I Yam What I Yam

I’m back in Africa after a short trip to the States to take care of some business and to visit family. Now I’m here on a bit of a lonely Sunday, rain POURING outside, and thus I reach for one of my cherished books. Poetry seems to be in order. Ah yes, that hits the spot. 

I decided I would flip open to a random page and share with you. I landed on a pitiful little gem by John Clare that isn’t super uplifting, but nevertheless I enjoyed it. I think we might all be able to find times in our lives where his words could be ours. It is certainly the case with me at present, as I have had more than my share of changamoto (challenges) of late.  But I/we can also turn the words around and reflect on what is good and right. Here’s to sweeping the ashes aside and getting to the pure beauty that lies underneath and sometimes unnoticed.   For example, enjoy my flip-flop clad feet looking for crocodiles in Mwanza (Lake Victoria), followed by a pic of an actual crocodile (mamba) at Saanane Island. Yeah, crocs can be beautiful. ?

Without further ado, I will nosh on my kitimoto (BBQ pork roast) and roasted plantains while you enjoy, “I Am” by John Clare. Discuss amongst yourselves. Seriously, please feel free to comment; how about sharing your favorite poem with us?!  The Badger is all ears. Well, actually mostly teeth. ?

“I Am” by John Clare

I am: yet what I am none cares or knows:

My friends forsake me like a memory lost,

I am the self-consumer of my woes —

They rise and vanish in oblivious host,

Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes–

And yet I am, and live–like vapors tossed
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,

Into the living sea of waking dreams,

Where there is neither sense of life or joys,

But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;

Even the dearest, that I love the best,

And strange–nay, rather stranger than the rest. 
I long for scenes where man has never trod,

A place where woman never smiled or wept–

There to abide with my Creator, God, 

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,

Untroubling and untroubled where I lie,

The grass below–above the vaulted sky. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my pets. 

-Badger out