You sparked a solemn sentimentality in me.
You showed me I can find passion while free.
You stood by me after I revealed I'm not always pretty.
You showed me sympathy when I was unworthy.
You set me afire with a sincere desire.
Your persistent kindness makes me want to aspire
To do my best to try to be better
Towards you and your heart in every letter.
You had set me free from a desperate longing
By telling me I shouldn't be so self-sacrificing.
And yet, I will forever continue hoping
Someday I can be of your belonging.
You made me feel something from the beginning.
You made me feel lost in the sudden ending.
But I am finding myself forgiving,
Because it is simply you I will always be loving.
Sentimentality
...is the word
I was trying to think of,
But trying to avoid.
Is that Pride?
***
Selfish Pride?
-Gray Squirrel
11-11-2024
a hardening mangosteen
with wounded white seeds
increasing into rotten arrogance
of monstrous' velocity
sentimentality-
rises slowly to the skin
emitting cerebral poison
flavored with the sourest
and most bitter condiments
as troubled being
devours senseless hurt
sentimentality’s lava
flows drifting soul into sin
June 4, 2022 9.52am
Loneliness slowly creeps up on you
Like a faint mist that spreads
Which thickens ahead
And turns into a dense fog
That chokes you until you can’t breathe
It’s a killer disease
The only sounds you hear
Are the house creaks
That become deafening squeaks
And the tick tock of the clock
As life passes you by
The days are so long
A pitiful heart with no song
The company you yearn
A sickening feeling you churn
There’s no-one to care
No love to share
All your hope is gone
Where once you shone
With an emptiness so hollow
Scared of your own shadow
The silence will kill
Shall I take a pill…
Tomorrow is laced with the same fear and dread
I wish I was dead.
My little home,
My place of ease,
There I go on a retreat,
There I commune with nature,
There I'm able to sequence my thoughts,
Dwell in nature’s embrace,
I sit at dusk and watch the sun take a sink,
I arise at dawn and watch it take its place,
These inspire,
These harness my potential,
I’m awed by nature’s fantastic balance,
These are old and etched thoughts,
My little home dwells in my past,
Eroded by the foes of nature,
I’d love to have another home by the sea.
June 2, 2022.
… is a drunkard
Swilling vintage regret,
Tears falling for undared dreams,
Anger spewing over unrequited love.
… is endless replays of yesterdays
With circular insightful wisdom
As likely to reverse life’s ills
As scrubbing dirt off hills.
… is stolen joy in the gloom
Of memory’s moldy greenhouse
Where fancied success blooms, hiding
Mocking hyenas and nightmare roaches.
… is a pustulated soul
Hunkering in a mental bunker
Sniveling nose dripping a green past,
Dreaming victory will roar as thunder.
… is Salvador Dali droop
From the fringes of reality
Or a joy until truth
Flushes it to a cesspool.
Sentimentality
Most curious
duality ... this
Sentimentality
Excessive tenderness,
sadness, nostalgia
corrupting modality,
distorting reality's
social edifice
Brain-cramping
contortion,
fierce pressure
building,
Sentimentality
wielding an
assault on
humanity!
Liars lie with
impunity
Childhood
lessons lost
Darkness
perverting civility
Root of irrational passions,
misplaced idealism—
This insidious,
ever-swelling
tsunami of
Sentimentality
Back, back to the joyful wood
where once you played at Robin Hood.
One-time playground, a beauty spot,
is now an Asda parking lot.
Back, back to the school bike shed
behind which you kissed or smoked instead.
You could buy a pack for half a crown.
The school's not there; the shed burned down.
Back, back to your very first catch,
together you were the perfect match.
Wonderful days and nights that were hot.
Now they are married, with children-a lot!
Back back to the car you first drove
that set you free to roam and rove.
Lovely then, but now you're aware
it guzzles gas, pollutes the air.
Back, back to the friends you once had.
They were young, weird, kooky, and mad;
what a gang, you were all wild and crazy.
Now we are all old, fat, and lazy.
Back, back to the old hairstyle,
it was a glorious purple pile.
Your mother and father were both appalled.
Unfortunately, now, you're primarily bald.
Back, back to relive your past,
those times you were having a blast.
Life was fun; it was all about play.
Why did it stop? Can no one say?
