In Pursuit of Imagination - Discovering the spark of writing and poetry
In Pursuit of Imagination
I watched a child at play
surrounded by plastic figurines.
Blank-faced, bendable limbed,
flesh and blood within.
Echoes of my earlier days,
when imagination and make-believe,
were potent, without end.
Yet children grow, time passes,
and the favorite toys of yesteryear
are packed too soon away.
The battles, sacrifices,
hopes and dreams
of simple plastic men, fade slowly
from memory, replaced by toys
of function, cold, empty things
that not even the fire of imagination
can bring to life. So it remains
unused, starved of fuel, dying…
Oh how I wish to be young again,
to see the world through a child’s eyes.
Wonderous, mysterious,
a place with magic in.
Where the inanimate are animate,
and make-believe is as real as
the sun, moon, trees and wind.
Yet this can not be, and as we age,
the fire from which hopes and dreams
are made, withers to a smoldering flame.
We keep ourselves busy,
deny that there is anything amiss,
whilst struggling to fill a gap
we are not certain exists.
Searching for a spark
to set our imagination alight,
to experience again as we once did.
Some search high, finding God,
prayer, a world of miracles and angels.
Others open themselves to the magic
of nature, see spirits and faeries in the moonlight.
Some look for the answer in the hallucinations
of a drug, or in the comfort of another’s arms.
Some search far and wide, others search within.
I found what I sought for, in a blank page, and a pen.
Thank you for reading my poem. It is one that is very personal to me and does have a back story. When I was a child I had army men figurines, mostly GI Joes, but to me, they were so much more. They were ‘alive’ and the start of what led to me becoming a writer. They used to have ongoing stories and narratives, and I wrote many notebooks recording their histories and adventures. Doing so, I became very attached to them and played with figurines longer than most boys. Sadly, in an attempt to ‘grow up’ after being teased at school, I threw all my figurines and notebooks into the bin. I am still a little sad about it…