“What Else but The Self?”
A poem by T. LaReveur
I picked up a cheap copy of
“Self-Reliance and Other Essays”
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
the other day it caught my eye
the term “Self-Reliance” and
I thought how could I not read this
at such a time in my life I don’t have
a book to turn to that can give me
at least an illusion of security
no the Bible cannot fill that role for me
not now maybe later but not now
no I don’t have a person to turn to not now
to give me words of comfort words that
can actually ring in my ears for more than
a moment nobody now to hold me and tell me that
things will be okay I don’t know
if I would believe them
anyway how could I
and so self-reliance seems the only maybe
answer in this forsaken forsaken existence and
Ralph Waldo Emerson I recall did not
die a Christian a fact which at one point
made me distance myself from his words but
now his ungodliness shines like a halo and draws me in
he knows a godless life he ruled his own
life and I wonder how did that work
for him perhaps it is worth taking a peek
for myself could it work for me because
I have only self-reliance left
to try anyway right so here I give the dice
just one more roll and I flip open
the pages “I read the other day
some verses…”
…………………………………
As always,
Tanya