Best The Path Poems
POTD 23 Mar 2024
THE PATH WELL TRAVELLED.
Two paths diverged, and I was thrown by doubts I had never known
To my left, thickly overgrown, was a path to dismal dimness prone.
To my right, a lovely sight-fragrant flora flamed in light
Forms so graceful, beauty rare, a wonderous vision beyond compare.
Both seduced with equal right, torn was I between dark and light.
Resisting limits of time and sight, a liminal border of cosmic might.
Hesitancy rapt with fear and doubt, the pondering heart beat aloud.
Tempting was the path so grand, but instinct cautioned of a treacherous hand.
A feathery touch, a breeze stirred, and in its sigh, a voice I heard.
Was it Hecate who whispered?
"Take heed. Beware, for each path leads to a different lair."
Crystal clarity knew what I must do, and with a heart filled with valour true,
Joyously, I strode wild and free down the well-trodden path ahead of me.
The leaves, like frisking lovers, played as I embarked my chosen way.
Future paths ~ So many dreams ~ Each a thread in life's grand scheme.
Though true discovery lay in paths, I'd roam ~
The one well travelled always led back Home.
By Maria Williams ©
Greeks worshipped Hecate as a guardian and gatekeeper who could ward off evil forces. She is often represented carrying a torch and a key and standing on the liminal border between one place and another. She bears three heads and always has a dog by her side.
Inspired by Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken', I chose to write an alternative version.
'The Road Not Taken' is one of Robert Frost's most famous poems. It's natural and understandable that many readers take the poem to be Frost's statement of individualism as a poet: he will take 'the road less travelled'.
The metaphor of the road is one that immediately evokes a journey, not just of the local or day-to-day kind, but of the life-defining sort: life as a journey, with many roads which we must travel along, and with many alternative paths which we must choose between.
POTD 23 March 2024
Nights once brought such pleasant dreams
But the sweet memories no longer exist
As persistent nightmares continue to insist
Those dreamy-nights never belonged to me.
Searching for meaning of this dubious feeling
I surmise it emanates from spurious instincts
Residing where he once held my throne
Refusing to depart from the abandoned zone.
In that desolate zone I don't linger any more
Where maddening vibes squandered my love.
My tears file a protest when eyes wish to cry
Having fallen in vain like the petals gone dry.
Petals that once brought me ardent fragrance
Now claim flowers never perfumed my garden.
Winds that blow from forest of barren trees
Warn me, having blown away pristine leaves.
Like a drifter I roam searching for answers
But only questions surround the path I'm on.
What right do I have of owning my dreams
Having relinquished title to fond memories?
May 2, 2018
Placed first in standard contest #135 by Brian Strand
Walk on the path of love
by your very soul.
Listen to the laughter of your heart
alone..
Feel in the sweet sound of the light steps of love
sashaying in your whole
alone..
Bathe in the warm flow of love
till your soul is suffused with beauty.
Let your love be enshrined in the sacred path of heart
hide it between his layers
keep it out of sight.
keep it away from the path of mind
Let it escape its books and frames
Love has its very mood and sways!
The mind has its very language and ways!
Tell your love to stay away from the path of life
Tell your love
“Your colour will fade
You will lose your taste
The air will wear your very scent
and you risk end”
Don’t let your heart close his eyes
keep him awake the whole night
whispering his glory to the moon
while throbbing to the stars.
Don’t let your heart close his eyes
Tell your heart to stay awake
till the luminous rays of dawn strike his path.
Show your love to the rising sun
Let it step through into its glowing light
Let your love wear the robe of a majestic mountain
Let it rise
alone..
Repose your love on a solid rock
Let run through you
an enormous strength.
Dip your love into crystal clear waterfalls
Let it taste free and wild fall.
Let your love reach the infinite sky
till your Self attain a highest one
alone..
Monday, January 14th, 2019
Don't fall through the cracks,
through the floorboards
past the pipes
hot water hissing
grey metallic stun gun dull.
Don't land on the basement steps,
slipping on down
bumping the back bone
breaking the fall
with your body gone white like you know it so well.
Don't let the swallow of house
and of home
consume you
in solitude's
greedy embrace
Don't wish the outside
would stop looking in
and impute ugly motives
to trees and to flowers
who have your best interest
in chlorophyll hearts.
Don't taste the floors
on your way down to hiding
Don't dine on splinters
and varnish and wine
Don't master silence
when no one is looking
Don't close your eyes
and pretend you are fine.
Don't slip on sentences
you uttered years ago
down in the basement
in pipes
steaming hot
Don't waste your sentiments
or your existence
on hiding the fact
that you are
what you're not
Don't laugh at paintings
with eyes that console you
on walls that you hung
last July on a whim
Don't think the walls
don't expect you
to call them
if you are in trouble
and losing your color from somewhere within
Don't apply pressure
to fissures in floorboards
to fit your way through
and become
what you lose
It's a lot stronger
to stand and absorb it-
surroundings adore you,
implore you to chose.
