Calling
To the I Am
Alone and on my knees
In a valley filled with death's air
His gift: Freedom in an endless expanse
My prison's narrow walls collapsed
I walked in green meadows
Seeing the sun
Calling
Inspired by a prayer from the beautiful "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl.
The pressure to perform, which grips the soul
In the moment of action, digs its claw
Deep into the body, taking control —
Tense hands, weak knees, shallow breathing, clenched jaw —
Those symptoms of exaggerated worry
And anticipated anxiety
Are themselves the causes of that dreary
Failure to achieve. With some gaiety,
Attempt to fail instead, shoot to flounder;
This paradoxical intention, see,
May be just what sweeps the legs from under
Our deepest seated fears and sets us free.
“Let go,” said the Buddha. “Dive in,” declares
Viktor Frankl. One succeeds when one dares.
Shame & guilt had infiltrated the brain
The man in the mirror was going insane
Life is suffering, that's what Viktor Frankl said
Vividly remember being alive but feeling dead
Unaware, unconscious, of my deceitful ways
Temptation was my coach, I knew all the plays
Confessing my flaws and fallible nature
Admitting I’m weak, committing to the labor
Humble existence through my new reality
Confidence grew because of vulnerability
The ego dissolves through the confrontation
Peace manifested through self-analyzation
As a literal phemomenon, Death is fearful.
As paradox, an antidote to fear.
As life in death, it focuses on life.
As something absurd, one must cope with it,
Edmund Husserl or Viktor Frankl’ll help;
If literal ’n figural, generates fear ’n hope,
As “cowards die many times ’fore their deaths.”
If cyclic, it mitigates much of fear,
If linear, leads to dread—life after death:
Go to Edmund Husserl and he will help.
Thus, hacked to death, dear Death, by perceivers;
But when the worst comes to the worst, I quit!
***
When I am in pain,
My ego would be the first to leave,
As rats would a sinking ship;
The greater the pain the faster it leaves!
My drives get ready to play a masochistic role.
All philosophers, Cosmologists,
Ontologists, Monists, Dualists, Pluralists,
Eschatologists, Epistemologists et al
Hastily retreat, like true fair-weather friends,
Except Kierkegaard and his lieutenants,
Edmund Husserl and Viktor Frankl: they
Stand by me; help me, first of all,
To see meaning in the situation
Where there is apparently none.
The pain starts mitigating.
The triumvirs prompt me to be positive
And do things that I can— in the circumstances,
Ignoring things I cannot possibly do or undo.
Then I find my other companions,
Knowledge, Reason, Experience, etc.,
Slowly joining hands and doing their bit.
Thank God, there is a Kierkegaard!
— Ram, R. V.
Published in The Creative Collective Anthology
Series 2, Graldine Taylor, Ed. Amazon, 2017
THE GARDENER
Captain Viktor Stogov?
Oh he’s gone now
Cancer took him
A cigarette killed him
Where ten years of
Enemy tanks could not
His flowers blow in the spring breeze
Tulips daffodils and marguerites
They come back every spring
- so he’s not really gone -
Standing tall erect and bright
Smartly in line in the sun.
......................................................................................
Viktor was an ex-soldier who worked as a gardener in his later retirement.
The world is alit
City of Kiev it starts with you
burning for your right to freedom
of assembly and of humanity.
Crumbling from strong arm
tactics and corruption
Police roll down the street
beating the young, old, and weak.
Wannabe Russian Dictator that is
your President Yanukovych.
Viktor, resign and run to your Russian master!
FSB guide the Police shooting into the crowds,
snipers on the roof,
and cocktails that are drunk by the rich
are weapons for those who seek to be free.
City of Kiev, cover your face
protect yourself from further arrest.
March down to Maidan Nezalezhnosti
Freedom awaits at the end of the street.
Ignore the lie of the politician
Rise up with your brothers and sisters
to the new dawn; take their buildings!
Rise up with your fathers and mothers
to a new life; another revolution!
Finish what the Orange Revolution started.
City of Kiev, the world is with you
as you march for your right.
Humanity is on your side,
no weapon do they have
to stop the hand of the people.
The fist of the people.
Your spirit is with ours and all of mankind.
“Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how.'”-Viktor Frankl
My true way of living is not for How,
My true way of living is Why for now,
This way of living is ‘cause of my vow.
I made this vow, for you and for him,
Two separate minds in a single rim,
This wasn’t made on a single whim.
‘Why’ is the question I now ask,
Why shall I stand behind your mask,
Is it ‘cause of your current task.
I will stand here anyway,
I know it’s a bit cliché,
But I am still here to stay.
Here I stay with you two,
I don’t know what to do,
We are truly taboo.
We can never be,
I’m sure you agree,
This I guarantee.
You are my Why,
For you, I’ll die,
I won’t deny.
I love you,
This is true,
My love grew.
The end,
My friend,
Will send.
This,
Kiss,
Bliss.
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