Best Dichotomy Poems
The False Dichotomy of My
Descent...
Falling,
beyond the precipice,
into this gaping chasm.
Numbness ensues,
whirling emptiness,
swirling around and around,
in the recesses of my mind,
as it plummets,
in silent freefall.
My choices are stark,
hit rock bottom,
eyes open,
splitting into fragments,
left strewn across the canvas of
loss.
Or,
shutting my eyes,
descending into oblivion,
exhaling as the valley of sorrow
reaches up,
claiming me as its own.
But,
I choose to glide,
floating on thermals of hope,
settling deep in the bowels,
of this desolate grave,
to begin anew,
free from the fiction of truth,
to live, to love, once more,
no longer an accomplice,
and never again, a slave.
The mind eternal lies before us always.
Less pure in tone, we come to it drenched with life;
Fearless companion in our hour of days.
A purity not withstanding breadth of knife.
Away! Away! succubus death,
much less a breach than I.
How many not mislaid in breath,
In priceless toll, said duty to be paid.
No field of honored memories
they preach without belie.
Captured each, and each with closed fist shouting;
Me or not, Cold or hot, we stand between as choice;
all for desperate screams grown silent.
Pastoral in the presence, of one solitary voice,
Whose form of words so hesitantly mouthing.
Whence came we witness to the stream.
Whose eyes are these that hold our field a-view?
Memories whose touch a solid scream;
Form ignored and glory gored of few.
We are not the man.
No animal or simple word defined.
We pause, we pleasure, we perform,
With speck, and all our mind deform;
Our fingers will one day unfold.
Our torrid tortured tale be told.
Yours, mine, ours,
Drumroll spam-like dance,
Become the gist of one more fist
To smash against the sand.
struggling to breathe
the choking hold on my chest
your hard words like bricks
bury me deeper
bearing the weight of your love
until I’m breath less
Appraisal Report.
Donkeys get display badge case.
Lickers win raises.
.
Clocks ticking with time
Blurs knowing the one true mind
Freedom is in now
Amulet graced by gems
clad for stratum prow
tawny glyphs
margin of witticism
& quagmire
extravagant dictum
trivialize shores trails
summer ousted
& waves of wrangles
sundered the ocean
& swapped my spirit
in crimson burst
swirl to scatter
In demolishing ruins
& twilight crumble
slump of man
glittering Phoenix fire trail
scribble a cyan-xantos rhyme.
bore a shallow rostrum
defective soothsayer
haunts dreams?
hilltops & both
oceans & skies
cyclone of emotions
&
lethargic sadness
soul storm mulling.
5TH Place Contest winner
Written: July 19, 2022
A BRIAN STRAND PREMIERE CHOICE Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Out of the office,
They pour at five-thirty'
In their shirts, coats, and ties,
Tired- but not really dirty'
In the parking lot,
They put their briefcases on the curb.
'Til they get their air-conditioned car unlocked.
Then-head for the suburbs.
Then there are the laborers:
Carpenters, welders, miners, and such.
Each night when they leave their jobs,
They're exhausted, and often to filthy to touch.
Many stop off at some convenient bar,
Which, frequently, is pretty near.
To quench their parched, dry throats,
With a round-or two- of beer'
Two different lifestyles;
As diverse as can be.
One may be repulsive to you;
The other one, repugnant to me'
Our God in Heaven looking down from His Throne,
Can observe both of these.
"They are my children I love and died for.
That is all He sees'
Arthur Ball (H.S.L.P.)
Septembe 1, 2002
Between light and shadow
Existence´s walked
Tiresome and obligated symbiosis
Wretched war bewildered heart
Sprung out from depths unknown
Desire to exist craving to be
Thrives in the split engulfed in haze
And with impeccable dare
Steers the gift of life with negligence
Not matter route nor speed
Consequence lays ignored
Self-deceit must endure
Rare moments of unseen defiance
Dragged by currents of obscure clarities
Try in vain to reach the shores
Gasping for life’s significance
The world is a dichotomy,
The Yin Yang of life’s experience,
It is simultaneously banal,
And mysterious,
Happy and sad,
Exciting and bland,
Without small,
There would be no tall,
If there is no up,
There can be no down,
With no us,
There is no them
If you can’t be right
You will never be wrong,
So, stop being obsessed singing the notes,
While forgetting to sing the song.
