half a lifetime ago...

Half a lifetime ago

(or was it just yesterday?)

I was twenty three years old.

I had so much love to give...

But I was probably looking

in all the wrong places.

(then again,

it was probably

right under my nose.)

I was crippled by

shyness & homesickness.

I hated my eyebrows.

I didn't realise the power

of my art

or my poetry...

...but I wrote & drew every single day.

'Ramble On' by Led Zeppelin

was a sacred scripture

written just for me.

Jimmy's mandolin strummed

at my very heart & soul,

like angel wings.

I cried. And often.

(but secretly knew

 somewhere deep inside

 that being vulnerable was a strength)

I didn't call my mother

as much as I should have.

I didn't realise how much

they worry about you.

I started to

face up to the childhood monsters

(and wasn't ashamed

 to ask for help with this).

I ate too much chocolate,

slept alot

and hated to exercise. 

I had so much doubt and yet so much ambition.

Every week I tried to do one thing that scared me.

I wanted to be Dr. Seuss when I grew up.

I believed in magic.

I looked after my friends,

and tried to always keep in touch.

And I was in love with Tilda Swinton.

So much

has changed.

And yet...

Nothing at all has changed.

But I am beginning

to love my eyebrows.

(c) Brent Harpur 2015.

"The only things worth living for are innocence & magic." (David Gray)