Plunging Poems | Examples

My Mind

(“I of the Beholder”, 2014, original pen and ink)

My Mind

My mind is a labyrinth
Organic with its tendrils 
Flowing like a stream
Following every which-way gravity takes
Clearly without a mind of its own!

It leads me through dark places
And into the light
Yet it never lingers
As any rise in my emotion
Just causes it drop off a cliff

And then I am soaring again
Or plunging as the case may be
It matters not if it is day or night
Above or below ground, in fact 
I’m not sure anything matters on its twisted way

But I can’t fault this fickle friend
It doesn’t really mean me harm
As it pushes my buttons and pulls my chain 
I know, like an exuberant child or pup,
It just wants to show me what it sees with love.

(9/6/25)

Alone in the Deep

They walked with me across the bridge,  
Holding onto the sides to keep it steady.  
I took careful steps,  
But they assured me that it was firm.  
I walked across unhurt.

They accompanied me through the meadow,  
Where I was afraid of the taunting shadows.  
They promised to brighten their lamps,  
And the light dispersed the shadows,  
Leaving us no longer trailed by the night.

They journeyed with me through the mire,  
Though I feared the depth beneath us.  
They held my hands and lifted me,  
And as I looked to my right and left,  
They smiled at me,  
So I navigated through the muck but didn’t sink.

They travelled with me across the sea,  
They carried me on their shoulders.  
When we reached the middle of the sea,  
Suddenly, they disappeared.  
I fell, plunging into the depths,  
Struggling to rise to the surface.  
As I sank, I saw an approaching hand,  
And I remain within this vision.


September 1, 2025.

Apparition

It’s 25° C clear
but she’s gone.
The outlines of her shadow, hoping
that they’ll have a chance of putting them into use
in the fashion world.
 
She wears a black, backless dress
with a plunging front.
The soft contours of her breasts are revealed
through the mirrors on the walls.
 
On the front page a gazette
 her cat walk
 rushing down to the battle.
Here, you’re making the neighbours squirm.
Here, you’re making their claymores shriek their hatred.  
That’s why your body sags against the bar in fatigue.
 
You’re trying to remember your voice.
Remember, your phone rings again.
It’s a voice you’ve heard,
that incandescent panic spread through the hall.
 
They’re marrying her.
They’re scarifying her for their day’s events.
You’ve made me interested in how she’s thinking
& you can’t control this with your beard.
Your gaffe is all there.
You gaze with gratitude.

A Triad of Tanka VI: Autumn Failing

A cracked, lone brown leaf

Spiralling quickly downwards

Knows only the ground;

But in that motion exalts 

As if a plunging falcon.
-------------------------------------

Fallen, wind-blown leaves

Huddling against grey kerbstones

In abject neglect.

Already parks quieter...

Their iron railings more stark.
-------------------------------------

The thick sap retreats

When gnarled bark tightens its grip

On inner heartwood;

Summer faded into nights...

Autumn, failing, covered all.

Ohio Sea Song

Where the groundhog has chewed the chain link
I slip through a brittle-boned hedge, and I am there
where geese sail a puddle-deep fog.
We taste the sea in its brine-washed ripples
splash through its salty clouds. Ohio rides on
oceanic currents, the Atlantic gets swept up
on gull wings, surf drifts West for miles,
then flops down and paddles deeper.
The sky has startled fisheyes in it; between the
soggy woods, aquatic scales slide and gleam.
Long-winded showers shatter where mermaids
chase, plunging on through dazed turnpikes,
or pausing to comb their wavy hair at windswept
rest-stops along Interstate I.75.

Choked Bloom

The girl weeps a bruised and bitter rain,
A childhood choked, a garden grown in pain.
My laughter, brittle glass, it cracks and breaks,
Beneath the weight of unforgiving stakes.

They built a fortress, walls of rigid stone,
And left my heart a barren, windswept zone.
No lover's hand to soothe, no gentle gaze,
Just scornful whispers in a hateful maze.

Each hallway echoes with a judging eye,
A constant feeling that I want to die.
They see a monster where a child should bloom,
And fill my days with ever-present gloom.

The books lie open, pages blurred with tears,
School's a torment, fueling all my fears.
A secret festers, a corrosive blight,
Consuming hope, and plunging me in night.

I paint a smile, a mask of purest white,
To hide the shadows lurking in the light.
But when the moon ascends its lonely throne,
The tears return, and I am all alone.

A burden I believe, a whispered curse,
This aching need to flee, to be dispersed.
The razor sings a siren's tempting call,
A fragile promise to escape it all.

The girl weeps, a final sigh,
A whispered plea to simply die,
My childhood dead, a silent tomb, 
Lost in this endless aching gloom.

Summer Slumber

Lulled to slumber by humid summer breeze
She dozed to sleep dreaming of chilly ease
Plunging into swimming pool
Oh, so delightfully cool
Rising up, she woke herself with loud sneeze.

