Best Diffidence Poems
Remember the day
Apron strings loosed,untied
as maternal voices faltered and cried
Remember the day
When a soprano voice lost its elan
and a boy became a man
Remember the day
Peer pressure would not hide
and diffidence was replaced with pride
Remember the day
Desire,with warm whispers heard
questions,answered with just three words
Remember the day
Filled with joy and love
a union blessed from above
Remember the day
Holding a first-born,so wee
as two self-absorbed,became three
Remember the day
Trust was born-a-new
a changed life came into view
Remember the day
Genesis as a work of art
with gifts to share and impart
Remember the day
Honestly, I feel I am a grown-up child
I express my feelings intense or mild
As and when they take birth, never concealing
Not allowing them to settle, before revealing
Even minor mishaps of mine or others upset me
However hard I try to pretend they don’t touch me
My countenance will show how vulnerable I am
And my body language will reveal I am not quite calm
Being too sensitive to life’s trials and tribulations
Get easily flustered on facing adverse situations
I trust people outright never suspecting their wiles
And land in difficulty easily duped by their smiles
Often, I put on a mask to hide my diffidence
And act nonchalant with an air of confidence
But the mask makes me sometimes breathless
And I expose myself feeling utterly helpless
I feel unease as I see pain and suffering all around
Now I don’t have them to seriously confront,
Yet a nameless disquiet weighs me down
At the sight of hundreds cruelly beaten down
I train my mind not to withdraw into my own shell
When all around, I see misery, hatred, and violence swell
I wish my heart were the fount of gushing love
And with the olive branch of peace, soar like a dove
I long to shed a ray of light into a heart darkened in despair
Give it a momentary flash of cheer through kind acts of repair
I cannot be a beacon of light to illumine all around
But can be a candle to dispel traces of gloom that surround
I pray God to help me plod through the right way
Enabling me to face challenges with strength each day
I know life can flourish only with God’s loving grace
And each day in prayers and gratitude, I raise my eyes
Jan.13.2023
~ Placed First~
Revealing Your soul and Other Tensions
Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Sotto Poet
I studied him, just as he studied me
I in disgust, confusion, and he in angry fantasy
His eyes, black, and yet still blackening
He embraced me with a terrible fit in his mind
Those piercing eyes, saturated in obsession,
Moving up and down my steady body
He watched as I drew in resolved breaths
Sensing my growing antipathy
Beyond the ease in my tone
He shook with want
He shook with angst
“Your dark thoughts are not hidden in my sight
This you will know by my piercing stare
There is power in words,
Just as there is power in your glare”
“Then breathe with me,” He sung with sting,
“And free all of your wants and cares…
Be the master of your own destiny,
And with your straying light, impair
Me, just as you impair your faith,
Against all but your own breast,
Penetrate
Seize our moments with pursed desire
Dress me in your sweet sung fire
Darling dear, our message is clear
Among this fight we share
Take a sip of my saccharine whip
And consume the inviting dare
Be my temp as I lure you
Deceive me as I floor you
Damask me, shock me, piss on my pride,
I dare your soul to take these reigns and ride”
In my ears he sung,
“Let us be lost together…”
Like a roaring sea trapped in a restricted bowl
Ready to overflow the moment my lips consent
“Hellbent you are,” I sadly sung
“Hellbent, and dragging all the lonely with you,
How strange we have come to these crossroads,
To test our patience with lusts unspent
Hellbent, you are, hellbent!
And yet you would croak to crush all heaven-sent
Give me into your darkness, never see the day
Follow me into the light, and never be the same!
You are my lovely enticement, oh Devil, oh Prince,
Your claws clutch in my knowing heart,
And I thrash in diffidence
Emboldening me, your lure,
The stone in you has fled
Grow in this desire, sweet wings
Your light is yet not dead”
Holding me, I felt his darkness lathering me
My eyes, my nostrils, blurred in his scent
“Your light is yet not dead…” I whispered again
Fainting, eyes struggling to stay awake,
I clasped his shoulder and shook my head
For in his eyes he realized,
That his light was yet not dead
I was a lonely flower whose petals were withered, whose colours were faded and whose sweet nectar was slurped by the deadly demon of diffidence.
Then the face in the mirror said to me, "You are worthy".
I took to refill the parched springs of nectar.
Slowly, butterflies came to quench their thirst with my nectar.
In return, they gifted me my lost colours.
I'm not lonely anymore.
It’s like walking through
The ice chips of
A sun fire –
It’s like standing atop
The falling rain of
A lonely sea –
It’s like sleeping amidst
The misty shroud of
A day moon –
Similar to crouching
In between cloudless
Rays of white –
Identical to clutching
The solid pebbles
Of spitting air –
The distance that
Lingers between
You and I –
a spurge, a spruce, a creamy spume
of Moscow mayday tree in bloom,
a crush, a diffidence innate
to youth, a long-awaited date,
a me, excited, nervous, pale,
a garden seat, a nightingale,
a slice of sun in strongest tea
of dusk, a braid, a trendy tee,
a checkered knee-length skirt, a you,
a sigh, another one, a few
looks at the wristwatch, an abyss
of desperation, a… a kiss.
