Best Impermanence Poems
In an hundred years...
Everything around us will be changed,
And everybody will be dead,
Yet, something will continue...
Will it be, as my radical leftist brother predicts,
The final takedown of Western Civilization?
Will we all rise to pray and face east?
Will we all rise and face nothing but a cup of sustainably-grown coffee?
Will the common people be able to afford coffee?
What will have become of our words, penned
sometimes in ink,
sometimes in blood?
Who will still read us?
Will our great-grandchildren show old, unrotatable, digital photos?
What of those of us who have no children? Will our words survive, even a generation?
Will our poetry be sold, half-price, or clearance?
What footprints will we have left, who built no buildings, saved no lives, ended no tyranny?
Yet, I think we will survive for a generation or two,
For there are always a few who hope to feel something,
To know the grounding reality of shared human experience.
I do not pretend, they will be reading ME,
But, perhaps,
They will be reading US...
That shrinking crowd that comprises the body of
Our words made corporeal,
And one or two of us, they will remember...
I hope for nothing better than a sea,
And quiet waves that bear away once-me...
"Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come." By Rabindranath Tagore
death
sublime
eternal
life's journey ends
i n e v i t a b l e
river meets the ocean
the wheel of life keeps moving
ignoring sad separations
blazing auburn fall leaves sprawl on ground
reminding life's tragic impermanence
Life is a dream, death a permanent pause
end of hopes, and wishes, blissful joys
bright light dimmed, memories remain
tender reminiscences
of being together
caring for loved ones
dreams never die
death fails to
erase
dream
February 16, 2022
For E-Form Etheree Contest
Theme: Death
Syllables checked by HMS.com
Sponsor: Constance La France
SECOND PLACE
Brian Strand Formal Poetry Contest
FIRST PLACE
Crisp air, fallen leaves
Shattered shapes,
Whispering tales of metamorphosis.
Their effortless art of surrender,
Breaking down into the soil to serve the growth of others,
Demonstrate the value of transition.
They fulfill the circle of life,
Becoming echoes of the essence of existence,
Displaying the absolute beauty of impermanence.
A man lives and a man dies,
A flame burns and soon flickers out,
And so goes the pattern of vitality.
-Eddie Belcher
The Beauty of the End, is, It's Beginning!
For Aspen never rise, till fire is still,
And all Endeavors, Loves, and Lives are Ash...
All that is product of the Human Will
Persists, till not a stone's upon a stone,
And every outbreath lifts the dust to motes,
Upon the Light that shows a Pilgrim Alone;
Gone far to see what's left -- dust chokes the throat...
So, Ancient Empires fall, but, 'apres le feu'*
The Aspens grow, and someday, gild the slope.
And Life and Death there dance a 'pas de deux',**
And Life gets the Applause, lets go Death's rope,
Death fades and bows and then... was never there...
And leaves a Scent of Morning on the Air...
*'apres le feu' - after the fire
**'pas de deux' - a duet dance in a ballet
Impermanence
We’re waves
Thaw, melt and freeze
Impermanence of breeze
We're castles of sand -
Leveled by bully's hand
We’re spider webs and beaver dams all
Mists and illusions ephemeral
We’re mountains disappearing
We’re rivers just appearing –
Carrying cliffs to emerald sea
We’re a smile of effervescent tea
We’re the sparkling wines that fizz
We’re the physiognomy of phiz
We’re a never lasting permanence
We’re dewing drops of excellence
We’re flying feathers of wren
We’re lotus gardens of Zen.
We're Qi.
IMPERMANENCE
Nothing seems to last more than a blink
From seconds to millennia - just think:
Sunsets most fleeting
Chocolate you are eating
Ice-cubes in coke (or lemon-and-lime )
Mascara in the rain runs faster than time
Cherry blossom, soft, pink, falling
Indian summers whose end is galling
Teenage girls' crushes on the football squad
Rap music ( almost gone now, thank God )
Narrow waistlines (without cheating)
Crude oil reserves which we are greedily eating
Troy, city of fabled towers
Pyramids, symbols of earthly powers
Mountains always eroding to the sea
Stars so dim we can’t really see.
Waterfalls, Montmorency or Niagara
Sexual potency without viagra
Don’t rely on any of these things
They will fly with the swiftest wings.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .
NOTE
As the poem progresses, the lifespan of items
increases, (with the exception of the final item of course),
but all are limited.
quivering dewdrops on Lotus
leaves, remind stark impermanence
of life, every droplet shaking
hint sad truth of worldly transience!
Lotus, the most gorgeous flower
on earth, rare to vision around,
floating in miraculous streams
where nature's sacred songs abound!
August 23, 2022
For "8 lines of Rhyme - Your Favourite Flower" Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Tania kitchin
rhyme checked by rhyme zone.com
Syllables checked by HMS.com
Notes: The lotus has a life cycle unlike any other plant. With its roots latched in mud, it submerges every night into river water and miraculously re-blooms the next morning, sparklingly clean. In many cultures, this process associates the flower with rebirth and spiritual enlightenment.
Pushin' up daises
noctuary memories
dismantling me
I lie in the reclining chair,
sucking my teeth
and wonder why the passing cattle
only stop in the field next door
and then the herdsman comes
with his tortured, twisted cattle-
prodding stick, and they all move on,
me, the herdsman and the cattle
The azure ecstasy of the glistening autumn sky
fades away with the blizzard of the polar wind.
As on the wings of winter the golden leaves fly,
gone with the surge the fleeting joy of the mind.
On the concave canvas of the hazy horizon grey,
rainbow dreams gleam as the transient arc of art.
In the clasp of the curling clouds they melt away,
gone with the rains the hues of the broken heart.
To a verdant vase the sunny vale turns from brown,
the petals of the life flower called happiness unroll,
shred by the cloudburst sky coming crumbling down,
gone with the thunder the volatile bliss of the soul.
The sparkling crystals of luminous mind’s chandelier
shatter at the sudden strike of the sequential strife.
In abyss the ephemeral flickering candles disappear,
gone with the wind the last flash of the transient life.
______________
February 23, 2023
Contest : Inspired By Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay
Sponsored by : JCB Brul
For billions of years
I did not exist.
Then I existed
for a little while.
Soon I will return
to not existing
for the rest of time.
Ash, sparks drifting up,
On the fire's updraft borne,
Like souls go skyward
I want to grow and age with you,
And watch the seasons come and go,
As both our bodies change with them,
And love still burns within our souls
I want to hold you in my arms,
As days and months turn into years –
To see our children grow with us,
Embracing love instead of fear
I want to always meet your eyes,
And feel the embers in our hearts,
Igniting when we're old and wise,
Until the day we, too, will die.
Only a moment,
So quickly passing away:
Waves on the ocean.