To Turn Away
by Odin Roark

To turn away…

is to ignore happiness
merely waiting for sorrow to fade,
patience with the casting of a candlelight’s flicker,
forming the courageous smile before facing decisions,
where teachings unexpected create sense awareness
akin to dolphin-speak,
not to be heard,
but to be felt.

To turn away…

is to assume
sadness longs not for your smile,
but the succumbing of your sorrow,
even as love is always ready to bathe together
in luxuriant waters so expectant experience can enjoin
in human nature’s floatation of being,
not fearing.

To turn away…

is for those
who reject reality’s paradox,
that state of mind where
dismissing dreams as counter-intuitive
is but slavery’s chaining to someone else’s reality,
where a coerced choice borne out of dismay,
teaches stop signs spell nothing but danger.

To turn away…

is when one’s inner instinct,
knowing cautionary signals,
to stop,
look,
and listen,
is the essence of innate imagination,
chooses to look everywhere,
but ahead.

To turn away…

is to avoid staring a precipice head on,
accepting that a possible mistake
in casting one’s integrity as a key
to understanding today’s lesson,
is to potentially never learn,
become a casualty in remaining
but a shadow of others.