Compressing Poems | Examples

List of Member Poems

Traffic Light

Yellow is the boundary of the stride,

A paper-thin cleft between the end and the beginning.

Time catches its breath within that tiny seam,

And we weigh our choices once again—

“Shall I press on, or shall I stay?”

The moment my foot takes the green light,

A palanquin charges forward, compressing time itself in its speed.

“How dare you! Make way for the Magistrate!”

That glare is no simple threat.

Our hesitation is a quiet ritual, testing both choice and chance.

Green is the opening of a promise.

Yet within that promise seeps a hidden gaze and a silent rule.

We read it, judge it, and take our step.

Can we truly step forward, trusting this green hue alone?

As swift palanquins rush by without end,

Our judgment is constantly put on trial.

A traffic light is never merely a set of colors.

It is the invisible shadow of order,

The ultimate symbol of the norms we belong to.

And the traffic light asks:

“Do you truly trust me?”

Soundbites - Sunday 5-14-2026

Truth Escapes

Each day shorter
than the day
before

Each word
sharper
and meaning more

Time compressing
the past
implodes

Truth
escaping
— life’s final throes

********

The Enemy Within

Everyone lives
with a cancer
deep inside of
them

Waiting
like a panther
striking 
from within

If not today
tomorrow
on that
you can depend

Setting up
a sneak attack
malignancy
— portends

********


Within The Lines

Verse
is my mistress
Poetry
my love
Every line
my beating heart
Rhyme
sent from above

Feelings
wrapped in verbiage
Passion
leads the way
Stopping time
within the lines
Couplets
— on display

********

Words Rebirth

The leading edge
of prescience
A doorway to
beyond
Walking through
the past adieu
As words rebirth
— in song

(The New Room: June, 2026)

The Leeks of Spring

bonasa umbellus--- "cloak of secrecy"
A warp drive is a theoretical concept that
 moves a spacecraft by compressing space
 in front of it and expanding space behind 
it, creating a "warp bubble"A cloche 
 french for bell.
The limbs of the hickory wii be fashioned
 and forged into a bassoon.


             "  Hezzah  Hoeing"
   --- -- --------------------------------
          Manila Clam Hand Hoe
              Clam Hoe/Fork
                 Solen brevis    
        sandy-muddy tidal areas.
            Other species, such as 
             Amiantis umbonella
               Barbatia decussata 
                tivela damaoides,
               being prominent in
                clam feastated areas
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
-------------------Quahogs----------------------
---------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
Qawad Large Snout............------------------------


The sky didn't rain enough

I opened the door
it was unfamiliarly wet outside
the water eroded the memory

I have opened the wrong door

each door has a history
didn't know that
so I accidentally changed the story

now I'm entangled 
it feels like drifting through the ocean 
while seagrass has taken over your body
pushing you back

I don't want to go back

it is dark and wet
the sky is pouring heavily
compressing my lungs

I don't want to go back

I'll be forced to open my eyelids
and see
how mothers are wearing their children as a hat
                                                                  … your mother

while the walls are detouring from our house
may keepers hold you safe

we didn't know better

Premium Member Tickling the ivories

In my youth I dreamt of playing the piano
filling the nights with romance and melodies
orchestrating sound and beauty

Reading and interpreting sheet music while
compressing innermost feelings into sequences of notes
translated in the language best understood by the heart

Swirling to the beat of rhythmic grace
rich with aphrodisiac chemistry
intoxicating mesmerizing beguiling

I’ve dreamt so long of pleasuring the night
to charm the moon and stars above
with my hypnotic serenades and symphonies



AP: 1st place 2025

Premium Member Dance with Delusions

Dancing with delusions, sparks of hellfire
Course through my lugubrious quill pen.
Distorted words igniting fear,
Anxiety fills crevices,
Encircling, silencing,
Asphyxiating.
Walls closing in,
Compressing.
Hope fades,
Doom.
Dread
Runs cold.
Veins poisoned,
Sanity slips
Unmercifully.
The angels are mimicked.
Light dimming, darkness descends
As demons mingle with the dead.
Apocalyptic skies crack open
To wash away all that you held sacred.


Premium Member Hyper-Caloric

Though what we know
and that which we feel
goes into what we write

I believe
poets are more inclined toward

image-periphery

the alchemy of lyric-formation

what is just around the corner
horrifically vague

standing on the lip-edge

toes dangling over

peering bravely into a
primal abyss 

------------------------------

each new declaration a journey

backward, compressing coldly
into dank catacombs of past 
drafting explorers

forward, confronting bard echoes
the maps of our ancient priests
left for the daring

the literary awakened

new skies revealed

sustain alternating and renewed

every night a fresh splattering of light

every dawn
a bounty-warmth of slippery
sunny icing 

such decadence our breakfast
lunch and supper
no dessert denied

the rich slices we pen

the hyper-caloric that
drives us to the brink 

daring us to step off

both angels and demons
awaiting their catches

lift must be in our favor --

-------------------------

Let the work begin!