Sentimentality Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Julia Ward
Date wrote: 31st May 2022
Never finished answering to the dead
Prompt from Have You Prayed? Li-Young Lee
Sit up straight
Get your elbows off the table
Good manners don't cost
Less haste, more speed
What’s the magic word?
Have you tidied your room?
What time do you call this?
Smile!
You whisper in my ear when I'm shopping
You remind me to try harder
You interrupt when I am thoughtless
You correct my grammar
You reprimand impoliteness
You even follow me on a night out
Like a sentimental trinket, I carry your voice
Haunted by memories that chastise
Forever remembering your lessons
Forever remembering you.
24 May 2022
SENTIMENTALITY
Sentimentality,
Or, synonym of Insanity!
If you indulge, it will bulge and enlarge
to engulf you at ease.
and power of judgement to decrease puzzling you.
Sentimentality to exhibit an illusion view.
Not sentimental but be practical to analyse.
Allow the brain to work in full
not to nourish weakness of mind
making you fool and mesmerised.
Sentimentality rushes by emotive urge
driving out all senses of reasoning
non functioning brain
to direct or to guide.
Partly mental paralysis.
05/30/22
Sentimentality
Contest by Julia Ward
True feelings concealed craftily
beneath the saccharine sheathe,
toxic fantasy of self items fostered
by the colors of chameleon skin.
Sprawling spurious emotions,
pretentiously paraded skillfully,
away from the edge of reason,
epitomize the camouflaged ego.
____________
May 29, 2022
Contest : Sentimentality
Sponsored by : Julia Ward
Deceitfully lurking
in the guise of nostalgic surge
s e n t i m e n t a l i t y
arrogantly lingers
along perceived sensible reminiscences...
Persisting to dominate
over carnal mind*
s e n t i m e n t a l i t y
poisons thoughts
in defiance to reality
yet, such is denied with hypocrisy's pride …
Afflicting soul
with gloom ---
s e n t i m e n t a l i t y
leaves soul lamenting
midst loathsome guilt
feasted upon by despair and hopelessness….
By the Saviour's grace,
now triumphantly praising the Lord
spirit in fervent communion with God
prevails over and above s e n t i m e n t a l i t y
for functional memory-reverberation
beyond the mockery of the foes: self, world and the devil.
*Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
May 27, 2022
Edited on January 16, 2023
9th place, "Arkham Asylum" Poetry Writing Premiere Contest
Sponsored by Robert James Liguori; judged on 1/14/2023
sentimental
pent up mental
scented rental
experiential
cinnamon and pumpkin spice
aroman therapy candles suffice
to crucify the nasal passage
upwards to the brain to savage
gushing syrup like a maple
use a hammer on a staple
utter lack of self control
dug a hole and down he fell
deep in an emotive well
id run wild, the cry me emo
needs a toxic dose of chemo
cling to misremebered past
nauseous, maudlin scenes recast
not sure which of these is worse:
blubberous folk, or sappy verse
caustic, hostile's where it's at
bone and gristle, it's all that
————-
for the Sentimentality Poetry Contest
sponsored by Julia Ward
written on 05/26/22
lol
on a roll
A sentimental writer
tries to ram manufactured feelings
down our throats.
Those of us inclined toward an appreciation
of authentic emotions
will feel the bile rising
as we try to digest what we deem to be
indigestible.
A reader or a writer who -
like a connoisseur of fine foods and wines -
enjoys what is natural
and devoid of artificial additives
will (upon reading overly seasoned and flavored
sentimental poetry)
most likely wish to
literally vomit.
May 25, 2022 for Julia Ward's
Sentimentality Poetry Contest
Oh the humanity
the humanity
Oh spare me the grief
thy fake tears
woe is me, mentality
syrupy behaviour
Munchausen propensity
it sticks between my teeth
Oh spare me the pathos
ham acting baloney
Phoney and pathetic
pennyroyal tea fatigue
Histrionic vagaries
self righteous piety
Oh spare me the maudlin
attention seeking thievery
Drowning in poignancy
sentimental molasses
Throw yourself to the floor
overdosing in twee
Oh spare me forever
stomach churning violins
emotional instability
Wallowing in saccharine
exaggerated sob stories
But most of all
the absence of apology
Sentimentality Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Julia Ward
25/05/22
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