Best Substratum Poems


Substratum

I am the blackboard
before chalk pictures and words —
after the dust falls



From Empty Pages: The Poetry of Silence 
Available on Amazon
______________________
© Paul Marc  Create an image from this poem.

Labor Day Observations

Tell me again
This wealth you gasp and clamour for
This strategy you wield
From the invincible substratum
Where the hunt pursues the frenzied heart
And the congestive traffic of arteriosclerosis 
For what do you deal
The long evenings swinging on the green and
The soul's sanity again?

I have checked for definitions
One say it is production from the land
And I hear in it engines
Ripping out the earth's red heart
Another say it is a product of labour
And I imagine a weary mother
And the pains of dystocia 
Besides you own no land
Where concrete does not mushroom
Into skyscrapers
And dirt abominable in the atmosphere
And I guess labor is not physical.

Some say it is a measure of value
Of what you own
Was that the members of my body
For I pay tax for
Is a mere rental, not mine.
Easement only entitles me
To brown paper bags blowing in the gust
And the oily wrap of hamburger papers
I never bought them
They just fell where I bare the cost without the benefits.
Men who own revenue are rich

You say it is policy
That the labourers clock in at eight
I say its power
That make men to make wealth
They give away for the pittance of wage
All morning I have watched them
As they check their assets of grief
Before getting to security at the gate
Grief is suspicious you know
Only terrorists have grievances.
We bring our last resolve to work
The heart like a derrick
Grappling with the weight in the sky.

It is all your wealth
His mother phlegmatic coughing
And asbestos dust
Thickening on the lip of the child 
I have no love for the Midas disease
For still its free
The open air
The sun cracking nuts in a tree
And the wild shout of cataract
And below me the immense gorge
Where the water trickles
Under the dam
Irrevocably to the sea.

Immortal Love

Tease, tempt and test, my love. And I shall react,
Reach and reign, my love. Give me guidance, lest
I wander, substituting lust for authenticity. 
Inscribe your insignia upon my soul. Lay claim to
Love, as if to sigh your last breath, for I’m 
Embedded in the substratum of your spirit. Thus, 
Spoil me with your matrix. Entice me with your 
Charms. And I shall titillate, tantalize, and satiate 
Your person, for mutual seduction is the art of 
Lovers, and we have loved since the days of 
Genesis. Thus, ours is immortal, my love, extant 
As an apocrypha, but hidden as the root of 
Eternity. Let manifest the fruits of love, for we are
Bonded as the pillars of a shelter, destined for love.


Premium Member The roots

the substratum of existence is God
unseen and yet always in the background
so knowing that our perception is flawed 
refusing to be in illusions drowned
in vibrant stillness, peace in heart is found
the roots of our being are in heaven
to which we get to through chakras seven

Quentin's Gift

A vociferous yowl came down to earth and slaughtered my soul
I was in deep sleep, lids were lead, and dreams were wavering spool
My problem sat on groove, heavy-hearted like slushy interference 
Passage of time was very slow but that had drawn all the inference
But I had to settle my score with her sore to keep my cranium cool

A porous body, full of neutral pricks, is amenable to insidious freaks
You may call the buccaneers on bouncing waves or to Tortuga Creeks
They will say yes we should send Mister Briggs to teach you mathematical tricks.

It makes no difference and I am bowled on the crease, life is not at all sums
Its base is neither you nor any substratum pandering to keekwulee doldrums
I know you are not a frump who kicks up the stinks with three no trumps.

I may be a tramp
Play solitaire
With invisible Dodo.

I have seen the dull grayish faces caught in Arachne’s spins, 
The fangs of spiders, teeth of snakes, and Las Vegas scorpion stings,
The emotional binges, the splurge of spending and old caddy’s sins.
I have seen them all, but how am I full of beans?
I am a nut playing a fool. Let the water run over her
Deigning a nutcracker’s rule.
Ridentem dicere verum quid vetat?



