Beyond the Confines of the Mind

Like a circus acrobat my tumbled mind

Repeats the movements of forgotten lives,

A well-trained juggler of too-familiar thoughts

It seeks control of the form in which it thrives.

The lower nature is a grappling beast

Ravenous, impossible to please,

Insatiable its appetite's demands

We cannot mollify nor appease.

Only when we rise above ourselves

Its hunger can constrain, its energies,

Its excessive hold on us begins to pall

And from its nether pulls attain release.

Hope not by force these darker needs to cease

For struggle brings not lasting calm nor peace,

We must abjure this 'self', the soul to find

And rise beyond the confines of the mind.