A Poet's Journal: November 5th, 2013

November 5th, 2013

We ask ourselves what conviction is, but cannot help but find that facility is sometimes an answer to the struggle.  There is honour in gaining something by force because the battle is for the most part a measure of one's will, yet the very intimacy with which we engage our rival becomes the merit by which the victory must be weighed.  We find ourselves at the center of this prospect of trying to gauge what is just in our demeanor so that every action may serve to better our contemplation, and in this there is neither fault nor the expectation of coming glory, merely a means by which to ease our daily toil.  If we find ourselves not up to our ambitions; if the dreams we had are now pale and sickly fomentations, the outlook has not been lost because the easy way was chosen, rather we realize the rivalry has become one of perpetuity and our interest a vague plea for the stability of life. We are never really near or far from what we want to accomplish, but always at the turning point; we never really win or lose, but coexist in the struggle; and we never really prove or disprove of one belief, but embrace the multitude without ever knowing we are common.

Douglas Thornton