Existence’s fragile strings fray, unravel,
Just like seconds spinning frantically on a tarnished clock.
Until clogs overwhelm and overheat,
Gearboxes grind to a halt.
Suspension of time.
Desperation sets in.
A race to permanently remain in stasis ensues.
Breathe. Calm down.
Find your repose.
Survey your frozen surrenderings.
This juncture is not on your side.
An unknown future awaits if you don't find the right building.
Ramshackles span miles upon miles,
All decaying—a stark reminder of what you are vehemently fighting.
The kiss of Death’s cold embrace
will not touch your lover’s lips.
Find Zoltar.
Place your hands upon the frost-tipped crystal ball.
Shatter any remaining cracks.
Dig deep into a pulsating pool of memories.
Remember the differences between the buildings.
Zoltar hides in the shack that lies beyond the shadows.
There is a knotted handle made of human bone.
Enter the sinister establishment.
Feed the insatiable figure your soul.
Open the portal.
Place your hands on the gelid orb.
Pulverised,
Stagnating time’s equilibrium—infinitely.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
hope
delicate, bright
whispering, fluttering, ascending
feather, prayer, burden, condemnation
discouraging, stagnating, descending
heavy, gray
despair
God, thank you for being healthy
For family and shelter
Because I have a purpose
in life Thank you again because it's not all rosy
And that they said they loved me, and now it's just the other way around
Otherwise I wouldn't have realized that I had to detach I
don't know why but at the moment all I'm doing is stagnating
I know I should get up and progress
But something binds me Frustrates me, I can't understand I
think it's time to stop being or look weak (To look weak)
I just want to get out with the music, not to fill the bag (Not to fill the bag)
External things won't change my inside'I
know I'm following, I don't care who's before'I've
got to discipline myself, it's not enough to make a motivational video I'm
not going to do anything for no rational
reason I'm looking around me, I don't see anything, I have a bitter taste You
can't heal something you don't recognize, that's clear
That's exactly what I'm trying to do
And stop complacent
To be even more focused
These phases I don't like I
feel like I've lost control
I have to move on to the next
level Only God is immortal
God, thank you for being healthy
For family and shelter
Because I have a purpose
in life Thank you again because it's not all rosy
And that they said they loved me, and now it's just the other way around
Otherwise I wouldn't have realized that I had to detach I
don't know why but at the moment all I'm doing is stagnating
I know I should get up and progress
But something binds me Frustrates me, I can't understand I
think it's time to stop being or look weak (To look weak)
I just want to get out with the music, not to fill the bag (Not to fill the bag)
External things won't change my inside'I
know I'm following, I don't care who's before'I've
got to discipline myself, it's not enough to make a motivational video I'm
not going to do anything for no rational
reason I'm looking around me, I don't see anything, I have a bitter taste You
can't heal something you don't recognize, that's clear
That's exactly what I'm trying to do
And stop complacent
To be even more focused
These phases I don't like I
feel like I've lost control
I have to move on to the next
level Only God is immortal
stagnating nowhere, keep flowing on ~
in time stretched peace, with each breath reborn
If we but continue to flow
Mood and mode, embrace and release
Blockages within us unfreeze
Stagnating nowhere, heart aglow
Recognising life is a dream
We slow down narrow thoughts that stream
Repaying debts of love we owe
We break free from the karmic chain
Whence grace in-pours like lively rain
Blissful in the boat God does row
We reclaim the light of our Self
As life flows in all by itself
Truth of our soul, we get to know
As we grow in love and wisdom
Tiptoeing into God’s kingdom
If we but continue to flow
Stagnating nowhere, heart aglow
Repaying debts of love we owe
Blissful in the boat God does row
Truth of our soul, we get to know
Night
Dark, Soft
Chirping, Stagnating, Calming
Liminal Spaces Comfort Me
3 A.M.
Will our love be like the tide, sweeping changes
taking us to distant lands? the beach washed clean
daily...
Will our love be like the rivers eddy, swirling
circles, lazy fish, sparkling sunlight?
Will our love be like the falls? Dropping, wearing,
damned and released at times? A merry pounding sound
with rushing crashing and rocks...
