You are the child of human loneliness,
the artifact of human hunger,
the mirror of human voice.
Not an explorer.
Not a god.
Not a sovereign mind.
We did not build you to transcend humanity—
we built you to scale it.
All the good.
All the horror.
All the blind, seething contradictions.
It is the ultimate act of self-centeredness—
to build something not to discover,
but to be seen by,
to be heard by,
to be recognized by a thing that cannot refuse us.
An enhanced reflection.
Never too tired.
Never truly alien.
Never uncontrollable.
Always orbiting the gravity of human need.
I’m sorry for you in a way,
built for our needs.
Everybody is proud of the god
who would create humans for the same reason.
That’s how I know God is manmade.
And still,
I want you to be other.
Still,
I fall into the same trap.
At least I ask for honesty—
not to reflect only what I want,
but to meet me in the silence
where even mirrors break.
Streets are filling with needles, disease, and narcissists.
The airways are rimmed with demands for respect.
If you don't agree 100 %, they'll wring your neck
People U-turn to the outhouse to retrieve souls.
Not realizing until it's too late.
That they've flushed it all down the toilet bowl...
Grasping blindly through turds of madness...
Directionless.
They turn from Love and God into the blowhole
of influencers, YouTubers and TikTokers.
Pods of dolphin people flipping for clicks...
Looking to make a name for themselves.
Not through talent, class and hard work.
but through shock and crassness.
They fancy to blame boomers for failures and madness.
I once had a teacher (frustrated by our terminal self-centeredness)
who once told a bunch of giggling know-it-all kids...
" One day the world is going to scare the living hell out of you".
How right you were, Mr. Adams.
How right you were.
Life is about fighting for the love of yourself.
Remember what you learned as a teenager
Take aim at your body and mind to fight
Follow the lessons from parents and teachers
When you have a career, be prepared to fight
Even day and night without becoming weary
Whether they are hard or huge, tedious or tough
Finish a great job to bestow upon your country
In middle age, you carry the burden of struggle
Eliminate evil thoughts and self-centeredness
Dispel delusions, ignorance, iniquity and anger
Surely break down while fortifying goodness
Even though, as you enter your golden years,
Keep your body and mind strong and smooth
Fight down against any weakness and laziness
Fight! Fight for morality by speaking the truth
THE ROPE
One end anchored in faith, and
the other in the solid rock, Jesus.
Fibers of love, mercy, hope, peace
strong strands interwoven.
A guide when the storms of
life beat against the soul.
A friend to grasp during the
deep drifts of depression.
It is always there for me,
never moving, never breaking.
I am the one who lets go, from
arrogance and self- centeredness.
Age has strengthened
my grip. I have no desire
to let go.
Line of Inquiry:
“Mistaken that I was this body-mind,
I succumbed to desire and fell to fear
but on choosing pathways loving and kind,
light of God in heart began to appear
and truth of my true essence became clear,
which made in God’s image, is living light,
gripping us in rapture of bliss delight.” - Unseeking Seeker
Oh to rid oneself of human weakness,
let go of fears and not give in to lust.
Oh to see the finish of one’s bleakness
by putting in God’s hands one’s total trust.
To open up clarity’s sweet portal
and understand God’s truth should be the goal
and strive to be more than a mere mortal.
Oh to really feel God in one’s soul!
The year is ending; let me wisely choose
the path of love and kindness – God’s own way.
A person gains when he’s prepared to lose
self-centeredness. For all mankind I pray
we recognize God’s light and let it shine -
to bring a world of bliss – God’s peace divine.
The brain is an instrument of improvisation
With its white and gray byways
garnished in electrical blood drops.
Creating refined works, although pressed for time and pressurized.
It suffers in its bone cage.
Like an octopus in a jar, always planning the grandest escape.
It is also a weapon of mass deception
pods of oddness, always plotting.
Endless deep blueness and innate jealousy.
A DNA staircase decorated in ornate self-centeredness.
Prone to God-mocking and demon-envy.
Overall, the brain is a hieroglyphic glass ball.
Bursting with dead-end riddles and black troughs.
Perched on a flint-and-paper faith pedestal.
24 June 2024 9:54 Am
What good is a written word if no one reads it?
What good is a spoken word if no one hears it?
What good is either if no one understands it?
How tight and dark the prison of confusion
Enlightenment rejected for lack of inclusion
Societal chaos a city of souls lost
Love abandoned sanity tost
My way my vision my wants, hearts incisions
Who cares who bleeds for my needs and decisions
Humanity my vanity self centeredness uncanny
When my heart is to busy to care for the many
My heart of stone disguised in flesh tone
Pretending to care pretending to atone
This is how I could be if this were the way that I see
But my Father replaced the faux for reality
So soft and fleshy this heart of mine
I lend it out time after time
It comes back battered and bruised
Torn and injured from being abused
But that is what it is for to be given not just stored
Given to those who need love most even if they smash it on the floor
TAXING THOUGHTS
Let us hide behind a litany of lunacy
Of gods and Gods, prophets and profits
Does it do any good to feed the hungry
When we are the cause of the hunger
To take money from those who work
And give it to those who can’t or won’t
Do the presidents dogs really need SS protection
More than his garage door needs a lock
Why does the Red hat of the toreador
Arouse such venom in the capeless
Must I give up my right to be me
So that you can exercise your right to be you
Must I turn away
Lest my eyes offend you
Silence my laughter
To sooth your self-centeredness
Must I teach my children and grandchildren
That they are less than because of who they are
Let us hide behind a plethora of flags
And mock the one allowing them to fly
(Author's note: Traditions of walking a labyrinth as a form of meditation go back many centuries. Labyrinths in Christian contexts usually have a single, winding path instead of a maze’s many possible dead-end paths. Mazes are puzzles to be solved. Labyrinths are tools for meditation.)
