Would you conquer the world if you could?
What if there was no choice about your increase of power?
What if the world was conquering you by making you conquer it?
Would you accept the choice of power?
How scary would it be to feel so alone?
No one to understand your past or your future?
And the present doesn’t matter.
You don’t matter to anyone but to everyone
How lonely!
Can a soul escape such a thrilling torment?
Would it even want to escape a torment that is so thrilling?
Whirling in inescapable power and thrills, one could find happiness?
But does one even know what happiness is in such a life?
Does any of it matter?
I want to comment but am finding it difficult. The first portion… wait I read the first question and answered no, but the 2nd question forces the decision on you and I realized the similarity between ruling the world and ruling oneself. The use of the phrase increase in power was key to that thought I think. “Making you conquer it” creates a strange dichotomy between the self and the rest of the world, and in this way it becomes or at least sounds like necessity, and then to either accept or refuse this dire consequence. It produced a potent concept in me.
I’m not sure if you mean it literally though as in actually conquering the world. I instinctively translated the meanings into a metaphor of the perceptive trials within the struggles one encounters when trying to discover a worthy answer to ones personal existence.
I’ll answer the last question: It is the only thing that truly matters, but I may be misunderstanding what you meant.
Before I wrote this poem, I was feeling consumed with knowledge/experience, or rather maybe I felt that I was consuming it. I don’t quite know, maybe that is what I was scared of and what provoked me to write.
In the poem, I was referring to my own small community that had formed around me or vice versa, and the almost infinite connections that I was and still am forming within that community. It seemed as if I was this little pebble floating in a fast flowing current. Yes, that is the correct description of it! My own being didn’t make sense of it’s place in its surrounding, just as a pebble should not have been floating, I did not feel like I should be floating around in my community and experiencing what I was experiencing. I apologize for this rambling nonsense but it helps me.
In response to your first comment on the poem, I agree. I don’t think one should conquer the world, but there is as you put it “a strange dichotemy between the self and the rest of the world”. It is in this strangeness that I feel very confused. The two to me are closely related, especially when you are supposedly part of the world. Maybe, the world should not be conquered, because it cannot be conquered. And it cannot be conquered because we never fully conquer ourselves. What do you think? Is it a necessity to conquer ourselves even when we say that conquering the world is not a necessity?
The two to me are closely related, especially when you are supposedly part of the world. Maybe, the world should not be conquered, because it cannot be conquered. And it cannot be conquered because we never fully conquer ourselves.
In a way I think this form of turmoil, and I use turmoil becuase it seems to lead to despair, or rather a struggle, has been a primary cause of why people throughout the ages have sought solitude, whether within the world, or outside of the world in extreme cases, such as self imposed exile or in the act of choosing to become a hermit. For me, that portion of this dichotomy that has been the most diffucult to consummate in society is the desire to control others as I am able to control myself. Admittedly this is somewhat a childish desire because it ignores the necessary truth of our relation to others, but it does betray, because of its childishness maybe, a strong desire to influence entities or other things around you. Depending on the individual, this impulse may lead to positive or negative results, or it’s main goal may be a maliscousness, or a beneficence respectlively. Obviosly there is a lot more that goes into this than what I have said, but I still think it comes down to a control or a power or potency. The perpetual advance of our selfhood through the expansion of our understanding of the world, so that we may be confident in the value of our life or existance.
A question I have asked myself for a long time is “what is true life, and by what methods may it be attained?” Perception and awareness within a fluidity of understanding, isolating and deciphering to increase the rapidity of ones advance through the infinte expanse of variations: life and decay.
To build structures and tear them down, so expirience may now reside and grow with the other vines. Past rot or the retention of strong knots.
I think it is necessary to understand oneself, which may mean that it is best to conquer yourself, or at least those portions which diminish ones ability or potential.
I fully agree with the neccesity of understanding oneself, but I don’t “understand” how you know which portions of yourself that will hinder you.
But YEAH for your recognition and deep respect for the variations and dichotomies that exist in one’s life! Again I agree, but it is such a struggle to truly face them. When one recognizes them, or at least when I do, this struggle seems to become insanity.
What I meant by the sources or portions that hinder oneself, and there are different levels that this can be considered is, those things or actions which detract from your personal advancement, learning or understanding. Doing heroin or any other drug or chemical which will take from you those things which are the most important, like ones ability to think coherently, or ones mental capacity is an obvious destructive trait. In another way, at least for me, it is the perpetual discovery of what is right and wrong, and the investigation of ones own self in the mechanism of these judgements.
