Reach for the Stars!

Reach for the Stars?

I don't understand it;

what could it possibly mean?

My arms are not plastic

and they cannot extend that far.

But I know what I can

embrace and mold with my hands,

Or breathe into words that harness

the winged horses of my imagination. 

I reach deep in my pocket

that's where those stars will be, dangling

like strands of pearls, each one

from a different year, season and day.

You know them all:

the lingering perfume under  the wrist,

those hours sleeping

as a child cupped in their hands;

the footprints that lighten in the night.

Only words will land this craft--

on the Stars named by the

aboriginal children of the past

____________________

Meus Otium:

I suppose everyone has a pet peeve so mine would be hearing someone say Reach for the Stars!... I believe in a way the stars one should be reaching for is the infinite wealth that resides in them, we are a walking, talking, breathing UNIVERSE!  Which is why when someone tells me they are bored or do not have anything to do, perhaps they haven't really realized the full potential of self realization.  In my experience the constant self discoveries, brighten my perception, like being given another pair of eyes to look out with, even from a different perspective (imagine having eyes on top of your head that constantly looked up to the sky,,,hmmm). 

Anyway, I sort of doodled on that imaginary vision of the stars being guides from the navigational/historical perspective but incorporates it into the stories told when 'aboriginal children' or for me when language developed to communicate these ideas or self expression or poetry-- each one a giant step for mankind.

The structure of the poem was inspired from the  poem of Margaret Atwood, "True Stories."  I suppose her pet peeve would be about the need for truth... in essence all we need are the stories that frame our lives in these captured indelible moments... itself fleeting from the moment we perceive them in our lives.

Art: Aboriginal Star Symbol