

  4. I like it. Been learning to let go for some time. And I can tell from this short experience that it’s a powerful thing to learn!!!
    Really enjoyed it.

  5. That’s why I like your poems – because there’s philosophy in them. Spheres roll better than squares. How true. We aren’t all meant to do the same thing. I’m actually finding that difficult to accept right now, but I’m learning to do that.

  6. Reminds me of a Rumi quote I read yesterday: “Life Is A Balance Between Holding On And Letting Go”.

    For many of us, the tendency is to hold on despite all signs, because we are creatures of habit, and fear the unknown. But success lies not in either extreme of holding on always, or letting everything always go…but rather reading life with wisdom and finding the right course of action each time.

    Thank you for a beautiful, thought provoking poem.

  7. I loved this. Reading Mark Nepo recently he too says how we should stop holding in so tight. Our adventure of living in France has showed us that, so many times! The Tao Te Ching also says that if we hold on tight we can not allow new things to come to us, it makes total sense to me. I am going to share this if that is okay. ❤️

    • Share away, thanks for your lovely thoughtful comments. I will have to look into Mark Nepo. As for the Tao Te Ching – I wish it was taught in schools – plain simple common sense. It settles the mind just to read it.

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