Best Degenerated Poems
"Breaking the Lonely Rewind"
Hysteria ensues a small death
on a funeral pyre pushed
into a sealed and soiled
heart shaped box sunk
to swallow stone tears
reversing reflections
in the coldest mirrors
Tsunami waves flood
all that was green
On the breaking shores
there the Lonely Rewind
is floating amidst The Shallows
resurfaced, cracked open and laid bare
her black treasures
boiling over inky interior
spilt darkly the soul
now sharp and split in two
a gift from the damned
walking out into the blistery wind
where sourness all around
whispers a soft war
of unclaimed, unwanted
forgotten voices,
The Lost and Lonely,
way past the end of their world,
where heartbreak is spurned
resurrect into burning birds
from the cold veined inferno,
The Silent Ocean of Reprieve
(LadyLabyrinth/2019)
"When I Was Older"/Billie Eilish
https://youtu.be/HSCREQjxPHE
Lyrics:
https://genius.com/Billie-eilish-when-i-was-older-lyrics
"In order to rise from its own ashes, a phoenix first must burn." Butler
"She told me she’d be a phoenix.” The image of the mythical creature rising from the ashes glitters in my mind. “They don’t really exist.” “She said that depends on whether or not there’s someone who can see them." Picoult
"One does not need to be against womens suffrage," the London Times editorialized in 1908, "to see that some of the more violent partisans of that cause are suffering from hysteria. We use the word not with any scientific precision, but because it is the name most commonly given to a kind of enthusiasm that has degenerated into habitual nervous excitement."' Gilman
"Lady Lazarus", Plath
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus
I knew him before they shackled him to chair
I contend, none knew him better than I
He's tall, charming, quite an elegant air
An athlete lissom, a kite in the sky
What happened you asked, what so deformed him
Crippled his independence, left him ill?
The doctors said osteo-arthritis
But a disease is never its own cause.
I will tell you how he told me, listen
There is a madness meaningless in us.
The happy night I went to sleep, we lay
Like children in each other's arms, snoring
The cockcrow and bird call woke the new day
Fresh air and old love, and life adoring
Shall we breakfast with family today
Or to some lake, picnic paired, wander free
A vehement no, a tone for the fray
I rose for the bathroom, shocked at lost glee.
I would return in silence, let her speak
The calf gets more milk just by being meek.
One step from hallway and into the room
I felt a sharp pain announcing my doom
A shadow from behind a door, a groan
My loins exploded in my head, nothing more.
How long was it, I cannot tell, a moan
Of pity, a kinder hand to restore
Consciousness again. The back crumbled then
Degenerated more and more with time
Things smelling salts and linament can't mend
He functioned well in intervening years
Running, swimming, the ardent athlete
A few interruptions, grimace and tears
For wasted life and love and great defeat
You do not start from bottom starting new
Again, but from a deeper hole of doubt
A deeper fear. It crippled him he knew
Not how, nor how deep the scar remain. Out
Now, you must go; leave the great spectacle
The man who prayed without miracle
And yet still believe this end serves some cause
Some greater purpose than himself. I pause
To reflect, then limped away, the sick loin
Begins in the old sickness of the mind.
What could he not have done, the great lovers
He denied for honor, the high esteem
Of wealth and fickle praise, but love covers
More than faults in the mangling of the dream.
The scholar, the poet, the statesman too
Wears shackle invisible on the heart.
Love measures the height of what we may do
Yet men go all the way in, not in part.
See your great spectacle bound to a chair,
Crippled, defeated ... perhaps, something there
Strangely smiling, beyond the eyes of fear
He's tall, charming, quite an elegant air.
I’d been out of work for quite some time and let me funds run low,
Of course this meant some favoured treats are first things that must go,
And for me favoured treat that meant the most, I degenerated into fear,
‘Cause if I don’t work, I get no funds; therefore there is no beer!
I mean I’ve done a bit of part time work, like picking fruit and such,
But it was my choice if I partook; therefore it didn’t lead to much,
Now I’m sick to death of being broke with money owing everywhere,
So I bit the bullet recently to dig me out of this despair.
Of course I must admit the government had a little say in this,
With a strongly worded letter telling me I’d be remiss,
If I didn’t take their offer up by putting me back in control,
And attend work interviews or they will take away the dole.
At first, I was in a total shock; those public servant parasites,
Want to take away my income and destroy my well-earned rights,
I kicked up the dust all right describing how they’re doing harm,
Before I started working Monday planting wind breaks on a farm.
Two blokes they sent out with me were a bit like chalk and cheese,
Syd declared himself a bachelor; a life that Wal felt ill at ease,
So Wal’s conversations nagged upon the need of married life,
And he kept asking Syd the reason why he never took a wife.
