Hear the Thunder roar
Watch the lightning flash
Darkness through the walk
Listen to the skies
Observe and see the change
Image of transform
Darkness turned to light
Walk by sight but not by mere understanding
Heaven spoken words
Pursue and exchange
Thunder roars again
Lightning flashes once more
Never be misled
Truth being beyond the skies
Walk in knowing and being wise.
In the hush between the charge and drift,
The world holds breath, suspended in a gift.
North and south exchange a fleeting glance,
Shadows and light halt their ancient dance.
Current pauses, silence on the wire,
Magnetism dreams of what might transpire.
Tension dissolves, the duality wanes,
Yin and yang rest from their endless chains.
In this moment, borders gently blur,
Opposites softened, no rush to recur.
The pulse of change, a silent refrain—
Polarity paused, peace here remains.
Raucous battles between them and us;
Finality reins but life is never the same.
Pause of Polarity Interchange Poetry Contest
1/17/2026
Sponsored by: Unseeking Seeker
When man suffers;
'Fancy' is the call,
Lacks eternity though---
Restricts the fall.
Dark decorum of life
Takes down fancy's rhyme,
Oh, it's not a "deceiving elf"
Hopefully, all the time.
Blend of colour and truth
With cultivated dreams
What more can we call---
Surely a fancy it is!
Love, live and make belief
It's all to have here;
Fancy helps with the rest ---
We rewrite and share!
Between confidence and insecurity
lies this cold, barren land of fragility.
Dead branches of inability,
cold air coated with repression,
white wolves disguising fear with aggression.
That’s where you’ll find me.
Sometimes it’s almost like I see the way out:
the Caribbean of confidence.
There’s another exit too
the desert of insecurity.
I’m not used to either of those climates.
I’ll stay here.
Maybe you can tell me about them.
Wear a good disguise
Cross out my eyes
Drown my truth in your lies
While you suffocate my cries
Yet still I will rise
Better look to the skies
Where the Angel flies
For I've become wise
The truth is the prize
And I am your demise
a pitch
of
intensity
inspired
parallel
affinities
particular
isolated
stimuli
preoccupied
sans
illusion
questing
originality
beyond
the
subconscious
bravura
of
the
inner
necessity
Her current space cannot be traced
exactly how he programmed it
a strategic system of files, unreconciled
feminine frequencies pleading to split
white picket fences, painted in perfect pretenses
circuits circumvent so not to crash
the matrix, masked by flourishing flowers
when does beauty rise from the ash?
opposites attract, so they say
her inner self, silently suffocating
crafted by his cunning conversations,
sudden lightning sparks, blackouts bring
the shattering shock, sending signals, commencing strength
step outside the interchange.
now, wait.
His hold on hold...
and she is safe.
Courage, grit, unwavering faith.
Free to pen a brand-new page.
Into the patterned tile and out the swirl,
So does my conviction spiral,
Towards the sun-twinkled edge,
Warmer and warmer do the eyes burn,
Where I can't trace with the tongue.
From behind to beside to opposite you,
So is the path of my conviction,
As you evolve only in perspective,
It is still you I am fixated on,
But your stasis deems me strange.
Away from the center, towards the edge,
There is the dome of my conviction,
The wind on your shawl waves me away,
And when I reach for it's familiar fringe,
My hands come away bloodied.
“Betwixt two thoughts there is a gap”-
That’s a function not continuous ,
but discrete , yet to get fit.
“No illusion therein entrap.”
“ In the time stretched pause we can see”
Future to nurture
in rue or rapture.
Pause of polarity interchange
Over all it’s my life to challenge
Either to confront or to surrender.
Empowered, enclosed by ego !
But I will have to forego -
to be free in open mind.
Divine lamp to lit and glow,
not to be extinguished !
Perplexity, complexity , simplicity
not to overlap.
“ Ego craving is a mousetrap.”
Between the rise and fall of thought
there lies a hush unnamed,
a breath unclaimed by wanting’s pull,
a light not yet made flame.
Here grief forgets its practiced shape,
and hope loosens its hold;
the heart stands still, unchoosing sides,
neither timid nor bold.
Time thins into a listening space
where echoes lose their will,
where loss and gain grow indistinct
and longing learns to still.
I mourn the self that hurried on,
that feared this vacant air,
mistaking silence for a lack,
and grasping everywhere.
