Ummm... you never leave me disappointed my BF Well Said!

"So used to running on my knees"... this line struck me forcibly... despondent, yet encouraging in the same weary breath... i can feel and relate to piece on a deep level... brilliant read from you, my friend... blessings...

better that the knees break our fall rather than some other more delicate apparel in our possession, and one cannot help but wonder if there are no perpetual abysses but we project them and fall into our perceptions of them, to be resuscitated and lifted out of those self made abysses, by those very perceptions for the next time our lives become commonplace and we have to make projections, to fall into our perceptions all over again. it is our perceptions that are perpetuating. and I believe you have perpetuated a wonderful work here Ashok, as far as I can perceive.

i'll be the echo here... like wendy said, "and life goes on..." until the inevitable end...

You write in dramatic characterization; fear, trepidation, anxiety, despair, hopelessness. (I am glad that there is an antidote for such, even faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.)

As always excellent Ashok...Charlie

It’s somewhat frightening what you have written about here, but nothing is more hopeful than overcoming the overwhelming fear, and nothing more beautiful than true self love and the bold undertaking of true living. I did find the recurring use of “they” to be effective in provoking a sense of fear. It seems to be referring to your own legs at first, yet somehow, this word seems to mean something more, “they keep on coaxing me pointing towards dark spaces I have left behind, narrating myths of saviors and their sacrifices” – yes, ‘they’ are not just the legs of one of many selves within, but also represent the external influences of one’s upbringing, the associations that, through intense repetition, attempt to take root deep within the subconscious. Yes, there is a “they” on the outside, but it is the existence of ‘they’ on the inside that is most frightening, most disturbing, and most difficult to get away from, if even one recognizes ‘their’ presence, “I sense danger…but before I can forewarn a word of alarm my hands clamp shut my mouth…my legs fall, I run, so used to running on my knees” – yes, the intending self must fight a seemingly losing battle against all of its other selves so strong, having so many more sources of energy to draw from than does the intending self. “They” breed fear of the unknown, “they” stop us dead in our tracks when we know we want to walk forward. But the end is nothing more than beauty, a turn of great proportions, “resigned to my fate I close my eyes and jump Fearlessly into that dreadful abyss Which lies before me Perpetually” – yes, the intending self has SEEN his dilemma, has seen his fears tripping him up, and holding him back. He lets go of all the fear in a final leap of faith, faith in his ability to transcend ‘them’…he leaps into the ‘perpetual abyss’, for there is no other path to living other than this, and so, no matter what lies at the bottom of those depths, no matter if one’s physical body dies before reaching the bottom, jumping is this intending self's fate, for there is no living to be done within the sphere of the known.

brilliant poem! maybe we are controlled by forces we are dying to over come, or maybe we have no choice to enter "the abyss"...excellent, excellent work!

Ashok, this is an incredible observation of how we often live our lives - the questions, the turmoil, the things we allow, intentionally or not, to create our world... what struck me, however, was the word "fearlessly" in the last stanza. It does come down to that, I believe. We DO take "leap after leap in the dark," but those leaps, that flinging, can often be seen as the pushing of a seed deep into the earth so it can grow into its new self. Yes, "fearless." This is an incredible and thought-full poem.

wonderful work as always ashok. i have ben a slacker in reading lately ... but i am glad that i arrived at this

Forever falling into your fate. I have never thought of fate being in a direction. I have always thought of it as a state. Even though your verse states that you cannot change the direction, the fact that it is a direction gives one hope of changing. great read.