Learning Life

Life is not learned
for life is and must be
experienced.

By “not learned,” I mean
that life is not a simple
puzzle of words,
that life is not simply passed
on by mouth.

Words of mouth
give an idea of life
but words of mouth
are not life.

Life is out there in the world,
waiting to be experienced,
waiting to be subjectively defined.

Life is an array of lessons
lived from one’s own experience,
from one’s own choosing,
from one’s own destiny.