Pages From John

Tag: death

  • The End of the World

    It was the end of the world
    The end of all I knew
    The end of all I thought I knew

    Palaces of perception crashed around me
    The fabrications and fallacies broke and burned
    The reality in which I walked was swallowed up
    Everything was abandoned and the fire climbed up my vision

    It was death, death, death!

    And then I saw it
    The worst terror and the greatest beauty
    And a new kingdom came
    One which was always there but couldn’t be seen
    Not seen but only experienced

    And there are many, many thrones
    All are kings and queens within this realm

    A kingdom we abandoned and returned to
    We grew and then ungrew
    We learned and then unlearned
    We dethroned ourselves and then took it again
    We separated and then rejoined

    It was the end of the world
    Or was it a new beginning?
    Was my great failure really my great victory?

    It was the end of the world

  • A Matter of Life or Death

    To be truly and fully alive is to be responsible.
    To be responsible is to be able to give a response.

    That is what separates a living thing from a dead thing.

    If we give our responses based on how our friends perceive us,
    If we give our responses based on how morally acceptable it appears,
    If we give our responses based on how our government will punish us,
    If we give our responses based on how our priest will reprimand us,
    If we give our responses based on the rewards that are set up in front of us,
    If we give our responses based on a system constructed around us,
    If we give our responses that are contrary to our personal truth,

    Are we actually responding?

    or are we following a response handed to us?

    A response commanded to us!

    We were given life! LIFE!
    And yet we have chosen death.

    A comfortable, easy, thoughtless death.

    Come alive! Come alive! Come alive!

    Take the controls of life!
    Stop being so damn fake.
    Have we ever been real?
    Our life is running out…
    But are we even alive yet?
    Or are we pretending to be a dead thing?

    Are we responding?

    Do we love ourselves enough to be ourselves?
    Or will we continually choose hate and repression?
    Are we going to be grateful for being alive?
    Or are we going to be ungrateful and give up what makes us alive?

    We all must choose.

    It is a matter of love or fear.
    It is a matter of life or death.

    To be or not to be…
    That is the question.