Glorious Nights (October 2, 2009)

how many glorious nights did I spend
living moments of brilliance
and profound achievement
sitting at a desk in an empty office
elatedly walking past empty cubicles
ecstatically driving home
musical guns blazing
like a hans zimmer soundtrack
to an oscar winning film

how many glorious nights
did I sit there or lie there in bed
after some deeply satisfying experience
of exhilarating creative beauty
of powerful physical breakthrough
of timeless existential insight
wishing I could share that moment
those feelings
with another living, breathing, feeling
understanding being
yearning for some contact and meaning
to love and be loved
a simple knowing, caring smile
might have made it all worthwhile

yet slowly encroaching sobering loneliness
pushes aside enlightened glory and happiness
like an indifferent street sweeper at dawn
mundanely flushing away yesterday's drunken excess
serving forsaken gems as today's rodent breakfast

how many glorious moments
are forever lost to this world
how many unread poems and love letters
how many unheard songs and symphonies
are lost to the insurmountable weariness of sleep
or to that first disruptive waking thought
to just one more thing that has to be done first
never written, never played, never recorded
never shared, ground up in the shredder of time
lost to the inescapable solitude of our minds