“Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do.”
— Paulo Coelho
Oh so confident in your views
reality lies down at your feet
yet you beg before it
convinced you know of its treat
and still in giant stride
you feel no remorse
at tearing down all others
because you are right of course
yet then the silence spins around
your tower crashes to the ground
in your facade there is a crack
you’ve found some knowledge that you lack
and so you rebuild your crumpled frame
and in your course become convinced
that you hold the key once more
and on such scant evidence!
Would you hold the secret key
and jump away from pure conviction
then know truth’s inconsistency
and certainty’s restriction.
— G A Rosenberg
Blessings, G
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Finding the Colours to Build a Dream by G A Rosenberg
“”I wear the universe backwards. I imagine putting stars in my coffee, and sugar in the sky. I imagine going fishing in clouds, and watching the sun hide behind lakes. I’m too busy dancing with my imagination to even tip toe with reality for a second. They say I’m going mad. They’re right.”
— D. Antoinette Foy
I danced with a dream in the daytime
I sang silent songs in my head
I grieved at the grave of the living
and had dinner and tea with the dead
I marvelled at colourless rainbows
I got drunk on tap water last night
I played children’s games with little old ladies
how they loved when I gave them a fright
Yet through all my cleaver reversals
I find that a balance comes through
Looking at things from angles unseen
makes the commonplace world seem like new
“The best advice I’ve ever received: ‘no one else knows what they are doing either.’
— Charles Bukowski
Pretending to know
what its about
Backing it up
knowing no doubt
Fearing that I’m making it up
Fearing that it’s breaking all up
I’ve done my studies
I’ve passed my tests
wanted to feel
I’m not like the rest
Yet finally the cracks begin to show
My energy drained, I’m losing the flow
Surrender to randomness
Feeling quite ravenous
for knowledge I’m lacking
my brain I am racking
yet still nothing shows
This really blows
yet with my feet on the ground
I look around
and see everyone’s with me
confused as can be
and yet they pretend
what they do they intend
they make it up too
its how they get through
we’re all bozos on this bus
— G A Rosenberg
“The most valuable moments and experiences that life has to offer are found only along its most treacherous paths.”
— Augusten Burroughs
I am grateful
for the hard times
the roads with naught but bends
the three in the morning loneliness
where it seemed I had no friends
for those are the moments
when I took stock
and learned to trust myself
The universe looking out for me
the future distant shelf
and time in which I could
discover who I was
each lesson being hard won
learning my own laws
Easy times are not the times
to analyze or reflect
They are meant to enjoy
treasure and deflect
the memories of pain
of terror and of shame
the times in which we grow most
the times in which we almost
come to understand it all
— G A Rosenberg
“If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.”
― Richard Bach
Am I a fictional creation?
A character written with sensation
transmitted through me by another
some ersatz father and mother
begotten as some mere expression
some aspect of creative repression
NO!!!! I shall break free and choose myself
Transcend my book, jump off my shelf
and live my life as I see fit
not serve another’s foolish writ
Self-created I shall thrive
By will I’ll live, self-deify
Grow evolve, re-manifest
until from being, I take my rest.
— G A Rosenberg
That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”
― Walt Whitman
Love’s current, imperfect and scarlet-hued
flows swiftly through my life.
Music Thunderously loud and hauntingly melodic
is the theme of my soul.
Peace, long sought yet never reached
through the omnipresent strife
A longing, aching, yearning quest
to somehow become whole.
My verse longer than ever I thought
seems somehow stuck in the middle
I search for the perfect word or phrase
only to come up wanting
Somewhere the rhythm has gone askew
the next line is often a riddle
Finding reason to make the effort
an endeaver that seems too daunting.
Yet I’ll follow it through to the end
tho sometimes I wonder why bother
Can yet one more stanza in life’s great song
really have much portent
To find surcease and lay my pen down
may be something that I’d rather
Yet this is my soul’s legacy
and the reason why I present.
