Tag Archives: fate

Staring Blindly Into The Great Beyond (Sonnet)

Staring blindly into the great beyond

Feet broken and blistered at life’s crossroad

Scarcely knowing how to respond

From bearing these trials, a heavy load

This burden great, when might it end

Providing the bounty the Lord inspired

My back is weary with painful bend

Longing for rest, I’m oh so tired

Fate has dealt a sour hand

One which beats this soul far down

A wish to stand on solid land

Is swallowed up and surely drowned

In the end where doth fault lie

Somewhere unknown when this body dies

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Uncomfortable Skin – A Tanka

Uncomfortable skin

Wrapping unknown destiny

Who am I to be

A question answered at death

By looking back at our life

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Gift

This darkened doorway

You never asked to enter

At others mercy

You were born into this world

To live, struggle and pass on

Make more of your life

Than what was given at birth

This should be your quest

Do not squander this reward

For their is no greater gift

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Though Earthbound

Though earthbound, I am lost amongst the sky blue,

Intricately woven into this tapestry that is nature.

~

Miniscule in comparison to the whole I am no less vital.

~

Without being, this picturesque world would be unrecognizable.

~

What I see as familiar would cease to exist without that

blade of grass, that oak tree, the bird singing in the eaves,

the lake where I skipped stones, the house that I grew up in,

my kindergarten teacher, the teachers that tolerated me,

the bus driver, the postman delivering the mail,

the plowman keeping our streets clear in winter.

~

Without any of these what would this life look like;

Much different I propose.

~

Without you or I what path would our parents lives have taken;

Surely a far cry from the one our history tells.

~

Lest we question our significance in this place and time

we should not!

~

We are each a thread in this fabric,

Significant and wonderful and cardinal by our simple existence.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

A Leap Of Faith

A leap of faith,

Whether in love,

Whether in life,

Whether at death,

Waking is to plummet,

Headlong into the unforeseen.

A mystery without end,

Until we breathe our final breath,

Meeting whatever fortune,

We so feverishly wove,

Through thoughts and deeds,

Living absent of tomorrow,

We cannot know,

We cannot want to know,

What fate awaits,

On our final day.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Lessons of Life

Looking forward,

Staring into the mirror of my life,

Returns a reflection of my past.

Like history,

My yesterdays keep repeating themselves,

Leaving me struggling to break free.

Hopes and dreams left partially fulfilled,

And regrets, of which there are many,

A constant battle to overcome.

Thankfully with age, I’m less likely to lament,

Especially over those things which I can not change,

Instead choosing to carve out a niche’ for the joyful things in life.

Should mistakes of the past be renewed,

Looking with eyes steeped in greater wisdom,

I endeavor to make this their last.

Still the realist that I am gets in the way,

Making the struggle monumental,

And the results muddled.

Yes…I am a flawed creature,

Free will engendered as both blessing and curse,

Yet I do not desire to change it.

We are given but one existence,

Is it destiny…luck…or divine intervention that lights our path,

For this, I have no answer, choosing instead to sit back and enjoy this wild ride.

Resplendence or Regret

By D. R. DiFrancesco

 

Do you like what you see,

Molded after what you dreamed I’b be,

Sheltered behind walls of stone.

 

My wings clipped,

Meant to keep me safe,

Instead, caging my will to fly.

 

I knocked on fates door,

Only to have it slammed angrily in my face,

Resigned to a destiny of civilized certainty.

 

Is this the path I would have chosen?

Maybe, but that was for me to adjudge,

I never had the chance to find out.

 

Adolescence enslaved me,

Chaining my desires, preventing them from soaring,

Pushing me in directions that you found acceptable.

 

Age held no respite,

Desire for approval ingrained into my being,

Second guessing decisions through your minds eye.

 

Passage to maturity should not proceed this way,

Life’s lessons are meant to form us,

To be our guide through our metamorphosis to adulthood.

 

Despite being bound to the past,

Handcuffed to the vision of what I was supposed to be.

I have broken free of the iron shackles of my youth.

 

With no time for regrets I have freed me,

Unlocking my hopes from the dungeon of childhood,

Escaping the hangman that would have stifled my future.

 

Look back I would not change a thing,

Realizing that your protectiveness although misguided, decided who I became,

Leaving it up to me to alter the path on which I strode.

 

In strength I have become myself,

Confronting my shortcomings with an iron fist,

Finding the goodness in what I have become.

 

Harboring no compunction,

You did what you did out of love for my well-being,

Although flawed doing what you thought was best.

 

For this I thank you.

A Personal Story, Is this Coincidence or Something Else?

I feel compelled to share a brief story with you  that has both touched me greatly and amazed me at the same time.

Yesterday afternoon I completed and posted a poem, “Wither Away“, that was a very personal poem about my grandmother.  Suffering with chest pains, she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure about 4 months ago and her doctors gave her 6 months to a year to live.   The doctors also made it clear that there was nothing that they could do other than to prescribe medications to make her comfortable.

Initially after diagnosis she had more good days than bad, but of late the opposite was true and she became unable to get out of bed without being carried.   As you can imagine this is a very hard thing to watch happen to someone you love.

Now to my point.   Whether by fate, a premonition unrecognized by me, coincidence, or something else that I can’t explain I received a call from my parents last night to tell me that my grandmother had died early yesterday morning.   They chose to wait to tell me until I had gotten home from work so that I didn’t have this on my mind all day.

I know that this type of thing is not unheard of, but it does make me wonder how something as seemingly random as posting a poem could turn out to be so prophetic, at least to me anyway.  I guess it will just have to remain one of those strange occurrences that happens to a person during the course of their life.

My grandmother was 92 years old when she passed on.  I will miss her deeply.

T.G.M.

March 16, 1920 – June 7, 2012

Rest In Peace