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Poem - Your life already exists. Would you like to replace it.








Your life already exists. Would you like to replace it?

Anthony J. Langford



You know you’ve wanted to start again.
At some point
Gain a better footing
At the beginning of the race
Choose another sentence
Redraft please
Liquid paper backspace.

Sure everyone makes mistakes
If only you could select which ones
Those tarnished words
Hasty judgements
And deliberate actions
That seemed right at the time
Where did it go so wrong?




If it were possible to start over
Would you…?
You are still the same person after all,
If only we could be someone else
At select moments
To experience an alternate mindset
A separate branch of the tree
Another skin, another sex
When posed with…
To be or not to be
You can answer
In the affirmative.

Sure, we’re all remarkable
In our own way
But you know you have done better.
(You can do better).

Then, taking what you’ve learnt,
How might it change you?
To have understood another
In ways no one else could
To have savoured their thoughts
To have suffered their anguish
And revelled in their happiness
To yearn with their need
To be understood
Like you want to be.

Think of the possibilities
Of that Exquisite Information
How might your Empathy
Be able to Inspire?

Unless of course
You’re already altered by this experience
As the Universe dictates
Much to your surprise
Unable to ever fully return
To You.

And all that’s left
Is the horrible realisation
That you’d prefer to be the Other.

(See Title and Click Yes.)
After this post, the poem was included in the collection, Caged Without Walls

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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousWednesday, August 31, 2011

    Great poem I especially like the second half of it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rawknrobyn.blogspot.comThursday, September 01, 2011

    Very thought-provoking, Anthony.

    xoRobyn

    ReplyDelete
  3. nadeemalimFriday, September 02, 2011

    I am very happy to be me! :-) To answer the question in your poem title, no I would not like to replace my life, I love my life, and I try to move forward rather than dwell in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anthony J. LangfordSaturday, September 03, 2011

    Thank you for your comments.
    Glad you're in a good place nadeemalim..
    =]

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousSaturday, September 03, 2011

    I liked this poem. It was temperate in it's momentum. It read like a conversation over a hot coffee. Not sure that we would all want to follow suit when you start off with: "You know you’ve wanted to start again." Would we? I wonder? If we could? Would we do it differently? I often wonder if at some metaphysical level we've all made some kind of agreement before birth that this was the life we had "agreed" to have. Of course, this is a simplistic view.

    "To experience an alternate mindset" is an interesting proposition. It poses the question that our mindsets are fixed, unchanging. I like to think that as we live life, our mindsets adapt to our environment in order to survive and in order to adhere to the structures of the society we live in.

    "A separate branch of the tree" - So many possible variables about the way in which we walk around on this Earth of ours. In which direction we go, and in what supposed destinies we project into. Lots of layers and dimensions of many possibilities. It is infinite.

    Thanks for this conversation over a coffee :)

    Good work Anthony.

    Gina :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anthony J. LangfordSunday, September 04, 2011

    Thanks Gina... I like the notion that you pose, that we 'made an agreement before birth.' For better or for worse, we are who we are and most of our decisions are pre-programmed, in that they must come from the one mould... i think we do alter somewhat over a lifetime, but there's only a set amount that we can change..
    I just thought it was an interesting idea that if you did become someone else, how then would that affect the person that you are, knowing and 'feeling' what it's like to actually 'be' another.

    Thanks for the conversation too, though I didn't get my coffee. I'll have to have a word with the manager.. lol

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pat TillettSunday, September 18, 2011

    Very nice and easy to read. Thought provoking. I guess it's part of what makes us human. I've hated a lot of my life, but if it hadn't gone the way it did, I wouldn't be the way I am now.
    I'm happy as clam!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anthony J. LangfordSunday, September 18, 2011

    Cheers Pat. I try to keep them simple. I'm not out to impress with flowery language which is just as easy to do, but rather to speak to people.

    I'm sorry you've had such a hard life, but youve turned your life around. It's great youre happy now, as you so deserve.

    ReplyDelete
  9. http://onlineclassmentor.com/blog/15-important-steps-to-write-a-book-of-your-dreamsFriday, May 26, 2017

    I am also happy to know that your struggles led you to a happy life. I feel like it is pretty much important for you!

    ReplyDelete
  10. http://www.proofreading-services.orgFriday, June 23, 2017

    I do not understand why to change it, this is a beautiful poem with a very deep meaning.

    ReplyDelete

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