Odilon Redon: Light (1893)

Reckoning With

They insist that you are a force to be reckoned with,
but I perceive you’re much different.
While you undoubtedly are a force
that sometimes requires some Reckoning With,
this characterization misses more essential elements,
for you are, first and foremost, A Woman Of Substance,
not merely of force,
and any attempt to reduce your presence
to one of the baser elements misses points.

One point might be that what you see isn’t half what you’ve got.
Any individual effect of your presence could only misrepresent your essence.
Those who focus solely on that force
severely limit their defensive choices,
and even allies who perceive no deeper seem like shallow supporters.
You are also the courage of your considerable convictions
without ever solely embodying any one of them.
You are also ten thousand complications and more,
none of them nearly powerful enough to convince you not to engage.

You are also a wiley fox and a clever companion,
astoundingly quick when jumping over any odd, lazy dog.
You exist in a fog of obligation and compulsion,
haunted and haunting back in turn.
You never seem to learn while continuously learning.
You seem to enjoy churning up idle issues
and feel reassured when a requisite chaos initially ensues.
You seem unafraid of failure and frequently quickly fail before quietly returning to the upright position again.

You insist that I’m your best friend,
a contention I can’t rebut,
though I almost always fail to understand the attraction.
If I were worthy of your companionship,
I might think differently,
but people confide to me that you’re a force to be Reckoning With
and however I might otherwise insist,
I ultimately choose to let that sleeping dog lie,
for who am I to refute such a popular conviction
and who would you have to become to insist
that they didn’t understand the half of it?

Happy Birthday Muse!

david 8/24/2024

©2024 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Grace , #PureSchmaltz