They cradle absence in inherited creed,
A sculpted sky of words they never test,
Where certainty outgrows the need to read
The fine-print silence lurking in each rest.
They build a Heaven stitched from stolen light,
A fragile citadel of borrowed breath,
Where doubt is taught to bow and step from sight,
And fear is softened into faith till death.
For Heaven lives in language, not in ground,
A story tuned to quiet human dread,
A place that only ever can be found
Within the living, not among the dead.
And when the final pulse gives out its claim,
No gates unbar, no choir bends the air;
Just vast unlit indifference, no name,
Where belief fades into a wordless stare.
Born in a time all are at their most divided,
A young lady eventually for herself decided
To live life pursuing all religions which guided
All humans in ways in which Truth resided.
She found love first in one who is farsighted,
Yet he is shortsighted due to a strict religion.
He held a distance, so this love had ended,
He was also too lenient about his every sin.
She then went with one who is so atheistic,
Yet he often took what she did for granted.
She found his attitude became so apathetic,
So she left what once made her enchanted.
She finally found one who truly understands
What the cycles of eternity truly mean.
They see how in all lives, they held hands,
"He's just right," as he crowns her his queen.
Some of us,
diversely theistic
and atheistic,
are still,
to this traumatizing partisan day,
committed to a multiculturally inter-religious
and ecologically healthy
democracy.
We are suffering
an anxious sense of deeply felt loss
fueled, inflamed, ignited
by RightWing MonoTheistic
and ATheistic
and Agnostic Theistic?
trauma,
fear- and anger-mongers,
weaponized hate-predators,
ideological dogmatists
propaganda influencers.
UnChristianRight MonoTheists
are also LeftBrain verbally dominant
anthro-privileged
patriarchally plagued
by win/lose partisanship
0-sum devolutionary economics
dualistic YangPassion v YinPleasure
dogmatic ideation.
Both Left and Right Wings
failing to feel depolarizing sides
of our comedic-belonging
v tragic-longing
Bicamerally common
cobinary
sense of faithful humor.
About some of us,
diversely theistic
and atheistic,
still,
to this traumatizing partisan day,
feeling shared passion
for a multiculturally inter-religious
and pleasure within
an ecologically healthy
organic democracy.
An atheist living soul was floating above on deathbed,
because if he touched it, he would leave this world.
He let the pain out and screamed through his dying soul.
A guy who was once drenched in every bit of gold
comes to him and says:
“I want to make a compromise with your soul and body—
I will save you, but for the rest of your life,
you have to serve me.”
But then suddenly the man who created every bit of the universe
comes to him and says:
“I will save you, but for the rest of your life,
you have to believe I am real.”
Then the living soul thought:
It’s no different. Both are slavery,
but in different ways.
But he thought,
since he questioned God in the life he lived before,
he would face judgment for that.
Either way, he was going to hell.
He was thinking of every possible possibility
that would grant him some life.
But he died in his imagination while sleeping.
– THEBLOODYPEN
The gods are online today,
Updating their laws like software patches,
Fixing glitches in heaven while we glitch on earth,
Typing commandments no one reads,
Uploading sermons no one feels.
They scroll through prayers like spam emails,
Ignore the bleeding body in the dirt,
Reward the loudest liars,
And punish the quiet truth.
In their group chats,
They laugh at those like me —
Broken ribs, broken voice, broken trust —
Another ticket closed,
Another sinner "served."
The village bows to their screens,
Worships the edits, fears the updates,
And I,
I am just a bug in their system,
Flagged for deletion because I dared defend myself.
My innocence is offline,
My pain is offline,
Only the image matters here:
The curated guilt,
The viral shame.
The gods are online —
But none of them are listening.
"You are a bug!
I step on a bug!"
Said God,
A thug.
Behind Summer's fullness
richness,
nutritional and nurturing sunlight
empowering bounty
Lies another deep
darker sacred truth
of EarthTribe's inevitable mortality,
death
loss
cosmic stress
universal trauma
MonoTheistic distrust,
disaster,
despair
of patriarchal autonomous
lonely at the top
supremacy
MonoPolistic colonizing,
divisive,
aggressive,
violent,
rapacious,
racist,
sexist,
terrorist
climatic pathology
MonoCulturing Straight Western Male
historic white
protagonist light,
choosing win/lose inside voices
over win/win outside choices
is not so healthily bright
Against deep dark green
ecofeminist
co-passionate
co-empathic
co-arising bicameral
panentheistic empowering
harmonic mindful balance,
EarthTribally accessible
democratic co-enlightenment.