© RAJAT KANTI CHAKRABARTY
14th October,2014 20:44:00 (IST)

Premium Member Gyan Karma Bhakti Self

.
    To.             Do.          We
   Find.         meet.       dive in
  Learn.        Lesson.    constant 
.Explore.     Fearless.   surrender 
Be aware.    & awake.  conscious 
Welcome.     Actions    irradiance
Problems.     solution.  Is resting
Activate.       follows.    in reality
.Enquiry.       deeds.      nesting 
   Xplore.         seek.       supra
   Meet.           find.        Real
    Self.           Self.         Self
     IN.           IN.             IN
..GYAN ——  KARMA —- BHAKTI
   Standing on common ground 
   There many a exploring ways
    no creation no manifestation 
       screen is the substratum
         Witness of Projections
                 Of the very
                      SELF


Premium Member Villanelle: In What Way Has the Sexual Revolution Freed Man

Villanelle : In what way has the Sexual Revolution freed Man

In what way has the Sexual Revolution freed Man
One man's still at the helm where one woman pulls the purse strings
Political structures still rest authoritarian

Is Reich's Function of the O.ga.m lame duck also ran
Do power struggles at all levels bounce bums on bed springs
In what way has the Sexual Revolution freed Man

Strikes protests manifestations mere excuses we ban
Face-saving measures populist fire-brand broken wings
Political structures still rest authoritarian

Does kiss-tail orgasmic reflex replace sublime élan
The chimère of suppressed masses condemned to strum heart strings
In what way has the Sexual Revolution freed Man

Who hoists family father-figure as revered top sultan
No authority at home spells chaos at source well-springs
Political structures still rest authoritarian

Sans moral consciousness the substratum cracks in ev'ry man
Abuse an innocent child he'll in turn abuse all beings
In what way has the Sexual Revolution freed Man
Political structures still rest authoritarian

© T. Wignesan - Paris, November 17, 2018
© T Wignesan  Create an image from this poem.

Premium Member Ashtavakra Gita Verse 18:5

18.5
“The Self--which is
absolute, effortless, timeless, 
immaculate-- is without limits
and at no distance from you
You are forever It”


Enigmatic space
Within & without
Face to face
We have no doubt

The substratum of the all
Upon which the Word resounds
Be it stillness or the squall
In, within and all around