July 3, 2025
3rd place, "Summer Funny Limerick" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Tania Kitchin; judged on 7/13/2025

Australis Dreaming - As seen Through Fish Magic by Paul Klee

Before you came
I spoke through rivers
and trees, the flat plains
spilling distance out to where
the world was a mirage
and time shimmered dreamlike
plunging downwards 
into a vast inner sea.
Fish swam where now rocky
outcrops rise above the red earth
and exotic lifeforms floated
silently through a celestial dark. 
All was an ocean of dream,
creations womb where earth,
sky and water were one 
before being born 
and pulled apart.

Divorced

In the conjugal life’s complex topography, 
vowed to traverse to the end together
within the sacred institution of matrimony,
the path may bifurcate where distrust dust gathers.

Marking the legal dissolution of marriage,
the partners once embraced by love and commitment,
walk divergent walkways through the emotional corridor,
away from incompatibility, for they grow apart over time. 
 
The common course splits with the conflicting mindsets, 
plunging into whirlpool of emotional challenges,
bears testimony to how the convivial chord 
of conjugal harmony the impaired sentiments crumble.

In the lonely search for the way out of despair 
psychic positivity leads to personal growth,
offering the opportunity of new beginnings,   
helping to rise from the ruins of the past.

Self-esteemed prudence is a guide to navigate 
the new reality through the terrain of self-regulating life, 
and curve out an independent course to move on,
for the night ends, a new sun rises in another dawn.

To Fly

A tiny run, then plunging up and away
from tiptoed feet that pushed and then released
from earth's constraint. How gently I essay,
and effortlessly - wonder is achieved!

In springing from the ground I've found my dream
with one knee slightly raised and balancing.
At times or with the wind do I careen!
But lo! Beneath, all things are silencing.

I'm drifting forward upward into space.
I peer below at buildings and at trees
diminished in their stature. I am grace
above them wafting hither in the breeze.

I ready and steady myself to downward go,
for instinctively I deem I must descend.
Anticipation - though - now starts to flow.
I know I can do magic again and again.

Interlude

In a room lit only by candlelight, 
we share a secret interlude of love; 
our witnesses the shadows of the trees 
and soft beams from the twinkling stars above. 

Before your eyes, I wave my magic wand, 
my eyes locked on yours in adoration; 
your precious bottle dripping from the brim 
with trembling, overdue anticipation. 

My hand guides my wand inside your bottle, 
plunging gently inside its secret depths; 
then it stirs the liquid your bottle holds 
while trying to control my shallow breaths. 

Finally, reaching the peak of delight, 
I withdraw my wand with little trouble; 
taking a deep breath, I blow at the tip, 
producing a very large…soap bubble!

stereo senses

owls sit in the dark and listen
for mammalian prey
tunneling

through deep snows
below the
trees

plunging, they seize
their next
meal


len

From darkness to light

We beseech heavens to ignite
our heart that mind may see the light,
opaqued by both fear and desire,
thus long and lonesome seems the night.

Death looms ahead and now we tire
of narrow thought forms we do sire,
so befriending silence we pause,
with vast space choosing to conspire.

In staid stillness fickle heart thaws,
clipping in this way, ego’s claws,
that thus doing nothing at all,
we see our true Self, free from flaws.

When we are still and thought forms stall,
we hear clearly God’s loving call,
asking us to wake up from sleep,
that truth of being, we recall.

Silence the void, wherein we leap,
plunging headlong into the deep,
prior to which head and heart merge,
whence boons of grace we then so reap.

Feeling within divine mists surge,
our heart within the stream we purge,
witnessing wayward ego die,
that from delusion we emerge.

Peace engulfs us, we hear soul sigh,
in joy waving ego goodbye,
seeing earth life as but a dream,
now free at last, ready to fly.

The Swimmer

I saw her swim out to where
distance and wave height
made her disappear from sight.
The water still carried 
the last of summer's warmth.

She was where I would like
to be, loosened from what binds
this body to gravity, 
to be free of weight
and feel nothing beneath
my feet but a plunging depth.

I would be tempted 
to let myself sink slowly
into that mystery,
taking in wave 
and water, to float
as a child would 
within a womb, held on the end 
of an umbilical cord
linking the now 
to eternity.

Angels at Attention

Angels stand before me,

Restoring a body,

Only they can see.

Clearing negativity,

From my reality.

Silently fighting,

Delighting in Victory.

When Asked to be,

Part of the Story.


They're hard to see,

Through dark and stormy,

Seas of energy before me.

This Physical form,

Clashing, gnashing,

Splashing energy,

Against the foundation.

Rocks crumbling,

Emotions are Bubbling,

Off balance, Tumbling,

Into The darkness.

Plunging,

Against the Resistance.

The Disturbance,

Eroding patience.

Turbulence from the Currents,

Drowning my excellence.

In my last moments,

I catch a glimpse,

Angels in the distance.

Awaiting the chance,

To lend their hands.

Just waiting on my command.

Until then They'll Stand,

Angels At Attention.

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