Falling into a cavern,
My patterns hold me down,
Drowning in the currents,
I'm taken from my consent,
Deeper and deeper I went,
Finding comfort in torment,
Learning to implement the tools,
Losing my way over and over,
Choosing to grow older,
My heart grows colder,
Another boulder to move,
Proving i move mountains,
A fountain of possibilities,
Springs up before me,
Seeing another way home,
Roaming the dark corridors,
Hidden within my core,
Revealing many more,
Unexplored patterns inside,
Slipping on pride,
I slide into another experience,
The interference has me shaking,
I'm making hasty decisions,
My vision over ridden by fear,
I peer passed my present,
Resenting what could've been,
If I hadn't fallen again,
In the dark I sit and wait,
For my patterns to take the bait.
Oscar was from Argentina,
Buenos Aires city:
his “go to” word was “lindo, lindo”:
Spanish word for ‘pretty’.
‘Lindo’ if you use big words,
‘lindo’ if you cuss:
´lindo’ is the garden gate,
‘lindo’ is the bus.
Oscar went to buy a pet,
to keep him company:
he walked into the poodle shop –
“how much for a bee?”
“One moment please. We don’t sell bees.”
The clerk heard Oscar speaking.
Perhaps his English needs some help
to get the pet he’s seeking.
“Chihuahuas, dachshunds, corgis too:
simply place an order:
we’ll get a husky, if you want:
we’ve friends across the border.”
But Oscar didn’t take the bait.
He didn’t want a puppy,
or marmoset or guinea-pig,
or parakeet or guppy.
“I’ve seen the bee that’s just for me:
he’s lindo, lindo, lindo:
here’s my money – get it done –
he’s right there, in the window!”
This entropy, it's endless.
I'm captive in your void of sleep.
My eyes are strung open,
My hands clung to you
But I'm drifting off,
I'm drifting far away,
Away from here, and as hard as I grasp onto you,
I know I won't be back.
Every time it happens.
I can't think straight,
I am so far off,
And if I can't be me,
I can't even stand to be you.
Dormant. Defenceless.
So I hold you by your neck and scream, but
It won't come through.
It never comes through.
And how could it if I can't freaking move?
And how could it if you never wanted a defence
While I'm thrashing and crying
And my throat is burning
With all the hatred,
For every time this happens,
For every night you betray me.
Repeating.
You always take the bait.
We always lay dead in the trap.
And you're leaving me.
You're bleeding out.
Like that, gone for good, without a last chance to bid farewell.
And I can't help but think that,
I'll either live without you
Or die without you
And I can never think what's worse.
So if you can't even see this...
If I can't just breathe with this...
If I don't just kill myself first...
It’s too easy to hate
It’s going through the motions to tolerate
Screw tolerance
Get off your ass and communicate
Won’t agree on everything
We were stronger when we chose to relate
When did we fall prey to fools and take the bait?
It’s too easy to hate
As Earth turns
And Sun burns
Humans in our infinite hubris
Carry on the great tradition of Icarus
Fly fly fly
Right to the edge
Saber rattling as we go
Daring the other
To take the bait
Take to the air
And fly fly fly
Ever closer to the sun
(8/6/24)
One person cannot make a difference the naysayer argues.
But I do not take the bait, for I have learned.
Naysayers do not have a stopping point.
I could prove it to him.
If he followed me to any function.
Where a dynamo walked in.
For dynamos change the attitude and altitude of the room instantly.
I have seen this happen over and over.
I do not care enough to teach him.
I have so little time.
I jump into a room
And let a party begin
Uplifting people
The naysayer has followed me.
He gives me a hate look.
I guess now he knows.
I should never have loved in inequality.
I should never have allowed
my heart to take the bait
of loving someone as beautiful as you.
But damn it, love is blind!
I suppose it’s by design
for, had I to do it all over again
I must admit
I would love you
all over again
knowing…
that you can’t be loved.
When Cancel Culture comes to town
What more is there to do?
Do you fight, or just give in?
It’s always up to you.
But if we bow before the woke
Our heads will surely roll
As they demand their pound of flesh
And so collect the toll.