05.30.2019
Going Deep Within An Emotion Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Sheri Fresonke Harper
Dreams and Reality
I met her in the Book-Fair, three days the fair lasted
And she was spotted on all days, browsing and buying my books
Eyeing me without talking; I could read her mind in her looks
As the tip of her lip touched my book cover image. The posted
Message on the wall of my heart conveyed her dreams and fixed
Them across my mind. So, I took the first step and blasted her diffidence
With a gentle smile, getting a charming smile with a girlish confidence.
That’s it; with ignited throbs we spent days; she then asked, ”What next?”
“A Long Poem in the pipeline and a pulp fiction in printing,”
She seemed bewildered. And we finished the day without talking more.
The next day, she was more silent, and then asked in haste, “What more?”
“A Mock Epic for my taste and a Romantic fiction to make it trending.”
I talked about books and more books as she talked with her looks; mere looks!
And we parted there, like crooks; realizing- life is more than books and looks!
Come Father, become human and kind...
sit at my blessed and abundant table,
and have a dialogue with me!
Many questions assumed for myself:
like uncotrollable rivers flooding their banks...
pitifully susceptible to oblivion;
a disaster so real and not too stealthy...
come Father,suspend time!
Indisputible are Your commandments
that make the sinners tremble
and the mighty complain and ramble;
unchangeable are Your moral demands,
and the devouts heed them with reverence...
to diffuse them without diffidence!
Come Father,engorge this eager spirit...
descend to clear up contradictory opinions,
words dictated by the die-hard and undignified;
this is not a conception or a dilemma,
but an enormous and contemptuous enigma
engraved on the souls that engage in snarling tactics
to ensconce, not to enrapture what is good...
and in doing so they captivate people in sin!
I declare my faithfulness with words that prolifate
and have wonder and inspiration...
true words that express a genuine faith;
I am not prognostic...I rely on devine intervention,
and shun what lacks in importance...
not debasing what is sacred to satisfy their impertinence!
Come Father, have this promenade...
let's talk about their impervious minds
that collide with truth with impetuous haste;
come father, let's make them perfect and pious...
give them a plausible momentum of grace,
and make them victorious and vindicated!
MY SINGING STAR
Annual days in our University existed before too, only in annals,
Until the day, she on the ramp thrilled our hearts that came to the ears;
We had ‘Abbey Road on the River’; we lived in our souls and became ears,
That heard the first time ‘unheard melodies’ reverberating through Lit annals.
The Nightingale of India would’ve left her oriole and put her in musical panels;
The roaring Moor would’ve left Desdemona to live, riveting his ears for years,
The brooding Ruth would’ve left her diffidence to dance sprightly for years,
To the thrill of her voice, sounding end to sittings of juries, forever in annals.
She could’ve sung ‘they’re gonna make a big star out of me,’
But, that would’ve rivaled the great Beatles; she could’ve her ‘Jai Ho’
That would’ve made Mozart of Madras again dedicate glory to Him.
Lyrics she required not, for, it’s in the listeners’ glee;
Lyres she required not, her voice throbs humans in harmony, robbing ego;
Life is un-lived, if you have no ears for my singing star, not even Him.
We Never Really Know
by Odin Roark
Do we ever know
The right from wrong
Others define
Do we ever know
Our own person
That entity trying
So desperately
To just not offend
Oh how delicate
The butterfly kiss
Of passion in repose
Of want and desire
So patient
We
The victim
Of our own diffidence
Wanting fervently
To be all we are
Yet
Hesitant to discover said reality
Do we ever know
The proper way
To say
Do
Be
Devotion
For
In essence
We must always
Be able to express it first
To ourselves
Oh how tremulous
The moment
Give it room
For within such intimacy
Rests the outreach
Unshackled
That passion for life
Bestowing love to all
Who will just accept
We never really know…
For sure
Remember the day
Apron strings loosed,untied
as maternal voices faltered and cried
Remember the day
When a soprano voice lost its elan
and a boy became a man
Remember the day
Peer pressure would not hide
and diffidence was replaced with pride
Remember the day
Desire,with warm whispers heard
questions,answered with just three words
Remember the day
Filled with joy and love
a union blessed from above
Remember the day
Holding a first-born,so wee
as two self-absorbed,became three
Remember the day
Trust was born-a-new
a changed life came into view
Remember the day
Genesis as a work of art
with gifts to share and impart
Remember the day
| Year Posted 2009
"Now is the time of our comfort and plenty
These are the days we've been working for
Nothing can touch us and nothing can harm us
And nothing goes wrong anymore....
Take it back, don't let it die
Or rage against the falling night
'Cause I still do depend on you
Don't say those words, you wrung me through
It won't come again,
Cause love is the end"
-Love Is the End, by Keane
------------
Enter thus the spark once unknown
Brought to light by your beauty ever shown
In exile this wounded mind must lie
I exhale to Everest skies by and by
A relief ever festooned by your cunning calm
Listening to your voice like a severed psalm
I could never arrest you for the palm of your qualm
For I am ever befallen to the sight of your song
Hearts misgiven,
A soul heavy-ridden,
To heights only humbled in diffidence
Starts disheveled
Endings unsettled,
I crave the sweetness of your difference
For how had the stars been shining so bright,
To ever receive such a blistering light?
