A continent we haven't yet worked out,
it may be barren, may contain high worth.
The more we learn, the greater grows our doubt.
A place of poison spiders, clot-red earth,
it's huge. Marseilles to Moscow isn't quite
the space which separates Penrith from Perth.
When first we meet it, promise glitters bright.
Its sun is strong, its vegetation lush ...
Harsh truth defeats analysis so trite.
This beauty is skin-deep. Sweet waters gush,
but only on its gaily-colored fringe.
Interiors are ominously hushed.
Just scratch the surface, there's an ocher tinge
which speaks of life extinguished. Dead rocks seethe
beneath cruel radiation. Reptiles cringe
in crevices. There's nothing here to breathe.
Putting out fires not of my making
it's time-consuming heart-breaking
the grass over there don't seem any greener
and from my perspective the streets are meaner
the so-called social networks are as unsociable as can be
impersonal with dirty laundry on show for everyone to see
despite self-admitted wrong-doing and misdeeds
the herd still follows their every lead
but I won't borrow sorrow
and be overwhelmed by the troubles of others
doing my best making the most
if it's not one thing it's another
and then sometimes it's both
feels like the world has gone to hell
with nary a handbasket to carry us there
and I'm at the bottom of a deep dank well
is the world spiralling out of control
while I'm abandoned here in a drear dark hole
Terra Incognita
Hidden!
Uncharted eternity birthing
Roiling!
In a slow dance
The pregnant pause of terra’s faults
Breaks o p e n
In slip strikes
Earth’s fiery magma
Spit back into the hands of Heaven’s potter
Churning!
Moody
Mercurial
Footprint on the landscape’s soul
Journey to epiphany and nature’s improvisation
New land birthed
Uncharted steamy islands
The territory of infinity’s face revealed
Spouting from the abyss of oblivion
Amorphous!
Shapeless
Nameless
Anonymous
Ambivalent explosions of molten earth
Unmapped anticipation
For future nomad’s unquenchable quests.
8-29-22
Contest: This or That
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title Chosen Terra Incognita
11-14-22
Contest: Mile 20 Poetry Marathon
Sponsor: Mark Toney
25 Lines
He had a dream in the still of the night,
Someone beckoned on him,
Someone implored him to come,
He looked distressed and troubled.
He was worried
He knew it was an urgent plea,
But it was a place no one had ever been,
It was a place shrouded in mystery.
Many had tried to go,
Many as such who was entreated to come,
They didn’t succeed,
They could only go as far as its boundary.
He summoned courage,
He took alongside other men,
Those with fiery hearts who had sworn an oath.
Who had pledged an allegiance to a worthy course.
They embarked on the journey,
They broke through and prevailed,
They conquered and subdued,
They brought light into the town.
The town was revolutionized,
The men were immortalized.
August 30, 2022.
This or That, Vol 13 Poetry Contest,
Terra Incognita,
Edward Ibeh.
I do not know what lies
beyond that inner boundary
I have never dared venture there
a tender place
kept carefully guarded
lest l breach its defences
I think a wound from the past lies there
but I am afraid to look
Terra Incognita
28 August 2022
Sponsor Edward Ibeh
This or That poetry Contest vol 13
*Image of Pelosi Leaves Taipei by BBC.
Terra Incognita
Diurnal moments margin in my head,
As metamorphosis pirouettes hands,
Nightmarish recall exit none be said,
An armistice mosey in of spilt sands.
Logjam beliefs wane gains, prosperity,
Erring hand fingered an island nation,
Right foresees windfall, voters clarity,
Left wins Red China, lost the election.
Past oversights also recent letdowns,
Amiss twentieth, twenty-first embed,
Ruse an angle nefarious look rounds,
Dame be a torpedo full speed ahead!
It is a jigsaw board, a puzzling face,
An instance period to bygone years,
A world in awe as one alters a pace,
A nation benign oddity brew peers.
2022 August 25
*2nd Place*
This or That, Vol 13
~~Edward Ibeh: Judged 2022 September 04
Terra Incognita
I heard of lands both far and near
where wealth beyond tale can conceive.
With rivers deep and mountains sheer
for the brave to challenge and reave.
I heard of them and I believe
this call that moves me to explore.
I should follow my heart and weave
the path where none has gone before.
Through legends spread by foe and peer,
my head and heart do wish me leave
the comforts of my home so dear
to seek the thrills that I perceive.
The first to achieve and retrieve
power and fame I can’t ignore,
the tug on the conqueror’s sleeve,
the path where none has gone before.
I’m confident in what I hear,
stand ready with sword, shield, and greave.
No time for mortal dread nor tear.