The Song of Strom

There's this little fragile
Betwixt the escort.
Trying to understand
Their psyche,
Their interest.
Are they really the armours
Or the aviary?
And will the dust devil arrive,
Rising from our own silhouette,
Compressing the cage of ribs
With the bludgeon?
Illusion of something erroneous,
Or may be some nave.
Perfect guard,
Guarding the heart,
The cascade of truth
For the so called panoply,
Squeezing the heart out.
Every piece of the jigsaw heart,
Turning out into butterflies
Dancing the dance of freedom.
Breath breath breath,
Screamed the chambers,
Shouts the guard.
Rushing the red ink
To the fragile little heart,
Pumps & paint the canvas,
Red with pure air.
They said it
to be the cage of protection,
And still the heart suffocated
Bearing all the badger in love.
So the kernel continued singing
The song of strom..
(12th April, 2023)

Premium Member Life Keeps Throwing Curve Balls

Everything pressing on my mind 
So, I question, why?
Blessings are small when addressing
Where I am currently at right now. 
Life is compressing my being 
With every-day turmoil progressing.
I am a window dressing of peace,
But a different narrative inside. 
Blessings my Lord, gaze down on me 
And open a flood gate of discipline,
Help me transcend above it.

7/5/2022

Premium Member The Brain--Your Personal Computer

The brain is an incredibly efficient computer
Compressing trillions of bytes of information,
Registering every impression we encounter,
Analyzing concepts from formation to causation.

Compressing trillions of bytes of information
In milliseconds without hesitation, unrelentingly,
Analyzing concepts from formation to causation
Remarkably, it even functions unconsciously.

In milliseconds without hesitation, unrelentingly,
It processes the continual intake of our senses
Remarkably, it even functions unconsciously,
Outlining proposals, formulating our defenses.

It processes the continual intake of our senses,
All while regulating our involuntary responses
Outlines our proposals, formulates our defenses
Even evaluating the most complicated nuances.

All while regulating our involuntary responses
Registering every impression we encounter,
Even evaluating the most complicated nuances
The brain is an incredibly efficient computer. 

Written May 9, 2022

Premium Member Dancing Psalms

Dancing our epic song
inside images
dreams
narratives
ritual motions
rhythmic changes 
disembodied

Can become dissonantly self-predative
depressing
exhausting
compressing

Claustrophobic mean remains
of darkly disabling
demonic Othering;
nothing left
for cooperative choice,
wellbeing voice.

Dancing our song
dividing MeWe healthy humanity
in unhealthy ways

Sometimes therapeutically remediated
by better
silent outside
sacred listening,
for healing humane justice
in divinely green peace
forest Cathedrals,
desert sand drifting Paradise,
oceanic blue Heavens,
mountainous purple sunset Passions,
silent flowing rivers 
of transparent Power
chasing
following vulnerable 
wounding Light

Cooperatively active
inside/outside copassion
recklessly curious love
restoring EarthPeace
one dance at a time

For cooperatively revolutionary
mediations
resonantly YangSun sung
YintegralEarth danced

In and Out
Self and Other
therapeutically empathic 
sacred muses
dancing our co-arising Psalms.

Room Won'T Disclose

Majestic flight sweeps up from lobby sprawl
Mattress padding pink carpet creeps corners 
Bannisters ornate in century's old discussions
Omit disclosure of grim history above

Uniform scuff tread flat railed staircase 
Stretches ominously into third level dim
Each step taken fades from life the stepper 
Cobwebs claim frames of dust dampened portraits

Compressing is staircase from dingy third
Wide shouldered folk hunch, tunnel encroaching
Trapdoor top is a shock to wood tread traveller
Rejoicing of stiffened hinges, solitary sound 

Huddled roofspace floods intrepid with doom 
Heanous endings leach from panelled attic walls
Slivers of snowdust rays showcase eye sockets 
Emptied in skulls committed to fourth floor torture




6th September 2020 

The Fourth Floor of Nowhere Poetry Contest 
Craig Cornish

Premium Member Cast, Type

He bound thru hoarfrost, highland fells
          With naught but knees to ring the bells
               Such haunting peals from little blooms
     That daubed his hell with dreamy doom

He wrapped his dreams around their throats
          Sweet things that bled with beats and notes
               And squeezed with all the strength he knew
     While each bright face turned ghastly blue

The morn breaks, new, for each grieved soul
          Though doubts and deeds can take their toll
               He suffered, wrought from pride's cold dawn
     Those highlands bled from shame, now gone

He searched for what he'd thus once found
          That careless heart ... now dead and bound.






~ Honorable Mention ~  in the "Completely Your Choice (30) Any Form, Any Theme" Poetry Contest, Brian Strand, Judge & Sponsor.

* This is the Rhyme that my poem "Type, Cast" was built around ... I never did a mixed-form this way before, (writing the Free Verse sections and inserting Rhyme as I went), but compressing these sections after the fact helps me to see where the core ideas originated. Kind of a fun exercize, overall! *

The Big Change

There is the turning point
He said like I should know
Twisting conviction tight
While frozern to the bone

This is that hopefull sign
He said like it was fact
Compressing doubt inside
Until my spine Began to snap

This way is saving grace
His tone full of pride
Almost deflated still
My rib cage open wide

This is where you say goodbye
His tone was empathetic 
My back turned painfully 
I pulled out my haert and left it.

Premium Member Impressive Trust

Impression is for now.
Trust is for the future.

Impression,
contentment,
ego-compressing precession,
is for  breathing out ego-now and eco-here listening;
Trust,
compassionate co-arising recession,
is for breathing in the future.

Extrapolations
of a Yogi Positive Energy tea-bag
as read,
and preferably incarnated, 
by Jonathon Wilcox,
breathing in impressions
breathing out democracy-building trust.

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