This poem was first published in Issue 14 (2007) of Ancient Paths literary magazine and is now part of the archives.
A Guide for the Perplexed
by Fredrick Zydek
When you can't trust logic or the art of memory, it's time to step past meditation and move into the condition of faith. You must make choices even if fear oozes from every pore and the path
winds uphill all the way. The problem of pain
must be ignored and the circles of sorrow, which seem to emanate from the bones, must be banked with bags of risk and sacks of good intentions.
Even if your tears are numerous as poems you must
wipe them dry and carry on without them. You must forget what the scholars dream in their far fields and trust the strange assurances of your own truth.
There will be times when this will be like pulling your own teeth or removing an arrow cupid has shot into your heart. Take courage. Think of the soldier waiting in his strange beauty for the battle to begin,
bits of vocabulary that engender grit, and that even
the fishes have their small hopes. Then, disregarding the sweat pouring from your doubts, take one step in any direction you want and keep going.