A playful rhythm arises from within
It is, it is, oh so mood uplifting
Each breath intake sees joy afresh begin
Light that ignites us, to vast space gifting
The flame of bliss flickers not in the breeze
Vagaries of fate have on us no hold
Throb of rapture we embrace and release
Our luminous aura now flaming gold
Ah! Come on, come nearer, caress sublime
Pristine presence presses forward its case
Reverberates in heart the cosmic chime
Truly love effervescence is God’s grace
Moment to moment all moments entwined ~
Our consciousness is thus by bliss refined
On the gurgling remains of Winter
as she seeps back into the earth
on a path around a lake
flanked by the casualties of winter's breath
cattails...
brown and bent with broken heads
backs turned to the pale yellow corn stock stubble
standing in mud clad fields
that lie beneath scattered hints of green
where a red barn and silo stand in wait
A gentle breeze... a ripple on the lake
cattail fluff floating in the air
a symphony composed by songbirds and frogs
drifts across the land and bubbling streams
that cut across the path
Moss lies abreast the thin skin of winter
still remaining in places
where the sun never shines
A blanket of burnt amber needles
and prickly cones
lie beneath a dark green canopy of pines
impaled by glinting spears of sunlight
where the path...for a momeent...is lost
Thump...thump...thump.. the beat of leather souls
on wooden planks over the marshlands...
The lake erupts in torrents of water tendrils
falling from the wings
slapping the face of the lake
as geese take to the sky...
And beyond the forest of pines...
the oaks and maples
display their new burgundy buds
and the few remaining
leaves of Autumn...
all crinkled and curled
still clinging to the past
on a well-worn path
that circles around a lake
with no beginning and no end
where the seasons come and go...
as do... I.
Written: April 30, 2018
Author: Elaine Cecelia George
Between hope and despair, joy and sorrow,
The path of our life, Thee have traced, my Lord,
So as we live both through good and evil
Before You grant the soul, heaven's reward!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
01 May 2022
-
* I would like to thank my good friends for the honor on POTD, which,
I gladly share with them.
I also thank the PoetrySoup officers who have bestowed this honor
upon me. God bless you all!
"... they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; ...."
Isaiah 40:31, King James Bible
With eagle wings, I shall rise up,
I shall gather my dreams;
With all failures I shall breakup,
And I shall ride life's streams !
My path is of yearning,
From no, I am turning;
Within- hope is burning !
And dreams are things,
With eagle wings !
_________________
February 02, 2022
Poetry/Rhyme/Quietus/Hope Is The Way
Copyright Protected, ID 02-1427-389-02
All Rights Reserved, 2022, Constance La France
(Written in the Quietus Form created by Unseeking Seeker)
Written for the Standard contest, Hope
sponsor, Mohan Chutani, Judged 02/16/2022
First Place
My love softly walks with my heart in hand
down a path that will lead
to the center of my being.
In the windows that are my loves eyes
I can see the promise of all tomorrows.
With the caress of a hand a declaration
of what is yet to come.
Warm sultry words are gently spoken
yet strong enough to penetrate
all walls of fear or hesitation.
Lips swollen with loves need now dire
burn in me a path of fire.
Heart to heart and flesh to flesh
two souls meet in loves pyre.
The symphony of mind and soul
rise and fall with unquenching amplitude.
Like the cadence beat of a kettle drum
two hearts beat as one.
As emotions soar to the pinnacle of
celestial firmament all time seems suspended.
Then like an artesian well love explodes
consuming the two souls that lay within.
As a chalice passed each luxuriates in the
liquid pearls that lay therein.
The rapture now complete gently settles
to peaceful bliss as the two now bask
in the afterglow side by side
with hearts in hand.
forward
watch your step
the shadows will hide deep cracks
if you should fall get back up
the path will guide so never give up my friend
at times you may walk
you may even run
crawling will never be shunned
if the path becomes hidden
you may stray
just look up and find your guide
there are many obstacles and many paths
stay the course and do the math
January 23rd, 2021
Suzette Prime Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
A lighted candle shows the way of the true path
After the storms of life have caused an aftermath
Pride while valiant is the root of destruction
A careless and foolish mind accepts assumption
Constrictive and blocking oneself from harm creates a cold heart
Block by block losing the fear; trusting and loving sends a spark
When you feel your spirit and soul in line with His plan
You know that it is a farce to fear man
In the darkness He is the light for us to all see
Isn't it bliss, with all that I've thought, He could choose me?
You took the short path,
in life many do.
I took the long path,
for the lovely view.
Blue shiny water,
I wanted to see.
O' the case of Dorian
progressing through the sea,
battering the Bahamas
then shifting to a "three",
Have you seen the damage caused,
how islands lie in rubble?
Property and lives were lost
resulting from your trouble!
Now we wait so anxiously
to know the fullest measure
of this great calamity
ending in displeasure.
Soon will come the future day
when hurricanes desist.
Dorian, I'm pleased to say,
you will not be missed.
The deepest cuts and mortal wounds
come from the ones we love the most
for we've pulled open ribs like doors
and let in darkness dressed as light
to ravage our innermost self.
No surgeon could triage the mangled
mess that our soul has become
so we curl up in a dark corner
inside ourselves, resigned to die.
...But death eludes us.
So we lurch through life
like some Shyamalan ghost
who doesn't know that it's dead
stumbling through the darkness within.
Until that blessed day that we find...
Hopefully.
Cautiously.
Light.
A light that loves us.
Accepts our hurts.
Walks with us
back through the darkness.
Gently retracing
the lines of our scars.
Those scars that are the path to the soul.
9/23/18
Contest: Verses of Metaphors II
I always wished it was easy to acquire happiness,
but it’s moments like the one I’m facing,
that strengthens my emotions and builds my character.
Nothing is appreciated nor gained from easiness.
It’s the difficulties of this situation,
that brings out the best in me,
while taking me closer to my joy.
So in reality…with all the twists and turns,
I pass ’round those rumored curves,
letting the path guide me through the unknown,
Knowing this desolate heart, will be lead back to you.