Short Rungs Poems

       Dreams cast about
          as the moon climbs her rungs
        
        By the first light of dawn
           ~ yield to the sun
...

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I want to climb up your ladder but some rungs are broken
I watch your words crystallize as they are spoken
I see your heart pump and your muscles tighten
The voice of fear cancels the voice of reason
Freedom...

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Burning ears
And thumping lungs-
The fleeting hope of Ladder rungs
Stretching 'cross the dawning sky.

Life is found in Light of day
While comfort Lingers in the clay
Where to go?
Where am I from?
O, the majesty of Ladder rungs....

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“dad’s dad”


the fun in function is when do becomes does
less rungs than wrongs in one that loves
i cannot climb high in my family tree
i know no nuts for as you can see
this is my stepladder because
i never knew who my real ladder was...

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Stuck on the broken landing
Of a stairway to nowhere
My mood no longer elevated
My spirit remiss of song

Looking over the railing
Into a history that I buried
A ladder appears above me
But when I step—its rungs are gone

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)...

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True enlightenment
is revealed
at the top 
of the rungs
on the ladder
of your mind
as you ascend
from knowledge
to understanding
to wisdom
and with
a burst
of illumination
you reach
its splendid shore



             July 28, 2019
One Sentence Metaphor in Free Verse Contest
          Sponsor: Jesse Rowe...

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Magic scenes 
drift blissfully 
across 
my gleaming eyes 
that capture lush green 
images 
or peer 
with deeper 
focus 
at heaven’s 
golden rungs 
ascending skywards 
as a blue enchantment 
lures 
perceptive life lights

Date ; 18/5/2020  Eighteenth Of May 2020

Title ; Look Closely 

Sponsor ; Edward Ibeh...

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Closed up in the open air,
one foot deep in the dirt,
the other stepping away from its grave.
The wishing prayers of generations
promise only more of the same.
Sometimes I am a trapdoor for the sky,
sometimes a broken rung.
I don’t have the holiness of a sparrow,
I'm not put together that simple.
My God is the God of broken Ladders....

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I don’t climb that ladder anymore,
the one that goes both up
and down.

The rungs were never helpful,
being made for struggle
not for actual reaching.

Some spend a lifetime
looking for just the right ladder,
most end up in dead-air
as fish out of water
struggling to breathe,

it is then I realize
I only have this broken ladder
to offer....

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Lord,I am lost
I have wandered
Far from 
The righteous path
Into the mists of desire
Never thinking of consequences
Grabbing at the easy rungs of life

Trouble has become a companion
Here now I pledge,no more
Enter my life,I pray

For
Only you can show the way
Grace me with your light



7/3/2014
For contest:1-4 Acrostic
Sponsored by:Andrea Deitrich...

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Yes, you  can!


Climb the mountain, no matter
how treacherous and steep!
Keep your eye on the lofty prize, 
far, far above your eyes.

It's when you are most exhausted,
that the second wind fills your lungs.
Negative thoughts seem heavier than 
iron rungs.

But you will most assuredly achieve.
You simply must.....believe!



         December 12, 2019...

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An angel begging for my dreams fulfilled
She screams with a livid voice to be heard
Broken dreams sift leaving sadness instilled
She takes off flying, as one with the bird
She pleas for my soul, that I might find hope
She cries that I might find a way to cope
Yelling at the top of her enhanced lungs
The ladder of life, can I reach those rungs

Russell Sivey...

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He hates the sun
when it rains
he slithers to the lake side
gazing at his reflection
still he smiles
attention is after all attention
he soaks it all in
a fool who fools no one
they all now see
snakes love ladders
he will never slither to the top
its simply to much fun
playing with the ladders rungs
forget all those silly raindrops
this snake has been caught and hung
...

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What suffering has been abated?
The cat still toys with her pray
Watching like a mother protecting her young
A grin carved with malintent

Order, a court of greater ills
Ladders with no rungs, smooth pillars
What sins does this kingdom commit
When there is no capacity for reason?

No ships sunk from remorse
A cargo never considered

What generous heart is weaved in roots and vines?...

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An anesthesiologist knows
the depth of death.
Deeper levels one goes
on the rungs of the ladder
lead down to gray, it doesn’t matter.
The life force has left.

