This poem & its theme of the excess baggage we carry around with us, puts me in mind of the last verse of the famous poem Retrato by Antonio Machado, which very approximately translated might be rendered thus:

When the time comes for the ultimate journey
and the ship of no return departs,
let me go down to the shore with the lightest of baggage,
almost naked, like the sons of the sea.

Guess we're just doomed to be junk collectors Jude! Insightful poem.

:)))))))))) how this makes me ROAR with laughter, Kartero! BRILLIANT AND SO TRUE!! All that symbolic sense and nonsense that outmodes itself as relationships move on and we metamorphose, shed skins, into a different place, physically and metaphysically. That which is real endures but that which is imagined or seasonal will lose meaning, fade and die. Clearing out is healthy; stasis and apathy are what remains of those relationships where the emotional junk just piles up regardless. Glad at least to know that you are travelling with the same Old Bag! Totally love it! xx

baggage, the bane of everyone -- accumulated through the constant conflicts created by cognitive dissonance -- cast aside preconception and all of that baggage would never have existed -- you've driven a silver stake through the heart of the vampire of happy lives -- ignorance and bliss thieves of the good life, a life free of, BAGGAGE! -- I bid you joy, love, peace and a baggage sale my dear friend -- Jon Michael

Visited a friend with a garage stuffed floor to ceiling with garage-sale items. He briefly toyed with renting a backhoe instead.

so dismally true

Most unique. The metaphor is tremendous. Yet, in this era no where is much different. Pain seems to be the order of the day! If on chooses, yet there must be an area for free thinkers who are not tied to the capitalist gaol.

Clever take on this dilemma!
For me, and I can be way off, the essence of your message is about letting go, forgetting and forgiving, the importance of that choice of the heart to let go and be free.

now jude, we pack-rats say, gotta recall where you've been to know where to go...
just how does one throw away life-scarring memories?
always a good read, poet!
carolyn

And some are never able to throw it away.

Intense, you speak a great truth in this one my friend for although we need a bag perhaps to keep and carry our cherished memories, perhaps we need a garbage bag to put out the painful crap we also carry through life.
Fee

Jude, insightful, intriguing, enlightening...
In case you forgot, tomorrow at 11:11 all enlightened souls are taking a moment to pause and reflect on life as we know it, and life as we want see it from a spiritual perspective...
"case" brings forward a lot of information about oneself, it is wrapped in wise encasements, encased in spiritual insights, and filled with wonderment and thought provoking verses.
As always you spin my mind...

Peace, light and love and Namaste Jude,
Amber

Gotta clear/clean out the hard drive every now and then to make it easier to progress further...or did I misunderstand again...either way I enjoyed reading this and I like as well what Mr. Flanagan stated below...keep em coming, Bob...e

Amazing insight into the human psyche! Americans are obese, and in addition to their handlebars and saddlebags carry around a lot of emotional junk that some like to express in what they call, poetry. I have been accused of being unemotional, but by not hanging on to what used to make me depressed, I can get on with life and be more creative in my writing than focusing on my navel.

I can hardly keep up with your insightful writes, but it is good to see you back in your highly productive style.

Ron

I relate to this. Many years ago I realized that too much clutter in a persons life led to the same kind of condition, (creatively, spiritually, and mentally) a body experiences being constipated. Cleaning the slate regularly, and judiciously - casting off all those things that create negative hateful thoughts - letting go of old prejudices and the same old way of thinking - embracing only that which enriches and brings life, was far better than the alternative, which invariably led to alienation and a slow and painful atrophy of the creative juices. Yup ... good thoughts Jude! richard

you make a good case
and its lined with comfortable bric a bac
though it seems confined to a re-run of a cul de sac
I rather think we'll all jump off the track
when the time comes to shuffle off this mortal coil
and trip the light fantastic with far finer spoils.

Still and all, you make us think
as by your poem we stop to drink.

An abundance of truth unwrapped in your private thoughts, or any of ours, I wonder when, if at all, the human creature ever get over it's own self importance, and live in a more enlightened state, there are sure enough guides and gurus out there that over the millenia have tried to stir us in a this direction, well said Jude,
Blessings! Jasmin Horst

We are creatures of our own bad habits and victims of our own limitations. We find comfort in our fears and avoid evolving through them because we fear, more than anything, success and our own amazing power. Being successful brings about responsibilities which most of us are not self-confident enough to take on. You nailed it with this one, Jude.
Take care,
Sherry

love this. Morgan

Jude,
this would make a fine preface
to Book of Zen.

John