For craving snaps the tender pause
like wire around the bone,
and ego crowns itself again
as ruler, name, and throne.
Yet in that brief suspended hour
so easily undone
the world remembers how to rest,
and I remember none.
Not triumph, nor defeat survives
that interval of grace:
only the ache of what we were,
and what we dare not chase.
So let me grieve with open hands
the noise I once called true,
and bow to that unmoving gap
where sorrow loosens too.
For in the pause of polar turn,
where opposites resign,
I touch the silence after self
and leave my sign behind.
No two ideas seem alike
Always paradoxical as North and South pole
Though they are of one individual,
You find a world of difference between them.
Time brings changes in our perceptions.
Some struggle with cognitive dissonance
Of ‘to be or not to be’ for deciding something
Some deliberately play the role of devil’s advocate
Some dogmatic ...
With their anomalous sense of invincibility
They pave a road to downfall and exile
The extreme arrogance and superiority
Culminate in their ruin and many human beings.
They ignore the reason and validity as they never cross check.
Getting two different opinions is not a mistake
Actually, we can use them as testing tools.
No doubt, self-esteem is to be honoured
But let us not allow our hearts burn and humiliate
Let’s avoid foolish opinions as Russell remarked.
Remember, human life is very little in this vast cosmos
Differences demand high price.
Why?
Ego... burns everything unless it is burnt.
Flee the scene
before the dawn
frames the escape.
Treat with plenty of faith
& you can suspend belief,
like the irony
in how it takes a cynic
to persuade.
Poetic contracts speak
for a Man,
and a lord,
between a grave;
wonders death doesn’t come
when you’re aware of some strings,
even when waves roll back,
they tend to more often break
solely to come back again
and continue to take.
A power
to turn entire coasts
into the oceans deep.
A power
of breaking chains,
and setting free
the wings of angels
and their screams,
by tossing their guarded
and posts
into the tides
of the seas.
You’re not fleeing the scene
you’re redirecting,
and setting a stage.
Think again…
or, for once
and breathe.
Remember
of the unintended shadows
fallen in between
the ideas,
the words,
and the worlds of things.
You’re only claiming
of what you can’t see
of what we can’t know.
Anything can rise out.
Anything can become again.
That’s the curse of hope
that can never leave.
Let it go
And let it be.
What a sham,
I’m still fleeing the scene.
A wanderer’s life sets way for fable.
Each foot in mind amid a narrow fringe.
I am nowhere; treading where I’m able.
Left or right; an answer which twice depends.
Senseless; I cast myself upon the breeze.
An impulsive gambit one’s fears entice.
I’m he, who pokes the cat to steal the cheese.
He who blurs the line betwixt men and mice.
What character? What courage? Of what cause?
What interchange controls polarity?
Within resistance I find time to pause.
Standing in this void I find clarity-
What’s tried is true, in greed, soon you will find.
Blink not an eye; Snap! You’ve lost your mind!
No illusions therein entrap—
the hush between two heartbeats speaks too plain.
Ego craving is a mousetrap.
A gap—a gape in thoughts my life couldn’t hide;
betwixt two ponderings, vacuum took no side.
There lie all worries, begging for breakthroughs,
where failure stands as bold as decent news.
When steps grow firm, they clear illusion’s threat,
for success occludes failures without sweat.
A garden: fortunes wilt in stillness of will,
even when mouths flourish with joy and thrill.
Then ego becomes the song of deceit,
with beliefs failure can’t withstand its feat.
Before long, a cry too strong to ignore
becomes the downfall life has witnessed before.
It drags pride down through shining polished board
until the mud returns what it ignored:
the taste of joy, the scent of broken clay,
the mirror that ego couldn’t keep at bay.
There is a place
A moment's space
where Time is paused
and hush is caused
Where infinity
we almost see
where colors flash
and letters dash
While not a word
but thought is heard
Thought will then muse
Till word ensues
But did it dare
find Ego's lair
where “I” command
is in demand
If thought is deep
Let Ego sleep
Or else remorse
might stem our course
Yet “I” is strong
shouts Evermore
and finds scant use
on other's shore.
Now there are clues
Though each is strong
The one we choose
May prove us wrong.
But at last although
there is one choice
which will then echo
as our voice.
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.