And why has my mind healed from the lies,
That used to curse these very skies?
In shame I smile and look into your eyes
Detesting the time that quickly flies,
Hating the ability to despise,
And waiting for love to cease the cries
Enter thus an Irresistible so warm
Releasing tingles, to trust—to form
I cry out to the never-ending scene
To cross the clouds of crystal gleam
Running my hands upon the nestled dream
Ever-laughing—hear them sing!
You are a most undeniable, endearing thing
So I impregnate the spark as our destiny’s wing
I believe
our current overly competitive economy of competition,
our AnthroPrivileged environmental era
of critical climate disarray,
is a blip on the screen of Earth peace history
and autonomic neurosystemic polycultural health
A Win/Lose Zero-Sum Deviant aberration
now drawing to a rabid LoseAnthro/Lose Earth
polarizing close
because both WinEarth history
and WinEarthTribe culture
have been kinder to assertive Win-Win confluence
and unkind to dissonant Win-Lose diffidence
AnthroSupremacist
financial and
monopolistic partisan policy planning
to deplete the opposition,
competing within a short-changed
universe.
I believe
we are in our deepest loving
and beautiful bicameral beating hearts,
full-blooded DNA/RNA logosed/mythosed
bilaterally intelligent syntax
Bad Rad Bodhisattvas dancing
in root systemic circles
of Glad Mutual Messiahs singing
with and for and of and through
deep crowning co-infested
RNA-natural networked life/DNA-spirited systemic love
prime regeneratively in/exforming Earth
messianic tribes
and bodhisattva cells.
I believe we needed to invest
in this competition and deductive-scientific transitional
over-swing of Left-brained linguistic/deductive dominance,
reductive individuating consciousness,
to learn together
how to cooperate our ecological
root systemic
politically empowering dance
And why it is important
to communicate
and invest
and produce enlightened songs
and consume engaging voices
as a globally cooperative network
designed to protect
cherish sacred bodies
and re-polyculture segregated minds
win/win aspiring
to reconnect
Beloved Earth EcoSystemic ProGenitors.
I Believe
we have an internal good health/glad wealth
body/mind
nature/spirit
ego/eco cooperatively owned
and EarthTribe managed landscape
of unfolding Tao SpaceTime
composed of binomial prime function
with Zero-Centric meta-polymorphic
regenerative
crown/root bicameral
messiah/bodhisattva
enlightening/empowering
co-intelligence.
I believe
singing is what Anthros can say
with resonant performance wealth
AND
dancing is what EarthTribes can do
with resilient engaging health.
I believe
we are a Society of Unitarian Universalist Bodhisattva CoOperators
within EarthTribe's self-synergizing evolutionary agenda.
I marvel at the hope found in evolution,
The message of newness everyday;
The ancestry, use of strength, genetics,
The honouring of sex and life’s sway.
The knowledge that behaviour matters,
What I do daily determines my genes,
That I pass on to my children, grandkids,
And influences my relationship scenes.
To take belief out with its fine context,
Is cruel, dangerous and unnecessary,
Makes the body clock jeer at the text,
Introduces a slippy catch, not arbitrary.
I can be made happy by visiting the zoo,
By interacting with monkeys which thrill,
Which save me from my introversion wazoo,
Apes, giraffes, camels with expression fill.
I don’t know if god exists, but am sure not,
So if I talk to him, it’s a different experience,
So I’d rather, if in doubt, when I’m fraught,
Speak to animals who have no diffidence.
© Ben Burton 8/16/2015
As my time on this earth dwindles
Toward those final sips of coffee
After appetizer, entree
And dessert have been devoured
I grieve all those wasted moments
When I only saw forever
Endless time to make it happen
Led me to procrastination
Watching days turn into leap years
Without leaping on the streetcar
Where desires aren't mere illusions
Many kindred spirits gather
To encourage other dreamers
But those streetcars start to vanish
For the reckless and the agèd
Never reckless, merely clueless
Now I'm leaning 'gainst the latter
Pining that which will not happen
For the only recognition
Is a Facebook 'like' or comment
And best wishes to the pauper
Just another starving artist
Less than middling art to offer
DVD's that few are buying
But no trying, pleading, begging
From a heart that's barely beating
Will stave off the wolves demanding
What's no longer in the coffers
Take a sip of cold, black coffee
From the large cup, almost empty
In a house that's pre-foreclosure
I await the hooded reaper
To relieve me of the mis'ry
With regrets, I go too gently
Wrapped in coils of indecision
Never lacking in discretion
But my diffidence contained me
Made no mark upon the middle
Now it's late, I'm cloaked in darkness
That good night has seized the moment
Shed no tears, but heed the lesson
Let no barricade dissuade you
Don't glimpse back and see a wasteland
Strewn with unaccomplished longings
Not that every step was wasted
I gave more than I accepted
But with nothing left to offer
And no streetcars heading my way
To a happier conclusion
With a wistful resignation
I reach for my cup of coffee
And I take the final sip