"Knock-Knock|" Mistress Heart; A query from the mind to the heart

"Knock knock" mistress heart

It's about time you and I had a heart-to heart

I certainly do not understand your emotional arts

And I know I do speak for all the other parts

"Knock knock mistress heart

Why are you so sudden, quicker than the hart?

Your paths so unpredictable, smart I cannot chart

And your moods so unstable, each one a rare delicacy in an exotic mart

"Knock knock" mistress heart

 I can't ever keep up with your detailed stats

One fall in the pit of love can make you as blind as ten bats

It's hopeless trying to make you see the glaring facts

"Knock knock" mistress heart

Obviously there isn't a battle against you I can win

Even my best, most calculated reason seems to you another tale spin

And I just hate it that you could be right but what's to lose?  I'll still hold up my chin

And so before I leave having laid out my charge now bare and thin

"Knock knock" mistress heart answer me quick, make haste to your kin!

E.B Opoku

Copyright(c) 13th June 2011. 00:26 (Atlantic time)

If you're giggling from this read, I'll take one straight guess and like a purposed arrow, I know it will hit the bull's eye. You're at least a one time victim of this mind to heart monologue no? Yes it is a monologue for almost most. lol!(I'm totally aware of the exception to every rule, rule.) Good for you if mistress heart could give you clear reasoned responses about her actions, although I doubt she did. And this is the age-old fight between heart and mind summed rather aptly in the words "the heart does things for reason that reason cannot understand" and mind you these are the sayings of a French Mathematician and Philosopher (I'll let you figure out who). Rare combination I think, a pragmatist and a dreamer! You usually don't find a combination of these two talents in one. Anyway If I'm emphasizing this Mathematician-Philosopher's resume, it's for the added effect of validating that the statement didn't just originate with some  common, ordinary love struck guy who just randomly and by accident came by the statement in a 'one-off' stroke of genius.

I speak for me and I reflect the many times my clever mind still manages to lose out to my heart in the battle for the most sensitive and important decisions. Not all the time though. I mean that would question the cleverness of my mind or enforce the dictatorship of my heart. I'm definitely not dumb and I certainly am no dictator! So where is the balance you ask? He's called the Holy Spirit. And thanks to Him, I've been making the best decisions for quite some time now. The times when I haven't, I probably have been relying on either one of my faculties. Many people approach life with a question: to follow their hearts or to use their heads? Well I learned that life is way beyond the head and the heart. And even a combination of both will still likely not get you very far. The Bible talks about acknowledging God in all your ways and He will direct your path. Wise old proverbs and its true. Solomon surely was wise enough to know that the heart was tricky and evasive and thus, the secret to taming it would be to put it to the unending task of trusting in God. He also did know that the mind can be a smarty pants, thinking it does know better when it is totally flawed and so he admonished to lean not  on its understanding which appeals to most considering its coherent logic unlike the heart which has missing equations in its math! Though I have given up trying with my mind to understand my heart, I still haven't stopped observing their differences and learning why those two are mostly irreconcilable. This poem was thus birthed out of this observation considering that again my heart which loves poetry is all out at work to make something beautiful with words, while my mind is telling me that I should be sleeping. You know what they say "early to bed, early to rise, makes one healthy, happy and wise." I frankly don't care who's winning. I just have a simple message to give. That people will find life much easier If they decide to trust in God and His Holy Spirit to show and lead in the right way rather than play tug of war deciding whether to listen to the mind or the heart. Cheers!!!

Memories

Sun rise,

time flies.

Its all gone.

Except for you, it's when you're born.

Streams part,

distant lands in a glance,

sorrow and pain a work of art,

are all evoked in your trance.

The kindness you bring from tales of yesterday's dance,

the pain and bitterness of the unlucky chance:

you tell it tall,

you pitch its fall,

every single detail captured in your famous hall.

But without you life would be no dream.

It would be plain black coffee; no sugar nor cream.

And so to live with you we must.

Day in day out, learning to adjust.

Feeding on you when you're yesterday's sweet pie crust,

and forging ahead ignoring when you're that dreaded moment's deadly rust!

Indeed memories are but a mixed blessing;

at a point in time, a beautiful love story that you could sing,

at another, a marauding gang riding with sorrow and pain to bring.

E.B Opoku Copyright(c) 2011

This poem really was borne out of contemplations on a simple question: are memories good or bad? Everyone has memories. Unless of course you've recently suffered amnesia but God forbid that should ever happen to any of us. Some of us have very good memories which is good and bad; good when you're reliving out some good times and horrible when you remember every single detail of an event which is just bad. Countless times, I've felt like throwing out my mind just so I wouldn't remember some things and it's really frustrating when you think you've lost a bad memory and one slight trigger brings it all back like it was never gone. Well I haven't thrown out my mind and so thankfully I still have my good mind to write. I dont know if I have the right answer to this but for me it's comforting to know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. His unchanging nature assures me that His love will always be there to cover my yesterday, to celebrate my today and change my tomorrow. And no matter what events take place in my life, there's one memory to look out for in it all; the Jesus factor and How he compliments it all!