This debating eased the pressure from the hard work that we do,
Of course I had begun to wonder why Syd hadn’t married too,
But Syd just gave a little shrug, and then he finally concedes,
“I have two sisters back at home, looking after all my needs”.
Wal shook his head and gave a grin, “Syd you live a sheltered life!
All the sisters in the world can never function like a wife”.
Syd gave a nod and added, “Yeah married life it may be fine,
But when I said ‘two sisters’, I didn’t say that they were mine”.
Diminishing virtues stripped away
From the flesh
By the fierce brined rods that freely
Course thy hot crimson blood;
Dry cracked lips attempting to
Fashion broken words of compliance
That so must needs to be spoken...
But...Ohhh, Meretrix...
My foolish and innocent child -
If you but only could!
Consider, Meretrix,..humility!
To which pleasure one thus
Submitted
Guiltily discovers:-
The joy in the act or posture of
Lowering oneself in relation to
Others.
For in your anguished dis-repair
You will find strength to endure and
Embrace:-
The acceptance of all your defects
And ultimate seduction
In the power of your:-
"Submission to Divine Grace"!
I will adorn you in the yellow Toga
Of the Vestal virgins,
They whom wise Augusta did abhor;
Burden upon you with an Imperial
Tax
Imposed by perverted Caligula:
Whither all Matronly protestations he
Didst dismissively ignore;
My Tribune forcefully exact -
When employing you in the
Degenerated role
Of my most reluctant Whore!
Clasp jeweled anklets abouts your
Shapely bones,
Decorate upon you like fired and
Painted porcelain figurines;
Whilst all the while, as your lost mind
Bemoans,
Choking between involuntary gurgles
And low-pained, stifled screams,
The gagged mouth bites down
Amidst salivating sounds
Borrowed from the hurtling
Nightmares
Of your darkest dreams!
For I will lift you higher than the
Tallest mountain peak...
So you may gaze with awe over all
The innumerable Kingdoms and their
Proud tyrant Kings;
Of the many differing species of all
Mankind type things...
And of the immeasurable riches
They so endlessly seek.
Lower you to the solitudes of the
Grassed floors
That sweep across the sunken
Valleys deep;
Where, besides enchanted streams,
Violated Nymphs quietly weep
For Abels broken schemes;
Now, tragically, all taken apart;
And for the wicked callousness
Of fallen man...
Whose desperate greeds ripped out
His live brothers still beating heart -
Then tore at the living throat of
The one true Gods Holy Lamb!
TO BE CONTINUED...
It was a late evening when I met you
I walked into the room and I saw you
Engrossed in what you were doing, without a care
I knew then that you were a being rare
I kept making efforts to garner your attention
Which was tough, with your demeanour and gumption
Of doing things right and doing them on time
You wouldn't be distracted without a reason or rhyme
But I finally broke through that hard external
Structure you built around, and found love I felt was eternal
Although I felt, a losing battle I was fighting
And being in your company was rarer than Comet sighting
You opened up to me, up to the threshold of your comfort
And I was head over heels in love and I made all possible effort
To keep you happy and always be with you like a useful tool
But your actions kept making me feel like a fool
My place in your life it slowly dawned
Was requirement based, and your heart you never pawned
For my happiness and you never saw us as one
My heart shattered as though shot by a gun
So I turned away with heart heavy but good wishes for you
Prayed to the lord to give you success and happiness too
My prayers were answered and you attained fame
Adulation and followers, part of the game
My mind degenerated, as for your sins I atoned
I lost my sanity and everything I owned
But even my insane mind only had thoughts of you
Despite everything I went through, my heart had love for you
Then I saw you one day as you walked past me
Your eyes looking at me, but not seeing me
You flicked coins towards me like a work of art
They filled my begging bowl, but emptied my heart
DARKNESS, EMPTINESS, HOLLOWNESS, DESPAIR
WEAKNESS, LAZINESS, CARELESSNESS, GLARE
LONELINESS, AWKWARDNESS, SILLINESS, SHAME
PASSIONLESS, HOPELESSNESS, PAINFULNESS, STAIN
FEELING LESS, UGLINESS, SADNESS, DISGUST
SHAMELESSNESS, VAUNTED NESS, VALUELESS, MISTRUST
RUTHLESSNESS, HAUGHTINESS, BOASTFULNESS, PRIDE
DECEPTIVENESS, CAUSTIC NESS, FRIVOLOUS, STRIFE
CHAOTIC NESS, REBELLIOUS, RIOTOUS, EXTREME
LEWDNESS, LASCIVIOUSNESS, SELFISHNESS, SCHEME
DEGENERATIVE MAN
GOODNESS, LIGHTNESS, JOYFULNESS, GRACE
CLEANNESS, GUILTLESS, PAINLESS, FAITH
HAPPINESS, FULLNESS, PEACEFULNESS, SOUND
