Best Forging Ahead Poems
where the heart leads
adventures follow
daring hearts
geared up to go
enthusiasm soaring
anticipating the challenge
forging ahead with confidence
thriving on the lust for conquest
lay groundwork for elation
swooping in wholeheartedly
eager to launch each escapade
lunge and pounce with conviction
high on the taste of freedom
riding the waves of time
deriving satisfaction
biting into life
measure man against himself
alone in the universe
master of his destiny
owning his achievements
implode with passion
Published in my 24-page photo book ~DIVING IN~ 2019
Read on air by invitation ~ August 25, 2020 'LATE NIGHT POETS'
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
The Enigmatic Middle C
by Odin Roark
How lonely
Might that in between place be,
Where water from trickle beginnings
Modulates into wakes,
The upward span,
Then downward stretch,
Forging through minor and major choices,
Embracing half tones of engagement,
Carrying a merging forth of discovery,
Becoming a torrent
Containing both high
And low resonance,
Searching connective tremolos for oneness,
Finding innocence too must give way
As sensory reaches beyond comprehension,
Where the journey to ascending chance,
Converges proudly with the crescendo of eternity’s unsolved mystery.
And then there comes the uncovering…
This state of mind where new lessons to be learned
Conjoin this forever gathering of cosmic virility,
Where energy’s often dissonant questions
Start from ancestral middle fulcrums,
Branching its reach beyond scale,
Dancing with lightness of weight,
Tip-toeing upon the notes of power
Into cautious voices forging ahead,
Always remaining of purpose,
Yet often clashing as contrapuntal mistakes.
A child might hear the echo,
As octaves of like innocence reaching skyward
Enjoin rising fathoms from below,
Becoming one in harmony.
Such is the improvisation of life’s exploration,
Searching for tomorrow’s final chorus,
Where one’s once center being,
Youth’s springboard arch,
Finally becomes the never ending center
Of perpetuity’s orchestral gift,
That striving to live what life can be,
And then what it might become,
That spanning far beyond yesteryear’s Middle C,
Where the measured spans of equidistance
Ascend the borderless boundaries of one’s inner-self.
Some people like to live on the edge or hang on a ledge. Not me.
I'm just Daniel, a trailblazer forging ahead, making a pathway for others.
In the process, I have no shortest of respect for God's great creation.
I set foot on a wilderness from the warm Atlantic to the cold Pacific,
and spent a lifetime trapping, fishing, hunting, and heading wagon trains.
Earthquake Susan's quiet and sleepy today, not likely to quake, shake, or tremor. Volcano Sam has started emitting smoke, but maybe he won't blow his top today. Unlike a Hurricane Helen roaring across the Caribean on a course with measurable data, Sam's under a lot of pressure and he's always filled with suspense and unpredictabilities.
In mid-winter when it's quiet with lots of snow, I can hear Sam's pleads as he hopes people will pay more attention and not take him for granted. Like a youngster filled with rebellion and rage because of 'he knows not what', that volcano just ahead named Sam cannot control the massive 'buildup of fire' going on inside of him.
But I have been listening, watching, and studying his history for years, and if I have learned anything about my proper relationship with Sam, it's that I keep my distance and pay attention, being ready at all times to flee this entire mountain area.
12262018PoSoupContest, Sleeping Volcano, Eve Roper; 2P
George Washington would never believe it and call it a crying shame. I have observed the prohibition of prayer in public schools. Free speech is not free but is for sale to the highest bidder. Moreover, there is an attitudinal atmosphere suggesting that any speech that is not my own should be abridged, censured, or abolished. Traditional norms and family values are dropping like flies under the spell of pesticides. The Bible is considered to be narrow-minded hate-speech. I have seen people terrorized, their civil rights decertified and denied. Moral values have been devalued, set aside, and liquidized; Constitutional rights are diluted, disputed, and no longer solidified. Whatever happened to the great 'thinkers'? I have noticed the terminal illness and demise of noble ideas. Education is being replaced with political persuasion and propaganda.
Abraham Lincoln would never accept it and call it a crying shame. Minority rights are being revised, realigned, reassigned, and redefined. I have witnessed human rights ignored, disregarded, and not prioritized. The cultural revolution is forging ahead in jet-propulsion speed like there is no tomorrow nor time of reckoning. Belief in evolution is man's best hope for a future without accountability. There are no absolutes nor need for resolution. Majority rights are brought into question, unguaranteed, and in retreat. Equal rights are desired but unclarified, undefined, and unobtained. I have beheld the orchestrated disappearance of common sense, and before long we shall be worry-free because 'Big Brother' will always come to our defense. Alien rights are well protected, highly promoted, and unwisely provided. There is a free admittance of subjectivity and the utter rejection of objectivity. I started to weep when I realized that sanity is being burned at the stake. I'm hoping and praying that we return to our senses before it's too late.
