A WINTER'S JOURNEY

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” - William Shakespeare
 
Magpie Tales has used as a prompt the painting “Wind of History” by Jacek Yerka, about whom I have blogged before here. My offering, inspired by this painting is below:
 
A Winter’s Journey
 
Revisiting all the places of my past pain
Is my destiny, as Winter drags on year-long,
And endless sheets of falling cold, grey rain
Envelop landscapes in monotonous song.
(Forget I should what I must and mustn’t do…)
 
The distant goal of all my journeys is the same,
Approach so close and then so far again to be,
A cruel, repeated, endless, pointless game,
Treading the circling spirals of my traces, never to flee
(Forget I must what I should and shouldn’t do…)
 
The ruts of my previous journeys run deep,
But past experience futile, knowledge vain;
Each trek brings new torment, as I creep
Towards redemption – a goal I won’t attain.
(Forget I ought what I’m obliged and not obliged to do…)
 
As night falls my desperation grows more acute,
Memories haunt me, suffering grows strong –
The ruins of my former life form a familiar route
How could I live in such error, all my choices wrong?
 
Forget at last what I ought and oughtn’t do,
To live a life that’s fresh, unshackled by the past;
Escape from reminiscences, build all anew,
Tread paths unknown, my destiny recast.