Carrying Stones into the Colorful Unknown

M. E. Kamrass

Description

This poetry collection seeks to serve as a companion to contemporary poetry lovers and to anyone who ponders the weight of being alive for all life is in our modern world.
There is a weight to being alive. Everyone bears life’s stones: some stones are light, others heavy; some are significant, others miniscule. They are our upbringing, environment, memories, mental and physical health, decisions we have made, lessons we have learned, people we interact with, experiences we have had, and other factors—for better or worse or with no particular outcome at all. Carrying Stones into the Colorful Unknown presents one man’s exploration in verse of his stones and the life he has lived thus far through various tones and experiments in style and format. These poems consider the monotony, struggles, uncertainties, humors, and joys he has experienced and people he has interacted with in life, complemented by photographs from his own collection. This poetry collection seeks to serve as a companion to contemporary poetry lovers and to anyone who ponders the weight of being alive for all life is in our modern world.

Sujets

• Existential
• Political
• Modern
• Humorous
• Experimental
• Philosophy
• Contemporary history
• New
• Modern history
• Experiment
• Photography
• Politics
• Existentialism
• Poetry
• Contemporary
• Expérience (homonymie)
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 15 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663240477
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

CARRYING STONES INTO THE COLORFUL UNKNOWN
 
 
 
 
 
M.E. KAMRASS
 
 
 
 

 
 
CARRYING STONES INTO THE COLORFUL UNKNOWN
 
 
Copyright © 2022 M.E. Kamrass.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
 
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iUniverse
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
All photographs used were taken by M.E. Kamrass
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4048-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4047-7 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022909960
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 08/08/2022
To all who have taught me
and bore the stones of life with me
CONTENTS
The Stones of Existence:
The Weight of What Is in Life
The Same Stones Seen:
The Monotony in Life for Better or Worse
The Jagged, Dark Stones in the Valley:
The Negative and Horror in Life, Real and Imaginary
The Uncanny, Alien Stones:
The Confusion, Doubt, and Uncertainty in Life
The Colorful, Odd Stones:
The Humorous and Satirical Side of Life
The Freedom and Flight with Stones:
The Positive in Life in Light of Its Weight
About the Collection

