Journey to Ixtlan

I was at a diner with friends listening to them talk about what had transpired for them in the past decade or half. During the same time I as at the same job passing the years in a fairly productive manner. This contrasts with a friend who is about to embark to college after surviving and thriving in their teen years. The poem “Age’s Grace” looks at how time has apparently expressed different paradigms for each of us.


Age’s Grace

We’ve both walked with some grace
living beneath high firmament
the sun and move walked their paths
tracing lines as they marched
Kronos asks for his due
though each would seem to touched
with unequal yoke by wheel’s turn
ask they years what they have borne.

Decade’s half marked your ascent
five years long yet so short
from periled childhood to the stoop
of adulthood you’ll soon embark
into our midst to make your mark
taking lessons to then progress
what’s come before will inform
the way you will shape the world.

The same years were a beat
echoing same again and again
to this one long crossed that line
listening to a lifetime’s pulse
a metronome that droned along
what I’ve done is now outpaced
by time’s repeating drum
asking only for more of the same.

Against this frame time is skewed
fresh with purpose for one of two
the other sees the span and asks
what it means to walk the planes
when half their age does surpass
less than that of comrade’s life
and what of years yet to come
will grace ask the same of both?

2016, Sean Green. All Rights Reserved, 20161220.

The poem “Luna's Gaze” is a metaphorical journey of generations.


Luna's Gaze

Moonlit scenes I'll never have,
far from the day's sustaining grasp.
Classic artists show their craft,
imbue creations in dusk's pale light.

Supple limbs cast in stone,
marbled bodies pliant to touch
lost to waxing lunar states
across the void of last days.

Skin to view, plain to see,
beauty's mark in stone's hard sheen.
What is our place in night's pale light?
Observe the delight of legacy.

Cast your shadow to your own,
Luna's smock covers the soon deceased.
Precursor to the final event,
bear witness to those of next advent.

Luna casts her tabu gaze
upon the objects now disallowed.
Sliver blue are the scenes
of near loveliness far removed.

We share the mistress' mission
as satellites to beauty's cradle.
Sparrows light upon the path,
twilight's gift to madame's gaze.

© 2016, Sean Green. All Rights Reserved, 20160215.

The majority of my social media friends are under 30. I am a bit older. There is a magic that I feel when I interact with them. I am just so darn impressed with most of them, and I take encouragement in their example. My life, while it has run longer, is not over. There are journeys still waiting for me. I challenged myself to express this through poetry, and the result is the poem “Mutual Journey”.


Mutual Journey
Bonus Poem for Day 024 - 20150124

I look to the young and envy them so.
No, this is not true, though I still fixate.
What is this thought I want to create?

I have to consider their place in my world.
What can they tell me that I don't already know?
What do they have that I lack in myself?

Truth comes to my tongue, revealed to my heart.
There is no difference between young and old.
Today is the place from which we depart.

The past gives me wisdom, scars mark their space.
This is shared by the young, though they may have less.
Marks are the maps leading to anyplace.

New prodigy, stretch your wings and now fly.
You have so much potential, roads not yet walked.
World could be ours, now just out of reach.

I look to the young and walk by their side.
Mutual inspiration will be our guide.
This is the thought I wanted to create.

© 2015. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved.

My wise friend elegy_of_flames and I were recently talking about generational changes. I over emphasized the desire of each generation to "act-out" against the previous generations. Elegy said,

The idea that teenagers deliberately "act out" seems to be an explanation that's imposed on the phenomenon by incredulous adults who fail to understand their confused, hormonal offspring's behavior. I could be seeing this through rose-tinted goggles, but most of my fairly "dramatic" action a few years back were not prompted by a need to prove something to anyone, except possibly myself. (Note - most! I'm not claiming I've never acted rashly in my life.

I was so busted for making too broad of a generalization. Here's my take on the generalization thing. I use them a lot. To summarize and generalize is handy for talking about really big topics. In fact, it is about the only way the big topics can be talked about short of writing a novel. The trap of generalization is the overlooking of multiple, and possibly more accurate, generalizations. Here is an example. Let's say that I say that animals usually have four legs. I give "everyday" examples of dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits and so on. Well, I am so wrong. There are also two legged, eight legged, and six legged animals. The majority of animals are instead six-legged. I made a wrong generalization.

I have to admit I made an incorrect generalization while speaking with my astute friend. I thought about the matter more, realizing that there are many reasons that teenagers make a distinctive statement of identity. In fact, at the risk of misspeaking again, I realized that the changes in fashions were a good analogy to why generations look to change. Consider that individuals embrace changes in fashion for the following reasons:

. Change in season
. Inspired by role-model(s)
. Showing off the assets
. Old clothes worn out. New styles are all that is available
. Peer pressure - fit in with the crowd
. It's all about favorite colors
. It's laundry day
. Allergies!
. It's all about comfort
. Gained/Lost weight
. Too many people wearing a current style
. Nobody wearing new style
. Paris showed it last year
. New York showed it this year
. Wal*mart had it in stock
. You got it for Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary
. It is just so cool
. You willl shock the heck out of people
. Because you want to!

Generations shift their interests in clothes, language, body modifications, and habits. These shifts are analogous to the reasons people change fashions. Food for thought via generalization deconstruction. Thanks Elegy!