John-Ward Leighton
Intersections: Alexander at Columbia
Photographs ©Copyright by John-Ward Leighton
From Southeast corner
From Northeast corner
From Northwest corner
From Southwest corner
ALONE
Photograph ©Copyright by John-Ward LeightonI wasn’t always alone
but I always thought I was,
even when I was part of a couple
I was alone.
Something that started when
I was very young
I learned that I couldn’t trust
other people with my emotional life.
I had the sensation of
being apart
and learning to hide
who I was and what I was.
I became adept
at playing a part
that disguised
how I really felt.
Hence the closet poet
where I could reveal
those thoughts that challenged
my carefully thought out image.
It took me a long time
to learn the art of friendship
and to realize that when I gave
I also received.
This last project
where to me the intersections
are what they are,
are things of beauty to others.
We look but we cannot see,
we listen but we cannot hear,
we feel but we cannot love,
we rage to fear and hate ourselves.
In the prison cell of self we fail to imagine the other
and our fear of something different
that only love would know
causes much misery and injustice.
Self marooned on my island of alone
my children distant and grown
friends rescue boats gather in the chorus of the song
their caring voices drowning out my feeble brag of being
alone.
©Copyright June 12, 2008 by John-Ward Leighton