#perseverence
A tiny seed in the dirt has nothing but hope.
It has a capacity to become a forest;
But it must first endure harsh realities of mother nature.
It goes through agonizing moments, a process of growth.
A disastrous course of action relating to a disarticulation period.
Something has to be birthed into existence.
The soil and the seed must be merged.
Its ordeals through what looks like rejection.
yielded and sacrificed.
Tossed into the ground and buried into the soil.
The severe heat degree it has to withstand in this silent grave;
In this lonesome place with a heavy darkness.
The seed must by all means withstand the crushing.
It fractures and splits, the shell must crack for the core to take root.
Slowly but surely.
After days, weeks, months of crushing
Just when it was getting comfortable with the tribulations.
The seed root must grow deeper, further into the heat of darkness.
Before it can strive to reach the light.
Just when you are about to quit and abandon watering the seed.
It deliberately by design begins to emerge on the surface to taste the sunlight.
A taste of victory, a breath of fresh air came at a high cost.
The tiny seed made it into the sunshine.
From dusk till dawn, it thrives under the sun rays.
Joy wouldn’t feel so good if it wasn’t for pain.
The tiny seed apocalypse.
It persevered for days to become an overnight success.
Growth has never been effortless, it requires endurance, a lot of tenacity and resilience.
seed time and harvest.
ntsako
May 11
May 11, 2026 at 2:33 PM UTC
There are times I turn to the river,
when life roils and churns like the rapids,
and I remember what the river has always
known when it heaves and ebbs, and runs
swiftly by, carrying broken branches just
as abraded stones appear as polished gems
Feb 12, 2022
Feb 12, 2022 at 9:39 AM UTC
If there is a path
I will find it
No matter how hidden
I am not known to give up
Jun 30, 2020
Jun 30, 2020 at 10:35 PM UTC
I once read a story about an ant
who set his mind to move a mountain.
An insect, a millimeter from jaw to legtip,
laboring against a mass of stone and
soil quadrillions of times his size.
But he worked
and worked
and worked
moving the bedrock one dram at a time,
year after year, season after season,
each trip melding into the next in an
endless march of mindless labor, until
where the mountain once stood,
a peaceful valley sank down. All because
of the labor of one very determined insect.
At the end of the fable, the writer tells us
never to give up, for what we choose
to work and persevere towards
will surely happen if we truly try.
As I read the story, I knew he was right.
Never give up.
Even if it takes a quadrillion trips,
1,000,000,000,000,000 trials,
before the mountain bows to you.
Even if your small, insectoid mind
cracks like a candy-cane under a sandbag,
even if you collapse and die after 6 decades
of exhaustion, millions more left to go.
Never give up.
Even if your task is impossible, and it
destroys your life, everything you love,
everything that makes your little ant-soul tick.
Never give up.
Oct 26, 2018
Oct 26, 2018 at 1:12 PM UTC
Hello everyone,
I'm so very sorry … I feel horrible doing this, but I have no choice. You see, I have published my first book on Amazon/Kindle! This piece (and many others) had to be taken down because they do not allow published material to be available online for free. (Go figure) I wanted to leave the shell of the posts because I felt compelled to leave all your helpful and loving comments. (Silly sentimental, I know), but I also didn't want to just have the pieces disappear without an explanation. I feel bad enough as it is!
I owe ALL of you so, SO much for all of your reads, love, and support. It was YOU that gave me the gumption to FINALLY get off my **** and publish! Thank you all for the warm comments, camaraderie, and encouragement! I will still be here, reading, uploading and just being the Rascal that I am. How could I EVER leave you guys?
The book is called “The Way I See It – FictionPhilosophySoul Food” and it will be FREE for the first few days on Kindle Select, so watch for it, if you are interested. I hope that you go and grab it. If you do, I would also hope that you find it worthy, you would leave me a good review. That will help me get in the public eye! Soon afterward (2-3 days or so), it will be available in paperback. I will be building my Author page tonight (12/21/2018) and my website finished first thing Monday!
