I feel like I am being conditioned,
By this troubled world today.
Everything I believed in,
It is gradually fading away,
Anxious and mindless
A lack of humour and grace
No sign of human kindness
Show on my expressionless
Once-humane face.
Reality seems unreal to me,
AI, I cannot grasp
I abhor anything artificial.
Fake, or second class.
Am I being turned into a Robot?
That is something nobody would want to be
All I wish for is a wiser form of me
(“Dark Pool Nebula”, 2011, original oil)
Different Worlds
I travel to different worlds in my dreams,
In my mind, even day by day
With different aspects of my self
In this one body.
As I get older I see we all live in different worlds,
Determined by what we believe, how we are raised,
And what we learn.
Sometimes we can stand on the same street corner
And be in totally different worlds as we chat.
Some people know all about this
And some are totally clueless,
Yet still we are all in our own world.
Is this a problem that needs to change?
I don’t think so
It is just the nature of things
The nature of having a mind
Especially so with an independent mind.
So maybe it is good the way things are.
What is bad is trying to change this
Trying to make everyone conform.
But how would it be if a fish thought itself
A bird, or a bird a fish,
Or a man a woman, or a human a god?
Some things are just not meant to be.
And so I travel to different worlds
In my dreams and in my mind,
And as I become more familiar
The worlds become more wonderful.
(9/15/25)
Betsy Ross sewed the US flag with ease
Fellow countrymen were more or less pleased
A Scotsman stole her design
His wife sewed something so fine
Flags doubling as kilts ~ Waving in the breeze
This cold scheduled grey life
Has me so on point and on task
The tunnel vision is nauseating
The horse blinders debilitating
Want for what, wish for who
An existence built to hypnotize
Time coerced me into being
Unapologetically institutionalized
(“Before the Door”, 2023, original encaustic)
Being In Context
Open awareness
Conditioned mind
Two halves of a whole
Like a container and its contents
A sky and its clouds
A heart and its longings
An irreconcilable duality?
Or simply
The gateway to unconditional love
(2/9/25)
Staring into space,
Full of love and grace,
I embrace,
The sun's face.
Soaking up the rays,
Birds sing their praise.
I feel my conscious raise,
As nature's music plays.
Absorbing the cosmic waves,
Crashing through my brain,
Washing away the pain.
Bringing with it peace,
Allowing the release,
From our limiting beliefs.
A conditioned existence,
Ingrained by our chiefs.
They're more like Thiefs...
Why do we, constantly,
Let others label our identity?
Are we escaping responsibility,
Or is it how we're trained to be?
As we fall deeper into,
Conditioned captivity.
Anxiety, growing rage,
As we realize, this is a cage.
As wars wage, they set the stage,
For their Fear to manage,
It's conditioned image.
Set Us Free!!!!!
Then it comes to me,
When you Love unconditionally,
Each molecule of reality
It sets you Free.
The power of connectivity,
Charging the Energy,
Each cell making it's mark
Creating a unique spark,
Starting a blaze,
Lifting the haze,
The end of a conditioned daze.
From the Ashes,
We rise to be,
Our true entity,
The ONE,
They're afraid to see.
Love's forms vary, some say,
Agape, unconditional, in every way.
But infatuation's spark ignites the flame,
A prerequisite for love's sacred name.
No love exists without attraction's glance,
Sight, sound, or touch, a heartfelt dance.
Even the blind envision in their mind,
A love foreseen, a love defined.
Agape's concept, abstract and grand,
Yet conditions linger, hand in hand.
Scriptures say, "Believe and live,"
A condition set, a love to give.
Men love what they see, a visual tie,
Women love anticipating, a future's sigh.
Materialism, beauty, conditions laid,
Love's unconditional claim, now frayed.
If love's unconditional, why punish error?
Why separation, divorce, and sorrow's terror?
Why love's decline, or favor one over another?
Conditions exist, love's not a free-for-all, brother.
Love's beautiful, yet tied to earthly chains,
Conditions attached, like hidden pains.
No love's entirely selfless, pure, and true,
A paradox of love, forever shines through.
Pausing aversion,
making void-centric our view,
pesky flies are forgiven.
The note discordant,
plays to a different rhythm,
unknown to throb of our heart.
Unconditionally I speak for the verbs in my gladness in my praise and raised arms and hands I no longer in sadness I spit out the verbs that reach joy and gladness unconditionally I am he
~
Unconditionally in my free will I wreak havoc unconditionally I am free though I am taunted and I am Savage as I embrace the doctrine of my new Freedom I am overcome by the joys as my heartbeats Liberties I am needed as I share my work with my fellow brethren I am harvested I am growing in without as I reach up and out to my father who is the greater great I Am accommodated as I am exonerated I am unconditionally conditioned in him
Futile is striving, unless we are clear
about who we are and purpose of life,
that we may then act without any fear,
full of joy and laughter, always bliss rife,
pulsations of love, to our heart held dear.
Discarding then, each conditioned belief,
relying neither on senses nor mind,
negating ephemeral joy and grief,
leaving vicarious knowing behind,
in tranquil silence, we turn a new leaf.
In timeless time, we slowly cease to sway,
thoughts rested, our awareness self-aware,
beholding light of our soul, clear as day,
surrendering will, laying our soul bare,
God’s benedictions, then make earth life play.
Let us take a look at our conditioned belief
Based upon culture where we are born
We tend to follow a specific religion
Holding other scriptures in scorn
We’ve seen not God, yet affirm
That the symbol we believe in is true
Does not the sun’s light equally upon all
Each spectrum of love radiating a bliss hue
Is God so narrow that He’ll save only a few
All isms are but man made oh hermit
Flow with ease, embrace, release
Love takes us to the summit
26-April-2023
every ism
imposes
binding us
look at breath
and heartbeats
they flow on
love and light
free for all
just be it
04-March-2023
Tricube
Sans fear and desire, we are free
Unfettered, unbound and carefree
Save God's grace, what's there to aspire
We are free, sans fear and desire
Earth life's a school, we're here to learn
With conscience as guide, let's discern
Embrace of love’s the only rule
We're here to learn, earth life's a school
To know the truth, discard belief
Give our weary soul some relief
Enter staid silence now forsooth
Discard belief to know the truth
God's light, soft white, aflame within
Cave of heart's open, go therein
Embark thus on a wingless flight
Aflame within, God's light, soft white
27-October-2022
Swap Quatrain
''If you have what you call, a conditioned mind. That is to say: 'First thought, best.' ''
Your level of consciousness determine your survival and your devotion, you must become sensitive to the spirit of God, so that the eyes of the soul see that it's gold, the knowledge of self let me know. my destiny I control, people become victims of fate because they don't know, the true essence of life that pervades the entire universe, In my heart I ask what is life worth If I can't be myself, dying inside a little everyday from a psychological mind state that is the result of self-hate, normal is just a word society, use to desensitize you, to behaviors that are truly barbaric, from our ancestors we inherit the secret knowledge that makes us divine, black people been kings and queens for a long time, If you do your research and study you will find no race can live in peace, living in societies created by European beast, our neighborhoods and communities are filled with poison, ourselves we destroying, just to live in America
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.