No time to cause angst or aggrieve
the loss of friend or kin bereave.
I sail to explore a new shore
and swear on death I will not leave
the path where none has gone before.
I seek your audience and ear
to beg, my dear Prince; I implore
your blessing, funds, and ships to steer
the path where none has gone before.
The emerald forest uniquely so mystique,
as far as I can see beyond the horizon,
shrouded by surreal stillness it spreads,
wraps me as I amble in rippling breeze.
Its charming cadence enthralls
my essence suffused with rhapsody.
As I walk on the fading forest path
around the shadows of ancient trees,
the clumps of desiccated amber leaves,
falling from dry boughs at the end of their time,
my footsteps crumple to make the music
for my enchanted journey unfinished within.
At sunset hour out of the forest I now saunter
toward the enigmatic realm of obscurity,
concealed in the serene sanctum of eternity.
Soaking the final flash of twilight splendor,
I walk the last mile on the time-track of life
to go to terra incognita as a forlorn traveler.
________________
August 14, 2022
Title chosen : Terra Incognita
Contest : This Or That, Vol 13
Sponsored by : Edward Ibeh
"Life is either daring adventure or nothing at all."
Quote by _Helen Keller
I would like to be an adventurer,
and set sail for places terra incognita;
still uncharted, unknown, undiscovered on earth,
in remote corners of the world !
It would be amazing to find places,
and be the first to walk the land;
areas untouched, mysterious, maybe forbidden,
perhaps an unmapped lost city !
Be the first to roam a forest jungle,
wild, quite strange and dangerous;
unexplored until my discovery or so I believe,
oh, to find a paradise pristine !
_____________________
August 07, 2022
Poetry/Verse/Terra Incognita
Copyright Protected, ID 08-147-562-07
All Rights Reserved, 2022, Constance La France
Theme chosen - Terra Incognita
Written for the Standard contest, This or That, Vol. 13
sponsor, Edward Ibeh, Judged 09/04/2022
Third Place
So strange this land, old and yet young.
Where is this place of tall green trees,
and grey-haired men in unknown tongue?
they must have traveled summer's breeze.
Adobe brick quonset "chalets"
mud-soaked roadways in all the blocks.
WACs and wives and waifs everyday
midst hollyhocks and four o'clocks.
Los Alamos*, this place must be.
A land of Oz 'neath bluest sky.
Where science dealt humanity
a fatal blow, then watched it die.
A perfect paradox is this.
How splendid to contrast the two--
a lovely place/a devil's kiss,
and wisdom sprinkled like the dew.
I left quite soon but still recall
the secrets hidden on each page.
The lilac mountains looming tall,
their perfume of fission and sage.
August 5, 2022
"Terra Incognita"
for This or That, Vol. 13, poetry contest
by Edward Ibeth
*Los Alamos Laboratories, New Mexico, are where the atomic bombs were
created then dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in WWII.
Far beyond the reaches of the Milky Way
A galaxy exists which remains unnamed
Unseen by human eye or large telescope,
It is, to my knowledge, not yet defamed.
Pure and undefiled, suitable for living
In a Goldilocks zone yet to be uncovered
Fresh clean air, and an abundance of water,
Awaiting its coordinates to be discovered.
A terra incognita resembling heaven
Is just beyond the reach of our technology
But, we are advancing in our capability
To comprehend its complicated cosmology.
Someday, it promises a necessary respite
A new home for humanity in far outer space
When we’ve destroyed our home on earth
We can start ruining a new, pristine place!
SECOND PLACE WINNER
Written August 3, 2022
Submitted to "This or That, Vol. 13" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh
Cave of our heart, virgin and unexplored,
invites us to go in within,
relinquishing both thought and senses five,
that our soul’s journey may begin.
No sooner we so choose, without excuse,
magnetic currents engulf form,
bestowing God’s gift of rapturous bliss;
caress divine, tender touch warm.
We cognise the dance of polarities,
driven by soul’s yearning to feel
pangs of separation and then union,
in fullness of bliss beats appeal.
In timeless time, hues of love are ingrained,
etched upon fabric of our soul,
propelled by our pure heart’s childlike desire,
to become the flame we extol.
04-August-2022
This or That, Vol 13 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
“Terra Incognita”
HMS, Rhymezone, PS Grammar
A supermoon
Larger than Jupiter
Causes the King of Roman Gods
To feel small.
The unexplored region
Beyond the Milky Way
Waits a millennium
For the first arrivals
Colonists name their new world
Prosperina, goddess of agriculture
Wine and freedom~
For they have escaped tyranny!
Image credit: Helena Valenzuela Widerström
fear of the unknown
a terra incognita
where we will still go
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.