Categories of Terror
Footsteps behind you in a midnight park
or the sentence of standing center stage.
A shadow, darker, moving through shadows,
that one voice, remembered, calling your name.
Echoes that follow you through the years.
Only one terror worse.
Alone in the whole wide world.
No more morality or fame or love or blame.
Now, what is the purpose of your being?
Such an evocative poem Judy. Lovely.
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Thanks, Sadje..
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You’re welcome my friend
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Nicely done Judy. I agree, living without purpose is not worth it.
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Thanks, Dwight.
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Oops.. just realized that the prompt was to deal with a holiday epiphany. Missed the first part.
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Not necessarily, Judy. I did bring up epiphanies in everyday life so you probably took your cue from that. And what a cue! This was a walk on the dark side: on the one hand, a voice that haunts, on the other hand, an emptiness of meaningless isolation, a wasted life. The transitional line “echoes” with the dissonance of the two perspectives. I love the movement in the last line to a note of “purpose” in “being.” Inspirational.
pax,
dora
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Thanks for the words of reassurance, Dora. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the value of life when the social aspect is removed. This question has been especially brought to mind during Covid isolation. Surprisingly, I have really enjoyed much of the isolation, but need to realize that I’ve had some contact the whole time and have much enjoyed contact with nature and being able to write and do art. But if I knew no one else would ever see what I created or wrote and that I could never share my thoughts about the world around me, I think I would quickly lose my enthusiasm for life. Alzheimer’s brings up the same questions, but that is a dark cloud I keep withdrawing my mind from.
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We learn daily to take life one day at a time. But beneath that is the understanding that we take care of what we can, do all we can as each day comes as a gift. Gratitude is a good place to start. And I’m so grateful you and I have a place that brings us together with creatives like ourselves: to bounce ideas, thoughts, creations off of each other. For me as a Christian, this is part of what bearing the image of God entails, as being created for Him and for each other, enjoying Him and each other, and in an unsanctimonious way (!), sharing Him and knowing Him. Fear as we grow older is always there. As it was when were younger. I think fear fades when we acknowledge what or WHO it is we trust with everything that we are, created with a purpose. So we just came full round again, didn’t we?!
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Ha ha… I am sure it does not matter!
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As much as I like my alone time, I never want to be lonely, well done, Judy!
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Nor do I, but I seldom if ever feel lonely, actually.
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Quite so, Judy
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yes, I agree, Judy… this is what my Mom has been trying to figure out for herself ever since my Dad died several years ago…
❤
David
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I hope she finds her way back to realizing that life itself is such an incredible gift that we need to learn how to keep using it, no matter what.
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she’s working on it…
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This is fascinating … and thought-provoking.
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Thanks, Helen. Dark thoughts will visit now and then. I guess that is the purpose of prompts—to take us into areas that otherwise might remain unexamined.
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It’s hard to imagine being alone in the world, but I imagined one of those space movies and it did the trick! Your point is an excellent one. Humans really do need a connection of some sort.
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Yes.. space travel has never been a fantasy of mine..seems scary to me. Sometimes I wonder how far our connection stretches.. is it world wide, solar system wide, universe wide? Does it matter how far we go? Will we always be connected? Then I get dizzy and stop thinking.
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In my younger days, some of those adventures appealed to me, such as sky diving (never tried it, though). Space travel – heck no!!! I like Earth plenty fine.
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Even Villains need someone to terrorize!
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😂
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I believe you’re right: facing ourselves can be really terrifying, but it can also be enlightening!
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deep dark reflections ..
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my comment vanished? fitting title for such deep reflections
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Sometimes comments go directly to Spam. I know not why. I’ll have a look.. Bet it pops up.
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thanks Judy … never mind, you know I visited 🙂
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Is this your disappeared comment, Kate? If so, it was in “Pending.” Not under your name, though, but as “Anonymous.”
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lol not like me to be anonymous …
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Quite profound, Judy.
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