(23-August-2019)

~~~

Verse 18.5 revisited on 08-January-2022

Pristine, singular, absolute awareness
Restricted to mind-body consciousness 
Is subjected to the power of maya illusion
Believing itself to be mind-body, a delusion
This dilemma being merely a hypnotic trance
From which we awake, when erect is our stance
Invoking inner polarity of both senses and thought
By resting in tranquil stillness, no longer fear fraught
Whereupon baton of our awareness reclaimed by soul
Infuses in us bliss vibrancy making us a seamless whole
Consciousness expands encasing the entire universe
Being our innate Self, so we’ve no need to rehearse 
Our soul, within form, as indivisible God-essence
Purifies mind-body vessel in full luminescence 
With the clear recognition that God alone is
Imbibing the rapturous magnetic bliss fizz
Partaking of here now, both the worlds 
As light of truth is within us unfurled

Premium Member Decrypting the code

The highest truth is God unmanifest,
one without a second, outside space-time,
resplendent in pristine glory undressed,
renews Himself in Himself as heart’s chime.
As subjective awareness all alone,
energy absolute held in Himself,
vibrant and blissful, occupies His throne,
existing thus as the absolute Self.
A playful intent in heart arises,
to behold His splendour in a mirror,
shape shifting reflection that surprises,
each appearance being His reverer.
To this end, space and time were created ~
In duality, worlds were created 

In duality, worlds were created,
conjured in an instant, as of God’s will,
wherein His own polarities mated,
that love in each heart, seeming voids may fill.
Creation, maintenance and destruction,
became the shimmer of God’s lucid dream,
a never ending dance of seduction, 
reflected as the glow of a moon beam.
Descent and ascent is the game divine,
where God’s spawned life form enters into trance,
led blindfold by love, for which all hearts pine,
taking life to be randomness of chance.
To awake from the dream is our mission,
ascending ladder of love’s emission.

Ascending ladder of love’s emission,
one that became two, becomes one again,
bliss dissolving ego’s inhibition
and cleansing heart of every lost borne stain.
When we pierce the bubble of time and space,
which occurs on choosing not to react,
 ego recedes and God sees His own face,
knowing He is living light for a fact.
God alone is; ego does not exist,
which is realised in meditation,
wherein upon choosing not to resist,
we see our true Self, as God’s vibration.
Substratum of existence, poised in rest ~
The highest truth is God unmanifest

Premium Member Aham Brahmasmi - I Am That

when ego truly dissolves
with no phoenix like resurrection
presence is still but the world revolves
seen then as but a thought form projection

not one with but rather as the energy field
as the very substratum of all existence
truth of God unmanifest is revealed 
from Whom there is no distance 

luminous darkness of high density 
motionless consciousness as the all
potent power hum of infinite immensity
within itself creates worlds as a bliss squall

we as a spark of God are in fact the whole
limitation arises from flawed perception
save exhuming ego there is no goal
duality is a matrix of deception

we are God’s self-existent light
fragrance of love is our effulgence 
bliss our nature that we frolic in delight
as bliss dew drops on all nodes condense

Premium Member Sat Cit Ananda

Self-existent consciousness, substratum of existence
May, if you will, be taken to be God’s heart beat
Thus between objects there is no distance

Core of our being is always bliss replete
Which we search and strive for yet know not
Lost in thought spirals, we feel not magnetic heat

Sensing we’re spirit not form, here to be self-taught 
In time stretched silence, ego cravings recede
We then pulsate as bliss free from thought

Plugging energy leak, we no longer bleed ~
Treading gently on earth, living simply as of need

Premium Member Absolute Consciousness

having been, seen and therefore known
the truth of consciousness full blown
as substratum of existence
etch if you will, our words on stone

there is no space, hence no distance
beheld when we shed resistance 
seen in plain sight with our soul’s eye
recognised with God’s assistance

consciousness, the absolute I
is so dense even light can’t ply
energy intense tightly packed
omnipresent, so feels each sigh

each pulse vibrationally tracked
creation here-from is exact
wherefrom the universe appears 
as God His will does so enact

Premium Member Sea of Roses

Written: February 12, 2025 for Ink Empress Poetry Contest

                  ************************

In the tumultuous twilight of 
my  wimpy seascape
I twist in torment
wandering through 
wondrous woods, 
awash with vibrant vistas and fragrant foliage. 
My katabatic soul yearns for a soothing balm,
as the earth reverberates with abyssal emotions.
Beneath the intricate embroidery of my substratum,
bleeding bold hues into celestial heights, 
wrestling with the wondrous warmth 
of love within this sanctuary.

I mourn the delicate flesh 
that once pulsed within me,
paying heartfelt tribute 
to the soul that has departed.
Coexisting collectively for five decades 
snowflakes silently settle, while the serene sea, 
cradles a speechless seagull
and solitary seashells.  
Radiant roses intertwine with rugged thorns, 
alongside sandy shores and shimmering seas—each 
glance at majestic palms 
revealing beauty in its complexity.

My soul swirls in a simmering 
cauldron of desires,
colliding with constellations and 
luminous orbs as dusk settles.
I cradle the cardinal grief as 
a potent elixir, meticulously 
concocted by the cosmos. 
Through thick fogs and dusky dimness, 
I shape my treasured dreams 
into the breathing bounds, 
aspiring to mend the mighty 
fissures in life's lofty ledges 
with clarity and compassion.
The wretched waves wail.

In a sea of weeping roses, 
I drift like a whisper carried by the wind, 
extravagant in harmony with hazy waves
where storms of panic are in the bosom of hollow shade

I yearn to be North Star on the horizon
that shuns showing the ostentatious apex of lucent love
Will the twists of time still tether our tenderness?
My spirit is similar to a blossom bound in the biting breeze.
Seeks shelter in the celestial shadows as it soars.
© Sotto Poet  Create an image from this poem.

Premium Member Sutra 22 from The Holy Science

All fulfilments of his nature attained, man is not merely a reflector of divine light but becomes actively united with Spirit. This state is Kaivalya, Oneness.
~ extract from ‘The Holy Science’


Jesus said, ‘My Father and I are one’,
signalling that with ego vaporised,
aligned with God’s will, He shines like the sun,
substratum of existence realised.

Awareness held like a flicker-free flame,
heart tranquil, nonjudgmental eye single,
with enactment of God’s will, our sole aim,
we delight as bliss pheromones mingle.

Tweaking this lucid dream, as of God’s will,
there being no sense of separation,
love’s peace dove perches on heart’s window sill,
enlivening God’s cosmic vibration.

God’s energy is love and is expressed,
by childlike souls who are by His grace blessed.

Premium Member Clear sight

Depending upon words as symbols employed,
we may label the absolute Self as God,
the substratum of existence unalloyed,
recognised in staid silence when heart has thawed,
that pristine presence, no longer by thoughts toyed,
dissolves all opposites, giving love our nod.
Everything that exists, is but God’s heartbeat,
mirrored as bliss heat that makes us feel complete.

In meditation space and time disappear,
where all that exists is the Self as God’s flame,
renewing itself in itself without fear,
Absolute Self motionless, always the same,
highly dense bright darkness and as we draw near,
we see the ultimate truth in life’s end game.
Obtaining clear sight, the mind of our heart knows,
that we are all in the boat God Himself rows.

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