04-01-2024, 09:47 AM
@WJames - pleasing and effective form. I like it.
First Times
There is no limit to experience
except, perhaps, forgetting what was learned
or misinterpreting, a consequence
of seeing fire leap yet stay unburned.
But innocence is not a heap to be
piled higher as a life acquires its shape–
more like unpolished raw chalcedony,
or dewy beauty of an unpressed grape.
The wine of innocence implies its loss;
acceptance cannot be withdrawn once given.
To glaze experience with perfect gloss
what’s lost to gain it must be coaxed, not driven.
[rhyming quatrains]
First Times
There is no limit to experience
except, perhaps, forgetting what was learned
or misinterpreting, a consequence
of seeing fire leap yet stay unburned.
But innocence is not a heap to be
piled higher as a life acquires its shape–
more like unpolished raw chalcedony,
or dewy beauty of an unpressed grape.
The wine of innocence implies its loss;
acceptance cannot be withdrawn once given.
To glaze experience with perfect gloss
what’s lost to gain it must be coaxed, not driven.
[rhyming quatrains]
Non-practicing atheist