Unheld Poems | Examples

Water

sleeps
in the curve of hollowed rock

         we  
forget its name
until it speaks
in mirrors
in pulses

murmuring down spine

        all we are  
returns
in ripples

   memory breaks  

and reforms  
like light

                 under eyelids  
       sinking  
                    into  
                      once-blue  
a tide forgets its edge

           and so do I  
what doesn’t flow
calcifies—

                    drip  
               drip  
  a vein  
          of sky  
                     left  
        unheld  
...

Where Happiness is Hidden

Is there happiness in the finite?

Of course not.
How could there be?

Like a cup too small for the ocean,
like a clock chasing its own hands,
like love letters
crumpling at the edges,
their ink fading into longing.

Happiness—
if we must name it—
lives in the spaces between words,
in the breath before speaking,
in the silence between arguments
where something endless seeps in.

It is not in holding tight,
but in letting go.
Not in keeping,
but in losing.
Not in the answer,
but in the ache of the question.

And if you still seek it,
do not look outside—
go inward.

Happiness is not in your title,
not in your house,
not in your body or mind.
It does not wait in grand achievements,
but in small, quiet moments—
in a thank you whispered to the breeze,
in sunlight warming your skin,
in water slipping through your fingers.

It is there—
in the unmeasured,
the unheld,
the undone.
In knowing who you are
beneath all the names
you have been given.

A Tree Walks To the Concrete Forest

On a frosty opaque day in windy winter 
I, an old defoliated tree denied the sky and the soil 
by the young aggressive ones spreading branches,
walk out of the green forest in sheer desperation. 

Crossing the contorted contours of the barren badlands, 
I go across the pallid plateau to a city quite far, 
where I could see no sun shining with survival panacea,
so I couldn’t soak the rays to get my lost foliage back.

I could neither find sustaining soil of bonding sympathy,
so I couldn’t stand upright in the storm of strife. 
Dejected, I then morph into a human figure without roots 
in the remote corner of the concrete forest. 

In dismal unkind desolateness my heart soon breaks, 
and the forsaken fragile hands hang unheld, 
picking up pining the strewn shards abandoned,    
from the cauldron of a smoldering summer day. 

Disillusioned, I walk back to the forest I once left, 
and burn the essence of humanity in the forest fire.


January 29, 2021
Title used : If I Were A Tree
Contest : If I Were A?
Sponsor : Mysytic Rose Rose

Lights Embrace

Splinters of unheld memory
Swirling in a tsunami of letters
and hidden shames
Chessboards with whites replaced with space
Creatures formed without a face
touch replacing taste
magic with wonder
taking centre stage
Smurfs with white bruises
Chairs without base
Aliens reaching hands across the universe
and moons and planets race
Lying in the grass
as i crowd surf over loving blades
or would the darkness
take its place
and simmer in the lights embrace
fearful of its final disgrace

Lights Embrace

Splinters of unheld memory
Swirling in a tsunami of letters
and hidden shames
Chessboards with whites replaced with space
Creatures formed without a face
touch replacing taste
magic with wonder
taking centre stage
Smurfs with white bruises
Chairs without base
Aliens reaching hands across the universe
and moons and planets race
Lying in the grass
as i crowd surf over loving blades
or would the darkness
take its place
and simmer in the lights embrace
fearful of its final disgrace

Single Trace

No one hears my silences
none seen beyond my mask
pain hidden by laughter's task
sadness pulls at either corner of my mouth
cottoned coughs explain
the unheld tears
hold on tight to fears
as self just disappears
and blank shadow
takes its place
just behind my face
the last single trace

No Imposter, I - For Std Contest 138

No Imposter, I

Should I once ignore your smile
Call the undertaker
For I be dead unless I be
Imposter fraud or faker

Yet should I be, blind to thee
Even should a fraud I be
Interloper still would see
The beauty that resides in thee

Never shall I stay your kiss
Nor from your hug extract
Nor fail to stroke your flaxen strands
Never shall do that

Should we walk with hands unheld
Call the lawmen in
Tis not I you walk beside
But someone in my skin

Never shall I aim to roam
Nor draw another's eye
Change not I, lest I die
No Imposter, I


                                              19 November 2018

A Numberless Dream

A Numberless Dream

Today while walking together with reverent hands
there are many unheld books with my unkempt dreams

To the wonderful man, who bestows my passions worn
we walk with harmonious tunes on dove gray sands

Within our heartfelt love, we never feel so forlorn
years to come we are filled with heated fires of times

Till we walk in rhythmic tune of a numberless dream
I'll always bring you my passionate verses in rhyme.


