DVCO - A Freeverse

--- --- ---

All I have with me:

My Bible,

An Ernest Hemingway novel,

And a fishing pole

To keep me and the Father company.

A constant companion against the winds,

My cedar strip canoe cuts through,

Sturdy as the tree she came from.

The lake is servant to this mighty breeze,

Bending to its well, lacking voice to protest.

I admit to myself, chuckling, that my fishing skills

Are so as well, volatile and unpredictable.

My cast is wobbly and my reel uneven

As I squint against the sun. I remain empty-handed,

Yet I am content, all alone amongst the lapping water.

For I did not come to catch fish,

But to seek solace in solitude,

To humbly develop grit and determination.

As the only soul leading this craft,

I alone am responsible for its fate.

Out here, I am the master of my thoughts.

If self-care is tangible, then finding myself

In the throes of peril and adventure,

Drilling command and shaping discipline,

Is my firsthand taste of becoming a man.

In our lives, there must be a constant reset of course,

Lest the pressures of unstable forces

Push you to an undesirable place.

If one strays too long on the waves of indecision,

Deeper nature pulls them toward the banks of chaos.

It comes with time, never instantly.

As a fisherman never masters the current,

So they must regularly recast and redirect their boat.

After all, wasn't someone who hails as a master

Once a fool who refused to give up?

To humbly push off a personal parade;

To abandon all pining to perform for those

Who may pursue only their production;

To press on, to prosper at the peak of pressure;

That is how a plop of water can pulverize mountains.

Now,

Off to casting

Another line

And basking

In the warm, wild sun.

--- --- ---

-JDH