THE STONES OF EXISTENCE:
The Weight of What Is in Life

CARRYING STONES
Have you ever asked yourself,
“Who am I?” or “Why do I live?”
That’s the stones you carry.
Every choice you make,
everything that has happened to you—
a stone in the invisible sack on your back
you carry everywhere you go:
school, work, the grocery store, church,
you name it.
Birth to death,
stones created and collected: cobbles, pebbles, boulders;
some precious and of particular significance,
others forgettable or regrettable
but ever worthless, even in the moment?
(You decide.)
The weight of identity and meaning:
to live with who you are
and to continue to redefine
WHO YOU ARE,
like that one person
you think has it all together;
to ceaselessly ask
WHY
and to continue to KNOW WHY
you bear your stones
with billions of others.
BORN WITH QUESTIONS
I was born this way
but not without questions to ask one day.
Why was I born this way
and not some other way?
Why was I born in this time of history
with this particular identity?
May I wonder about other people too?
May I ask questions to all of you
if only to empathize and understand?
If only to learn about another human?
Billions upon billions came before us;
billions upon billions will come after us,
so may curiosity reign
and receive no blame.
May a human in the mystery of existence
ask questions with futile persistence.
THE LORD(S) OF CREATION
A human,
born nothing
but the creator of something:
Meaning and Purpose.
A human,
the lord of Life
but Life is nothing;
the lord is nothing.
Create something from nothing:
humans, the lords of creation.
Life abounding with lords,
but there can only be one in your life;
who is your lord?
what is your lord?
you only have one Lord...
THE STONES OF THE BODY
The body, the brain—
crystal clear windows,
collecting grime and being washed,
being washed and collecting mud,
filtering the world for the mind,
eventually shattered,
or antennas for radios,
receiving and sending signals,
being blown in the wind,
providing channels for the mind,
eventually bent out of shape or broken.
This transmission,
sometimes enhanced, exaggerated, nourished,
distorted, disrupted, destroyed
in its abode of the body:
a stone to bear—
lighter on some days,
heavier on others.
How ability or character can change,
or free will stripped in an instant
under the influence of anything of the body,
inside and outside it,
in the moment or in genetic eons written in it.
Drag your body!
War against your body!
Harm your body!
Live with your body!
Thrive in your body!
You need it
and it needs you:
the body’s fabric intertwined with the “spirit’s” fabric.
Biology is reality and a stone to bear.
THE STONES OF PERCEPTION
Perception can be the difference
between smiling or frowning,
the light bulb turning on, or scratching your chin,
making wise choices or poor choices,
learning from your mistakes or being haunted by them,
casting a stone of judgment or withholding it,
conflicting or compromising,
flourishing or decaying.
Ever heard 90 percent of all that joy
we wish for in the years to come
is the product of our perception
and only 10 percent
is the product of actually what happens to us
in our environment?
Perception:
seeing the stones and the world
in different ways.
Perception of one person:
the words this book contains.
Perception:
a stone to bear.
THE STONES OF OTHERS
How the greatest pains
and the greatest joys
come from our relationships,
and loss of relationships,
with others.
Experience a change in personality
around parents or family,
friends,
a lover,
a crush in the hallway.
Our development and survival in this world
intertwined with others.
Our influence can only ripple so far
as the influence of others
but together, ripples
move through the ocean of humanity.
Desires,
hates,
loves,
fears,
expectations,
empathy,
compassion,
others.
The wonders
and downfalls
of a social species—
Stones to bear.
(LIFE IS) A QUESTION OF WHAT
Asking a question,
end it before the meaningful explanation:
it is a futile delusion.
Asking a question to answer,
end it after;
ignorance was a living treasure.
Asking a question to maturate,
ending it after age is the fate;
regret engulfs the dying state.
Asking a question of what,
ending it is for the Who to conduct,
but why terminate a question in the abrupt?
TENSION
Tension,
the growing mental chasm.
Tension,
the ripping wound.
Tension,
the undiscovered organ.
Tension.
Acceptance and rejection coalesce
to form indifference.
Addiction and volition blur together
to become incomprehension.
TENSION!
Character and habits
associate and disassociate,
fluxing the immutable identity.
Heredity haunts identity;
identity fears and loves heredity—
becomes heredity.
TENSION!
The problem and solution,
the independence and dependence,
back to back in contradiction.
Patterns and predictability,
unpredictability and randomness
melt together into chaos.
TENSION!
Recognition of determination’s free will,
recognition of free will’s determination,
recognition of nothing.
The dread of what lies beyond
in the uncertain air
builds a crypt of anxiety.
Succumb to this imprisonment:
a despondent, dismal doom.
Transverse the Tension;
fall off its verge into hands.
Stand on the verge again.
Just stare into existence.
TENSION!
FUNNY FACE
Stare,
just stare in the mirror
at your face,
ever-aging if you were
to stare at it
from birth to death.
It only changes
when you’re not looking.
Funny face!
PERMANENT IMPRESSION?
Shadow, Shadow, Shadow,
a dark shape,
will you still be in the same place tomorrow?
Or is Vanished and Forgotten your fate?
Life walks away,
but do you still exist in the concrete?
Night and Day,
do humans still remember you—
the Individual that colored you—
or do all the colors truly bleed to Black?
Existence simply cannot do
when already Black… Black…
is all the colors….
THE SAME FEAR
If we lived backwards—
death to birth—
we would still have the same fear:
nonexistence.
No heaven.
No hell.
Just nonexistence.

THE SAME STONES SEEN:
The Monotony in Life for Better or Worse

SELF
Enter a familiar realm:
selfland
but without body.
Faces upon faces everywhere:
young face, old face,
your face.
Hear only sounds of emotion:
sounds of pleasure, sounds of pain,
your sounds.
The eternal burden:
to bear yourself;
to embrace the epitome of self.
The unbearable realm:
self throes because of self,
a focus on self forever.
Self is all there was,
is,
and will be.
You chose yourself...
THE TUMORS OF THE MIND
What hides behind motives and drives?
What is buried beneath all foundations?
What imbues all loves and lives?
What lurks in all temptations?
A tumor in the mind—
benign or malignant through time.
Sullen eyes always peering at the ground
to find what?
Anxious eyes alwa