--Garden Of Tao - 老子 "道"--

I was once a caterpillar but I have shed my cocoon of sorrow. I wrote this poem at a time when I was coming to terms with my identity and my place in the world. I had also discovered the words of Lao Tze Tao at this time and they helped me start focusing my energy on the positive.

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"All things flourish and each returns to its root. Returning to the root is called quietude. Quietude is called returning to life." Lao Tze Tao

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"What the caterpillar calls the end,

The world calls a butterfly" - Lao Tze Tao (老子 "道")

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My lamp, under dimmest light,

offers only shadows to comfort

for this day is taking too long.

Woken into this now I can not evict

from my head all the fury visited upon me.

I shower vainly to pacify my emotions.

Standing before a mirror; my reflectionas the only witness to my existence.

My exposed mind trembles withthe marks of boredom taunting eternally.

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Under the shadows of the rose bush,

a lone caterpillar escapes its cocoon;

mutilation of its primitive selfshed to progress,

revealing a beauty nurtured within.

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Construct a boundary bury my pity

within its fertile soil. Brittle leaves

wilt upon my scars, allow my garden to grow.

As a skeleton, in slumber,

of autumn. I await the cycle of rebirth.

Winter is unwelcome, unable to decay.

Death exists only within the cycle of renewal.

in the silken waves of tulips

I breathe the harmonies of nature.

My spirit, lulled of the tortures, is truly free.....

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~~By Brian Madden~~

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~http://www.netpoets.com/poems/life/1547001.htm