I was once a window, a gateway to the unbounded light of the sky,
Through which rays danced like spirits in the midst of a clear night,
The moon bowed to whisper to me the secrets of stars forgotten by time,
And people looked through me, their eyes full of dreams and hidden longings,
Each gaze was a thread of a story I wove in silence,
But then they began to fear my clarity, the light that shone,
What I let in and what I revealed without asking permission,
So they came with bricks of silence and words heavy as lead.
At first, it was a curtain of shadow, then a plank of forgetfulness,
Then they began to tell me I was too much, too open, too fragile,
And stone by stone, I was walled in a silence of stone,
Not broken, but hidden under a veil of frozen memories,
Not destroyed, but locked in a world where light no longer penetrates,
Now I hear the light as a distant whisper, an echo of the past,
I remember warmth as a song lost in the wind,
People pass by me, forgetting I was once a window,
But I still remember, and my soul still longs,
For the endless sky and the light that sang my name.
I wore his dog tags and his medal for the valor they implied.
My heart was aching, sorrow engulfed me, I felt torment inside.
Life lost meaning. I had hated that war since it first begun.
Now the worst thing of all, disbelieving that it had taken my son.
The misery that my loss had created, proved to be all too strong.
I was unable to sleep, I just cried all day and all night long.
Finally weeks later some sleep befell me and I began to dream.
In the distance was my boy, alive and well or so it would seem.
He was with other young soldiers all marching up a very steep hill.
All had packs upon their backs, but my son was standing quite still.
He was struggling hard to climb as his pack was the biggest of all
I asked him, "why is your pack so large and the other’s so small?".
"Most of the guy's loved ones, have happy memories of their life,
But all I have left you Mum, is tumultuous sorrow, grief and strife.
Our packs are full of the tears that our loved ones all have shed.
All the tears you have cried Mum, make my pack heavy as lead".
When I awoke, I cried no more, kept the good, left the sad times behind.
My dear son you are always on my mind. .........
In the silence of the night, I hear you weep,
Tears falling softly, like secrets you keep.
Your heart aches with sorrow, heavy as lead,
Each sob a whisper of the pain in your head.
I long to hold you, to dry your tears away,
To whisper words of comfort, to help you find your way.
But sometimes all we can do is let the tears flow,
To release the pain, to let the emotions show.
So weep, let it all out,
in tears, there is healing, there is no doubt.
I'll be here to hold you, to lend an ear,
To whisper love and kindness, to chase away the fear.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Why wait for a muse to get inspiration
When the words are there in your head
If not in the brain, perhaps in the heart
As seat of emotion and passionate drive
Where all feelings must escape to thrive
Creativity fails if reliant on concentration
Try detachment and an open mind instead
Ideas always find you, they need no chart
For that special connection one must strive
And free thinking can keep that hope alive
New ideas may emerge from recreation
Some fly away, others are heavy as lead
But capture and nurture is a good start
With no limits to depths one may dive
For old and dusty words one can revive
Short term memory loss is an aberration
And rapid recovery may work as is said
But it is like pulling all the strands apart
Yet creative success can suddenly arrive
Much better than what fate can contrive
Any finished written piece brings elation
Despite the stamina meter dial in the red
Yet celebratory drinks can taste a bit tart
Was it your own work or that of the hive
As there’s still no good rhyme in line five
I recall writing checks in my spidery crawl.
The TV then was a humming spaceship
with glowing innards that deep-scanned
all who glued their flickering, bug-eyed minds to it;
it abducted whole families at a time.
That same television
materialized microwaves as heavy as lead ingots
replacing bread bins
while ushering in decades of TV dinners.
“Radio Shack’ and “Block Busters’ were thriving
The short brutal war between Betamax and VHS
was long over.
Cars had not yet learned to speak.
Many men thought that learning to type
would be a waste of their valuable time.
We had to go out to get stuff.
Fish in fish tanks
were considered adult entertainment.
The long married kept their sex life
hid like a ‘sixteen millimeter’ movie
projected onto the back of their brains.
Camera film had to be sent away
to be often irretrievably lost.
The food pyramid was thought to be
the right way up – we were already fat-heads.
We trusted the nightly news.
Then the Net captured us,
we found we had many hidden talents,
some even discovered how to wriggle their ears
and both at the same time!
Rein in those opportunities to criticize
Think of all the good things to be said
Remember to see through others’ eyes.
Or sometimes simply resort to sighs.
In disagreement, merely shake your head
Rein in those opportunities to criticize.
Be a bigger person, even if you must disguise
Displeasures weighing on you heavy as lead,
Remember to see through others’ eyes.
If you announce your woes, it’s seldom wise,
Sometimes they are better not to be read
Rein in those opportunities to criticize!
Is it that you get joy when someone cries?
How easily you could’ve another’s feelings fed
Remember to see through others’ eyes.
For being disagreeable you’ll win no prize,
Hatefulness and sharp words are best unsaid,
Remember to see through others’ eyes,
Rein in those opportunities to criticize.
