Life's Furnace
Menaced
woods,
You
obfuscate direction.....
Fleeting
patches of light,....
Time
passes unmarked....
But
for the growl of eternal hunger.....
Defiant,
I walk this path, erect; ....
Branches
claw my face, I do not stoop....
Nor
bow.
The
blood rises to fill the welts
Runnels
down my face and chest
A
murmur of my passage spilt on the detritus floor.....
Shadows
beckon, half-truths ever seductive.....
Alone,
my stride pounds an integral rhythm,....
Yet
seeks harmony that may not exist....
But
should.....
I can
not describe my destination,....
Nor
take comfort in its name.....
Yet the
gait I carry is my own.....
The
breath I expel ....
Is
warmed by the heat....
Of the
furnace of the life....
I've
chosen.....
....I
continue.
About J. Derek Miller
Legal Name/Pen Name
J. Derek
Bio
I was me before I knew me. Stuff happened and I became acquainted with me again, maybe for the first time, I realized I had not changed but merely shed the armor that was weighing me down instead of protecting me. Today is just the right time to be.
I'm still learning. I thought I had it all together and had a perfect life. Then I realized I had challenges I had to face that were my own not not someone else's. Ran away from some of them for awhile but those pesky things keep coming back. So now I try to be the best I can be in the moment and help others do the same. I expect that many other people have done and are doing the same.
Oh, you want the mundane stuff?
I worked in Silicon Valley for almost ten years. Amazing place with people a whole lot smarter than me running around. Fell in love with a wonderful woman from Canada and had an almost fairytale marriage until some big green ogre screwed it up. I should never have injected myself with experimental serum. So I've learned two people can love each other and not be married. Never saw that coming.
Left Cali to travel the world for 6 months and it turned into almost 4 years with a few months back in the states to earn some money. Became a scuba instructor and taught on an island Koh Samuii for a few years, non-contiguously among other places. I'll have to find another place to list all the places I've been but I did manage to have to get new pages put in my passport. Concluded that even if you cant speak the language people are good and caring and hold most of the same values in common. The world is full of amazing people if you take the time to go meet them. Language is no barrier.
I think I set out to change the world but what really happened is it changed me. We'll see if it was for the better. You tell me. Ending in a rhyme how sublime.
Major Influences
Greek mythology and philosophy, the hero's story. The life of Jesus Christ, the life of Buddha, the life of Gahndi, the life and love of Monique, the writings of Frank Herbert, Richard Feynman, Robert L. Heinlein, Roger Zelanzy, Piers Anthony, Orson Scott Card.