Robert Ludden Poet Free verse

Understanding Cool

I looked, and saw that pride 
is in conformity...the tyranny 
of "us" that will not see
the me inside the you,
that each of us proclaims
to all the friendless space
at night around our beds.

The dawn is swallowed up
in darkness feared not only
from its mystery, but by its latent
monsters we personify
with ghoulish overtones, malevolent
intent; we cower there,
and drown in sweat and sodden dreams.
We sing of some imagined victory, 
far-gained, far-sung, where self is king.

That is the irony--the beauty,
the reward, of looking cautiously
where revelation is not dug up
without some pain, some swallowing
of one's own.  It hurts a bit,
and exersizes powers virtually unkown.
  
But that's the payoff;
will you come along?  No,
that will not be cool..not ever.
We shall never seize the promise
hanging there before our eyes;
the lone surprise is won, most likely,
with some tears, some isolation
self-imposed--and that is all the glory
we can ever know.
           ~

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