etched …
into flesh …
into the warm muscle of my being
your colors … stained me …
each a story
each a passionate moment of unusual depth
from the reds of your hot blood,
coursing me
the warm ochers - your joyous spirit
cool sapphires, your eerie ire
sadness and hurt, the slates and grays
envious emeralds, (brief)
dazzled white brilliance, your smile
and the utter inky black of your quiet rage
a color that devoured all others -
that devoured me
choking
gasping for your grace
(always granted) …
you are the ink
and I am your integument
you have written your sins and supplications
upon me …
the stories they tell,
indelible and intransigent …
a bit of pain and bleeding with
each glyph and letter
wiped smooth by the sweet, soft
soothing of your spirit …
I am your carnal canvas -
your searing brand
immutable and love-deep
I am your …
tattoo.
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, July 13, 2024
Preternatural beauty dense and thickly lush
elegantly displayed requiring very little gush
A terrarium bottle garden in a growing rush
staving deep with vibrancy and gentle hush;
A wardian case of coruscating light, forever plush
inside a menagerie of green plants falling afresh
the intransigent resilience of this herbal flesh
is both, a healing balm and a lovely garden bush.
On my own terms my life I walk brave,
setting the course on the pathway I pave.
Nameless probing people uncalled, I descry
break the fence of protected privacy and pry,
ask incisive questions to slice my persona they try.
I don’t reply.
Their footprints I follow, they want with pride,
abandoning me for what I am on the wayside,
to exist as a mute formless entity dormant.
Caustic comments they make of me being adamant,
my character traits make on them negative impact.
I don’t react.
In my heart sunk in the quicksand of time weary,
emotions struggle to rise from the unfeeling debris.
The good done to me I don’t acknowledge loud,
but buds of their love bloom in me, I keep under shroud,
porous sensitivity absorbs all the feelings inarticulate.
I don’t demonstrate.
I will do what I do at free will until I finally sleep,
even if you all call me a deviant black sheep,
for life for me isn’t to fit in your measurement.
I would be me intransigent.
______________
April 30, 2023
Contest : Character Traits
Sponsored by : Angela Tune
Surrounded by four walls.
I feel disgust and despair.
Why can’t I snap out of it?
For listen: The city hums with listless life.
Hospitals thrive with dying patients,
oft with self inflicted excruciating pains,
more often meted out by egoistic humans
in pursuit of hedonistic pleasures,
of self satisfying needs.
In a quiet moment at the end of the day
sometimes I pray. Alas my heart
is enveloped in inky darkness.
Instead I hear the cries of domestic violence,
of children desecrated,
women raped,
men killed by other men.
I flee my loathsome house,
merge with mindless humanity,
in streets displaying their dirty linen,
intransigent in their cacophony
of indomitable bellowing ululations,
until I reach the quieter periphery
of the endless town.
The night is ebbing. The first rays
of the rising sun touch a silvery dome
reflecting its rays straight into my eyes.
Instinctively I shade my face
yet the light persists. Is it a sign?
Could there be hope for me?
Perhaps there's sense in creation.
So I close my eyes and pray.
Fiction
I no longer listen to certain songs that remind me of you
If I do my brain becomes like white grapes in a wine press
the juice seeping out of my eyes
leaving the pomace sloshing within my skull
fertilizing seeds of pernicious thoughts and feelings
that soon sprout into an invasive infestation
of intransigent vines winding their way
into every crack and crevice
taking root throughout my essence
excruciatingly painful to pull
only releasing their hold after extraordinary effort
It would be far easier to leave them be
They’re quite pretty actually but they would weaken
the mortar holding me together causing it to crumble
I don’t have the energy anymore
to rebuild myself brick by brick as I’ve done before
There is silence where once was the ever present
sound of singing, the plinking of pianos
the strumming of guitar strings, the beat of bass drums
all blending together into audible art
There is only the music within me
The steady metronome of my heart
Far less the content of
a poem...and far more
its honesty – crossing intransigent borders...
penetrating sincerely into the hearts of global
societies: Poetry!--expressing our common
likes and dislikes; closing the gap, perceived
but often false assumptions dividing nations,
keeping humanity from amiable, manageable
solutions – love of families and pets
are shared and paramount concerns; protecting
blossoming nature and majestic vistas, our
cooperative eyes: Poetry!--the sincere articulation of
soulful spirits seeking freedom from
world strife, that of forced labor
and tyrannical politics – we are
a sensitive community, bound
by common affections – Poetry,
a blessed informer and compassionate
rhythmic
lyrical
peace
maker
yet a sword
when necessary...
Suppress women
And you get a society
Of men shooting holes
In a dark cloud
Driving on the left side
Of the road
Makes a nation somewhat
Intransigent
I contemplate endings and beginnings, as the globe turns much more times than my
Better chances have burned, I feel eternity's intent to smaller or larger affairs is
Almost democratic In it's indifference, also i pick up inferrance of certain change
Yet life & death are quite unmoved, still intransigent binary bedfellows trencher men
Swallowing our life's days nights efforts, in what cause? The cause of freedom? the
Cause of consumerism? One thing I feel it cannot be for love' or honour; or equality
So if its none of the above what can we gain? What do we count as gain? Division?
