"I'm the Carnival's
Cartomancer,
Zoltar the mystic,
foreseeing wise."
"Who immobile waits...
inside this
narrow case--
top four-sided glass
and bottom
Pine-crafted box.
"It's wishing coin's
'ka-ching',
that magically
revives me."
"As true believers
witness--once
my turbaned gaze
mentally reads
what's seeping out
their inquiring eyes."
"Fact is--these
animated hands,
randomly select
from the magnetic deck--
one, out of many, fortune
riddled cards--inked of
buoyant, superb vibes."
"Though blissful, playful,
mind you--all of 'em--
merciful white lies."
"Behold, each
future's scripted
and then sold;"
"To luck--searching,
wishing souls--
on fortune--tellin',
Robot--sellin' cards."
"Whose promised prizes
are a Carney vendor's
paradise."
At first, they start slow. Then they go faster,
carefully avoiding every disaster.
It's kaleidoscopic insanity.
It's precision, well-ordered inanity.
Some of them whistle, but all of them prance
when the four-sided people go out to square dance.
burn me down
like Babylon
consume my flesh with fire
unquenchable
Desire
Raze me to the ground
scatter every brick
To the four winds
bury me
like Osiris
divided
divine sectioning
seconding
Sacralizing
phallicizing
Pour your living waters
down my throat
into my belly
and up from beneath
holify me
gushing, rushing
Living Water
sacral phallic water
energize me
Wholify me
receive me
willingly, this sacrifice
please me
please me
pacify me
resurrect me
Holify me
living waters never quench
Holy fire
Lavafy me
Molten living metals
running through every channel
veins, arteries, capillaries, nadis
Open me
i, the channel, emptied
eradicate me
Split me up the middle
reverse my topology
Outside like the Inside
precisely as the Inside
I receive you
Open me, Penetrate me
lava flowing up Inside me
like the infinite Outside
show me
the unbounded Abyss within
mirror still
Lake Placid
reflecting
Perfectly
not a ripple
but still vibrating
Energy
forever on fire
Lake Salome
the gushing wet birth
of the twenty-four-sided Jerusalem
forever on fire
Safe spaces are not those modern places
determined by human hands
and by human minds separated by concrete and steel
from the sacred cosmos of nature.
Nature pays no attention to our finite minds and thoughts,
nor to ideologies made up and stuffed inside our secure four-sided boxes.
The life force that creates and animates the plants, animals, mountains, oceans, planets, stars, and galaxies
calls to us and we have forgotten how to answer.
Can’t you hear the pounding the beating
Trapped within this four sided structure
Tears and screams are fleeing
Awaiting a soldier to free this simple heart
Caught inside a box no way out
Hoof beats in the distance ending or start
Awaiting a rescue to breakdown these walls
And free my captured soul
Please untie me sever these ropes here my calls
Long awaited torture freedoms far away lord
I don’t deserve this forsakeness
Send Death if my love cannot cut my cord
I pray I seek for eternities sake free me from this box
My heart needs more than this four sided structure
Swept away by the oceans” mist freed alas
The cursed storm struck with the might
Of twenty horses mounted by soldiers
And swept my heart to sea within the night
A peaceful calm a strangeness I felt overwhelmed
Enraptured my whole and swallowed my soul
Alas I was spent nothing broken free welcomed
Floating in the vast blue ocean of water
Timeless undone ethereal.
How would I face the world?
Full of people ready to mock
And humiliate in other’s life.
Fake people around
Poking their nose on other's life .
How long should I hide?
Am I going to be in this four sided wall of the house forever??
No social interaction,
Like mad woman inside the room.
How will I face the people?
Where my speech is of no value.
What would I advise the youngsters??
When my life cannot be set as example.
How complicated my life is now?
Where should I go??
Where people don’t give me respect,
For I have separated with my husband?
For an average women like me
In this conservative society.
Where people talks more about
Other people than their personal matters.
How to get out of this situation ?
You came from a legendary period in time
Possessing almighty power
Respected and worshipped by those who serve
And feared by those who cower
Creator of the mystic pyramids
Four sided structured tombs
The Old Kingdom bids farewell
An immortal existence looms
You once fought in Nubian wars
Upon that desert sand
We’ve never understood your genius
So evident in the land
History says you spoke an ancient tongue
And carried a golden ankh
Certain that Ra would emerge each day
Your subjects in prayer would thank
Under the cover of the veil of your disguise
Who knows what your future will behold
Those that fear you, are those that you despise
Now you are a legend, your story may be told
Steeped in Eastern mystery
As a God you live forever
Out of the hand of Anubis
We’ll underestimate you never
A framed pizza cannot be described as a Mohawk hairstyle in a salon. For if an iron tumbles into a salad bar then ionised tomatoes could become very afraid. Such is the agreeable format for a lettuce leaf. Radiant radishes ridiculing rind. And a dip. And no mayonnaise as it tends to giggle as it is poured. Oh dear. Such travesty in a dish. Wow. If flippers eat kippers then grippers must be dippers. Oh bow to the four sided dog as pyramids could swim through coffee. A collie on a mission is an am or a pm and wires are never disclosed in a tentative tent. Undress then. Wow. How rather entertaining to peel in authenticity a potatoe to place in oiled ceramic bake. Oooh seal deal. Caucuses riotously laughter from the original reporting. And a dip dab do. Tuning. Posturing penguins pointing proudly. Lemon juice on a bicycle chain is a great deity to a hawk in a cradle.sing a song then. La la la. Hahahaha jeopardy jingling. Hahahaha I am a peanut hahahaha you are a door key hahahaha and now we slide. Wow. Xxxx conversationalist. Z.
