Risk
by Odin Roark

To embrace the next gamble
Is to enlist one’s invisible stopwatch
That measurement of time
Spent doing
Rather than watching

To see a mountain peak’s invitation
Is to venture discovery far more revealing
Than merely raising a flag at the summit

To allow a child its first solo
That 2-wheel ride without parental help
Is to taste the challenge of judgment
To chalk up priceless experience
Over success or failure

To ask for a raise
Is to hazard one’s timing
To realize a yes or no
Knowing it will be predicated
On the boss’s mood
As much as a deserved promotion

To exercise independence
Is to dare a blind bargain
To escape from group-think
To be at oneness with who you are
Not what others try to make you

To indulge in the landscape
Of pride and hubris
Is to wager a sneak preview
Of existential terrain
Where attentive instinct will
Reveal one’s plot and headstone waiting

Of course…

To not engage
In the many chances
For self-realization
Is to but breathe
Without living