Written December 5, 2022
#54 on Top 100 New Poems List
Poetry Soup
December 11, 2022
#50 on Top 100 New Poems List
Poetry Soup
December 12, 2022
Life is wonderful when you're by faith led,
Giving you hope when heart's heavy as lead;
Trust in God, He knows the count of your hair,
Let Him guide, don't be a fidgety hare;
Lean on the Lord when life is hard to bear,
Surrender, you can to Him your heart bare;
Saved by grace through faith, no need to pay fare,
Look to God in prayer when life's not fair;
He will take care, worry not for your bread,
He loves you, no matter where you are bred.
5th November 2022
For "Homophone Rhyme" contest
In the Hall of Mirrors,
What do I see?
A distorted image, can that be me?
I can look tall, with a gigantic head,
Or have big feet, as heavy as lead.
Tiny hands and the most extended face,
A stomach so fat, I can't see my feet,
To lace,
My shoes have long turned-up toes,
They are long enough to pick my nose,
Ever-changing images I see
I do not recognise one of them that resembles me! (Thank God!)
I've got a lot of things to do,
But I'd rather sit and think about you
The saddest thing is,
It's not like you do so too
A weight of emotion sitting in my chest,
The burden is as heavy as lead,
I'm tired of carrying; I always want go to bed
A lot of messages that should be deleted,
I know they shouldn't be gone back to and reread
Yet, I went through them on Telegram,
Right after checking, for the thousandth time,
Whether you're active on Instagram
In our relationship, romantic or not,
I've always been Cat, and you've Sam
Right now, my mind's in a knot
It's feels as though my heart's been left to rot
Nobody gave me lessons about love,
It's dangers, I was never taught
My brain and heart;
I can't count how many times they've fought
I would enjoy inner peace,
If only it was something that could be bought
Love used to be something I persistently sought,
I still do, but it's become a battle that's almost impossible to fight,
I go to bed with memories every night,
Thinking about those fantasies; remember when they used to be the light..
..in the tunnel of our relationship where I didn't know left from right
Strolling down a bustling road full smiling of people
A vast array of hues bursting forth to greet the eye of the beholder;
Music cascades from the various shops and one of the passing cars
Laughter pleasantly warms the chilled air.
Without warning the pull of gravity multiplies and both hands slap the pavement;
Looking up, time slows to thick and syrupy consistency
The music is now all but gone and voices are distant as if underwater
Stomach dropping, insides are replaced by complete emptiness.
The concrete liquifies and rises rapidly over wrists and elbows
Before able to push off rock bottom, the surface becomes the sky
The temperature drops and limbs solidify as heavy as lead
Lungs begin to burn as fingers claw upwards.
A scream of anger tears from the lips,
Rapidly boiling the water and the streams of bubbles blind;
From the steam, tongues of flame lick from the fingers
Tar black smoke sears both mouth and nose.
The eyes blink away the smoke to reveal the very same street
But the colors now faded and dull,
Looking wildly around people still laugh and walk on by
As if nothing happened.
Sun overhead
Our shadow is small
Heart heavy as lead
Back against a wall
Consciousness contracted
By believing that the caricature
Is us, magnificence subtracted
Crestfallen at our fallen stature
Within the bubble of illusion
We take to be reality
Sleep walking in delusion
We are our own casualty
Observing our coordinates
From a centred stance
As duality oscillates
We see our schizophrenic dance
In stillness
02-November-2020
FLAWED
In the quiet corners of our mind,
Whispers of doubt and fear we find.
The weight of sin, heavy as lead,
Yet grace flows freely, where love is spread.
Mistakes made, paths astray,
Yet forgiveness shines bright as day.
In the depths of darkness, a light does gleam,
Guiding us back to where we dream.
Lift your eyes to the heavens above,
Know you are cherished, in endless love.
Though trials may come, and fears may grow,
In His arms, we find peace to know.
An illegitimate child of advanced technology we are told
That acquired the potency to destroy our health and gold
As you pack your stuff and ready to go
The world has reason to be happy once more and glow
As we continue to debate and bury our dead
Let us unite and lighten our hearts heavy as lead
Cause success can only walk into our lives to stay
When the hurts and problems of others matter in all our ways
Thousands of souls have been diseased and martyred
Nations now acknowledge the agenda in their lives that matter
Let the world rise as one the weak leaning on the strong
And infuse fresh blood in humanity gone weak and dumb
Let us celebrate this collective victory
A product of agonizing and winding trajectory
Recognizing that without pain there can never be gain
Like the phoenix let the world rise and be on the march again!
Run! For all the time in the world is not enough,
And the tough gets going when the going gets tough,
Life is ugly but that's the beauty of it
So if you do not run with it, run from it.
Run! And be in pursuit of your dreams
But the future is not all that it seems,
Accept your fate for you have the best to give
And if you don't, you may die before you live.
Run! From venom when you know the value of love,
And put your trust only in the One above,
Run! And you may never run out of luck,
When you hope for the wool, prepare for the rock!
Run! You may run through hell to reach heaven
For life is a race for the odd and even;
Run! For the burden you bear is heavy as lead
The burden of which has left so many dead;
Run! Towards the path between
All even and good that have ever been;
Run,
Human,
Run!
@ POET_AY
© 2020
A removal man named Fred
Moved furniture heavy as lead
Carrying a big wooden door
He fell on the floor
Fred wasn't moving he's dead
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