GROUNDED, STABLE, SECURITY, FOUND
EXUBERANCE, FULFILLMENT, UPLIFTED, LIGHT
WHOLENESS, HELPFULNESS, TOGETHERNESS, MIGHT
TRUTHFUL, MEANINGFUL, THANKFUL, REAL
ENLIGHTENED, RESCUED, REDEEMED, APPEAL
COLORFUL, BEAUTIFUL, VALUABLE, LIFE
WORTHINESS, HONORABLENESS, HOPEFULNESS, RIGHT
REGENERATED MAN
First letters are undulating, bouncy and loopy
Rest are sort of pretty sloppy and crunched together
With a load of smooth diagonal lines that connect all the way
And a squarish circle degenerated into a quick squiggle
It's a sort of scribble and swirl
Legible in the most illegible sense of the word
Looks like I have been testing the flow of ink
A flamboyant mess and a mysteriously intriguing expression of my mood
It is beautifully hideous and reflects on who I am
If you can read it you are an absolute champion
Once there was an elder who possessed a fortune vast.
He was the proprietor of lands he had amassed,
dwellings and retainers and a mansion huge and wide
but with just a single doorway to depart outside.
Though this house was broad and spacious, it was in decay.
Yet it teemed with countless people, plus a large array
of living creatures big and small, all about the place.
While in the halls the pillars were rotten at the base.
The plaster and foundations were cracking all around.
Its rooftops and verandas were falling to the ground.
With crumbling walls, beams and rafters crookedly askew,
that building was quite dangerous, as the elder knew.
The fencing round the house was broken-down and twisted.
Emanations human-faced eerily existed,
evermore antagonistic, with humongous greed,
trampling on one another in their reckless speed.
There was filthy matter scattered all about the site.
Various beasts were snarling and lusting for a fight,
quarreling, snatching food out of the mouths of others,
showing total disregard for their sons or brothers.
Poisonous bugs and snakes made it more repellent seem.
That mansion had degenerated, to the extreme.
Thus demons had settled in to dwell, that devoured
the vitality of men, hence to be empowered…
The aged man was in decline, nearing his demise.
He was prudent, very seldom taken by surprise.
Suddenly, fire broke out and set the house in flames.
His sons and daughters were within, playing at their games.
That father always felt concern for his children dear.
Seeing this inferno, he was overcome with fear.
Tongues of flame flared up in all directions round about.
With only just one access, how would they make it out?
[Continued in Part Two]
~ Harley White
A Daily Consumed Society
Man has changed and confused his principals.
What one day was culture, innocence and
shame, has degenerated into vulgarity, malice
and impurity.
What was a beautiful sentiment yesterday, of
warmth, comprehension and love, has converted
into coldness, intotolerance and hate.
Our children learn what they see. Throughout
their lives they encounter a pile of trash, which they
consume step by step as they are growing up.
Obedience is a victim of indocility. The shame
has died, in the darkness of the grotesque and
a good man is characterized as an imbecile...
Written by Lucilla M. Carrillo
What do you do with your money?
What happens is not funny.
You are broke the day after payday.
All the money is pissed away.
Obligations are due.
Creditors harass you.
The checks you write are bad.
Your situation is so sad.
You go to the pawnshop for a loan.
They have nearly everything you own.
Jewelry, cameras, rings,
watches, and other things,
they are sold when you do not pay on time.
No one calls this situation sublime.
You have degenerated into less than a man.
You are stealing, cheating, and lying when you can.
Moreover, you deny this is so.
What you say is usually “I don’t know”.
You do not believe a problem exists.
Those who care for you are last on your lists.
You have a gambling problem without any doubt.
Just look how you act after every seven out.
The splendor of books touched him early in his life,
absorbed in the stilled animation embossed in them,
the nascent imagination of the three-year old
morphed within him as an exploring book worm.
He grew up with other timely interests in the transit,
many passing passions came and went,
but the childhood worm stayed on growing
as a constant companion creeping in his head.
The lure of books attracted him to the bookshops
like an obsessed honey bee to the posy of flowers,
he enjoyed the flavor of the fascinating nectar,
concealed beneath the petals of the printed words.
On the cascade of the exciting convivial contents
he couldn’t stop sailing before being satiated,
until the inquisitive journey came to an end,
and he rested contented where the authors took him.