Derision? Knife crime tension fear, we have the one parent familys the children in
Pre school all day, women at risk at when alone; prolific drug use, the hostility to
Creation and God' The stifling of free speech? We have all these as part of our reality
Yet more is required it seems' to redress the balance? Or should that be
Imbalance.?
I contemplate endings and beginnings, as the globe turns much more times than my
Better chances have burned, I feel eternity's intent to smaller or larger affairs is
Almost democratic In it's indifference, also i pick up inferrance of certain change
Yet life & death are quite unmoved, still intransigent binary bedfellows trencher men
Swallowing our life's days nights efforts, in what cause? The cause of freedom? the
Cause of consumerism? One thing I feel it cannot be for love' or honour; or equality
So if its none of the above what can we gain? What do we count as gain? Division?
Derision? Knife crime tension fear, we have the one parent familys the children in
Pre school all day, women at risk at when alone; prolific drug use, the hostility to
Creation and God' The stifling of free speech? We have all these as part of our reality
Yet more is required it seems' ore will redress the balance? Or should that be
Imbalance.?
YOU HATE THE CANDIDATE!
You hate the candidate!
He is a populist demagogue –
dangerous, deranged and despicable!
You did it to yourselves! You developed
a “southern strategy”, reduced your once-proud
neighbors from citizens with a mission to whiny
tapped-out taxpayers, impatient and paranoid,
intransigent and scared! Sure of moral high ground,
you launched your religion into your neighbors’
bedrooms, their genetic histories, their public school
curriculums; made compromise a sin, shut down our
government only to re-open it with calls for a theocratic
state, dragging your god through the fear-funded
excrement of political campaigns, bad radio talk,
planned parenthood vigils, your vaunted Christianity
a department of corrections on a national scale
So, you hate the candidate! A man of anger and intolerance!
But you did it to yourselves, and like the petulant child
whose unforgivable negligence let the fire get out
of hand, you did it to the rest of us too!
The folly of the fight
These four walls; such contemptible and wretched creatures-
mock me, taunt me, deride me as weak and worthless.
I am shackled to the two evil twins-Misery and Myalgia.
As I wrestle with my afflictions, I throw tantrums-like a feral beast
charging towards the drawn sword.
However...I succumb to the inevitable.
I sense the folly of the fight and submit,
although-unwillingly to this intransigent,
auto-immune disease.
How do you fight an enemy entrenched in your marrow?
This enemy is urging me onward on this death march,
and it is unrelenting in it's insistence.
Death, at times, feels like a release of sorts,
but I could never indulge myself in such disgraceful folly.
The pain is intractable, inscrutable, but...
I soldier onward... until the end.
August 07, 2020
John Derek Hamilton
When the mind is intransigent,
it sees what it perceives to be true;
and only believes what it sees.
This skepticism is human nature:
yet all is possible with God.
Some people hesitate
to explicitly define their beliefs:
for fear of being mocked or shunned.
Our personal experiences
enable us to define good and evil.
But when we pray to God,
we are spiritually comforted.
Friends and family are integral
to a healthy spiritual life.
Our egos are fragile:
we need a sound support structure,
should self-doubts attack us:
over failed dreams, low expectations,
and meager accomplishments.
Do not forget: you are a soul,
don't allow doubt to be
your tormentor and destroyer.
An old man set in his ways
He picks up cigar smoking
Good luck getting him to quit
He's intransigent
Date: 07/23/2019
Hello world
I'm not a follower
Unless you're trying to serve the Lord
I refuse to compromise
It's not my way, it's not your Way
To abandon an often extreme position of our attitudes
Uncompromising intransigent the oppositions
An intransigent attitude not an absence
Qualify the refusing to change our opinions or behaviour
World I'm adamant,
Devil, I'm adamant that you're bullheaded hard-nosed
Guess what, what right is not wrong
And I won't be listening to your noise-songs
Guess continually I'm gonna be...intransigent
I'm unrelenting, unyielding my cadence to these this unruly audience
I stand Affluence Conscience
Yet still, in my defence,
I refuse to compromise in sin I'll ever stand an intransigence
7/21/19
3rd Place placement in the contest
Intransigence Poetry Contest
Free verse poetry form only
Sponsored by: John Hamilton
A major intransigence these days:
when does life begin- conception,
fertilization, a beating heart- with
first breath- taken outside the womb?
How could thinking be so varied
on this disputed topic regarding life-
financial, religious, or political gains,
or even self-centered appeasement?
A major intransigence these days
about this gift- the miracle of life.
Sandra M. Haight
~4th Place~
Contest: Intransigence
Sponsor: John Hamilton
Judged: 07/22/2019
Intransigence. The state or quality of being intransigent
or refusing to compromise or agree; inflexibility.
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