Looking Like A Liar
Have you seen someone looking like a liar
Would sweat and perspire over his entire
Believed to be President it could be bought
And if careful enough would not be caught.
Solutions were sought from everywhere
From four-sided things which were square
After being boxed in he soon became
He wanted to find someone else to blame.
Instead of boxes circles started to appear
Around his eyes when anyone was near
For this yourself be able to embrace
Jumped in middle of Presidential race.
Candidates continue to cover up everything
So many stories they tell and try to sing
What can cause me to be really annoyed
Is subjects he works around and tries to avoid.
Voting is like sitting on a sandy beach sunning
Trying to guess which way the waves are running
And just who will they end up washing away
Now that they messed up the rest of my day.
Need I further elaborate. Could apply to any
as well as all of the candidates as far as I am
concerned.
James Thomas Horn
Retired Veteran and Poet
RiverSea Plantation
Bolivia, NC
========================================================
Crepuscle beamed, descried at the telluric cyan orb
Dusk devoured auric daystar as lambency was absorbed
Sun's verve, twinkle immersed by the lil' murk
Permeate the newfangled burst of wavering lights in the skylark
Stupefied by the wondrous jaw-dropping milieu
Quadrilateral lunar satellite came into being ... it's true
Moonlight in turquoise, then cerulean radiance come forth
Sometimes vermilion, xanthous, amethyst in hue, real ravishing in worth
Nightfall turned into a deluxe, grandiose discotheque
Music of pyrotechnics, symphonized in grotesque
Four-sided night star trip the light fantastic
Made every cyclicity, rhythm, syncopation exotic
What a comely, ecstatic, striking, mind-glued augury
A tour in the out of this world planet, where there's no existing adversary
I am the sculptor, architect and painter of my own exquisite sunset
Twilight's ikon in my mind still in set
Written in words, penned with the mind's eye
Done through the " LIMITLESS " dye.
========================================================
Most of my life I’ve fit into a small four-sided box.
I had no thought I might escape this prison with no locks.
Obedient daughter of my parents and the ever-loving wife
striving to be the perfect mother, I put limits on my life.
I can’t pretend that I am sorry I prized their welfare over mine,
but with ending of my duties life can be of my design.
It is far too late I realize for the plans I laid aside
when I promised to be dutiful as a young and happy bride.
After thirty years of employment, for a while it was a shock.
that I need not set the buzzer. I don’t revolve around the clock.
I have missed the chance, I’m certain, to have accumulated wealth,
but there are roles unlimited for elders in good health.
I have found a latent talent that has been with me since birth.
I’ve had the chance to let it grow and to travel o’er the Earth.
With this forum so unlimited I can send my words afar
with unfettered possibilities they could catch upon a star.
With my little house around me to protect me from the storm,
I have limitless time to venture. I dare to tackle a new form.
By: Joyce Johnson
For Paula's contest "Limitless"
The sky is almost open with just a small trickle of light...
I'm lying awake and its raining on my pillow tonight...
My eyes won't close as my thoughts start to race...
This reflection has changed with more lines on my face...
I'm turned around, but my vision is still in tact...
Thoughts never put to ears, for I stayed in the back....
Letters I wrote with words I shouldn't have shared....
All the things I pushed away and never knowing I cared...
So now I sculptor poems that tell of a four sided heart...
Of how you live with love and never miss your mark...
I now close my eyes in peace because there's nothing to show...
And tomorrow I'll sleep with no more rain on my pillow....
Squares
The Square:
A four sided icon,
symbolizing symmetry.
A stable foundation of angles
staring across to see another;
Side by side, forming a shape -
the geometry of simplicity;
a childlike structure
of splendid perfection.
Each side, parallel, and perpendicular,
when placed along a plane,
can continue, and cross,
passing the corners
to a point of distance
equal to each side.
A transformation:
The ends can connect
along a linear path,
pointing both ways,
and going again an equal distance beyond,
then stopping once they meet.
Suddenly, sharing sides,
the square, by its straightness,
now sits alongside several,
of staggering sizes;
a systematic set
of surrounding perimeters.
A four sided icon –
the square.
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.