I’m finding this difficult to explain. What is the goal of your personal entity. In the past I have considered this with questions such as, What is futile? and what’s worthwhile? and the struggle comes from attempting to follow those perceptions that arise out of these questions. In a way this has led to minor insanity in which I would be perceived as slightly crazy by the wandering eye, because to think under those terms leads to extremes that seek strange rare necessities. The real world can not be consummated through this desire which wishes to remake the world by removing all superfluity, and uselessness, and the world is primarily made of superfluity and uselessness, or least the portions that have been created through “pop” cultures influence. In this extent I think it is better to seem crazy to people than to learn to accept those things which are wrong or futile or superfluos or useless, but those are all subjective terms and they would be different for everyone that applied them.
“Can a soul escape such a thrilling torment?”
No, a soul would not like to “escape such a thrilling torment,” because that’s exactly what a soul relishes and thrives upon, our being “at the top.” But being at the top brings ‘loneliness’ and that is not acceptable by us. That is why we should never take things to extreme and if we are at an extreme let’s say with wealth, then we must share it with others to bring balance in our life. Life as we all know will always take things to extremes, it’s we who need to learn to draw the line somewhere for balance, that’s what life is all about and the faster we do this before things get out of hand, the luckier we will be and the better balance there will be. That’s what happiness is!
BeenaJain you had written that “lonliness” is not acceptable to us. But what if someone did embrace lonliness? Lonliness could be one of the perks of attaining such wealth in anything-physical or spiritual. Lonliness (for me any way) gives me an opportunity to get energized and continue for more of what I desire because I have no one around me. And lonliness in the fullest sense in my terms is a feeling or state of want of another. It is this want that inspires and energizes me. It gives me balance in a life surrounded by people you really do not want around you. Being alone is great too, but with the addition to being alone, lonliness is longed for by me because it gives me peace in an odd state of mind.
Looking back at what I have just written, I am noticing that this response probably will not be understood fully or at leat not as it was intended to state (I have been struggling lately to state exactly what is on my mind). Oh well! I’d still like to see some responses.
When I said that loneliness is not acceptable by us, I meant in the long run. You are talking about short term. In the short term of course we should find solitude because without it having peace of mind would not be possible. You are confusing solitude with loneliness. Long term solitude called loneliness is not desirable because it can become a habit and take you away from reality eventually and hence towards disaster.
And please do not state that something you portray will not be understood by the reader 'cause then the problem could only be you. If you’ve already reached the conclusion that your query is hard to understand maybe you are hard to understand to yourself in the first place. Please don’t blame others for a fault of yours but blame your loneliness on which you’ve started to depend and like too much. Nonsense!
I understand that you seem to want to converse with someone who understands themselves. But I seldom do! As for the blaming, that you refer to I didn’t intend to shift any blame on anyone or anything but myself. (Sorry!)
Please explain how lonliness can lead one away from reality. If one exists isn’t that enough for reality to exist as well? A universal reality seems to be an illusion that most hold too dearly.
But then again, although I grasp to tightly on my wantings of lonliness, I force myself into situations where I must trash any hint of being alone or wanting lonliness. I hope by doing this that I may be somewhat balanced at least in the view of others. And by embracing both, I hope to avoid a disaster of which you speak of.
But this juggling between the two seems to be a disaster in itself. For why not cater to just one extreme wanting? And ignore the lesser want of balance?
Kristalyn,
I never said anywhere that I want to, “converse with someone who understands themselves” perhaps you want to do that. Anyway…
Loneliness can lead one away from reality in the following way I think:
We start to like our company more and more 'cause we all tend to identify with ourself and like ourself the most. And soon it becomes a habit and difficult to get rid of so we enclose ourself in our own world by drawing crevices around us to shut the world out. These crevices cut deep in the land and soon we drift away from the mainland or from people. But, “no man is an island” so we start to suffocate living in our own world.
Therefore it is imperative that we like occasional solitude and not develop a habit of it and so not let it develop into loneliness. This way we will not shun society and so not distance ourself from reality more and more. We need meaningful interaction to keep ourself in touch with society or reality. Essentially if you don’t mind my saying this, we need to get out of the mode of, I, me, myself. Ask yourself this question, when did we meaningfully care about someone else? This interaction has to be there or why would others care about us and so we will most likely enclose ourself in our own little world and start to suffocate and so might be driven to taking drastic steps. So, loneliness is not good, but occaisional solitude is because it not only lets us stay in touch with reality but also enhances it.
What is a world conquered, if love’s not in life?
What is power, before the love of humans?
What world can conquer a love which is heavenly?
What power would suffice as substitute for love?
Alone, when you have your love to think about?
Past and Future, when love’s forever?
I say to you my dear friend,
When love there in the air,
When someone’s there to think about,
Why to think of such torment?
dominus_litis, what does your id name mean? Is it Latin?
Anyway… what love are you talking about? Do you think there are various “types of love” like many seem to believe? If so I am curious which one you are referring to. Also, just to warn you, I am quite skeptical of “love” when most people refer to it. But fire away with your responses!