View of Toledo

The wind is at it again...which means I'm up. Stronger than my coffee, wind at night stirs me in a way no spoon would ever understand.

I grabbed my old journals from when I was a teenager. You know, back when we used pen and paper and internet was a timed privilege...I came across a creative writing assignment I did in college. We were asked to look through a huge pile of posters and do a few brainstorming exercises, writing down keywords that the image made us feel, and then put those words into a short poem or lyric. I was instantly drawn to a poster of El Greco's 'View of Toledo'. This was at a time when I was just getting away from my family for the first time by going to college 4 hours away from them, yet I was still under their thumb every second. Those were often dark times, but without them, I wouldn't be who I am today.

So while I sit here in the dark and think of things I cannot yet write about, I share with you my view of Toledo:

I stop to look at what I leave behind.

What I see seems far more empty than I remember.

The royalty, the power, the containment, the emptiness.

It seems so calm, almost too calm.

Cloudy thoughts that hide so much

Are beginning to clear as I reflect upon the paths I have taken.

They lead me nowhere, yet everywhere I've been.