Find the book(s) here: www.amazon.com/author/jeff.gaines
Or find the book(s), and all about me, here: www.JeffGaines.world
Soon after, I also hope to have my first novel (a supernatural thriller), called “Wanderer” available as well!
Wish me luck!
Big, Biggest Love,
Jeff Gaines
Jun 4, 2018
Jun 4, 2018 at 7:08 AM UTC
‘’In retrospect all is better; fear not the future to come.’’
‘’Looking back it all seems like a bad joke. A joke, but still.’’
‘’The day is 1 December 1995, the day I wanted to die.’’
-2018-
Jan 12, 2018
Jan 12, 2018 at 5:13 PM UTC
This here in my hands is a small stone
That I will carry on my own
Building a mountain one by one
I won't stop until it's done
Striving forward my muscles ache
What I'm building is not fake
I'm building strength, true and free
What I am building is a better me
A Me that can weather storms and loss
towards optimistic progress at whatever the cost
A hammer and chisel in my hand
From this rock I emerge a self-made man
Not just a body but more a mind
One that is powerful and fiercely kind
Focused on spreading the mindset of its fashion
Expand happiness and spread compassion
Nov 21, 2016
Nov 21, 2016 at 5:39 PM UTC
In the brief day, or rather, the night
called Life,
dream how easily a speck may be distanced from itself;
and how hard also it is
to remove that same grain
from your proud eye.
Look at the lightning over the green corn
and learn the virile meaning of our lack of power
under the traveling stars.
Turn on the lights silver-electric
to see in what dark rooms you have dwelt,
yet tried to be happy.
Open and close your eyes
and feel the weird proximity of doll-like death.
Talk to the moth
and trot the eternal wheel of boredom,
tolerated by a life that cannot wait
to immolate itself on a fuel lighter
for love of the gamble.
Come near the heartbeat of an animal
and touch your own heart
to take the pulse of the planets
and experience the split-second hypocrisy of love.
Unwrinkle your bones with deep calm
and purest feeling, unfurling your reddish hair,
and you will bare your heart in all your poems.
Pity the mania of poetry
and the helplessness of its wisdom
to hope or heal or even to dare
to come down from its own shiny cross.
In spite of all,
extinguish any light at its source
and you will work in vain
to prevent its survival
in some remembering soul.
Sep 20, 2015
Sep 20, 2015 at 3:52 PM UTC
Tied up, words constricting
Woke up, wrong place to live in
Now I find myself hustling
But I can't keep from tossing in
My bed at night
Don't want to breathe and I've got to fight
With all my might crack the walls
And shed some light
On the wrong side of the long night persisting
Inspite of our Hollywood vinyls
And pop star idols
'cause at midnight they bite us
And drink our love.
Imagine work paid off
And you're never laid off, rough appearance
Won't make them scoff
What if tough heights didn't last long
Or burn so strong, didn't scar your tongue,
And good fun wasn't modest
Like Bollywood's hottest
We'd live the lives loudest
That we could be proudest of.
We forget it all, they've set it small
Well we're all not tall, we just bend down
Let them move your limbs in any given position
Because life's only
A luxurious possession after all.
Jul 12, 2015
Jul 12, 2015 at 11:11 PM UTC
I missed you last night.
We slept in the same bed
but it didn't feel like together.
Nothing was said.
For a sleeping moment
I had my arm around you
and my face in your hair,
breathing memories of the passion we knew.
I try to focus on small things,
like how your skin gives way
to my pressing lips
or, how the Earth would sway
with our meeting hips.
Remembering the hunger
I would feel from your eyes
Lamenting these nights
while the passion subsides
My greatest flame
and only goddess,
how cruel
slow
fate
has constantly fought us
Yet, never will I yield
and always shall I fight
to claim the dreams we've wanted,
to persevere through this night.
4/10/15 ~ 6.23a
Apr 10, 2015
Apr 10, 2015 at 9:32 AM UTC
There are
lines along the shadows that
trace every wall in my room,
cast from the sunny days we
spent together.
The gleam
lifting off of the paint
hazed our home with
peace, and uncertainty
in that order.
