Imaginary Brothers / No Easy Walk

In Broken Images

Robert Graves

24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985



He is quick, thinking in clear images;

I am slow, thinking in broken images.



He becomes dull, trusting to his clear images;

I become sharp, mistrusting my broken images.



Trusting his images, he assumes their relevance;

Mistrusting my images, I question their relevance.



Assuming their relevance, he assumes the fact;

Questioning their relevance, I question the fact.



When the fact fails him, he questions his senses;

When the fact fails me, I approve my senses.



He continues quick and dull in his clear images;

I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.



He in a new confusion of his understanding;

I in a new understanding of my confusion.



Thanks to wood s lot, July 26, 2011, for the poem by Robert Graves.



“You can see that ‘there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere,’ and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountain tops of our desires.” - Nelson Mandela, quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, from a presidential address to the ANC Transvaal Congress (also known as the “No Easy Walk to Freedom” speech) Transvaal, South Africa, Sept. 21, 1953.



("Self-Portrait with Imaginary Brothers," painted by am in the late 1980s)