Coda for the Twenty-First Century, Part 3

by: Chris Campanioni

Chris Campanioni concludes his farewell to 2014, with a look to that which lies ahead….

Unbearable Urges

Dear poets and picture-makers,
Dear beloved and the lover of words,
Storytellers and soothsayers,
Fatalists and the betrayed,
Delinquents and devoted,
Scientists and technicians,
Elegant dreamers,
Dear engineers of the twenty-first century….

Suffer all you can
And as you wish
And then ask
For a little more
May I have another?
It will do you good
It can only do you better
It will serve a purpose
Believe me, you’ll see
You won’t be
The first. People will see it
In everything you do
And no one will think
Of it as art

You’ll let go of everything
And hang onto everything
And what you make
Will be your own life
You’ll mix it together
And get mixed up in return
And people won’t be able to tell
The difference
Because there isn’t any

Dear footloose and forlorn,
Dear heartfelt and broken,
Dear unrequited,
Dear courageous,
Dear self-effacing….

You’ll feel like you don’t
Belong anywhere, like you have
Nowhere to be, or nothing at all
Or no one to share it with
And to say it is to expose
A vulnerability
But that vulnerability
Is the key to opening
The door at the end
Of a long hall. All your life
The first thing you look for….

All these years, all your life….
You wanted to write your way
Out of loneliness
Instead, you seclude yourself
Further. Day in, day out
In and out
Like a song half-heard
Down the stairwell
And you only get
The little bursts
You only get
The faintest pieces

And then you try to add it up
Alone, at the end
Of the day
Add it up, make it stick
Make it stick
Until it’s on your insides again
Until you are breathing
It out the same way it came
Alone, at the end
Of the day. With words
And solitude, and the will
To turn life into art
And art into life

Dear aberrants,
Dear thrill-seekers,
Head-in-the-clouds, head-under-the-water,
Dear fatigued,
Dear serenity or relief,
Dear significant other….

When will it end?
You ask yourself
But you already know

Dear chase and the pursued,