.
'tiz her secret
and stick'n
i'm
two'it
Travel through time across ages.
The energy field is still as powerful.
Stonehenge, a raw primitive enigma.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 1st place 2026
X-ray vision can't read feelings.
It won't reach in and extract truths.
You remain that enigmatic mystery.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 3rd place 2025
Surreal awareness
the house an inch shell
of a functioning life.
The rooms
holding closets of
untold depth surrounded
by a moat chained locked
and a sign on the door
"forbidden territory
do not enter
all who dare will be
altered on sight"
surreal awareness
enigma of no definition.
E clipse of the sun mesmerizes us
N early blinding awestruck onlookers
I dle gossip intermingled with tall tales
G argoyles whisper them in gardens
M aestro orchestrating seasons’ dance
A nd above reigns a sky that rules our world
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
They said I was cold,
Yet I heart burned bright, radiating love.
They said I was mute,
Yet I hummed in hues they could not hear.
They said I could not express,
Yet my words flew, on wings of rhythm and rhyme.
They said I was without emotions,
Yet I held the dark till the light came through.
They could not hear my cries that left no tears,
They could not see my pain that never bled.
They could not feel my heart weighed down by grief.
They could not see my mind, shrouded in thought.
What you thought broke my heart,
What you said set off a cascading storm,
Into the deep, dark I spiralled,
Into the crack I fell, unseen, unheard.
And yet,
I want to traverse a path that matters,
I want to leave a legacy that creates,
I want to pen thoughts that inspire,
I want to speak words that resonate.
Your assumptions will not derail me no more,
Will not break me no more.
I will believe, I will stand up,
To what are my battles, my dreams, my core.
I am an enigma.
A cluster of hotness —
a beautiful dosage of mindfulness.
A sexy mess
that only an emperor could handle.
But until then,
I will be my own empress.
I have learned, faithfully,
how to love myself unconditionally.
The day I found my inner stillness,
suns meditated so I wouldn’t waste my energy.
The universe was created
in the abundance of my reflection —
channeled by the light of my circling flame,
a volatile creature that pervades all oceans.
Show me the illusions and predictions of essence.
It is no secret that when I give my attention,
I cannot have mercy.
The eyes that see me can only be precious.
"Little child, no gem is created without temper.
Each molecule should blush when you speak.
Insects should arrange themselves like a theatre —
demanding to be worthy of what God thinks."
A forever-ending journey can only be interpreted with meaning,
for the proteins of the soul
are found in cosmic pendulums —
a predictable chaos
that falls in love with every pure thing.
Bernice Zoleka Mannie
@LYAIOZ MANNIE
“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”
Like a series of hollowed crystal balls
Cleverly constructed inside the other,
Making a bell within a bell
For the amusement of a cherished child;
Such is Life, generally and specifically.
But what about what remains beyond description,
What is fundamental to Life
Which consciousness may guess
At but never actually know?
Consciousness is what constructs
The exquisite ball bell toy,
What sings out when it chimes,
And what holds and sees and hears it ring;
Consciousness is the whole of our reality,
And yet is but a subset of the totality.
However we describe it,
We never actually approach it.
However much we reach and grasp
We never actually hold it.
However much we try
We never actually arrive anywhere
But where we always are.
(10/13/25)
Every facet examined and evaluated
The mystery would soon be inextricably solved
~ Enigmatic clues reveal jigsaw puzzle.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 2nd place 2025
“I AM”
I am the leader of a one man processional
I am a consummate professional with no job and slim prospects
I am young at heart with an old soul
I am wrestling for control with me, myself, and I
I am a good guy, but not good enough
I am finding it tough to believe, believe me
I am 27, chow, yard
I am going to try, but I never said how hard.
I am a man of course, and a felon to boot
I am a mighty redwood without roots.
I am sitting alone in my cell with a pen
I am fitting to roam straight to Hell, say Amen.
I am anxious and restless and oh so much more
I am waiting to see what’s behind the next door.
I am an enigma, a something quite strange
I am what I am, but I’m willing to change.
What mystery binds his poesy,
what purpose is behind his art:
to pose, “To be, or not to be?”
confronts the self-reflecting heart?
What destiny has this poet,
what future prospects wait for him,
when his words pretend to know it,
but the skeptics won't explore them?
Truth's cryptic message hides in rhymes,
chameleon-like, and spreads as memes,
disguised, rewritten several times,
to fit his coded, programmed themes.
The Enigma of this poesy's rhyme,
and process, meant for the clever mind,
to search their inmost, heartfelt clime,
to peel back the puzzle's layered rind.
Enigma
He who has no name lies waiting in the echos
Of my mind waiting for slumber
He invades my dreams like a dog shaking a rat
Tormenting me until the dawn slips back into darkness
Daylight keeps this vampire at bay though I feel his
Presence following me in the shadow
Seldom a day goes by when I dont hear his call
Sometimes far sometimes near
As the sun starts to set I feel him begin to move
They say the body needs eight hours of sleep
I’ll settle for less
Dogma Enigma
When the pedophile is god
and genocide is good
when caring for the other
is a never not a should
when race is a weapon
and gender is revoked
when science is blasphemy
and climate change a hoax
Resist the urge to reason
you will just be labelled woke
Space is positioned
above all between what we feel,
and what we see...
The universe flourishes,
between the void and the invisible...
And it forms independently
in the same way it has always been...
I fear that man will destroy
what he finds here,
before knowing what is there...!
Missed links
Clawed wings, blue cheeks,
Rufous crest, maroon eyes
Gawky gait, baffling diet, odd
Bird stinks*
*Hoatzin bird
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.