Short Abstained Poems

Today 
dismayed
as skies sag gray
sad clouds complain 
it rained-
I abstained!...

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The limerick, below, may miss the mark. I have abstained for too long:

There was a poet named Hero
Who went from tops to zero
She thought about war, greed, our lies
Blamed humans, not God above skies -
Poetry Soup got mixed in the furor...

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Chemicalized pain
One somber voice did claim
Power was regained
Two hands from woe abstained
Three held to love again.

Soft, silent, and firm
God's voiced I lately learn
Touches without harm
It invites choice and calm
from consequence and storm.

*...

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Listen to poem:

Mana 
David J Walker

As we too
Fail to
Live forever
On this earth 

And seek  
Safe Harbor 
Of new birth

A penance paid
For what
It’s worth

Regrets displayed 
Abstained in dearth 

A body made of leaven
Sends Mana
Down from  heaven 


...

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He asked the world to see his plight.
They came from the left to proclaim him right.
So, he took to the streets and tore up the night.

Feeling no shame, with others to blame;
Driven with hate, from ambition abstained;
A whimpering ingrate, and pitiful man....

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Blame …   
deep and abiding
Praise …
a fleeting call
Infliction kills
affection shills 
Their contrast
casts a pall

One …
a timeless burden
The other …
flits away
Tomorrow’s pain
all joy abstained
Entrapped 
—where memories stay

(The New Room: December, 2023) 
...

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Fie! My heart doth not shatter!
‘Tis the blood that maketh the bond
Chain’d by an unforeseen incarnadine bane
Thou shalt not be abstained
Lest thou seeketh the road of sorrow
Hast thou betray’d thy inner self?
For thou hast cast aside blood’s legacy
Yet bond there is, for life prevails
Fie! My heart doth not shatter!...

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Deafening silence screams with rage
Unrivaled violence, no need to engage
Here inside I remain abstained
While Inside, you remain constrained
Tainted tongues our words are choked
Blood stained hands cannot be cloaked 
Internal solitude remains ignored
Incoherence love cannot afford 
Isolation triumphs, as affection shatters
Frustration devours everything that matters...

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I thank you from the bottom of my heart for comforting me when the world was dark. You have been a great friend indeed and helped me in times of need. You helped boost my esteem and made my fears recede. I have nothing to prove, you accept me the way I am you are truly a life line, you are my friend. I thank you for being a part of my life. Your friendship has abstained my strife....

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Crest fallen try to make best of something
Left lost for US no life of hope returned
All like dopes obeyed the sudden shifting
Alarmed adrift while pointless parody remained

Wracked with joyless laughing nature cries
Arrested skies attest how man abstained
Under cycle siege a reign of mixed belief
Advancing chaos judgement failing all disdained
...

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The evening of November first
Brought forth a gentle rain
For autumn sought to slake its thirst
While October had abstained

How fair to spare the children
That they might prowl the night
And their candy sacks be filled then
To their costumed hearts’ delight

Now November comes to claim
The scent of cold, wet stone
As the first of all fall rains
Seeps deep into this poem....

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I’ll try my hand at every kind
of rhyme;
I find that they can help to prime
the mind.
Though oft when I should have abstained,
I’ve tried,
and ended up, knots in my brain,
tongue-tied.
When that occurs, you must unlace
your shoe,
and try again to thread it through.

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the Shoe Laces form is an 11 line poem, 8/2/8/2/8/2/8/2/8, with a rhyme scheme of abbacddceff...

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La Fée Verte, Mistress of Wormwood, 
High Consort of la Belle Époque,
Shimmering with joie de vivre.
She’s holding court with bohemian charm,
All haute couture with feathers and furs,
Promising what fools believe.

One spends the night with mademoiselle
In bondage to her whims and mercies,
Content to be softly chained,
Then wakes up nude in the Paris Commune,
A subject of interest in the Dreyfus Affair,
Wishing one had just abstained....

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A lonely night
Staring in the wall
Of eternity
A phone call
A glance

A second chance
Is out of sight
But not groovy
In the scenes
Of a movie

Blanked out
Black sleep
Rehearsal
For death

(a calm, breathless coffin)

a porch swings
a window blares
heat

sweat sires unreason
and a season of visions

dripping colors
Absinthe abstained

Schizophrenia unchained

(birds fly teeth grit)

a cool song plays on

revelation in a second

a dove flies echoes...

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