Thus I Wrote

I was an adolescent once
A time of transition
Of great learning
Of experimentation
Of new experiences

I was an adolescent once
I found romance
And new beginnings
I created something
That became my life

Career & relationships
Children and marriages
Houses and parties
Family and friends
Growth and change

Now another transition
Again everything is new
More baggage now
Create meaning & joy
Create a new life.

I’d no safety net
No guiding light
A feeling of disconnection
The need to fight

Unprocessed feelings
Didn’t know how
Humour and anger
Am I better now?

I got up, I got out
Only way I could
One rung at a time
Fire and blood

Waited for change
A new tech wave
Everything I had
Everything I gave

No inheritance
No history
Move fast & bury
My anxiety & my worry

Never knew myself
Difficult to say
Lost relationships
Along the way

Life is the journey
Not the end
Now what’s next
Around the bend?

It’s difficult to close the door
To leave it all behind
The past has good memories
It’s a balm to the mind

I’ve been invisible
As I juggled their needs
I’d lost myself
Thrashing in the weeds

I must move on
And let it all go
Enjoy the future
And accept the unknown

Maybe I can fix myself
And look forward anew
I could not fix them
But I can love you

I’m trying to focus
On stuff I can influence
On stuff in the middle
Of my little world

I’m trying to do
What I can do
The stuff in the middle
Of my little world

There is so much
That worries me
Outside what I can touch
In my little world

Tell me what to do
To avoid the distractions
Outside what I can touch
In my little world

There is no agreed meaning to life…
There is a void.

There is no agreed measure
No agreed target
No agreed acceptable end…
There is a void.

It is left to us
To create our own meaning…
To try to fill the void.

The pursuit of growth
Of wealth, of power
Became a dominant meaning
Within our culture.
Those who have want more
Those who have not aspire…
To try to fill the void.

Over millennia, humankind evolved
To cover the earth
Until certain European countries
Acquired power & wealth
By colonisation of peoples
By breaking their resistance
Through efficient
Killing from a distance…
To try to fill the void.

Religion and science were used by the powerful
To enable and justify the genocide.
Laws were created to control the weak
Whilst the powerful lied
To grow and maintain their privilege
And so the wealth of other civilisations was pillaged…
To try to fill the void.

To colonise the rest of America
American colonists went on
Through genocide and theft
Of the indigenous population.
So also in Africa
So also in Australia…
All trying to fill the void.

In the 20th century WW1, WW2,
Some recognition of what was lost
Lions led by donkeys
Hiroshima & the Holocaust,
Trying to fill the void.

From a distance,
Living standards have increased
Humanity has evolved
Violence has decreased
But dark actions of the past are hiding
Under the veil of progress.
Were those civilisations given a choice?
In how we reached such progress?
Could we have chosen a different path
To reach such progress?
Did they share equally
In the benefits of such progress?
All countries, peoples and tribes
Want the freedom to choose
Their own unique way
To fill the void.

Those once persecuted
May persecute in time
See the Middle East
Israel & Palestine
We humans have good
But also bad inside
We must find better ways
To fill the void.

Is it all just
Communication now?
Is it all just
A soundbite now?
Put lipstick on a pig
and present it as a cow?

Is it all for one
To win the game now?
Is it all for one
To win the league now?
While those for all
Don’t reap what they sow?

Would society succeed
If we did not care?
Would society succeed
If we did not share?
Do enough people
consider it fair?

We are optimistic
We believe
In a better world than is
In hope
In an arc
Towards justice
And a different way
To measure effectiveness
We are optimistic

We are optimistic
We see the same void
But we choose
A different way to fill it
We accept competition
And cooperation within it
An endless circle
We end and begin it
We are optimistic

We are optimistic
We believe in evolution
In constant growth and change
In truth and beauty
In a form that follows function
In everything interconnected
In decisions that consider everything
In accepting our small place
In the chaos of everything
In acquiring knowledge
And passing it down the line
In joining hands and surfing
On the ocean of time
We are optimistic