1423 10-29-25 Thank you Daniel for your inspiration
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1423
caught in undertows
depression hunts like a beast ~
one more empty chair
No Anchor for Rancor
Wounded the ship of my soul,
With tattered sails,
Heels up in malevolence,
Venom puffs out the jib
In leeward grudges of tactless spite
On a pointless reach
Heading up into retaliation.
Heart hardened sends out a deep tap root,
Like a dagger board,
For my blustering hubris
To drop an anchor and moor animosity
In a portage of perpetual whirlwinds
With undertows of enmity
Crashing about in irons of spite.
Yet steady winds rise up
And I must come about
Heading into prevailing winds
Then journey through hubris doldrums,
Sails filled fresh with newborn winds,
Orphaning rancor - breathing in forgiveness -
Sailing beneath full sails of resurrection
riptides
sneaky undertows
drags black sand back into waves ~
sea hawks sound alarms
4/3/23
Contest: A New Nature Themed Haiku
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
riptides
sneaky undertows
drags black sand back into waves ~
sea hawks sound alarms
4/3/23
Contest: A New Nature Themed Haiku
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
In the wake of a ship, one struggles against the surge to get on board.
Falling behind is not an option, to miss this ship, one solely cannot afford.
On occasions, there are undertows attempting to drag you down and hold you back.
The spirit-minded person knows that it’s only old Lucifer trying to attack.
The very first step in acquiring wisdom is to find quality time in silence.
One must illuminate the sirens, the noise the commercials, and the violence.
The second step is to listen with fervent intent.
With an open heart and receptive mind, your time surely will be well spent.
The third step is a good memory so keep your mind clear.
In this quiet place you are not alone, so have no fear.
The fourth step is to practice, for a thing done over and over makes one proficient.
Failures and trials of life sharpen one, as iron sharpens iron,
So when the time is at hand your strength will be sufficient.
One knows that struggling while in the wake; you are on the right path.
Being calm is not a great attribute in life’s tumultuous sea while swimming to victory.
Never give up on the quest of your dream and surely, you will make your mark in history.
Bridge
I whirl through moments etched upon my mind,
Sink through midnight layers where shadows creep,
Hear the rushing floods – no smooth waters find –
Crumbling day light eludes vesper’s sleep.
Solitude’s still waters boil – restless energy -
Rushing waves clog with flotsam discarded
For shores unreached – a rueful elergy -
Undertows of catacombs bombarded.
Shapeless forms from midnight sneer, then arise –
Frantic fear flails seeing in undertows
Vanishing edges but phantoms thin lies
Flee as new shafts of amber light now overflow.
Starshine resurrects from the hopeless night
A bridge between nightmares and true sunlight.
Mornings are littered
with gnawed husks,
charred mouse-tails.
March is burning its strew.
The limbless
braid a thawing earth
into knotty threads.
On wet lines flannel shirts
poach in a warming smaze.
while gust-hogs
still attack the hedgerows.
In coddled kitchens
muggy boiled cabbages
envelope
a pottage of sky.
Stubby snuffles
herald undertows
of new marrow.
April paddles in
with wet crumbs
and buttercups.
Shadowed memories
intermingle with
childhood dreams of
days long past.
Looking back on
the canon of Time
my dance with youth
filled my heart with
happiness
enveloped by the love
of a caring father and mother.
You danced alongside me
for a time
hand in hand
until you let go
feeling unloved
though you never were.
Black moods pulled you
away into a
turbulent tide of
angry undertows
slapping strongly against
love’s strong currents.
You traded an ocean of love
for a desert of discontent
and walked away
alone and apart
and I know not why
dear sister.
