avatarHarry Stefanakis

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1812

Abstract

pe or fear like a starving man holding bread with a tight fist consuming quickly for fear of losing but in this way tasting nothing of bread or life</p><p id="ec16">So let go but don’t drop the fucking bread letting go is opening-up your ham-fisted nature slowing down and tasting fully savoring each beautiful and fucked up moment embracing the darkness in the vastness of life no longer letting go but surrendering</p><p id="a726"><b>IV</b></p><p id="f6e4">Surrender is much deeper and more dangerous than letting go For shadow always follows light but in the end, must give way to it</p><p id="41b0">I wrote this poem many years ago after a road trip to San Francisco and a visit to City Lights Books where I picked up Allen Ginsberg’s <i>Howl and Other Poems</i>. The road trip occurred after a major shift in my life. I felt like a snake that had outworn its skin and needed to shed some things. I was feeling lost and searching for renewal.</p><p id="57e5">It is very different than most poems I have written. This poem in many ways was part of the shedding which allowed the soft vulnerable new skin to come forth.</p><p id="766b">Here are some of my other poems written in the new skin:</p><div id="d5a4" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-roar-inside-silence-625f63398e06"> <div> <div> <h2>The Roar inside Silence</h2> <div><h3>Between the silence of emptiness and fullness exists a fiery roar. Where lives are tempered and forged. Where clarity…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/)"></div> </div> </div> </a>

Options

</div><div id="58d9" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/ways-to-remember-33c2442a00c3"> <div> <div> <h2>Ways to Remember</h2> <div><h3>recalling joy like grasping at time hollowed husk, thin carcass, clinging form, a ghost memory</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*uZXAggAfTNjMs3X0MTkicQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="5386" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/lessons-on-flight-f32d7ac1d601"> <div> <div> <h2>Lessons on Flight</h2> <div><h3>The sun beckons</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*lbpvCdd8hfwfNXxp4HUAjQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="f5cb" class="link-block"> <a href="https://medium.com/@drharrys/membership"> <div> <div> <h2>Join Medium with my referral link - Harry Stefanakis</h2> <div><h3>As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get full access to every story…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*wWO3GrPh7W218Nu6)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Rage and Howl

In Four Short Chapters

“Howling” by U.S. Geological Survey is licensed under CC0 1.0

I

Rage and howl like Ginsberg but this is a personal battle the politics of the soul searching for truth in a fucked up world with baggage from fucked up relationships

Internal Jihad — a holy war really and truly and sometimes I bomb myself with thoughts of mass destruction and even this war can only be won through the heart

But a fierce heart A fierce compassion of the self (and others — it is the same) rolling up my sleeves for surgery of the soul cutting open the boils of bullshit ready to die abut yearning for life

Ahh! That’s it! Death pushes yearning for life True Life — free of bullshit living with passion from the heart

II

What else is there? dig deeper what else is buried?

Fear of loathing voices from before not mine but mine accept them to be free that sounds fucked up but it’s true accept what is fucked and transcend it

But how? Because it’s not all but part and small at that embrace it in the large and melt it in the fire of desire for life

III

So I embrace my fucked up ego and all its shattered voices shadows of desire Holding on

But don’t grasp too tight to hope or fear like a starving man holding bread with a tight fist consuming quickly for fear of losing but in this way tasting nothing of bread or life

So let go but don’t drop the fucking bread letting go is opening-up your ham-fisted nature slowing down and tasting fully savoring each beautiful and fucked up moment embracing the darkness in the vastness of life no longer letting go but surrendering

IV

Surrender is much deeper and more dangerous than letting go For shadow always follows light but in the end, must give way to it

I wrote this poem many years ago after a road trip to San Francisco and a visit to City Lights Books where I picked up Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems. The road trip occurred after a major shift in my life. I felt like a snake that had outworn its skin and needed to shed some things. I was feeling lost and searching for renewal.

It is very different than most poems I have written. This poem in many ways was part of the shedding which allowed the soft vulnerable new skin to come forth.

Here are some of my other poems written in the new skin:

Poetry
Howl
Ginsberg
Rainbow Salad
Shedding
Recommended from ReadMedium