Poem # 27: Being Alone

Many of my adventures have been done solo -- especially backpack trips. This self-exile allows much time for introspection, and the majestic scenery of the wilderness magnifies the exhilaration of the solitude. Such desirable aloneness starkly contrasts with imposed loneliness, giving birth to this poem:





Loneliness,
when mind-shadows haunt
every moment, every thought,
and cobwebs of the past
ensnare the present
and darken the future.

Aloneness,
comfortable, secure, welcomed introspection,
a mirror-still mountain lake,
inviting you to throw in a thought-pebble
and expand with its concentric rings
as they explore outward,
delving the profound depths and
plumbing its pristine clarity.

Loneliness and aloneness,
two sides of one coin,
contradictory kin,
one imposed, detested, shunned,
the other volitional, desired, sought.
Equivalent yet unequal,
one bankrupt, one priceless,
sometimes commingled
(as when lonely in a crowd,
or in fine company in solitude)
but never the one mistaken for the other.

Lonely-ness or all-one-ness?
Your mind.
Your choice.

Copyright 2005 by Chuck Morlock