07062018PoSoupContest, Personal Favorite Poem Written In 2018 Poetry
Sponsored by: Carolyn Devonshire, 5P
Biding the path
Yet blind to the cost
Clinically insane
Yet forging ahead
At sea, the tempest
Cowers, at your name
On land, resolve
Can bring you shame
Betrothed in gold
You stake your claim
Adorned in skulls
Your fate to blame
Searched by seers
You wipe away
The tears you've sown
'Till daybreak casts
A light anew
When mind and soul
Can clearly see
The righteous path
Bestowed on thee
11/12/16
Naked we came, the same way we will go.
Our joyful moments are mingled with pains as we grow.
Nothing we have is permanent but in and out they stroll.
Then what is life and the desire to want to be old?
Life is nothing but Vanity.
Many have come and they lived their end in shame.
Others lived short yet touched lives and ended in fame.
How we live our lives we will have none to blame.
We must therefore remember that life will end all the same.
Life is nothing but Vanity.
Every moment we live is a gift from the Maker,
Expecting us to make life better for one another.
How well we fulfill the Maker's wish we must ponder.
Doing His will in our little way is all that will matter.
For Life is nothing but Vanity.
Hurry, it is the time to build what will last,
Forging ahead to make amends as we can no longer change the past.
Quickly and away our time will blast.
Content and happy we must be when we breath our last and our life in the shadow cast.
Life is nothing but vanity.
Your sands sieve through my fingers
The luxury is mine
You watch me around the clock
A perfect circle
Your all seeing eye.
I exist in your omnipresence
Hypnotised by your chime
You pave my thoughts
I trail your steps.
Suspended in time
I’m but a paratrooper
Eavesdropping,
Perhaps intruding even
Every molecule in me is your synchronisation
I was born, I live, and surely I shall die,
An you will keep going to face another day
Uninterrupted movements
An unconstrained flow, forwards, upwards
Towards where?
I pray you never get there!
Because who would be powerful enough to stop your watch?
I would split the seconds if I could
Until I arrive at an infinitesimal, unquantifiable figure
Until the smallest amount, the least of them all stood
Would that be you?
How do you catch something that never stops moving?
Something that comes from all directions,
And goes in all directions?
It exists in the present, the past and forever
And has no starting point and no end.
I’m just trying to understand what has been given to me
My presence
A gift is it?
It is said we’re living on borrowed time
Why not just be generous and give it away
When there's so much of it seemingly with no end?
You are just too magnanimous
Too illusive
But I’m still not satisfied, I know there’s more to you
The fast-forward, the rewind, the pause!
You’re just playing tricks on us aren't you?
How do you stay fresh, moment to moment anew?
Man personified you into a clock to give you a face
To make you seem a bit more familiar,
But you are horror, a ticking time bomb
Attacking the future
Encouraging change through decay
Forging ahead of yesterday without delay
Charging forward to tomorrow,
Breaking the now
Bridging numerous dimensions into infinity
To wash us anew with your fabric
My existence hanging on this timeline
My time zone
Winding down to the deadline
To the cut-off time
The countdown without a glitch
And face the countless forevers still to come
An infinite memory bank of rich histories
A threshold of possibilities still unimagined
This is my time,
My first and last
But you didn’t even flinch
Punctual, you are
I’m timed out
You flip the hourglass
NOT THE WRONG FEELING
When I lost my heart to the man I loved,
How could it be wrong when it felt so right,
My father told me little girl of mine, he'll ruins your life,
Brake that tender heart of yours, and give you nothing but
Strife.
But how could this be wrong when it felt so right.
Years passed by, through poverty, and illnesses,
We've endeavored to strive, forging ahead,
At times ready to just give up, to say whatever
And walk away. but with love and faith we made it
He and I, together come what may.
For both of us knew from the beginnings get go,
How could it be wrong when it felt so right.
As old ages rocking chairs are being prepared for us,
And our bodies challenge for every step that we take,
I still know he loves me, and I him, and our legacy's
Children will not turn away from us, and for this I am
Truly blessed.
When I look into my husbands eyes and see our past
Together, I know one thing to be for real no matter what,
That this could not be wrong when it feels so right.
As the light of God, shall move across my spiritual frame,
Separating my being from it's earthly form, and I move
To the Ethereal domain, to that distant shore beyond,
I know my dearest love shall be waiting their for me,
And inside a feeling lives, and in this I know and believe.
What could be wrong with this magnificent feeling, it is not
Wrong but oh so right.
BY: CHERYL ANNA DUNN
08-11-2014
Echos of long past
haunt my thoughts
as the verdant valley
stretches before my light dazzled eyes
I imagine the pioneers
forging ahead
and what I see now
are the remains
of these trails they forged
marked
as wagon wheels
indelebley upon the ground
I imagine the women
in their hooded coverings
stirring up pots of baked beans
but Annie Oakley
probably was never indited
for stooping to that low
the wild west was not for the faint hearted
as Indians rode roughshod over
soldiers
who wore their brave hearts upon
muskets of forged steel
hammering out triumphant blissful sounds
of conquest
these days were both exciting and grueling
testing
the mettle of women and of men
as they eaked out their existence
time and time again.
