Verses of youth: 2 poems of pain and confusion from my twenties (Part 1 of 3)

Hello friends,

I'd like to share some personal writings here. These are a couple of poems I wrote over two decades ago, when in my early twenties. At the time, I was just beginning to get an idea of myself as an individual in a big-wide world full of jumbled priorities. I sang of my pain and confusion without really knowing what it was.

So, I present two poems, written in 1992 & 1993. Only now, in my fourties, do I feel I'm beginning to understand what was being expressed. The first poem highlights my naivete and idealism and also captures my growing disillusionment and cynicism. The second is a brief respite, or rather, a brief glimpse of a way through the confusion - something which only now is catching up with me in life and becoming a reality.

Thanks for reading

Namaste

Untitled (Sep 1992, on the ferry from Iraklion to Alexandria)

What romance is there in life?
wherefore are we here?
I see no reason why
I know the mist will never clear.

What is this monetary flavour
a taste for which we yearn?
No sincerity and generosity
our society shall have us learn.

Through all our broken visions
our jumbled priorities,
no relative-truth stands true
to Nature's spoilt, overrated 'We's.

Why shineth not forth a trust?
For trust is swayed, betrayed...
a desire to goodwill
is suspicious-heartedly stayed!

Hard it is to write,
to contemplate, to savour...
a society mouldy and tight
the non-desire to help unwaver.

Atavism and simplicity!
Intricacy's coldly metallic
it transcends patient naivety
misunderstandings pursuing the tragic!

Get out for it does you no good
all ye who see so clear!
Leave for lesser-known lands
for change cometh not in this year.

Die, or search in futility for yourselves,
bow not down to temptation!
Sing with your forefathers, creators of destruction:
“Salvation, Salvation, Salvation”.

Untitled (Feb 1993, Amsterdam :)

Sublimation of thought into its purest form
Snow and ice covering a complicated world,
a cruel world
And eyes... frozen too deep to see
and understand...
Awake! to a vision of perspectives
transcending and quiet...
no more diffused misunderstandings
just peace and simplicity!

Images taken or scanned by @barge. Collage and line-break graphic via Photoshop