Is it cliche to say that the life of every individual is filled with many disappointments? Perhaps. But one’s experience of disappointment, and the grief that goes with it, is never cliche, but is very personal and real. This poem is about not giving up when life gets hard, about accepting divine assistance that can feel like diving deprivation, and about keeping going, however weak we feel we have become.
BEYOND
My crude raft swirled,
slow and rudderless,
and I, Emaciated,
trembling with hunger-
lust, I clutched
a suddenly-appearing bowl,
steaming gruel, to devour.
Refrain, chided the white
cloud, crimson-laced,
kindly:
Your feast awaits beyond;
beyond the mountains.
“Ahhii-aii!” was my wail, choked.
“But I am . . . so . . . hungry!”
I collapsed with convulsions,
upsetting my salvation, spilling
all through the cracks
to salt water.
“It is finished,” I death-groaned,
as the sky echoed Beyond,
and a breeze picked up,
with a current
I could not see,
toward the mountains.
Roger is the author of Rabbit Lane: Memoir of a Country Road. The book tells the true life story of an obscure farm road and its power to transform the human spirit. The book is available in print and for Kindle at Amazon. See Rabbit Lane reviewed in Words and Pictures.
Rabbit Lane 
I always love your imaging, Roger, but this one is beyond me.
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Hmmm. I admit, this poem is different than my usual style. Perhaps I stretched the imagery too far. Simply put, the mountain is a metaphor for our better self. The breeze and the current are metaphors for the subtle, often unseen and unfelt influences of the divine taking us toward our potential. Sometimes we have given up on both ourselves and the divine, as the traveler/speaker in the poem has given up. But the divine never gives up on us and helps us arrive at our destination in spite of ourselves. Does that help? Thanks for reading!
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Yes, thank you. I like the way you think.
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