Paired, With Reservations
The soft curve of her spirit-
Her true shape only emergent after countless
Half-glances in the half-light of morning’s edge.
What line is drawn by the knife-edge of the sun’s first rays?
Who is slain in that prime, resplendent arrival?
Regardless it is a shiny death: an incidental manslaughter
Making new cuts and reshaping the structure of our shared constitution:
Reforming the meaning of our togetherness.
Her form, her movement, creates contrast.
Motion is wonder’s conciliator, unearthing profundities and
Burying banalities under underfoot miles and myriad beads of perspiration;
Forging ahead together through the nascent day. To what end?
Running lines: some arbitrary and intangible, others geometrically
Pronounced in yellow and white, dotted and solid, faded and new.
Drawing new lines: making demarcations- parameters implicitly set-
So close yet never intersecting: paired, with reservations.
Forgiveness
Forging ahead to brighter horizons,
Overlooking misunderstandings and discord,
Reconciliation of feelings and despair,
Grieving problematic circumstances,
Ignorance excused and disregarded,
Validation of thoughts and feelings,
Expressing contentment within yourself,
Narcissistic attitudes abolished,
Exasperation departures in flight,
State of mind harmonious,
Spiritually composed ... mind, body, soul.
The early Christians gave their lives to spread the Word
Unmoved by fear, death, or the sword
Bold in the Spirit they set out for lands unknown
Some by themselves, yet not alone
Be not afraid to toll the virtues of the Lord
Shout from the mountains to the seas
Recruit the lost, enlist ourselves in His army
I’ll never lose my faith, despite adversity
My strength, my spirit comes from God
When faced with challenges I dive into the Word
Refreshed in spirit, bathed in light
The modern Christians keep the flame of Christ alive
Unmoved by liberality
Their plate of armor is two thousand years of history
Forging ahead with God’s decrees
We can’t let modern pressures stray us from the course
Stay true to what the mission is:
Convict the world with love, and love is Christ, and Christ is love
I’ll never lose my faith, despite adversity
My strength, my spirit comes from God
When faced with challenges I dive into the Word
Refreshed in spirit, bathed in Light
Oh the joy upon our waking,
and he has been.
Such gifts he leaves, of life and love.
We are opened,
wrapped in loving arms.
Toys for their amusement,
battery fresh and ready for action, man.
A return of seasons adds evermore love to your collections,
and your affections,
never a division in loves vision.
And we grow,
and we know of his ever dwindling presence,
and presents cease to be gifts,
but love's gift persists.
We indulge ourselves selfishly in our midday feast,
gorging and forging ahead to the seducing afters.
Her speech takes us by surprise,
forces us to make love eyes.
We labour long for our gifts,
to bring joy to our flickering hearts.
Pushed into electric blue twilights,
you are the highlights.
Your gifts open for our hearts beating.
the night pushes further into its darkening,
chapters have began their closing.
There are authors beneath,
words they use infect me with life,
defiantly we approach our midnight.
In the single stroke of a hand,
our Christmas is over.
Tomorrow you may box us,
today you are still our gifts.
You would not know the beauty of light.
were it not for the existence of night
You would not know to fear the dark
were it not for the joy that lives inside your heart.
We live our lives by comparison,
you know this to be true.
When nothings worthy of your greatest defense,
you have nothing much to lose.
Why long for touching the sky
when you barely know how to walk?
Why start staring contests with the walls.
(I told you long ago, they DO not talk!)
Why dread something will end
if it never really began?
Why build yourself a home
if all you have is sand?
Why dream at all
when nothing is guaranteed?
Why take the leap of faith
when you're most likely gonna bleed?
You think it's all just a game
because life dealt you a crappy hand.
You gotta ask questions, and take nothing for granted,
if you can ever wish to understand.
It's perfectly normal
to let the floodgates gush out,
or get bloody knuckles
from thrashing at trees.
With all your strength keep forging ahead,
it's what's life's all about.
When the path set before takes leaps and dives,
you say yes, please,
and thank you kindly!
We don't bother with the spiel;
Shoulda, woulda, coulda
for that does nothing for you.
Indeed there is a time for everything,
and right now the time to fortify
is long overdue.
It's you who do none or these things:
lose control, stumble, and cry out,
who are the ones I say a prayer for.
Even keymakers and wisdom teachers
take month long vacations.
Sometimes you just gotta kick down the door!
And say "Here I am, now take your best shot!
I'm ready to claim what I have so passionately sought!"
It's time we take this transformation
from squeamish boys into sturdy men.
I'll give your personality a good hard kick in the stones,
you need only say when.
Girl, together we lay by the fire
And we hold each other dearly
We share and care for one another
Together we shine completely
Always forging ahead
And taking things one step at a time
Dealing with this dance that we call life
And keeping everything in line