And if we rise and take the bait
We’ll lose again as well
It’s just the way the game is rigged
As history does tell.
So fare thee well I say to you
Who cancel all in fear,
While I retreat into the hills
And keep my powder near.
For one day soon as dawn does come
You’ll wake up with a start
To realize all you did and said
Was nothing but a fart.
(8/31/22, originally published in my 6th book, OUT OF TIME OUT OF MIND, 2022)
I love to go fishing,
And I love to date.
I was just wishing,
You would take the bait.
Out on a clear lake,
We were feeling fine.
But my big mistake,
I used an old line.
Was the same line heard,
More than once before.
With her final word,
We don't fish no more.
Now that I look back,
Don't know what to say.
She wouldn't cut me slack,
The one that got away.
blazing hot like cayenne pepper,
especially in adolescent years,
malleable youths
bend and capitulate
to peer pressure;
grown folks take the bait, too.
it could be a simple
"try this like the rest of us cool kids!"
or just an effortless nudge of
"you're missing out!"
to descend
an impressionable youngster
down
down
down
the rabbit hole
of insidious seduction.
the benefits of peer pressure are there,
though few and far between.
It's challenging for a lone hold-out
to resist the temptation
of wading in deep into
the muddy waters of coercion
when all his "cool kids" buddies
have crossed over
to the dark side.
no matter your relationship
with anyone forcing you to try
or do anything that goes against
your belief system,
your moral code, say no
if you feel even a tad uncomfortable!
refuse to go down
the primrose path of uncertainty.
don't allow yourself to be
handcuffed, or guilt-tripped
into walking down the road to regret.
It's best to abandon ship,
or better yet, don't board
if any proposition feels false.
Date written: 11/20/2022
The flame ignites and burns
and for life the breath yearns
All the words cease to leak
what would deflate the mystique
The soul would seek sight
powers remain finite
Life would ever teach
the core of truths to reach
The path to take fits a choice
though against an inner voice
Mind and heart deeply descend
from ashes of pain wisely ascend
So much in Life we learn
the merit built we earn
Let the soul shine in beauty
as a bright crystal ruby
An admired butterfly
on wings of Hope would fly
Faith the root of content
leave no room for lament
Blessings take not for granted
gratitude for what is handed
Faith would quieten the pain
dwelling on what gone is vain
If caught by the light of flame
Would you be the one to blame
Or just the call of fate
Led you to take the bait
In Life do raise your word
and keep the flame in your world
Think not of any end
In now have a carving hand
May 3rd, 2022
Whenever a country in poverty
but rich in natural resources
is in dire strait
whatever is done by wealthy countries
is only for it to take the bait
Thought tryst in lines just eight
Twirling repeat lines score
Tempts us to take the bait
Till muse tears flow no more
Teasing rhymes, easy gait
Tailored message encore
Tempest wild, touch sedate
19-January-2022
Pleiades in rhyme
7 lines @ 6 syllables each
PS syllable counter
Write About a Form Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Joseph May
‘Show me God’, said the atheist
‘Here, in the now’, he did insist
‘Else admit, randomness of fate’
Taking the gauntlet, here’s the gist
Desires entice, we take the bait
It’s a rat race, so who’ll wait
Bemused, we ask not, who we are
Far cry it seems, is heaven’s gate
Looking back at life, lived so far
With fears and desires, we did spar
Joy and suffering, both fleeting
Permanent joy, too high a bar
We see form debilitating
Life fleeting and time’s a wasting
So resting thought, enter silence
Exhausted of thus oscillating
Arousing inner sentience
Rekindling innate innocence
We’re charged with bliss throbs in fullness
Revealing soul’s luminescence
One with oneness, in blissfulness
In continuum of stillness
Ego shorn, we become twice born
Transmuted is our awareness
Hark in our heart, the soundless horn
God in-dwells form that we adorn
God alone is, love His essence
Truth’s tong, plucks out ignorance thorn
17-November-2021
Soul poetry contest
Sponsor: Robert James Liguori
Myriad objects manifest in dreams
We know not the source, that makes them so stream
If all one, why do we feel separate
Clear light dawns, when we cease to take the bait
Then Gods glow gleams, spiritual heart beams
22-July-2021
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