michael walker - So passionate.

(Hamlet: Give me that man/That is not passion's slave and I will wear him / in my heart's core, aye in my heart of hearts / as I do thee. `Hamlet', III,2. William Shakespeare.

Anyone can write down their own list of passions
and those lists are sure to vary from person to person.
Aristotle listed thirteen passions: Descartes had six.
Passions are stronger and more often expressed than emotions.
I remember a lecturer saying that opposite passions,
like love and hate, though extremes, are actually linked.
I have noticed people who are passionate in temperament,
while plenty of others come across too cold for me.

Passion, which enters the mind through the senses or reason,
involves the subject and another person or object causing it.
I have loved few people in one sense, in another, many.
Even those I like in photographs seem real enough to me.
I love many things, like books, shiny cars, polished furniture
and the feel of new, clean sheets before I fall asleep.
I have had good reason to hate those who criticised me,
but, after time passed, I forgave them unconditionally.

I think that joy is one of the best passions.
I know that sadness is one of the worst.
Despair is even worse, and could lead to suicide.
I think that anger, even rage, can sometimes be justified.
Now and then, fear and anxiety come knocking on my door,
uninvited and unwanted, caused by negative situations.
Courage does not come naturally to me but who knows?
I feel my heart beating faster and the adrenalin flows.

_31 October,2014.

michael walker

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/so-passionate/