Earth has no special vantage point
Even in the Milky Way village
We see as we would from Andromeda
Scientists do measurements, math
But none knows the when, why, who?
At the start, before Laws, before big bang
Now, if expanding universe, speeds up too
The when and why become clearer
After the first quarter of 12 billion years
The mass in dark energy exceeded all
So, it seems each universe sits atop
A black hole, warping in time space fabric
As do each universe, every universe
And it could go on for Eternity
Excuse me Dr. Guth, but cosmic inflation
Sounds like explanations, yet confusion
Why all laws of physics would go away
So you might give us a bang in the big bang
Eyes wide in wonder I entered the chapel
a curious child
through the back door of the church
candles twinkling in the dim light
streaming through the stained glass
like colored candy
like lollipops
statues of saints standing sentry in silence
staring soullessly
I startled for a moment as I thought I saw one move
an illusion of light and shadow
from the flames flitting and flickering
the white wax melting and pooling
Veiled women and bearded men with sandaled feet
A man’s body bloodied and broken
held in his mourning mother’s arms
carved in marble
Morbid monuments to cruelty
A shrine to suffering
The air heavy as velvet curtains
The scent of incense suffocating
The ambiance eerie and funereal
Was he watching me? Was he here?
I called out
my voice echoing off the brick and stone
There was no answer
I was alone
"Mommy, is god everywhere?"
"Yes, honey, god is everywhere."
"Does that mean god's in the toilet?"
"I suppose so."
"If I flush god is he still in the toilet?"
"Yes, he'd still be there."
"Is god in the pus from a popped pimple?"
"Go cut me a switch so I can give you a whipping."
fog
by michael r. burch
ur just a bit of fluff
drifting out over the ocean,
unleashing an atom of rain,
causing a minor commotion,
for which u expect awesome GODS
to pay u SUPREME DEVOTION!
... but ur just a smidgen of mist
unlikely to be missed...
where did u get the notion?
She left the tent in holy fervor,
Hell-bent to spread the Word.
The Spirit moved and made her quiver;
No act of faith was too absurd.
She knocked on doors, she spoke with zeal,
Her faith she shared in earnest.
There was no doubt God’s love is real:
His justice is the sternest.
I asked what other gods contend
For space inside her pretty head.
Might Yahweh, Allah or Shiva rend
The veil between gods ‘live and dead?
Do you beseech the Norse god Thor,
Once favored by the common folk?
The Son of Odin is heard no more.
What power broke that yoke?
For love there was an Aphrodite,
For war the Greek god Ares.
Athena’s wisdom eclipsed the mighty,
As Apollo‘s virtues the Virgin Mary‘s.
Though long I queried with due respect,
She unyielding kept her patience.
“On Jesus only I reflect;
To Him I owe allegiance.”
One god only fills her life -
It severs her from me.
I trust in reason, yet love my wife
With faith in one less god than she.
The Bigman
When you speak to The Bigman
don’t mention me
I don’t know who I am yet, so please
When you do they prayers you were trained to believe
Don’t mention me
He never helped
when I was down and out
He never came
was nowhere to be found
Though I prayed
most minutes of every day
for Him to stop by
or at least keep me safe
Though I waited and begged
for Him to make things better
He never came
no text, no call, no letter
And I am sick of having arguments
with things I cannot see
so, when you speak to The Bigman
don’t mention me
No, I cannot believe
in what I cannot see
and I cannot touch
what has never touched me
Never been seen
or proved to be
so, if you speak to The Bigman
don’t mention me
A Message From An Atheist Of Pakistan
Angels are real, and ghosts are fake,
They live in heaven,they drink milkshakes,
We are dying and they are eating cake,
Enough is enough don't push us for god's sake,
We are peaceful but we also know how to break.
Written By Abad Ur Rehman Khan
Mi: Does God eat his boogers?
Eu: No of course God doesn't eat his boogers.
Mi: But I thought God could do anything.
Eu: Well he could eat his boogers but he just wouldn't.
Mi: So he does have boogers.
Eu: I don't know, I don't think God has boogers.
Mi: God can have anything he wants.
Eu: I don't think he wants boogers.
Mi: I don't think we can understand the mind of God.
Eu: We can't.
Mi: Maybe god is a booger.
Eu: God's not a booger.
Mi: But if God is all things, he's an all-knowing booger.
Eu: Stop it.
Mi: He's a wrathful all-knowing booger.
Eu: I'm not talking to you anymore.
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.