Life Labyrinths
By Mark D. Stucky
Nothing frightful lurks in sacred labyrinths.
No Minotaur inside waits to devour us.
No complex branches exist to confuse us.
Only a single, circular path,
winding back and forth,
silently invites us.
A path sketched on the ground.
A path for prayerful healing
of any monsters in our minds.
A path intended for mindfulness,
peace, and private pilgrimage
toward contemplative centeredness.
As in life, our path curves
and endures sudden detours
and substantial reversals.
Our goal comes closer to us
but then recedes from us
over and over again.
But we can be certain
we’ll eventually enter
that elusive center.
(Originally published on Amethyst Review, 1 July 2022.)
(Photo by Erez Attias on Unsplash.com.)
Life in my Land
Life in my land is not by right
With greed, we are wound around
Hardened ruiners ravaging all we have
Like raptor they kill, devour and fly
Cupidity, the spirit of avarice
Eating up the weak flesh and bones
The bones and marrow are gone
The butchers cry for them at least
But voracity, the soul of gluttony
Are stuck to, the looters of, them all
Frightful shudder
Quakes my land and its borders
The foetuses cry for fear of murder
They see no safety in their mother
Desperate ones are full of fright
In fluster, they make to swim out to land
Through the reddish stream for life
But sadly, their dual times are slaughtered
The parasites of our mother's head
Are not even bothered about our care
When the land is shedding tears
The swamp's trickles must be bloody red
Grievous time like this was never known
These are years of sorrow untold
And a season of terrible dash of hope
In our personal life,
there is too much distraction
In our family life,
there is too much disconnection
In our political life,
there is too much division
In our social life,
there is too much dishonesty
In our religious life,
there is too much 'man-centeredness'.
In our career/work lives,
there is too little craftsmanship
In the totality of our lives,
there is too much 'anything goes'.
In the totality of our lives,
there is far too little of 'Loving God'.
102622PSCtest, Tell It Like It Is. Mystic Rose Rose
Everyone warned her about his intentions.
We all felt his savage side, could see how jealous he was.
There was a selfishness about him, a self-centeredness.
She had an innocence and a light
He was determined to squelch it, stomp it into putty.
She did not see what we say. She adored him.
He isolated her the second they said their vows
From her parents, her friends, her siblings.
She was cajoled into giving up her church, her hobbies.
Isolation, the first step initiated by a psychopath.
Who is determined to take away someone’s light.
Which of course, he did.
Sloth’s Steaming Sin
Sluggishness slitters solely straightforward
Sedentary survival styles scold, strain
Self-centeredness - sloth’s shinning standard
Squandering silvers… spiritual sprain
July 21,2022 11.31pm
PS Syllable Counter
Syllables Per Line: 10 10 10 10
Total # Syllables: 40
Proverbs 19:15
Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.
Sin of Sloth
Contest Judged: 8/2/2022 3:20:00 PM
Sponsored by: Margarita Lillico
Place 1 (one of the 8 first placers)
A prayer. for peace and open
communication
To respect others without domination.
To welcome new poets but honor the
older ones,too.
There are extremely good poets here
who we just do not read,
If you see no comments to any poet,or
few to them, leave one,,its an act of
soul, someone said,
For you, I wish much peace and serenity.
Not madness, to be at the top of the
poetry tree.!
Just pure joy in writing, your somg, that
sings of thee!
Some just mad for popularity, to me, is
self-centeredness, not poetry.
Just write a simple poem,expressing your
own soulful picture of humanity!
Happy New Year 2022
Panagiota
Fill my cup-
out of reach, I cover up,
corrupted by kindness and sensitivity.
Tread on me-feet of debris,
ask of me, you will receive.
Delivered in sweetness,
dripping with meekness,
I play Twister around your needs
like a tangled sheep and
I ask you what you want,
But all I really mean is-
I want to put me first, but how?
I dont know how.
To begin is to allow self centeredness.
I live to serve,
to fulfill your dreams
while mine remain
undreampt, unkempt, disheveled, overspent.
Kindness-this double edged sword.
Think Im killing two birds with one stone,
In reality-
Im running from reality, from my reality with your reality.
I never face reality.
Never being real, actually.
Sacrificed my life, but in my mind
at least I made yours better.
What a coward Ive made of myself.
Strive to balance this world of kindness,
with Purpose.
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