Life so often seems to be a bit of a dichotomy And if you will observe with me I 'm almost certain you'll agree. Such opposites stand side by side can make for an intense life ride. Sometimes one wants to cry O me! Get me out of this dichotomy. I'm succeeding and failing. I'm joyous yet sad. Will someone please explain to me The reason for this dichotomy? I often pray,God give me grace to find a less tumultuous space. But then I find a kind of glee on this intense road of dichotomy. I have faith in Jesus yet doubt fights me too. Can feel so imprisoned but in many ways freed. There again that thing dichotomy. I'm intelligent and feel so ignorant too. My path can look plain,still what do I do? Another example- Now can you see how I'm caught in this dichotomy? Now I'm not alone of this I am sure these opposites we all endure. Guess we must be accepting of what must be. And what must be? DICHOTOMY.
Missles flying in the sky, as drought and plight reside
Hungry, homeless, love lost souls, beckoning the writhe
Terror rises, HAARP sounds off, money, lawyers, greed
Man shames death as wars are fought, with unending, dying, pleas
Yet peace is kept by mighty hand with commonality
Feeding those against our foes most unholy diety
Time heals wounds gained in jest beginning, living, and confessions relieved
SEVEN FOR CHAOS AND ORDER-Dichotomy 1/29/2017
There is this dichotomous relationship within the alphabet…
for the letters therein contained
can be used to create words of joy…of love…of happiness…
as well as words of hatefulness…and pain.
From the same 26 letters come
words of wonder…
words of beauty
words that fill a heart with joy
as well as
words of anger
words of spite
words that can…a soul destroy.
Which means it’s up to us
as we create and express our thoughts
from within their alphabetical array…
to think about the words we write
and the words we’re going to say.
It’s up to us to create words
of love
and tenderness
and never to abuse them….
not only in our choice of words…
but how we choose to use them.
I could not tell the two of you apart.
even when i tried to squint you just
grew narrower
and these words are slender stalks in a field
seamless yet sperate, unrhyming yet punctuated.
i remember sitting in the kitchen with poor
posture misspelling the word absence.
you collected a few of the absract moments
to form are binary convoluted past personages.
who spoke in the third person and misdiagnosed
the moments before leaving only shades of
gray pathologies for us to follow.
niether light nor dark.
i tried to gather a little from the two of you
to trace an opinioned outline of you on
some paper, but the opinions fell down.
so i used instead a magnet off of your refrigerator.
you said something like..... what are you doing
or i think im thirsty.
a half empty half full glass sits on the
counter across the room.
Thomas was a religious man; he went to church every day;
Matthew was an atheist, taking his journey another way.
Thomas prayed for the hungry;
Mathew took them food to eat;
Thomas lit candles for the crippled;
Mathew helped massage their feet;
Thomas put money in the offering;
Mathew helped the poor find work;
Thomas condemned the truly evil man;
Mathew tried to help reform the jerk.
Thomas memorized each bible verse;
Mathew gave books to the book mobiles;
Thomas read parables about multiplying fish;
Mathew helped fix the homeless meals;
Thomas conversed with his God each day;
Mathew talked to strangers on the street;
Thomas sang songs with the chorus group;
Mathew sang the praises of folks he’d meet.
Thomas was a religious man, living life as the church said he should;
Mathew was an atheist, driven to do for his fellow man all that he could.
Lesson to be learned: Being religious does not necessarily mean we are doing all the good we can; and, being non-religious is not necessarily synonymous with being evil.
plush cars
five course dinners
wine and women
fat wallets
superfluity and loss of appetite
celebration of life
non cognizant with
the other side of life:
faded hues
muffled voices
slime and dirt
growling bowels
search for morsels in the refuse
disease and death
hues fuse into each other
lines crisscross
making an amorphous mass
thus the merry notes of the rich
and the sad refrains of the lowly
make the prosody of life,
echoing
in the annals of history!
May.9. 2022
A Brian Strand Premiere Poetry Contest