Shadow

Rushing past, pass the days

With the flip of a coin each morning

The sky stays dreary and gray,

What seems like an ominous warning

But it was long ago, what seems like yesterday

That love triumphed in my life

And cast a shadow of dreary gray.

I live in that shadow,

With my eyes hidden behind sunglasses

I live in that shadow,

Because the sun burns my eyes

I live in that shadow,

Because as we all know you can’t escape lies behind.

I could spend my entire life pretending,

That it never happened,

Or that there had been a different ending

The sun shines bright, but behest the night

For it brings a blackened saddened bending

Of everything you thought you knew

And years later the feelings you thought you outgrew,

Just linger and loiter and follow you

Like a shadow.

I live in that shadow,

With my eyes hidden behind sunglasses

I live in that shadow

Because the sun burns my eyes

I live in that shadow

Because we all know you can’t escape what you left behind.

What monumental people,

To cast a shadow that extends a decade or two

What monumental people

To give you something tangible that you can’t construe

What giants of the past they must be

Put darken your path for what seems like eternity

What impact they have made,

To cast such a shadow.

I live in that shadow,

Unable to escape it

I live in that shadow,

Realizing its nature,

It is, in fact just a shadow and it may follow me

The rest of time,

But it’s my shadow too,

It’s my life.

-JGG

Had to update my avatar

2011


2010

The Warehouse

Brick, mortar and shadows on the walls,

Billows of smoke flowing thru the halls

Dancing dragon tongues whip at iron beams,

And in their grip, we see the unseen.

Creation, destruction, it’s cyclical seduction

The rumbling and crumbling of our critical construction

Of our ideas and thinking they’re all literal.

When in fact they’re all just apocalyptical.

It’s all, in a sense, just time passing

Leaving us asking what’s all this smoke really masking

As we wander those halls gasping

Pushing on and grasping at our want to keep on grasping

Our footing gone, our breathe not lasting

Now running thru the halls, as flames whip at our feet

And the walls fall as the fire claims victory at the buildings defeat

There we are left in the street, glaring at the blaze

How were we supposed to compete, we wonder and gaze

Cinder and ashes as the past passes us bearing the days

Swearing that somehow we’ll tear ourselves away

From our delusion and confusion,

A flicker a flare, we delve into what makes human

Rebar and burned bricks form what’s left behind

A skeletal building now redefined

By shadows on the standing walls that refused to fall

Singed into what we would call our mind

In all this we should find some truth, an answer, a lesson of some kind

We could try to make sense, comprehend this impermanence

Die to defend our need for riddance in this instance

Or simply accept and be indifferent

To birth and to death

And the in between persistence

This, all, now, here… what we call existence.

And here now amongst the rubble and ash

I ask, stop for a second, and realize nothing lasts

And hold it

Live, here, now

Live.

Live n the moment.

-JGG

I sit

I sit.

My heart racing, my mind pacing

Back and forth,

…I sit, early morning

Repeating thoughts, speeding thoughts

Defeating the knots that I’m so desperately needing

To make this story…

An ungraspable, intangible, unimaginable, unfathomable

…story

Yet, I sit.

Still, I’m facing,

Reality.

Racing to finality trying to find actuality in destiny

An entity trapped inside an identity

Realizing and empathizing with the fragility

Of everything.

I sit.

Wondering.

Pondering.

Realizing,

That we cling to every single thing,

Our wings trapped beneath straps which are attached to…

…no thing.

Still we act and re-act the play,

Composing, imposing routine day by day

Until a string,

Slowly begins to unravel and fray,

As we bring to life the epic play,

With the sting of strife and the harshness of life

We fight with a diamond tipped knife

Reflecting our inner bright clear white light

Defending our right, our freedom to flight

Whether be it a clear blue sky or moonlit night

We stop asking why because our answer would be an outright

“Why not?”

And now the world is paradoxical,

And as unorthodox as this paradox is

There is a path, a way, some rubble, a bend

We are asked to stay, to muddle or ascend

And we say to life we will stay upright until the bitter bitter-sweet end

Now I contend and recommend stopping to fend and defend

Our now apprehended mystery

And begin to tie up all those loose ends

Of our future, our history.

But this, here, now, all depends

On whether or not you can comprehend

And see the portended, extended, and transcendent

Bend in the story, the glory of being descended

From every single thing that's all so interdependent

And just how when brought together it all fits

And thoughts, I, you, we me are just a tether...

I see now.

The way, the Tao

Still,

...I sit.

-JGG

Cheers to the past with broken glasses

Here’s a cheers to the past with a chipped and broken glass

Hold it gently for it is weathered and it’s cracked

With all of the yesterdays, with all of our past.

Innocently thinking it would forever last.

Roles were played and roles were cast

And all too soon the glass what shattered all to fast.

But parts of the hearts of the torn-aparts remain

May I impart a beginning a new start, but refrain

From letting baggage of distain keep us apart,

And simply dance a skillfully choreographed art.

Shall we take the time to carefully pick up the mess we have made,

Or simple shall we all just walk ignorantly away

Letting this tapestry of fate slowly fray

As we head to tomorrow refusing to acknowledge yesterday.

Is it healthy? Are we sane? Is all this cliché?

Are we both afraid the past will simply… replay?

We can take a step back and step on the broken glass,

Acknowledge the pain or simple re-cast

Our lives with a simple step forward, a small smile

Moving onward, seeing that it’s been awhile,

Grab some glue, I’ve grabbed mine

I promise you, I promise you it will all be fine.

Let’s pick up the pieces, pick up the shards

Drop our egos,] and drop our guards

And sit and laugh as we rebuild a glass

Making something for the future from parts of the past.

Mine is done and I’m waiting for you,

If you never come that is fine, I have enough love for two.

So even if I’m alone in this toast and this speech,

Even if my words, to your ears, to your heart, never reach

I’ll still raise my masterpiece at last, for here’s a cheer to the future

With my weathered, chipped and broken glass.

-JGG