In Pursuit of Poetry

March 12, 2020 - Justin Farley - The Fight

March 12
Now that the corona-virus has been called a pandemic - which mean it has gone world wide, there is a lot of fear of getting it and what it might do to our economy. Steps are being taken to keep it at bay. The Junos have been cancelled. Sports events have been suspended. Travel is curtailed. Even the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival has been cancelled.

Here in Ontario, our schools have had an extra two weeks added to the end of the March Break just in case there are people going on vacation to other countries. Our own school has the principal and custodian off on vacation. Our night custodian was hurt on her vacation last week and has not returned. We have someone from the high school coming in to clean for 5 hours a day leaving a lot of things undone. We are also dealing with strike protocols which don't allow us to step up and do jobs that are not ours... though many of us have been taking as many precautions as we can to keep our classrooms safe for our students.

I decided to pick a poem on conquering fear. Our reactions are our own. We control how we let this situation or any situation get to us. I believe we stay calm and do what we can to make the best of things and keep healthy. We don't need to let this get to hysteria levels.

The Fight – A Poem About Conquering Fear

You can cast your shadow across my future,
Across every step that approaches every opportunity, every opened door.
Try to tear down the walls of my confidence,
And attempt to convince me that I was never meant for more.

You can startle me with your swiftness,
Visit me whenever and however you please.
But I, and I alone must give you the power
To break me and to send me to my knees.

You have dwelt within every human heart,
And every human mind since the dawn of time,
Making the mundane feel like destiny,
Slowly dying, slowly binding us as prisoners of the grind.

Your power is as limitless
Or as limited, as I will it to be.
For the only person who can choose to make you master
Is the man who resides inside of me.

I will not give approval to your veil of darkness,
Nor give you bricks to construct your castle walls.
What you build up I will tear back down with action.
You may knock me down, but I will get back up when I fall.

Fear, I am marking you as my enemy –
Right here, right now, this instant, not tomorrow, but today.
For I have dreams that I must tend to,
So pack up your “what ifs” and get out of my way.

Keep coming at me with your terrors if you like,
But my place in the corner is now a vacant cell.
This heart will no longer hide from failure,
Nor choose safety over walking through the fiery hell.

I choose my destiny,
I choose to hold my dreams as a beacon in the night.
For the impossible becomes possible
The day we choose to defy you, the day we choose to fight.

-Poem Written by Justin Farley
https://alongthebarrenroad.com/2015/08/14/fight-poem-about-conquering-fear-succe...