By Nolo Segundo

Enemy Near

You have an enemy near you,
as close as your breath,
as close as your heartbeat,
as silent as the grave.

This most intimate enemy
was born with you and
grew as you grew.
In some it is strong,
others have tamed it some
but it never leaves you.

It cannot leave because
the ego is the enemy of
the soul and the soul
can only grow by
overcoming it….

When Dreams Slip Away

When your dream slips
away
and the House of Dreams
deep in the unconscious
is left vacant,
you will feel bereft of a
world already forgotten.

You will try to remember,
to return to the life,
the wonder-filled life you
lived in the dream but
it is useless,
for the unconscious mind
is a jealous mind and so
reluctant to share its
creations with the
daylight world….

The World Breaks My Heart

a young man comes up behind
a father walking to work and
shoots him dead…

he becomes a hero to some
who seem to applaud the way
he threw away two lives…

I cannot understand how
murder can be glorified
but then I am old and know
how very little I truly know…

what we do to each other
we do to ourselves as all
the holy writings tell us
yet we keep thinking
God-Allah-Yahweh
is not watching and Karma
is not taking notes…

they told us, and told us:
Buddha, Jesus, the Prophet,
but war after war, hate
breeding hate, and love
went into hiding…

and so we are careless
with our own souls as we
slight the other, ignore
those in pain, steal from
the old and deprive
the young of meaning
and hope and above all,
grace….

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Nolo Segundo is the pen name of a retired teacher who in his 8th decade became a published poet in over 230 literary journals in 21 countries on 4 continents and 3 collections published in softcover by Cyberwit.net: ‘The Enormity of Existence’; ‘Of Ether and Earth’; and ‘Soul Songs’. These titles reflect awareness gained at 24 when he had an NDE whilst nearly drowning: that he has–is–a consciousness predating birth and surviving death, what poets since Plato have called the soul.