Our hands
grew laced in messy knots
as twisted sunflower stalks.
We basked in the neverending sun
and photo synthesized
love, the
love we shared
and the
love we swallowed.
We devoured rays of light
like emperors of the most
beautiful gardens, until the
masses had no more to give.
And I was made to suffer in
your eternal scorn for not
giving you more,
for
you believed you were the
very hand that fed us. You
told me you
rose in the east,
and set in the west
so we could be amassed in our riches.
I had nothing left to give you because I gave you everything I had and it was not enough.
I just want to be enough to share my days with someone I can feel at home with.
Now, I've found that same
silver-shine light in the eyes of
another who graces the presence
of my hands and fills my heart
with monarchs of old, with tiny
wings fluttering in the gentle
air. And I hope to be enough for
her.
I resent you for the way you used to
shut all of the lights off and leave me
in the empty rooms of your house
while your self centered devotion
ran circles around the driveway
and pushed me further into the street.
I have found someone that I would like to spend my time with. And while I no longer feel anything for you, the damage you have done to me will not fade.
I can apply new coats to make the walls shine less, but just knowing of the old paint is enough to make me sick. I can pull up all of the weeds you left among my flowers, but just knowing of the roots is enough to make it feel meaningless. Even if it's not.
But this home inside of me is still beautiful, and I will do what I can to restore it.
Mar 27, 2015
Mar 27, 2015 at 10:08 AM UTC
I devote my day to you
I dress nice for you
I show up on time for you
I work my plans around you
But some days...
I ditch you to go hang out with my friends
Maybe I forgot to do laundry and wear something *****
I might be late because I overslept
My other plans are more important
Thank you for being understanding and not giving up on me
Jan 31, 2015
Jan 31, 2015 at 5:04 PM UTC
I wasn't born in a hospital like most children are. I
am made of soft thoughts, but too of hard muscular rivets; steel bars are
not nearly so malleable as my arms. So far, so good, no need to be
afraid, no need to be alone. There's no need to cry in the dark, wishing for
home and a soft bed and warmth and food for my soul. My soul thrives; it
is the howl of the wind on the mountain top; My soul lives in hardship.
Where others tremble, I will not walk alone, because My soul lives in pain
The pretenders; the snakes; the cowards do not sway. Because **My soul is
Hard** Like my muscles, like my heart, like the place where I was born. It
is... funny actually. I wasn't born in a hospital; I was born on the way.
**I
Was
Born
Moving
Forward.** and I refuse to move back. Because I am not afraid.
Jan 15, 2015
Jan 15, 2015 at 7:35 PM UTC
**I
see**
passion, where there was apathy
playfulness, where there was tragedy
beauty, where there was ugliness
pacification, where there was strife
acceptance, where there was rejection
strength, where there was weakness
elation, where there was sorrow
certainty, where there was doubt
honesty, where there was guile
devotion, where there was neglect
comfort, where there was suffering
peace, where there was bitterness
laughter, where there was despair
affection, where there was resentment
healing, where there was brokeness
pleasure, where there was pain
light, where there was darkness
and **most
importantly**
YOU, where there was emptiness
Nov 16, 2014
Nov 16, 2014 at 9:33 AM UTC
Hate me
Hate me all you want
But still
Under no circumstance
Do I choose to be a victim
Aug 23, 2014
Aug 23, 2014 at 11:23 PM UTC
Have you ever seen the sun rise
After a big fat buffalo's stampede
Have you ever seen the sun rise
On a big fat salt lake in the West
Have you ever seen the moon shine
In unison like the stars in heaven
Have you ever seen the clouds darken
At a speed unmatched by light
Have you ever seen the loving eyes
Of someone who'd do anything for you
Have you ever seen the love
People are so eager to give
Have you ever stood still
To unbind yourself from the biases put before you
Have you ever stood still
To realize that you are so incredibly small
Have you ever stood still
That every big person started out small, too
Have you ever stood still
To love all the details
Have you ever stood still
To see the beauty all around you
Have you ever stood still
That you are loved
Jun 12, 2014
Jun 12, 2014 at 7:36 AM UTC