Ode to Joy, and Despair

I like to write but I rarely share. I like to think that photographs can suffice. At times I question that power and recently that fear has gained new traction in my life. I know my photographs have a bias towards beauty and that I eschew the negatives aspects of life. This give me pause. I don't know if I can truly understand what it is that I try to say with my photographs without contemplating that which I have chosen not to. When life speaks maybe I should try to listen and right now life is anything but silent. I always fear that which I don't think I'm good at. Writing is one of those things. I don't think I'm good at it so I write only for me. It is symbolic of how I have approached much in life. This approach creates a state of being tentative which prevents me from being present in many aspects of life. I am tentative out of fear of both success and failure. I decided to stand up to fear today and not only write my thoughts but also share them.

Life is beautiful or so they say

too narrow a claim to wholly embrace.

A declaration of joy and triumph for one,

can be a dagger that pierces the soul of another.

Life is to be lived, what of joy?

All people are given life but joy is rare.

It is in the absence of joy that we learn of its power

yet in its presence we forget of its danger.

Perhaps we have neither joy nor despair in life,

 only the comparison of the one to the other.

As light is given to one, a shadow is created for others.

They are partners not enemies.

Shadow defines in tandem with light,

it is through both that we are capable of sight.

When joy or hope departs what remains?

A chasm is created that cannot be filled.

Nor can it be fully comprehended.

Maybe you can’t measure emptiness

for emptiness does not exist.

It is merely an echo of what once was.

A shadow of something lost that we long for.

When others hurt it is a natural condition of life,

it is evidence that they loved or have tried.

Is hope the lack of despair,

or despair the lack of hope.

Why should I delineate the two?

One cannot exist without the possibility of the other.

Must we embrace the pains of loss and loneliness

to be considered worthy of its compliment?

Is it better to have loved and lost

or do we even have a choice?

Can you have one without the other?