Listen to this one.
Everyone.
Stop all your critical thinking:
“Who do you think you are?
Playing at poet,
Taking your pain and imagining it’s art?”
Well this isn’t about pain.
This isn’t about me.
This one’s for you.
There is a state of mind I have noticed,
A chronic fear of failure
That has everyone trapped.
A fear that any chances of success are so remote
It’s almost as though they don’t exist at all.
Doubt.
Imagine yours.
Convincing you not to try…
Something.
Maybe it’s something small
Like Marmite.
It could be delicious.
But it’s worryingly…
Brown.
Or it could be something huge.
Something specific to you.
Something that could make or break you.
Something you long for with every fibre of your being.
Something you’ve wanted since you were a child.
Something your teachers dismissed,
Your parents rolled their eyes at,
Your friends joked about
Till you were so full of defeat you began to laugh with them.
“I want to be a writer.”
“Wrong.”
“I want to be an astronaut.”
“Of course, dear.”
“I want to be an actor.”
“HA.”
Of course it’s laughable,
Because you will never succeed
If you don’t try.
You can’t be brave if you are not afraid.
So write what you think is right.
Play the game to shoot the moon
Act now and seize the day.
Imagine a trapeze artist.
Standing on the ledge, the bar in his hands.
He looks across the empty space,
No safety net below him,
To the other side.
The far trapeze looks minuscule.
How could he ever hope to catch
So tenuous a link?
See now.
He jumps,
Swings.
But why let go,
When he can hold on to his
Dearly beloved lifeline?
To please the crowd?
It’s possible.
Because he seeks the thrill of falling for that split second?
Perhaps.
Or maybe he takes that leap
To silence his doubt
And embrace something he has wanted
All his life.
Would you let go?
07/01/12
© 2014 Bonnie C. Aspinwall
Barefoot Astronaut 