WHAT IS LIFE?

Life has taught me that there is still much to learn, a whole lot.

Yes, I am still learning, I am yearning, I am seeking, like a child.

Despite my knowledge, what I have is not all that is to be got

You see, what is pepper is bland and what is hot is mild.   

Life is a bed of roses, but rose plants have delicate petals and thorns.

The very reason why we do things are the very reasons we should not.

Eating your cake and having it, is being up and hoping to be down.

If you throw away all the cents, then it will affect the dollars in the pot.

Life also forces on us dilemmas and choices that we find hard to make,

Despite being told that we are not to burn bridges behind us forever.

Yet some bridges need to be bombed not just burnt, for heaven’s sake.

Some strangers are friends and some friends closer than a brother.

In life lessons, there is a time for things but not for everything.

Don’t believe anyone who says with god all things are possible.

That is fantasy and a form of opium to justify people’s craving,

You see, with or without god, some things are incomprehensible.

In a life of lessons, be sure to heed the red flags and stop.

Class, status, religion or even the colour of a man’s skin

Should not be the main criterion to big him up or make him drop.

Such measurements are shallow, indeed, they are very thin.

So, for the lessons of life, life of lessons, do learn them well.

Pay attention to the signs, be not blind, listen what people say

But remember people have motives and tongues have lots to tell

Wolves are in sheep clothing and not every job is worth the pay.

Lessons of Life was inspired by WHAT IS LIFE?. a poem from the Notclif 1983 Collection of poems: “VIEW “

WHAT IS LIFE?

It is a race be run and won.

The goal, immortality.

The winner, loser of all vanity.

It is not a race for the swift

But for one who is slow enough to ask,

“what is life?”

What is life?

Is it a process that will cease?

No, never, Life is God,

And who is God?

God is love, God is peace.

Put love in your heart,

Be at peace with yourself

And rightfully you will receive God.

And that is life, eternal life,

The goal of men.

NOTCLIF – 1983

Notclif rafting on the Rio Grande in Portland, Jamaica. His poem “what is life? from the 1983 Notclif collection of poems titled VIEW is superimposed.