03/22/2017
Evelyn Knight

The Walking Tree

On a frosty day in winter an old defoliated tree 
denied the sky and the soil by the younger ones
walks out of the green forest in sheer desperation.
Crossing barren lands goes to a modern city quite far
But could see no sun of hope to get the foliage back
And could find no soil of compassion to stand erect.
It becomes a human without roots in concrete forest
Its heart soon breaks and forsaken hands hang unheld.
It picks up its broken heart on a burning day in summer
Walks back to the forest and burns humanity in forest fire.

September 14, 2017.

Actor

The poet had said :
The world is a stage.

The stage

First Scene
Flood of spotlights
The actor in centre-stage, walks straight
The eyes looking up to the sky
The hands intimately hold, and held
The footsteps close, walk alongside
The figures liked, stay on
Others float around unwanted
The breath strong
The presence demanding
Cares for none.

Middle Scene
The actor runs around
A clock in hand
Pushes people on the ground
The stage is small.
Hits the wall, waits
The prompter says,
Say the line : 'time is short'.
The actor throws the clock
Doesn't care.

Last Scene
The spotlights dim
The actor bent, alone in the back of stage
A stick in hand
The eyes fixed on the ground
The hands don't hold, and hang unheld
The footsteps walk out of sight
The figures fade out.
The breath weak
The presence desolate
Searches for care.

The curtain drops
I enter the stage
The actor on the knees
Rises, and becomes my shadow.

July 14, 2017
Contest : All Yours (Jan 22)
Sponsor : Brian Strand

A Rhyme Within a Dream

Today while walking together with reverent hands
There are so many unheld books within my unkempt dreams
to the wonderful man that bestows my passions has worn
as we walk together holding hands, in the dove-gray sands

Within our heartfelt love we will never feel so, so forlorn
Years to come, we'll be filled with the heated fires of time
till then we'll never be able to be within a numberless dream
I will always bring you my passionate verses in poetic rhyme.

03/22/2017
Erin A.Charles

Fearless Into Tomorrow

No path exists that has an end
Nor soul can bar the way
No horizon with a lonely heart
at end of every day

No course unfolds without a friend
Nor hand to go unheld
No world could be that tears apart
a vision so compelled

No never land
No never more
A chain of cherished nows

No turning back
No fears embraced
All hope not placed in vows

No dream escapes when chased by two
Nor can it come up short
No afterward can it create
when two beliefs consort

No time will come when all is thru
Nor one to stand alone
No reason any need to wait
for lives to live as one

The New Dawn

THE NEW DAWN


Sitting, relaxed, atop the cool grass-filled rock,

Jutting out proudly over the calm blue ocean,

I stared in stoned-wonder; held captive 

By the magnificent rising of the yellow sun, 

Ascending, gracefully, across the serene horizon,

And ushering in the bright and long awaited new world;

A world, free from the shackles of religion,

Unheld by the chains of ethnicity;

Devoid of the differences in colour.

A world wrapped up in the warm covers of peace;

Overshadowed by the immutable display of inestimable love.

A world tongue-deep in sincere equality;

Lacking the Political, Social, and Economic segregations;

Where none is poor or hungry; a violence-free

Community – where morality stands overall; scoring 

On all points; in all ramifications.

I see a world where there are no foes – but friends;

Where the Lions lie closely with the Lambs – 

Sharing, caring; and rapturously cherishing one another;

A world where the natural unites with the 

Supernatural to form a universal positive whole – 

Stamped with truth and justice.

This new world, which I speak of, begins with you!


(c) Ikenna.C.Igwe

Witches

witches came while sleeping

during dark childhood nights

cold, terrifying descent

would howl at thunderous night
as screams rip open warm cocoon
dishes shatter starry dreams
fists pound bullets against wall
shouts explode like thunder
screams tear at empty sky

trapdoor falls

my hand reaches out

darkness rips at young heart
cliff is always there

terror has been there for much of adulthood

today my hand still reaches out

unheld.

The Last Sim City Tycoon

Who can deny the carnival thrill
Spilling through Great White American hope
To be pleased and teased
Like every adventurous American girl
Unheld by tradition's claim
Paving new paths
On feminist wave
Women in power that flower like tycoons
With nothing to prove

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