My dear friend, how have you been?
It’s hard to write, I haven’t seen
You since forever, but I thought
I’d let you know: I think a lot
About you thinking that I think
That we’re remembering in sync
Each other’s names, and what we had
A life ago: the good, the bad,
The friendship of those ancient times,
The joys, the tears, the feats, the crimes,
The dinners that my Mom prepared,
The novels that your sister shared…
You know the spiel, I won’t go on,
And I don’t think it would be wrong
To round this up, and to confirm:
I’ll see you soon—in cosmic terms.
Aren’t we ruled by the Unknown
Isn’t it bloody obvious?
Minds we used to deem our own
Do they still belong to us?
Via progress we regress
Open up the news - I bet
The next minute you digress:
“Why on earth I need all that?”
Everything looks predetermined
Everyone plays politician
Set your rule, I won't confirm it
Don’t rely on my submission
I’m a trickster and a gambler
Bought and sold three times a day
Counting 20th of September
Happy Birthday, anyway…
Leigh Hunt's double quatrain -linked centres around 'Time you thief' ,a bio romantic memory of youth from the nostalgia of old age...a typical recurring happening I can confirm as someone very aged myself
.math puzzle
. challenge captures
. Frustrates unnerves
. unfeasible unsolvable
. hopeless impossible
. epiphany
. rally arise
. seize pencil
. confirm verify
. smile savor
.recline doze
remembrance gentle like babe’s foot
smooth creamy warm
cradle handed down as heritage
here we sit waiting for christening
oblivious to what she will bear
what joys and anguish
hall clock ticktock
he is late with his mantras
to be whispered in her ear
soft purr of cat circles room —
nobody requires to speak
we roll new name on our tongues
over and over like counting
pearls on a necklace or
sweat drops down throat
even westwind is quiet today
a starling lands on sill
does not twitter, waits silent
she passes from one arm to next
wordless chaste enchanting
white crochet shawl alive
with granny’s hands —
teapot smiles rooibos tea
iced biscuits and cherries bedeck
oval oak sturdy, assured, steady
we hear his car in driveway
murmur a prayer of thanksgiving
still we whisper, still starling
has not flown or tweeted
teeny gold identity bangle glisten
white daisies shiver in bowl
petals endorse sound of name
beauty birthed has no time
__________________________
[Poet’s Note : Inspired by : Benicia Poet Laureate Emerita, Johanna Ely’s Poem : What Still Matters | Confirm : No AI ]
___________________________
In order to discern To intentionally hurt that unintentionally hurts
Wrap these spiritual vessel in order to discern
provoked and unearthed
preying on specials
To intentionally hurt that unintentionally hurts
open wounds leak out worth
in drowsy pedals
that determine morals and ethics.
In order to discern
Reflections confirm
Veils harmonize wrestling with the unsettled
To intentionally hurt that unintentionally hurts
Discernment practice and rehearse
To bring balance to level.
In order to discern.
Perhaps it only ever occurred.
Spiritual and emotional wrestles
To intentionally hurt that unintentioanlly hurts. In order to discern.
You can't read a mind, but you can read a face
Just watch over time to see emotions that race
Expressions revealing rejection or jeers.
Enough to chill anyone, confirm paranoid fears.
There's the expression "We will crush you"
And "You just don't get it, but we hate you."
A face that can't hide a nasty plan
What can I do? I'm just one man.
There's the face that says I'm a cloying fool
Then there's tones I never heard in school
There's the tone of dripping contempt
How do I deflect that, even make an attempt?
There's the face rehearsing how he'll beat me to a pulp
I look at it and let out a nervous gulp.
Skeptics say I expect to see, then I fill in
But if half is true, my future is grim.
The are the words too, that sometimes come along
But the interesting aspect is the rest of the song
Maybe it's the brain controlling muscles, controlling eyes
That makes the inner feeling break through the disguise.
This preceded talking, in our evolutionary past
Another way of knowing, that some dismiss too fast.
You can know much about a man, just by the way he laughs
Know with who to hunt the wildebeest, with who to forge your path.
T'is sunny outside
I shiver and shake
So much at stake
I'm hit, broadside
In virtue, my gain
Karma to repay
A coin for pain
One level up, say?