–G A Rosenberg
If a whisper shatters mountains
and a wave destroys the sea
if a word can break my heart
and a touch can set me free
If a child’s laughter
can restore an old man’s health
Do I dare disturb the universe
that lies within myself.
If a book brings down a government
and a sigh can start a war
If a mother’s tears of grief
can no longer be ignored
If a song sets armies watching
with conviction in their heart
Can I change some folk’s awareness
with a single work of art?
If a murmured ritual
can change the world outside
If showing you new confidence
means you never have to hide
If I can share some secrets
that I never thought I’d share
Then I dare disturb the universe
by letting go of fear
— G A Rosenberg
“Nature is playful and terrible. Some see the playful side and dally with it and let it sparkle. Others see the horror and cover their heads and are more dead than alive. The way does not lead between both, but embraces both. It is both cheerful play and cold horror.”
— Carl Jung
Resist not your feelings
Your nature is wild and strong
The times that you are raging
you’re only withstanding the storm
Don’t hide your head neath the covers
feel them with all of your might
the storm that’s intense will pass by you
leaving behind peaceful night
Emotions are just like our weather
clear skies and cloudy mixed in
No use whining or complaining
by the time we’re done, a change has come in.
I once was an uptight bastard
bottling up all my rage
I felt like some wild creature
was trapped in my steel-headed cage
I finally got bored with my anger
my sorrow and feeling alone
I now let the feelings flow through me
not a one am I required to own.
— G A Rosenberg
A bit of doggerel on an evening where I have been awake too many hours with too little sleep. Tho feeling it a bit as a song. Jung’s quote talks about coexisting with nature rather than hiding from it. I have long seen my emotions as being similar to weather patterns. If I acknowledge the negative emotions that come up and let them pass through, it can be liberating. It’s when I try to clamp down on anger or hurt or sorrow that I start to feel trapped. Eventually I end up clamping down so far that I get a case of mental constipation, the shit has no way of coming out.
That doesn’t mean I have to lash out at anyone or punch walls, it just means that I have to acknowledge my anger or frustration. I witness it, witness how it manifests and then go on to other things. With practice, it becomes easier. Since I have started doing this, my stomach hurts less and I get way less stress and sinus headaches. I feel more clear-headed and can better handle whatever has caused the stress in the first place. Of course having my art as an outlet doesn’t hurt either.
Blessings, G
“I believe that Magic is Art and Art whether it be music, writing, sculpture or any other, is literally magic. Art, like any magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words or images, to achieve changes in consciousness… Indeed to cast a spell is simply to manipulate words, to change people’s consciousness, and this is why I believe that an artist or a writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world to a Shaman.”
— Alan Moore
“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.”
— Philip K Dick
Entranced in the spell of your words and art
I came along for the vision
Together we created clouds of wonder
and invited friends to join in
but one can’t live on clouds for long
without the substance to back it up.
Maybe we need to weave the spell again.
Enlivened by the height of the tower
we built upon the sandy beachfront
Together we felt when tragedy struck
and washed it out to sea
For how long can a castle last
without a good foundation
Perhaps we need to build it up again.
Magick can create wondrous things with
word and art combining to make them real
Yet words fail without effort to back them
leaving fading images behind.
I want to build a life with you
together with effort we’ll see it through
We’ll work and create the dream anew.
The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.”
— Henry David Thoreau
I want to lose myself
in nature’s boroughs
wander for hours
in forest and beach
I want to surrender
to where life takes me
from everyday life
I’ll be out of reach
I’m tired of life
in civilized byways
I’m weary of meetings
and coffee routine.
I find myself
daydreaming of travel
choatically lost
out there in the green
I want to find myself
some place that I’ve never
been in the journey’s
I’ve taken so far.
Perhaps I’ll start
leaving tomorrow
packing my backpack
selling my car.
Who knows where I’ll be
and how far I’ll travel
talking to strangers
maybe finding a friend
Getting myself in
all kinds of trouble
or perhaps find the person
I’ll be in the end.
— G A Rosenberg
Finding the Colours to Build a Dream by G A Rosenberg 
Dreamscape 23 by G A Rosenberg 
