What is Life?!

By CM

What is life?
Life is beautiful
Life is hard
Life is reckless and carefree

Life is a blessing
Life is stressing
Life is adventurous
Life is scary

Life is full of loving and caring
Life is long, life is short
Life is something that can’t be taught
Life is painful, life is pleasure

Life is intricate
Life is oh so many things all combined in one
But we’ll never know the true definition
We just live it until it’s done

And although we live our lives
We can sometimes feel lifeless
Have you ever had a feeling like this?

Are you dreaming of a life to live
Or are you just living your life?
But then the question still remains…
What is Life?

5 Comments

  1. Andre Williams on July 2, 2013 at 12:19 PM

    CM, Your poem is great. I love how you used many words to describe what life is, life is limitless that is why it is hard to define life with just one word. Continue to to reflect on life and grow as an individual.

  2. Mbachur Mbenga on July 2, 2013 at 12:20 PM

    CM,
    This entire poem just hit home.
    Life is everything you named and so much more.
    Your awareness of life, and the questioning of what it is, especially in your situation is what makes is so much more valuable.
    I would love to see more of your work CM!

    MM

  3. Lila Weitzner on July 2, 2013 at 1:04 PM

    CM,
    I came across this poem at a Write Night and wow! – it still strikes me how intense the question “what is life?” is. Keep asking the questions that don’t really have answers and keep writing. Thanks and I look forward to reading more.

  4. Abby T. on July 19, 2013 at 11:10 AM

    CM,
    This poem is so sophisticated and truthful. My favorite line is “life is long, life is short.” Life is a contradiction, and we have to live it fully to understand it. Keep on writing, you have so much talent.
    Abby

  5. Sarah S on July 30, 2013 at 1:40 PM

    CM, you really capture the many paradoxes of life beautifully in this poem. Life is long yet short, painful yet pleasurable, a blessing and perhaps a curse. I was especially struck by the lines “Are you dreaming of a life to live/ Or are you just living your life?” You really turn the poem back on the reader and make us question our own motivations and desires in life. Are we inadvertently wasting our precious moments on earth wishing for a different life? And then the question still remains, What is life? There are no easy answers here, which is part of what makes it so hard-hitting.

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

The poets featured here are currently incarcerated, and many of them are in federal prisons far from home. Your feedback is a valuable source of motivation and connection to the outside community. Post your comments, feedback, and encouragement in the space below the poem. Messages will be passed on directly to the author. Comments may not appear immediately on the site, as our team processes them to mail to the poets.