Do you ever wonder,
in that pseudo sleep
that they put you under?
One fatal mistake
the doctor may make
could lead to death so deep.

1/3/19

Rhyme Time 7- Deep and Dark 
Sponsored by: Lu Loo   2nd place...

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the stars will guide you
your love remind you
the journey has begun
you're finally on the run

once a distant dream
a fantasy believed
leaving behind the past
your heart holding fast

living for this time
all the rungs you climbed
below cloaked in your shroud
emanating as clouds

opportunities you thought gone
now glistening in your sun
as it all falls in place
at last your saving grace...

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Find me in the sea full of empty shells.
They are bones over Noah’s burnt vessel,
ashes of gopher, Calvary’s wood the
timeless ark and rungs on Jacob’s ladder.
Moor your might to my truth and blink your eye.
Before you’re adrift in Luke’s gulf, find me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 01.18.17
Contest: Find Me In Six
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud...

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To Matter
_______________

Why do I not matter, like the empty rungs of a broken ladder, I’ve tried my hardest for them to see, what a good friend that I could be, yet I’m proven wrong continuously, that what I thought just isn’t free, so now I pay for what I mean, to myself and others I’m in between, I’m giving now not a second thought, that how I feel was never taught, or sought. Plain then simply, not a lot....

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Oh dear oh dear
I'm laughing
My life away I fear
So much I'm chaffing
From the lungs
I can see my abs
Forming rungs
I chase chocolate labs
Because I want to taste
For myself, in my haste
I try to skip
But the trip
Is short
Like a skort
Beneath a shirt
As I flirt
With death
Out of breath,
Cause the tears
Are too real
From my laughter
As the sad clown nears
And I hand him a happy meal
Hope he likes ranch on his happily ever after......

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If my life was a ladder,
It wouldnt have many rungs.
If my life was a language,
It wouldnt be spoken by many toungs.
If my life was a book,
Its pages would be blank.
If my life was a boat,
It would have long been sank.
If my life were a sunrise,
A cloud would cover it up.
If my life were coffee,
I would be served an empty cup.
I have what I love though,
My friends,family,and wife.
Yup,thats all I need,
In....My life....

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Long ago I walked down an aisle
Long ago I held a child
Long ago I lived in dreams
Long ago it all now seems

Long ago I had it all
Long ago threw no curve balls
Long ago I walked a path
Long ago I didn’t look back

Long ago when I was young
Long ago I climbed the rungs
Long ago a safety net
Long ago no future threats

Long ago went by to fast
Long ago I can’t get back
Long ago my future clear
Long ago has disappeared...

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I jumped the hurdles
I climbed the rungs
you went higher
I couldn’t hold on

the song you sang
I couldn’t hear
words to the wind
or on deaf ears

you disappeared
without a trace
no tracks left
the trail erased

no warning shot
you were on the move
an empty chamber
an aim not true

when you left
you took it all
no safety net
to block my fall

a broken past
a wall left breached
a soul bereft
a heart that weeps...

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Yes
It's rungs
May be covered in rust
But commit to the climb
To learn how to trust

Yes
You'll fall
Again and again
Caught by the arms
Of a very old friend

Yes
You'll be put
Back at the start
A journey to the place
Where you're never apart

Yes
Your hands
Will be battered and bruised
Take solace in a fate
You surely didn't choose

Yes
This climb
Has no real end
But neither does the truth
For which we ascend...

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A knotted Tarzan rope dangles
From the same sycamore tree limb
When I was a young, snot-nosed,
devil-may-care adolescent.
Nothing has really changed that much
Since my time: the same swimming hole,
Probably the same railroad spikes
That I hammered into the trunk
That we used as rungs to scale it.
But it’s a very lonely place
today. All my childhood buddies
Are either dead or too infirmed
To care; so here I stand alone
Willing, but no one to play with....

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Any (every) man
can brag about his conquests, 
the notches in his belt
little rungs on a ladder
baptized in bullshit. 

Any (every) man
can regale you with stories
of their swordsmanship or cunning
linguistics.

Any (let's just be honest and say all) man
can try to hold a woman down
while pretending to hold her hand.

But it takes a REAL man
to look a beautiful woman 
in her emerald moth eyes
and say;

"Will you teach me how to fish? "...

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