I want to dive deep into my soul,
to search for answers profound and unspoken,
answers that stir awakening within,
that unsettle complacency and breathe
new life
into the quiet chambers of my being.
I yearn to travel beyond familiar horizons,
to embrace new ways of thinking,
to unlearn what no longer serves
and relearn the courage to see differently.
Each obstacle blocking my growth
becomes a threshold to cross,
each fear a lesson demanding honesty.
I press forward—sometimes faltering,
yet resolute—toward a higher calling,
where becoming matters more than arriving,
and the journey itself reshapes my soul.
Failure Speaks
Hey, you! I'm Failure,
The shadow that looms near,
The ogre that haunts your dreams,
The weight that clips your wings.
But know me as the miles you must roam,
The obstacles you must overcome,
The falls that test your will,
For the eagle in you to soar still.
Ahead a trail that stretches with his finish line unseen,
at the start he ponders what this one will mean,
this obstacle will be like no other he thought,
an obstacle different than everything he's fought,
cool crisp morning air fills his lung,
pistol raises, the starting chime has rung,
months of discipline has lead him here,
even the thought of loss isnt severe,
content the journey was the path to the start,
this trail, this obstacle will be the final part,
cloud of orange dust left at the beginning,
a pack of runners begins thinning,
weaving through Utah's canyon,
traverse to reveal the true champion,
his stride and breathing has reached the maximus,
by endurance we conquer - Fortitudine Vincimus,
ahead the finish line still unseen,
but now he knows what this will all mean.
For my good friend Matt, Ultra marathon runner. May you let no obstacles get in way of your mission!
The obstacle
After the none violent revolution in Portugal
1972, as often happens in my life when something
unusual happens, I was there, not knowing I was
witnessing history
My ship came to unload cargo, but we ended
up staying for weeks, a revolution is too important
to be wasted by mere cargo
In the village where I later settled.
the new era brought a road, not a big road
but wide enough for a school bus
there was an aber, where the road ended
two olive trees blocked the road for further
expansion
The trees belonged to an old man who refused
to sell his trees to the camera
With the dictatorship over and a new democracy
with rights and freedom for everyone
The school bus had to drive onto a field to get past
That lasted until the old man died
and his relatives allowed for the olive trees
to be removed, with roots and replanted in
someone's garden.
My family never allows me to read a book
Every time I attempt to read a page they'll tell me to cook
So day and night I sweat
But bitterness wipes of the wet
Triumphantly it makes me do all the work
A face with the bitterest frown,
For long years expecting a crown;
Now in prickly sweat bathed
And A Tongue is scathed …
It’s really an awful spectacle,
Facing no challenge, no obstacle,
As reported by his mirror
Doing so without error;
Ability he’s got and Agility
And all his life no infirmity.
So, why is he, Chief Favor
Facing Monarchical Disfavor;
For long years living for a crown
And it’s public knowledge in a far-off town?
He is out to spread his tentacles
In the face, of combative obstacles,
And dying to end through a tackle
Any unacceptable spectacle
Between The Rickety and The Ramshackle:
Busy roads he’d started their channels,
Hateful robbers sealing off their tunnels,
Corrupt judges replacing with panels,
Supported subsidy showing with funnels,
Filling stations without towels obliging flannels
Bottled water for user of runnels
His love for dogs at their kennels...
Determinedly spreading his tentacles,
All the wrongly jailed breaking their shackles!
forward
watch your step
the shadows will hide deep cracks
if you should fall get back up
the path will guide so never give up my friend
at times you may walk
you may even run
crawling will never be shunned
if the path becomes hidden
you may stray
just look up and find your guide
there are many obstacles and many paths
stay the course and do the math
January 23rd, 2021
Suzette Prime Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
Here I am again buried under by this grain of sand
At the beach oceans mock me. Waves laugh real tears
Pretty bikini girls wearing two strings saunter by
All smiles as they admire my bulky hunk muscles
As I hide my grief from them and open seas
The speck of sand won’t move an inch from me
I refuse to look. It occupies my tummy in defiance
In disguise, near the navel, with all its crushing weight
Holds my belly button hostage. Maybe it has needs
Money? Prestige? A beach? Power? Yes! Power!
If only a small slight breeze would happen by
Something on the order of a category five perhaps
Two hurricanes and a Tsunami might do
Particle removal is not as easy as it looks
An obstacle, an intruder of this magnitude
Must be kept quiet because people would talk
If only I had a gun, a sandwich or baloney
I could ask it to leave! But that would be silly
Sand can’t speak and a speck even less
fog as the white ghost
escorts the airship wrongly
brings a pathless wreck
-January 01, 2018 Chattogram
Every Obstacle Away
Like a bird that sails over everything on earth
Without even a dram of worry in its heart,
If you try to live that way
You will certainly get every obstacle away.....
Find, in yourself, your capabilities
Be confident and obtain your susceptibilities,
Like a king who is known for his sceptred sway
Imitate him and you will get every obstacle away.....
Be optimistic but be content
Forge your future in every silent moment,
Like valorous lion hunting it's prey
Follow it and you will get every obstacle away.....
M-ist, fog, and haze
A-re nowhere in sight;
R-ise of the morning sun
I-s setting things aright.
C-oal clouds twelfth February
A-re all becoming white;
R-ed beacon sweet Sunday is truly burning bright.
D-awn has just come out,
A-fter the lonely twilight;
N-ew day denies the dark,
T-rying to break with all its might.
I-n the world of survival, you must win over the foe's force;
C-liffs and tires are conquered in your obstacle course.
I was brought her under the false impression that this was one big adventure
I listened to my intuition (hopelessly wrong)
I was confident and excited and young
but time can change people
Now I feel older than the trees in Century Park
trapped in a concrete jungle
despairing, hopeless, but alive;
my confidence withered like the cacti on my balcony
hot, stuffy days learning nothing at a desk and
endless nights praying for a miracle to happen
Of course meeting you made this worse
but it was fun while it lasted
childish illusions all fade away eventually anyway
and even if I am taller than the buildings next to the flat I live in
taller, even, than the Pearl Tower
I will always be living in the shadow of someone else taller
I really shouldn't expect much from this life
but at least I can stick up two long fingers at her in the dark
but at least I can still exist
even as an obstacle
“Obstacle In Our Path”
Elephants
Side to side
Side to side
Rhythmically rocking my enormous body and head
Side to side
Side to side
Like a pendulum my trunk swings side to side
I'm only doing this because I'm bored
~
My family and I walk for miles and miles
Foraging,
Dusting,
Mud wallowing,
Swimming and socializing
~
We encounter an obstacle in our path
Humans have built a fence and block our path
Evidently they forgot that we never forget the path we always take?
~
I tense my enormous frame
Flare my ears and with a
Trump of rage
I gather my herd and together we work and push the fence down
To clear our path
~
Side to side
Side to side
We walk across and melt into the bush
©By: Eve Roper 8/28/2015
Contest Name: Giant animals
Sponsor: Nathan D.
Brushed timeless in youth's inner light, dreams flow
like ruffles on dress stitched blue -
no fence long legs can't climb.
By Rhonda Johnson-Saunders, 2/15/15
For Nette's In Praise of A Kimo Contest
Visual #2
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