Apathy poem

I suck at poetry.  It's not my thing.  I never compose poems unless I have to for an assignment.  Usually, I end up hating them because I tend to be hypercritical of my own stuff. 

Recently, I had to write a poem.  I've had this idea for a story in my head for a long time, but I wasn't sure how to write it.  Apathy.  Everyone suffers from apathy at one point or another and I think it's a serious problem today.  I feel it's absolutely impossible to motivate someone who doesn't want to be motivated--though I think that's the case for most things.  Ya know, you can't lead a horse to water and make him drink. 

Today, it's also hard to find someone who has a true passion for something; or anything really.  I believe that motivation can only come from God.  When we have a passion for God, we find out we have passions for other things too.  I can't motivate someone to change the way they are and it isn't my place to try.  I can only pray for them and love them in the way God wants me to. "Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13:7)  I can always trust in God that He has a plan for everything even though I may not understand at the moment.  And that every aggravating, annoying person I meet has a purpose--to teach me to deal with them and realize no one's perfect.  I can always hope that God is always working on said aggravating, annoying person.  There's this song I learned as a kid and the chorus goes, "Kids under construction; maybe the paint is still wet. Kids under construction; the Lord might not be finished yet."  I think that's kinda a cute summation.

Anyway, so I put off this idea.  I wanted to write it in an allegorical way and I wasn't sure how I was going to do that.  Then, when I had the poem assignment I had a lightbulb moment. "Heyyyy...! I could write my apathy idea as a poem."  It made perfect sense.  I got on the computer and immediately wrote the first four stanzas.  By the next day, I had finished it.  My pen just followed (metaphor alert: I actually worked on it on the computer xP) and I love it when that happens.  It's such a relief to get building ideas down on paper.  So, here it is, I don't know if it's any good but I like it--which is a rare thing for me to say.  It's free verse because I can't rhyme a story that actually makes sense. lol

Apathy

The ground emits a torrid warmth,

I rise from the powdered floor,

And cough on the chalky air,

My eyes blink open.

Monotone shades of flecked atmosphere,

Tunnels fade into a dark oblivion,

Bright rays blaze above me,

They fail to illuminate my surroundings.

I squint into the dimness at cubed burrows,

Supported by bare beams, they diminish into a stuffy murk,

I look up at the incandescent glare of sun streaks,

They frame the square rim of my deep chasm.

A mine shaft, I fell into a mine shaft,

My inanimate body is dead to feeling,

My brain is in a dead haze too,

I don’t care and I shut everything out.

I sense someone watching me,

My lethargic eyes open a little,

A faint figure in beige is walking near,

Who are you? I said.

She said, I’m concerned for you,

Why are you lying here,

And not trying to get out?

Go away, I said, you’re a hallucination!

You have a choice, she said,

You can stay in this pit full of pity,

Or you can get out,

There’s life outside these walls.

You are rewarded when you care,

Yeah right, I told her, all I get is disappointment,

You’ve never cared so how do you know?

I didn’t know what to say, she was right.

Well, what do I do?

She looked up and said, Climb,

I look up and then back at her,

She had disappeared.

Columns of parallel rays hit by body,

I’m half way to the opening of the mine shaft,

Below me is a vent of nothingness,

But above me is everything. 

I look up into the light and my foot slips,

The rim fades into the distance,

As I plummet to the floor of my abyss,

What’s the use, it’s hopeless!

Don’t give up,

Her voice sounded in my head,

The pit is too steep to climb,

Do I dare try one of the mine’s tunnels?

They have to exit somewhere,

Without a light, I enter,

An auspicious tunnel, or so I hope,

I’m enveloped in an insipid darkness.

I feel my way along the dingy walls,

I grow confused and lost,

Trudging through the inky sameness,

Will it ever end?

I’m about to think I’ve entered a sunless tomb,

When a vivid current of brightness gleams before me,

Like a star, at first, it gets bigger as I move towards it,

The light feeds me with a burst of energy.

I reach the exit and step out into a field,

Birds’ melody floats from swaying trees,

I’m free; and when I look back,

The tunnel isn’t there.