THE LOOKING GLASS
(Down The Rabbit Hole)
To wish someone
You've never met
You'll never hold
To great regret
For time and space
To shrink and swell
Down the rabbit hole
You fell
Where Rabbits late
Will not wait
On questions
Quaint, so trivial
Where Queens insane
Would ask the same
But take your head
And soul as well
Hares and Hatters
Serving tea
With manners more
Than empathy
Where Turtles cry
A Phoenix flies
And dives
Into the burning sea
A Walrus wails
His empty pail
Fills with guilt
When all else fails
Where presents past
And futures last
The answers in
The looking glass
Nod to Lewis Carroll
.
In a looking glass world
Everything looks about right
But is in fact backwards.
Now tolerant modern liberal societies
Are taken over by backward tribalists
Who call for the death of their hosts
While those few places
That still preserve their borders
Are called xenophobic and racist
As their populations simply live in peace.
Increasingly men think they can be women
And women men.
There are even some socalled conservatives
Who think they are conservative,
And best of all are the many liberals
Who actually think they are liberal!
The delusion runs deep
In a looking glass world
Everything appearing real and true
While it is only a mirror image.
(8/29/26)
L-Longing
O-Other Side
O-Or Other Universe
K- Kill The Lingering Hope
I- Inside My Lost Life
N- Not Forgotten
G-Gone All The Same
G- Grasping At Air
L- Living With Regret
A- All Behind The Looking Glass
S- Silence As I Walk Past
S- Sorrowful Thoughts
looking glass magic
murky message barely seen
who is the fairest
threatening message
from spirit or ancestor
i wiped it away
she looks back at me
always takes me by surprise
this woman in the mirror
that i never seem to quite recognize
still she looks at me
her eyes drawing me in
refuses to utter a sound
and shatter that eerie film of chagrin
she lives inside the mirror
has no name or voice
a prisoner that's trapped
perhaps somehow somewhat by choice
AP: 2nd place 2025, Honorable Mention 2025
Submitted on January 21, 2025 to constest IN AN INSTANT sponsored by CRAIG CORNISH - ranked 12th
Looking at the mirror
Is looking your biggest enemy
Is looking your best friend also
You also looking the good and bad person
Your looking at yourself hoping for good
It's your choice that will make it done
The fate of life is in your hand
The destiny is guiding you to do the right thing
Other people only see the result
Without knowing the process.
The day rises from shadows
of another day
and now it’s calling.
A neighbor says spring
and another says fall
but now I’m alone.
I look out one window
and see the face
of a woman I loved—
a post says she’s
in a relationship
with someone else.
I look out another
and see a vison of someone
I visited the last two nights
and can still feel her embrace.
It’s October now
and the year is passing.
It will be gone
before I know.
The sun shines
through my window.
Outside
one leaf is green
and another falls
and I recall
a friend who told me
that in each autumn
lies the promise of spring.
As I awaken from my dreams
I take a deep breath.
The day rises from shadows
of another day
and now it’s calling.
I use philosophical musings,
My key maker is reverie,
A few attempts may be needed,
Alignment may not occur each time.
Upon success, the door opens,
A mirror stands there, devoid of reflection,
Then a ripple, whatever part of you hidden,
Manifests.
It grasps you digging talons in,
drags you inside,
Beware, can take possession of your husk,
enjoy the ride.
A shaky old man
Selling ice drops side a road
Amidst noonday sun.
The girl with the looking glass
Is walking down the stairs
Daintly steps,happy lass
A girl with zero cares
The girl tumbles down
The scene a little sad
Knees hurt, torn gown
Away goes the joy she had
The girl with the looking glass
Happy as the sun
Is besmirched with the event past
Lips brushed,all happiness gone
The girl with the looking glass
Is cursed with the fate of a broken glass
The day I looked and saw sea in its entirety
I cringed at its depth and prayed for mercy
I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly, and
Felt compelled to learn from helpful hands
For one hand washes the other hand
Just as the ground that buffers as I stand
I saw remorse in its entirety
For I knew of lives dying to save you and me
I looked and saw everybody
Some undoing the do, some shunning the Almighty.
Beyond eyes, nose, and skin, we are one
Our innermost parts the same held strong
And beauty becomes a thing the blind could see
And forgiveness was born for you and me
I looked and saw compassion in action
For now we stand above ground, and then we're done!
*
The city hung upside down,
an almost perfect copy,
unblemished by any movement
on the water that set a glaze upon
the morning. Later, I saw ferns
and a red bromelia caught
in the still of a backyard pond
and in the clearest counterfeit
of all, me passing across a mirror
in a florist's window before
disappearing somewhere
beyond its gilded frame.
As a child, head stuck
halfway through the looking glass
of a book, I longed to push
through into that reflected world.
It was there, I thought, I existed
in counterpoint, having all
that troubled me reversed
into the opposite.
My real home was
on the other side, not here,
crossing a boundary
that should never have been
crossed, fallen through a crack
in a dream, lost,
with no way back.
Note.
Title taken from Lewis Carroll's
" Through the Looking Glass "
listened through the looking glass...to...
see what 'saw' has sewn...
so i...
saw..."alice sentimental note"
as...
alice sent a mental note
then...
alice sent a "meant-all"...note
and...
all-eyes sent a "meant...All" note
meaning...
all i scents?...a mental knot?!...eh?!
stan sand
alice sent-a-mental note
stans sand
Looking glass
A rare moment at sea
The ocean had no swells
A mirror
Reflecting, on the night sky
The engine’s peaceful hum
Brings the night forward.
The silence is broken
Engine stops fearful voices
Steps on iron.
Stuck forever
On a gigantic mirror.
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.