9/6/2019
Come, spirit, entice and dance with me
Let me embrace, be embraced by your look
And share your untold tales
Of seduction, conquest and decapitation,
For in your glitzy world
Shadows, bad omens
And eeriness all protrude
Oh, spirits, dance with me
A dance of hope and valor
Electrifying, gyrating, smooth of step
Into a lost world full of secrets
Oh yes, tease me, please me to the heights of ecstasy
Wild cravings now satisfied
Like a splendid feast to be digested
Come, spirits, for a moment let me forget
My compatriots, my world of undertows
Instead, expand the world of wonder
Mix the colors so that I may be inebriated
Yet I have not drunk; show me the bright path
With ease, like magic, an inner eerie world
Of souls so magnificent and spirits to lift me up
For I, too, love life and all its values
And, as I float upon the placid waves of wonderment
Let me land on safe shores and be welcomed
In spirit and in body with cool calmness,
Contemplative
Wondrous, joyous, amorous
Searching for the diamond of peace within
Little by little the waves of
negative remarks takes its toll.
My high tides of happiness...love of self...
and feelings of self worth have given way
to low tides of self doubt and fierce undertows
of insecurities...
which has sucked the life from within me.
Shells and pretty stones containing positive
self talk no longer find
their way to shore...replaced by brown foam...
pieces of broken crab shell...
with the stench of dead seaweed
permeating every cell.
I now realize I must take back my power
from those who I've allowed to take it.
The ones who seek to control me...
to fill me with pain and guilt...
to make me see myself as one with no value or worth.
The sun of realization has come out.
I begin the repair and reinforcement of
my spirits inner beach.
P.R. Deremer
We sat aloft an isle dune
peering over the ocean,
waves mesmerizing
our inner turmoil,
grainy surf's implosions
pulverized ego's scope,
whilst voices turned hazy
wiping out equilibrium
midst broiling sun's psyche
washed back with
salt water tears,
there was no lighthouse
to guide a safe harbor
nor save disparate crests
no words reverberated sound,
just the floundering of
restlessly gritty emotions
that once were blissed horizons
before moon lost its balance
to relentless torrential currents
of neglectful destruction,
drowning in ambiguous undertows
Cotton And White Clouds
Cotton squeezes spongy soft in sanguine undertows
Flows calmly through the gentle fingers slow
Babies feel them caress their tender skin and sigh
Thin fibers rise to weave a dream of pure new white
Through their tiny minds as they recline to nap
Invisible oceans come and wash thoughts clean
Clouds envy them within the realm of reason
Sleeping on blue skies like baby silent whispers
Marshmallow mountains of ghostly fluff move up above
Over the innocent bundles of pure love
Clean and clear, floating ever slowly
Evaporate as they draw close
Tranquil cotton finds white clouds in heavenly repose
Blissful just like Christmas snow
Before they disappear
Vanishing, The Sky's Majestic Blue
Pristine views of sunset's glows,
Where sky flashes out its best,
No storming waters or undertows
Just beauty sinking in the west;
Nature wraps this scene in splendor,
Fading tree lines give gasps anew,
Day's demise a beautiful tail-ender
Vanishing, the sky's majestic blue.
R. J. Lindley,
AUG. 20TH 1986
As I gaze out upon the blue ocean,
from my perch, on the cliff above .
The incoming storm, hovers close by,
I am watching battering waves, smash
the rugged coastline shore below.
The blue waves blend with the distant blue sky.
The once sapphire ocean now becomes steel blue
As the storm rolls in, the ocean, ever changing hues.
The waves smash, blend and churn creating
Cauldrons of undertows merging with rips
Battering with a powerful gale force.
As lightning zig- zags across the deepened sky
I head for shelter from the incoming rain
Knowing I will return again to look at ocean blue.
Francine's contest- blue on blue on blue
Phyl the ocean
thanks Francine
Each day he felt the distance growing,
separating him from where and who
they thought he should want to be.
Though he was adrift in the currents
of prevailing winds, he felt the pull
of strong undertows -- and he didn't know
to which he should acquiesce
or against which he should struggle.
He neither acquiesced nor struggled.
"Didn't he think he should shave, shower
regularly, get a hair cut, lose weight,
shine his shoes, change clothes,
and show up early?
Shouldn't he set an example?"
He wanted to imagine a "but"
to refute apparent logic,
could do no better than to scribble
description which drifted across
the pad, influenced by other
undertows. He tried to last, having
once believed in the universal
flux, but could no longer. Finally,
he avoided mirrors and others'
eyes, kept to the rooms' darker
corners, and no longer engaged
in conversation -- not even with himself.
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