Poems Written While Hiking in Texas

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Poems Written While Hiking in Texas

A fiery-faint red hangs pendantly
At horizon's edge,
Ebbing above to purples
Of darker and darker hue.
The Palo Duro sun is reluctant
To loose its grasp on day's end.
A delicious coolness
Wafted by stirring, talking, questioning winds,
Has  eased the semi-sultry heat
And my soul as well.
The canyon wind caresses me
As crickets begin their rhapsody.
The heat-broken eve moves on toward night with a tempestuous air.
Lightning stabs jagged forks
Atop the canyon walls.
This canyon has moods and winds for me.
And I am starting to listen.

===========

Another Texas sunset ends
A pensive, poignant day.
A day of contrary thoughts,
Of decisions debated and made.
Stay or go? Camp or not?
Go here? Go there? Go where?
I do hate making decisions.
Fear of failure. Fear of accountability.
Fear of responsibility. Fear of success.
And more, yet unnamed fears.
But they will be named
When I am ready to face them.
The names, the keys, are inside me.
Meanwhile, the crimsoned oranges
Of a setting May sun
Fade to magentas and dusky blues.
This day has been good and I have lived it well.

============

What do I want?
A simple question, and three simple words.
But they go to the heart
Of what it means
For me to live my life as myself.
Clarity, self-assertion and desire.
What?
Do I really know what I want?
Or is my focus vague?
Or am I only running away
From what I don't want?
I?
You mean I have a voice in this?
I can follow my desires, my voice,
Instead of someone else's?
What? Do I?
How clear, how focused, how positive
Are my desires?
Want?
How desirous am I
Or am I only trying to motivate myself
To want someone else's desire?
Am I wanting something
Society or family says I should want?
I have an inner voice
That is revealing all the answers to my question,
What do I want?

 -- Steve S.

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