The racks filling the shop space he’d browse through,
between the book covers he’d look for trove of treasure,
some he explored, some remained for him to discover,
for time for him was running out fast.
His old myopic eyes degenerated so very much,
the strain over the years made the failing vision blurred,
he still felt the senile worm crawl on the last lines
of the addendum page of the book he wrote.
March 10, 2012
Contest: Bookshop
Sponsor : Kai Michael Neumann
**Dear Readers , - Kindly readon from my first Verse on "Introduction to Ancient Greek Philosophy in Verse", I had to post my work serially due to restriction on the length of each poem per entry ! Thanks !
(The Sopists - concluding portion)
Sophistry soon degenerated into selfish and
fallacious reasoning ;
And was rejected by many thinking beings !
Time was now ripe for an authentic sage , -
To restore Philosophy with reason , virtue and
common sense ,
And such a sage was Socretes- who came to
Philosophy's defence ,
Which I shall cover in my Part-II dear friends !
Concluding My Part -I of Greek Philosophy :
With this my readers I come to the end of
Part-I of Ancient Greek Philosophy in Verse .
I had aimed at simplicity for easy understanding ,
Without sacrificing authenticity ;
Being a true lover of Philosophy !
The Second Part would cover the Age of Socrates ,
The Cynics , and The Cyrenaic ;
Stopping short of Plato and his ideal World of
Forms .
Thanks for reading !
Author : Raj Nandy
New Delhi
***ALL COPY RIGHTS RESERVED BY ME***
Fallowed mind on barren ground toils
Winter's cold streams radiant beams foil
No incubating current cuts through the dense soil
Muses' bright glint the dark, thick clouds roil
Blipping sparks can't light my sensory console
A dormant seed sprouts on a rocky knoll
Promising strands on frozen surface stroll
Chilling winds over shallow-rooted thoughts troll
Vapid ideas from stagnant un-imaginative threads loll
Without depth, the promising figments spoil
In due course, Spring's thawing tides do roll
On horizon's mount, azure panels scroll
The brighter patches degenerated conduits parole
Fecund spores with soaring visions cajole
Wispy tufts of dander blow into cranial hole
Into thawing seams, germinating inspiration bowls
Enervating muse, implanted seeds into interstices dole
Granules of wisdom brim from gilded boll
Leaving pod, enthralling, pearly grains silt the soul
The congealed fabric spins around each, sensory pole
Ginned fibers into imagination's colorful tapestry burrow
Depression…
Let me ask you a question.
What would you feel if I tell you I have depression?
What would your reaction be if I tell you I have depression?
Will you be like every other person?
Who thinks that I am absurd, bizarre, psychotic, insane or someone who needs medication?
Such generalization! What a shame, what a nation!
Oh depression….
You have taken a lot from me.
My mind, my soul, my humanity!
You make me feel alone, deprived and degenerated,
Like a person who has insanity and always gets rejected.
You never fail to make me feel sadness,
Like I am inconsolable, discontented in life and can never achieve happiness.
Whenever I feel dejection, I feel broken-hearted.
And NO! I don’t have a lover, but YES! I have depression.
Now this is becoming like a confession,
These feelings I’m trying to suppress, these crazy feelings as big as the ocean,
Channeled into a rant made out of pure emotions!
Whenever I talk to you… Yes. YOU!
You make it sound so funny, like it’s a norm.
You must be so insensitive to think that there is nothing wrong.
Nothing wrong with how you treat people,
People who suffers every single day because of this form of evil.
You make me feel so little,
My heart’s so fragile and brittle,
You know the truth, yet you still giggle.
You’ve never had breakdowns like I did,
And wish every single time to be dead.
What do you want from me!? Do you want me to plead!?
Don’t make a fool out of me, because I’m not that stupid.
No matter what you do or say, I won’t surrender until I bleed.
He would never forget the raindrops knocking on his coffin,
painfully screaming in a postpartum (from life) depression,
nor would he forget the stiffness of his entire body
banging on the wood as the carriage was hurried
along the cracked pavement on the streets
of the Holy Land to the cheapest and closest "Ash House".
He had never imagined what the future would bring to him,
now, when the latest experience in physical death
had been caused by simply the absolute lack of love.
He didn't react too much to the beatings and mutilations of the hysterical fat maniacs,
self-proclaimed highnesses in control of a whole degenerated generation.
He still remembered though the permanent hunger of the soul
and the love he had never experienced.
Adnan was not a fighter anymore.
It was time to move on and die for a while...
But then...
for Gareth's Contest: "Leave Me Hanging"
www.scripca.com