9.29.2011

Icebergs

We are all icebergs.

Some of us float, others don't, but all of us are mostly submerged. The immensity of our submerged selves can only be guessed at by just glancing at the surface. What we don't know is only a small manifestation of what we could know. Ambiguity attracts us all.

Only our apex breaks the surface of the icy waters that we douse ourselves in, and it is this emergence that we put on display for the others to see. In the Sea, waves crash against us, imbecile imposters walk atop us, the Sun blares down on us... We all have our own melting points, but the best of us have the ability to freeze, sacrifice what the icy situation dictates, and regain our cool. 

We all come from a larger formation, a foundation that formed us. Eventually, though, we must break off and float about on our own. We are small in the beginning -- a single drop of water in an ocean full of drops -- but we end up gaining steam as the journey continues. Some continue to grow, others plateau off; with our height, some of us seemingly touch the sky. At our end, all of us will eventually evaporate into it. 

The cause of our flux can be accredited to the escape of pressure through our various layers, and yet pressure is what ultimately holds us together. What an opposure of pressure we sometimes can be!

Throughout the daily bump & grind, some of us can't help but collide. Sometimes collisions result in a cohesive coupling, a proven pack. Other times collisions result in a ruptured recoiling that leaves us cracked. Icy water seeps in, & a part of us sinks. Only a part, though, and that part was obviously meant to go. The part of us that is meant to stay will always remain afloat. 

We all seemingly appear to be mostly the same, but it is our differences that have the most impact. In fact, it is those differences -- our unique encavements, our chiseled fissures -- that grants us our identity, our shape. It's peculiar how such a random determination determines our reality, isn't it? It isn't so random, though: we definitely have some control as to what we harden ourselves into. 

Of course, we aren't really inanimate objects (especially one so cold). If we fail to animate ourselves with what we're given, though, we just might become so. The disinclination to reveal ourselves only freezes us in place, and could eventually sink us entirely. What a titanic blunder that would be.

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fascinating write.

    ReplyDelete
  3. we are all icebags, how cool to imagine that.

    Glad to see you at the gooseberry garden.
    :)

    amazing insights in your piece.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You did well with the extended metaphor, and made some points worth thinking about. Some of us certainly are cracked, and so often there is much more beneath the surface than meets the eye...as they say.

    ReplyDelete
  5. nice...i enjoyed this and thing your metaphor works well...and gave us something to think on...

    not sure how it fits with meeting the bar, but always good to stop in...

    ReplyDelete
  6. very beautiful metaphor.

    you have a clear head, which makes you a gem poet,

    keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. like you iceberg metaphor alex... but it is our differences that have the most impact..true..

    ReplyDelete
  8. nice metaphor... tips are 'Personas'
    the unconscious also remains 'mostly' unknown to the self.
    good job.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Claudia is right, the iceberg metaphor is perfect for humanity. All I have to do is think about how much I keep hidden, and I know the truth of it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good metaphor, good execution. Nicely done!

    ReplyDelete