Poem- The Essence of Life

Hey guys, just a poem I wrote over the break. It’s a rare one I actually like! lol. Let me know what you think!

The Essence of Life
What a thing it would be, to capture the Essence of life!
The rush of air on the mountain,
The revitalizing touch in the Ocean,
That feeling of free fall–
The air pushing past you,
The entire world opening up in a glimpse,
Becoming so wonderfully large,
And understandably small
At one

It comes in community;
Circling round a flame
Everyone, for once, sees the flame the same way
Everyone, once for, saves fighting for another day
And on the blackness of the beach,
The only sound–
Besides the sea’s incessant whispering–
Is the laughter
Of friends

It swoops into the heart of lovers
Enflaming their souls with a fiery, terrible passion
Giving one a glimpse of the other’s innermost soul:
Opening up past the hard outer shell,
Like an Oyster,
For seconds to see her inner pearl.
The lover could smile at the soft beauty of the stone,
Or could snatch it away, stealing her essence
Forever

It comes in the swaying of a forest,
The long and haunting cry of a wolf,
The glimpse of snow-capped mountains Oceanside,
The graceful swoop of an eagle,
Or the desperate cry of a newborn
The essence chooses opportune moments to light the darkest room
In the confines of a bomb siege,
At the end of the gloom
Or the edge of a bridge

But what an act it would be,
If I could harness the Essence of Life!
No title, award, or gift
Would be too great,
For the man who captured happiness in a bottle!

I could hook it up to a machine the size of Manhattan,
Build ropes and pulleys,
Ramps and rings
To show the other scientists
That I am King–
An empire formed
Out of a single machine

Once happiness is assured,
The people will be lured
Come in droves to the middle of nowhere–
A patch of desert, a plain of ice
It no longer matters;
For if happiness is trapped in a bottle,
Who needs the warm touch of a lover,
The laughter of friends,
Or the beauty of nature?

Then the people will come in pilgrimage,
Britain, Brazil and Nepal,
Lazy consumerists them all!
Buying five bottles now,
Ten next month,
Twenty the following spring,
A thousand the coming year,
Until my dominance over them
Has become painfully clear

No one leaves their homes anymore
They drink the golden bottle all day
Ignoring life outside, come what may
Only leaving to jump off that very bridge
The essence had saved them of a decade before.
The bottle of happiness,
Like a delectable candy,
Has rot their teeth,
And they can no longer taste the sweet joys of life.

In the city of the Golden Drink,
Nothing is golden
Everything is grey
In the land of eternal sunshine

And when they’ve all left by the bridge,
The essence is still in the machine;
Once so happy, childish and free,
Now an eternal slave to me.
Looking around at its metal tomb,
It takes one last haggard breath
Before disappearing forever;
the Earth’s most precious resource
Gone like the rest of its siblings–
All for the good of humanity

And so I am left in the world I forged
A shiny, crystal one where machines gorge
Empty of both humans and trees
Where I find nowhere to plant seeds
Nothing to rid me of this strife,
When I captured the essence of life.

3 thoughts on “Poem- The Essence of Life

  1. I’ve been reading your blog for about a month now and I have come to realize, you are a fantastic writer. Don’t stop, you have passion I haven’t seen in a while and it is quite refreshing. Anyways, take it easy and have a wonderful day.
    Sincerely,
    A Distant Stranger

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