The half-closed mind
The half-closed mind
by William Speakes
The half-closed mind,
devoid of and depriving
emotional response –
a loss, a loss.
Yet to lose what?
A thing that was never a thing?
To be a thing
that thing
must have begun.
Believing that the beginning
was no more than half-open
if it was even half that
or half that again –
if it was open at all,
is to believe in something.
A beginning.
What comes from the beginning is the end
(and a lot of questions).
What lies between
the beginning and the end
is what intrigues.
And yet to be intrigued
by the beginning itself
(not to mention
the end
in its own right)
is to begin
to understand
why the what
intrigues the who
when they can’t
bother to care about
the details of where
it all began
and the details of where it all began
is much more important
than what they
(those who bother to care
about the slit of an opening
of the life of a thing –
not referring to the span of something living,
just the span of something)
concern themselves with
which is the middle,
using no fore or hindsight.
But most all beginnings are never THE beginning,
if there is A beginning,
they are merely a beginning
that spawns from a middle.
If there is a middle than there must have been
a beginning and (eventually) an end –
right?
But does the beginning matter?
Does it matter how we got to where we are –
the so-called important part, the now?
Does it matter how or when it will end
or even if it will end?
But it all must end,
or must it?
Linear thought dictates
that time is a straight line
and we live from beginning to end,
enjoying the meat – the middle.
Circular thought (which I think, maybe)
tells us that an end is a beginning
and a middle is the time between,
where many beginnings and ends
occur, sometimes simultaneously.
But whether linear or circular
the body, the living organism,
is in between the one beginning
and end or the millions
of beginnings
and ends (according to).
Time is relative to each mind
and each mind believes
and is that belief what dictates
what each mind projects
upon their lives
to make it so,
to make it reality?
Reality is lost in fantasy
or is it the other way around?
And around is the way the circular mind works.
Life has a beginning –
you are born –
a middle –
you live –
an end –
you die.
Linear thought is so boring.
Perhaps both are correct.
Perhaps we all come into existence and live and die,
but what if after the linear end
begins a circular thought
where it all begins again?
Or perhaps,
there is no circular
or linear,
but a cluster
where birth
is pulled from a collective
and death is a release
back into the collective
and we all have that collective in our souls,
our minds, our bodies, our very beings.
Perhaps there is a grand design
but those that believe
believe a fallacy
and that fallacy,
while making them happy
(which is really what matters)
is still a fallacy.
So a collective of essence
of human spirit,
or soul,
or whatever you wish to refer to it as,
is all around us
and to begin to understand it
you must first understand your limitations,
which are none.
The collective recycles our essence
but we can also manipulate that essence
to our own will,
beginning to understand
the beginning of what could truly be
magnificent
and have no beginning
or end.
Whoa, that’s quite some inner dialogue! Extremely conscious and philosophical give the best poetry, i think. The nature of the world in time and the essence of life can be viewed from many different perspectives–i’m glad to see someone still ‘mulling’/pondering/ruminating on it. I for one have gotten into the rut where i don’t think about it so much any more but should. Perhaps we can all become ‘unstuck’ in time or experience life in reverse as the universe retracts briefly as in some Vonnegut novel?
Thanks for sharing!