Programming The Subconscious
Looking upon intelligence
too long can just depress,
an honest mind figures out quick
it’s not amongst the best.
The range of them is just so vast,
the unique mind so rare,
you try to see what those guys see,
nut it just isn’t there.
I do not think that I’m stupid,
at least not by IQ,
the scale says I’m above average,
nut who knows if that’s true?
I know that I am no Newton
(Never learned calculus!),
I can make no sense of James Joyce…
though he might’ve been nuts.
When reading Aristotle I
get half of what he said,
I read all of Bill Shakespeare’s works,
a third stuck in my head.
The limits of the conscious mind
at least the one I have,
can’t always make sense of their words,
bruises the ego bad.
I know there’s mind that can do that
amongst the genius types,
or professors who make these things
the whole of their whole life,
but amongst us more common types
one thing I’ve learned is this:
You don’t have to be a genius to
program your subconscious.
You might ask what I mean by that,
does the brain have source code?
I don’t mean anything like that
(But it would be cool though).
I’m talking about things you know
but do not realize,
the types of things now escaping
your waking, conscious mind.
The things you see without seeing,
you read but do not note,
that knowledge does not just vanish,
somewhere it has to go.
Take that Shakespeare example I
mentioned a stanza back,
and how, in my conscious mind,
I still feel that I lack.
My eyes cannot unsee those words,
subconscious they remain,
where they’re pondered and rearranged
by hind-parts of the brain,
Only to up and reemerge
at the strangest of times,
forming connections ‘from the blue,’
and doing so I find
myself with random, cool ideas,
built from what I forgot,
be it writing, or just in life,
things came I never sought.
Weird ideas for a new poem,
new twists in a novel,
patterns in how real people act
I couldn’t see in full.
A reservoir of ideas that
I never knew I had,
emerging like intuition,
and that is not so bad.
That’s why I keep reading classics
that I don’t fully get,
my conscious mind may not see it all,
at least it hasn’t yet,
but that quite restless under-brain
hungers for the next feast,
I’ll give it what great words I can
so it can surprise me
with something that I wouldn’t see
in ordinary life,
with those bolts of ‘inspiration’
that bring such a delight.
And maybe this it not enough
to compete with genius,
but you’ll be armed with better tools
programming the subconscious.
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment