There are
endless
reasons
and ways
You’ve got three kids
You’ve got three teeth
The rent is four months past due
You’re a big hit at the office
She left last week
The engine won’t turn
You just aren’t feeling it
The terrorist pulls the blade
The wine went bad
Fame arrived too fast
You’ll lose their respect
You’re in the cancer game
The bus turning left, one block north
You’ll do it tomorrow
The doubt, just behind your left ear
Thirty three parking tickets
Out of milk
Never went to college
Went to too much college
The step onto a rotting board
Oversexed
Undersexed
etcetera
etcetera
etcetera
Everything will
conspire
to stop you
There are
endless
reasons
and ways
They are all common
to every man
In the end
you’ve got to
sharpen the steel
and
do the thing
and then
do it
again
No matter the payoff
No matter the beating
You are no different
better or worse
than any other
before you
Their blood ran
in the gutter
So will yours
If you
want
to finish
this
race
16 responses so far ↓
1 David Zemens | 9 Apr 2007
Over at 1938media.com Loren had a video a week ago or so talking about the successful “A List” bloggers. The final word from him on why they were successful was because “They work harder than you do”.
He is right. So was your mother. And mine.
2 Mark Goodyear | 9 Apr 2007
Yep. I enjoy blogging and writing poetry. I always enjoy your poems, here at KnifeGunPen.
But if I have to choose, I want to be an A-List dad and husband. It ain’t sexy, but it’s my life.
3 sizzle | 9 Apr 2007
this is good. really good. i want to email it to a bunch of people because they all are whining and not getting shit done.
4 Robert Bruce | 9 Apr 2007
David - We’re lucky to have those kind of mothers then…
And yes, Loren’s right about a lot of things. Pisses me off ;)
5 Robert Bruce | 9 Apr 2007
MG - Now what makes you think I wasn’t including husband and father in this battle?
Sexy is for starlets. Courage is for the ages…
6 Robert Bruce | 9 Apr 2007
sizzle - thanks my friend. Maybe you should email it to me too…
7 WPS | 9 Apr 2007
A question for Mark: Why do the two have to be mutually exclusive? Then again, I am neither blogger nor father, tho I hope to be one of them before too long. Does that taint my credibility?
8 Jessica Doyle | 9 Apr 2007
Just the pep
poemtalk I needed.Thank you.
. The doubt was a patch of white I watched on video last year.
9 Sharpen the Steel and Do It Do It | Goodword Editing | 11 Apr 2007
[...] Bruce caught me in a revealing misread of his latest poem at Knife Gun Pen: Everything Will Conspire to Stop You. My misread says more about me than Robert’s poem, I think. A poetry criticism Freudian [...]
10 Mark Goodyear | 11 Apr 2007
Robert (and WPS), that trackback up there is my response to the questions here. I started to comment, but it just got out of control. Aren’t trackbacks great?
11 Robert Bruce | 11 Apr 2007
Mark - Listen man, I’m not here to actually think about these things…. ;)
Wrote a little something over at your place.
12 Robert Bruce | 11 Apr 2007
Jessica - You bet my friend. You’re in the grinder at the moment, I know.
13 Carl McLendon | 13 Apr 2007
am I crazy or could you be referring to the work that needs to be done for those who most need help? am I crazy or is this not about me at all, but about those we could be helping?
“You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing-not caring about others, not caring about God-the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.” —Romans 8:19-21
14 Mantooth | 14 Apr 2007
I was standing at the edge of the water at low tide, contemplating the end… tired. Very tired. The fight has gone. The anger of what’s her name when she left… Ahh what’s her name… I’d love to forget but people tend to remind me at the most happy time…. Then as the tide began to dampen my slippers, I came to realise I was out of bourbon… I ain’t going out that way… I retired to my den, poured a glass, and smiled at all I have. Thank you for this one my dear friend. Thank you.
Yours,
Mantooth
15 Robert Bruce | 15 Apr 2007
Carl - Absolutely. Yes. Among other things…
16 Robert Bruce | 15 Apr 2007
Mantooth - Brother, thank you.
Have Your Say...