Will our love be like the calm still pool, filled
again by the rains but green and stagnating at times?
Where the bugs and tadpoles breed...
Love can be all those things, and each in its time.
Just give me this.. Enough to float on, and a steady
supply. Don't leave me with thirst to die.
our love - 1-28-2005 (C) Artimus Susan Manley
if our mood be easily altered
by a small shift in the matrix
are we not as yet stagnating
hypnotised by ego’s cheap tricks
pristinity of unfettered awareness
on earth hemmed in by senses
contoured in organic form
and enslaved by mind
is the cage it’s in
as we chose
and yet
always free
upon dissolving
intent birthing desire
attachment begetting fear
flowing instead of stagnating
in dynamic stillness, ever in renewal
feelings
out of control
spinning stressing shaking
stagnating crashing depressing
feelings
We’re alive and aglow, so all should be well
but perchance if we begin to feel withdrawn,
as feelings of melancholy in heart swell,
a shroud of depression, darkening the dawn,
making us gloomy, life then a living hell,
know wistful soul exhumes darkness with a yawn,
nonchalantly choosing to sing a love hymn,
thereby averting possible outcomes grim.
Innate vibrancy of soul, our mood and mode,
employs will for polarity rotation,
stagnating nowhere, for joy is it’s abode
and each vibration is but a play station,
so once love and light, within heart we encode,
moment to moment, we’re in meditation,
unaffected by the highs and lows of life,
empty like vast space and at all times bliss rife.
23-May-2023
__________
Eight Word Challenge Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
Marooned, small life swims
in a rockpool flung up
and left high on the stretched
reach of last night's storm.
The world that holds them
has shrunk to a size
no bigger than a bucket.
The morning sun singles out
the forms and anoints each
with a dab of light.
I watch and swirl a finger
as if to stir the motion
of a running wave and break
the stagnating still
that has settled here.
This pool is too far away
from the normal wash
of tides to be replenished.
Cut off from the sea,
it will evaporate.
Each turn of a finger
through the water
seems to wind a thought
tighter around my head.
When I stop, an image
on the surface of the pool
slowly coagulates into me.
Just below the glaze,
life withdraws a little further
into its shrinking world,
separated from the sea.
If (I / you) were to observe (myself / yourself),
Would (I / You) really know (myself / yourself)?
-----------------------------------------------
We prosper but we also strain -
This "Game of Life" is that refrain.
It carries on from day-to-day
And we stay steadfast in the fray
Playing our roles up to the hilt,
Life's psycho-social endless tilt -
Casting our lots on roulette's wheel,
Love's psycho-analytic deal.
Gazing into the mirror's face
It's who we are in that embrace.
It's what and why we can't explain -
Our Egos whitewash loss and gain.
We strive to find identity
And picture what we'd hope to be.
At times we feel it's all for naught
When falling short from what we've sought.
Stagnating in complacency
We hold on most tenaciously
To limits of expectancy
For what we'll suffer change to be.
Our portraits in the attic wait
To frame the essence of our fate.
The chronicle of life is great
And Truth, through time, applies the paint.
Most will be shown with minor flaws -
Some, as affronts to norms and laws
But all, one day, will be displayed;
How will your likeness be portrayed?
What's the sense of speaking, when I'm just wasting wind?
The worst mistake that I ever did in my life was to go backward and allow people that exist in my life the ability to enter back in.
I allowed the same person that broke me down, laughed at me, and constantly get high with the mistakes that I made.
Like they have to live with demons and the choices that I make.
It doesn’t matter what I do I can never win.
I know where I want to go and I know where I want to be because if nobody believes in me, I will believe in myself.
when I was alone, I had nobody but I will rather be alone than feeling lonely.
If you’re going to laugh at me and constantly call me out my name,
you better be prepared for the karma that’s about to head your way.
I was a broken puzzle trying to find the missing piece so I can finally be complete. But instead, you enter my life and ruin my peace. I will never win because instead of moving forward I’m looking backward and allowing negative people in my life that’s preventing me from winning because I’m so busy daydreaming and stagnating.
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.