{"id":2039,"date":"2015-10-22T09:09:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T14:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=2039"},"modified":"2015-10-22T09:12:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T14:12:09","slug":"poem-won-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/22\/poem-won-race\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Won Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

He ran his won race<\/strong>
\nNot around other men’s tracks<\/strong>
\nBut in open fields<\/strong>
\nInto sunsets and sunrises<\/strong>
\nNever looking back<\/strong>
\nAs no one affront<\/strong>
\nAnd know time<\/strong>
\nWhere mostly losers must collect<\/strong>
\nOutside<\/strong>
\nThe whiner’s circle<\/strong>
\nAnd still<\/strong>
\nFodder time<\/strong>
\nWill only<\/strong>
\nWeather win place or show<\/strong>
\nEvery champ yon door<\/strong>
\nWill not cry out<\/strong>
\nAs sum hoarse race<\/strong>
\nOnly to whinny<\/strong>
\nBut one race<\/strong>
\nIn riding a loan<\/strong>
\nAnd won for awe<\/strong>
\nJockeying honor<\/strong>
\nIn steed<\/strong>
\nBye only crossing<\/strong>
\nThe finish line<\/strong>
\nIn unison<\/strong>
\nAs a singular knows<\/strong>
\nTide for thirst<\/strong><\/p>\n

This poem plays with the tensions between the importance of both our inner experience and compass and our collective outer experience.\u00a0 Self-knowledge and self-awareness are prerequisites for healthy functioning in the world.\u00a0 Otherwise we will be doomed to project our ignorance and misunderstanding onto others, confounding communication and degrading joint enterprises.\u00a0 We must know ourselves and trust our inner experience and instincts, if we are to live our own lives.\u00a0 This recognizes a radical aspect of our own inner subjective experience: that part of our lives is uniquely our own, both in terms of being only indirectly verifiable by others (what’s going on inside) and that our own agency gives us responsibility that cannot be pawned off on others.\u00a0 To some inescapable degree, we must run our own race.\u00a0 Recognizing this freedom and responsibility is the key to winning our own race: Not around other men’s tracks\/But in open fields\/Into sunsets and sunrises<\/em>.\u00a0 If we gauge our own lives too much by others’ behavior and the various cascading situations in the world, we risk living lives as mere reaction formations of our environment.\u00a0 While this is a profoundly sad loss for ourselves, it also robs the world of the gift of another real live actor in the play of life.\u00a0 Of course, human life is an ensemble role; we share a collective stage and have intertwining stories.\u00a0 Life is not a horse race, with the inevitable winner and losers — though that may be part of the narrative we act out.\u00a0 In sharing both a collective stage and the power of each to contribute their own role to the play,\u00a0 life is pretty much guaranteed to be dramatic, perhaps somewhat chaotic, and hopefully interesting and fun.\u00a0 Human life begs both individual creative response-ability and a deeply collective attitude and respect for our shared enterprise.\u00a0 A wise ensemble of actors, recognizing the varied roles of protagonists and antagonists, gladly plays their role, not another’s.\u00a0 And as passions rise, the story unfolds.\u00a0 The story is not won by who is present in the last scene, but who are present at awe, wherever they peer.\u00a0 If there is a larger winning in life, it may very well be the solidarity of comrades sharing passions, but not necessarily playing the same roles: In unison\/<\/em>As a singular knows\/<\/em>Tide for thirst<\/em>.\u00a0 As for that horse race: break a leg…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He ran his won race Not around other men’s tracks But in open fields Into sunsets and sunrises Never looking back As no one affront And know time Where mostly losers must collect Outside The whiner’s circle And still Fodder … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[353,483,294,481,428,115,608,359,611,494,594,658,94,110,491,197,502,409,260,364,279,529,464],"class_list":["post-2039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-attitude","tag-awareness","tag-awe","tag-environment","tag-experience","tag-freedom","tag-gift","tag-life","tag-loss","tag-passion","tag-play","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-power","tag-present","tag-radical","tag-respect","tag-responsibility","tag-risk","tag-self-awareness","tag-solidarity","tag-time","tag-trust"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Won Race | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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