We're merely quests on this planet
lest we forget ~
Our life is but a wink
in the wake of eternity
AP: Honorable Mention 2025, Honorable Mention 2025
GRACE is neither earned nor deserved
IN the grand scheme of things, all need grace
FAVOR is very similar to grace
TECHNICALLY, God's grace is generalized,
and His favor is specialized
SALVATION through Christ is indeed a gift
They hide their maliciousness and evil intentions behind masks of righteousness and perfection.
The moment you feel you have an ally, it turns around and soon feels like the whole world is against you.
What can be done? We are but measly, powerless beings in the grand scheme of things
Stranded in an unjust world eager to maintain its unfairness under the guise of preserving tradition.
A world where elders abuse authority and respect and manipulate religion and culture to cover up their misgivings and wrongdoings.
The growing generation is caught in the crossfires between two realities;
A world of change and growth and a world of tradition.
Is tradition more important than a fulfilled and content life?
These thoughts run through my mind as I fall victim to yet another manipulation of culture
Ideologies are misconstrued as pride and disrespect for authority.
A promise is made with a tear-stained face
I choose a fulfilled life over a life of despair
The manipulation ends with me.
As your beauty commands my attention I ponder my place in the grand scheme of things.
Were it not for my weakness she might lose her vanity which masks itself in a lovers promise of tomorrow.
As she walks by she uses her hypnotic curves to set abound a course to which I must act in accordance with her will.
She turned him into a junkie overnight. Pheromones being his narcotic to which there are no 12 steps to healing.
Strange - how one can know of a thing
yet not know it.
That I should perish someday is no secret ...
but how well do I know this?
My injuries before were always superficial.
A scar upon the surface
but no loss of function.
Now, my form has changed for the worse.
Not by much, perhaps, but such small changes
are the first stumbling steps toward the pit.
A small loss of enamel,
a thumb that may never bend as far as it once had done.
Trivial losses in the grand scheme of things.
But there is something utterly terrifying
in taking damage that cannot be repaired.
And the roads of tomorrow seem so much more
wreathed in shadow now.
31 August 2022
I wonder how many Americans flee each year
To other countries for a better way of life?
Taking their children, fleeing in the night,
Willing to risk their lives out of an awful fear
Their children will be conscripted by a cartel
Where their lives will become a living hell?
I wonder how many Americans flee each year
Desperately putting their lives in mortal danger
Leaving behind everything they own, and more,
Including extended family, which they hold dear
Trying to sneak into another country to be free
So they can have opportunity, peace and liberty?
I wonder how many Americans flee each year
Crossing border after border to find a safe place
With nothing but the clothes on their backs?
None, I should think, for life here is in high gear
In the grand scheme of things, we are so blessed,
Head and shoulders above all, and I do not jest!
Written July 26, 2022
A bird is a wonder
flying in the air
hopping on the ground
or warbling a song
Pure entertainment all day long
A bird is a curiosity
cocking his head this way and that
sucking a worm from the ground
so juicy, so fat
An aerial and arboreal acrobat
A bird is a parent too
in the grand scheme of things
building a nest for babies
until they take wing
Gently nurturing, fiercely protecting
To pass through dura matter, leave the wilderness behind
Exit above vast spaces, join imperceivable dots
Have an out of body experience, each and every night
Uncover reality, burn away banality
Know why, observing a quanta gives it choice
Place this very thought on weighing scales, does it contain mass
Enter a singularity, ask why it occupies no space
Fly backwards through eternity, and emerge straight ahead
Find out what compelled me to write this damn verse
Something did, but from which universe
I know I’m barely nothing in the grand scheme of things
but I am something,
which means, without me the whole’s incomplete
To ponder that line, oh to ponder it so deep
Do ends and beginnings run parallel along membranous lines
can omnipotence fill the hollow within
Will cosmic branes shimmer and buckle,
then divide exponentially
Why steeped in passion came an aberration of kindness,
prepared and willing to be hung out to dry
Originally written 05/24/22
2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 7 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Mark Toney
07/09/22
you’ve been around
the world and back
conquered skies
and sailed the seven seas
should you set your mind to it
I know nothing would stop you
from reaching out to me
wherever you or I may be
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
Posted on April 16, 2022
I love you
and I don’t care
if you love me
as a sister or a friend
I don’t want or need
to define or quantify
how much you care for me
and really I see no need
to deconstruct and analyze
the rhyme or reason of how I feel
I’m content living day to day
knowing I matter to you
and somehow I contribute
to the peace you feel
within your heart
I treasure being part of your life
and in the grand scheme of things
why would anything else truly matter?
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
Submitted on April 14, 2022 for contest A BRIAN STRAND PREMIERE CHOICE sponsored by BRIAN STRAND
in the grand scheme of things
Nothing is as it seems,
nothing will stand
the test of time,
the eons will grind,
all will be worn to dust
as nothing is forever
forgotten in rust
in the grand scheme of things
we are nothing but a nanosecond
sparks of life easy blown out like a candle
in a vast vacuum of night
the regions of forever
and no one n nothing ever lasts
nothing is as it is or deemed,
seeing nothing in the coming void
nothing will stand the test of eternity
eons will grind all to carbon at last
the thing that stars of made
watching it drift through
…these deathless hands!
fresh autumn crispness
fills my lungs in early morn
as thoughts of you
swirl in my head
vagrant stray musings
weigh heavy on my heart
we’re not the youths
we used to be
back when no strings
meant no consequences
yet at the same time
so very little matters
in the grand scheme of things
except in matters of the heart
AP: Honorable Mention 2021
Submitted on September 12, 2021 for HELLO SEPTEMBER contest sponsored by MYSTIC ROSE ROSE
Ever sit and ask yourself “Who am I?”
in the grand scheme of things?
was I always meant to be--
the product of generations
of people I will never know?
Ever sit and ask yourself “Am I alone”
is it all a figment of my imagination
and I, too, shall someday pass away?
Ever sit and ask yourself “Why am I here?”
in this place, at this time,
is there something I should be doing?
some place I really need to go?
Why do we love this life so much
and are so afraid of dying?
What do we see at the end of the road
for this transient lifetime of trying?
written March 8, 2021
THIRD PLACE WINNER
Entered "Who Am I" Poetry Contest
sponsored by Unseeking Seeker
January 14, 2022
If I'm moon in night's sky and love's warmth's not apparent,
rhymes' truths seem reflected at best, light’s eclipse
still’s a rare thing and not of my choosing! Love dims
in life’s shadow, emerges, but orbit’s unceasing
and lovingly followed, I gravitate to you, space curves
in its presence, all matter’s poetic, though ‘love’ lasts
a second, a blink of sad eyes in the Grand Scheme of Things.
Though at times you look through me, this song’s not transparent,
its waves lap your beachheads, its verse tastes your lips
(light as breadth of a smile felt), makes landfalls on whims.
I’m not panning for gold here, grok heart that’s releasing
your heart to denouement, what’s yours (mapped by stars), not reserves
I might claim, keep in thrall! Might ‘Big Bang’ be what contrasts
God’s Love from all others? Aren’t Rhythms, is Rhyme how She sings?
Brian Johnston
3rd of January in 2021
Poet’s Notes:
I am one poly-amorous poet of platonic love. You may not recognize yourself
in my poem, but I assure you that each word, each letter, each space, even all
punctuation was written with you in mind, for you! InshAllah
Unity is illusionary,
A dystopia of thoughts and dreams
What is life but a fleeting thing in the grand scheme of things?
Freedom so precious and heavily bought
cannot compare to one loving thought.
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