Body infirm
Mind at peace
Spirit confirm
Upstream to seize
Silence answers before I ask
only silence answering my fear
something is near but never fully arrives
moving through spaces I cannot name
I don’t know what you are
but you know me too well
like hearing a name through a closed door I cannot open
your presence reaches me late
like a truth delayed in the body
you stand where certainty should be
yet I only catch fragments of you
half-formed, shifting without sound
never staying long enough to confirm
even your shape feels borrowed from distance
returning differently each time
I reach for what you are becoming
but meaning keeps slipping past me
and still you remain everywhere
without ever arriving fully
Mary had a little frog
She took him with her to school
Teacher said he can't come in
For it is against the rules.
Mary said he's no bother
That frog is eager to learn
Though it did seem rather odd
He’s a star, she did confirm.
So teacher said frog could stay
If he promised not to croak
And wouldn’t go jumping lessons
Because that would be no joke.
Mary's frog was fine as gold
At school, at work and at play
Doing just as he was told
Till the bell rang end of day.
The bell scared frog near to death
He croaked with eyes a-bulging
Went hopping o’er all the desks
The kids found that amusing.
Teacher chased him out the room
Mary was in floods of tears
Couldn't find him anywhere
Her frog simply disappeared.
It has been a rough week.
Monday was dog-eared and dozing.
The world ended on Tuesday -
so not a great start.
Wednesday, not surprisingly,
did not know how to break the news.
The planet carried on being essentially global
while millions of people seemingly not to care
that they were no longer there.
There were many afterlife tragedies,
rumors of leaky unsustainable beliefs,
suicides were tried but to no avail.
Everywhere there were catastrophic failures
of restroom facilities.
Thursday dissolved quietly
unwilling to confirm or deny its existence.
Those still able to crawl to work
did so in their dreaming skulls.
Friday absentmindedly tried to begin again
then remembered.
The few who thought it might only be
a cosmic PowerGrid blip
were assured by ghostly astrophysicist
that the world would return
and apologized for all the fuss.
However, as happened,
the weekend really was the END.
My Mind (Worthless Places)
Wholeness of Society
Fighting dredges and
Lowly hearted
Missing graces
Discarded places
Balance the merits
Of the night
Holding light
Resistance to
Fight
Counter uselessness
Discipline to my life
True truths confirm
The blatant lies
Confirming the
Worthless Places
Your foibles,
the characteristically odd ways
of your individual life appearance,
its mannerisms
your behavioral peculiarities,
and picadilloes,
will all fall away by and by.
What eventually will be left
is this alien species that bears your name.
You have died a thousand times already,
every feature of your character
has been replaced or modified
many times.
Your physicality
rinsed and recycled through
an ever-turning time machine.
Even now, the way you walk, and talk
is at the mercy and behest of a universal tide
and its shifting dunes.
The dead confirm the dead,
what never lived must pass away,
it was all a game of death
that soon will lead to the everlasting,
but not yet,
all is a work in progress,
until then
the Universe of All That Is
experiences itself as
you,
you playing hide and seek
with what you truly are.
MY CANCER JOURNEY
(so far)
Cancer comes and disappears
2 years pass, it reappears
More tests done confirm our fears
Cancer raised it's ugly head
A diagnosis we truly dread
Hormone therapy and radiation
Hopefully aimed at right location
Many trips to Allen Blair
3 more years and all seems fair
Then rising PSA we dread
Cancer raised it's ugly head
More appointments and more tests
Seems this cancer never rests
Cancer now has spread to bones
Drugs and therapy we hope postpones
The spread of this ugly plight
I don't have time, hold the phone
More shots to delete testosterone
And now I'm on abiraterone
And also add in prednisone
And what comes next remains unknown
My life is in God's hands, I pray
Regardless what oncologists say
I am so thankful for this day
I pray that God will let me stay
On earth for a bit more time
(I kinda like it here)
AMEN
Fiery amber eyes gaze out
From a face of white speckled fur
Into the icy blinding swirling snow
Of a high hidden Himalayan hamlet
To meet in mortal combat
The closed minds
of poaching Pakistani peasants
Carrying pitchforks
In a parody or normality
A battle to confirm
That not all ideas matter
That Nature’s laws triumph
That not everyone
Understands eternal complexity
Standing firm on its precipice
In a show of rare boldness
It gives a performance
Of unheard-of courage
In the face of the enemy
Spirit guardian of a higher world
It takes a stand
Against the madness that is man
"Animal revere and respect holiness; they do not teach sin."
St. Neilos the Asectic, in the Asectic Dialogues
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.