Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Manx Feb 8
If neoliberalism urges caution
To our humanitarian approaches
But causes legislative bloat
And fosters lethargy,
Then neo-conservatism presses observance
To the safeguarding of our rights
But causes judicial confusion
And breeds separation.

Between us & I,
Between collective & individual.
So much joy amid the animosity,
So many cliques amid the niches.

Sadly concentrated & widespread-
What once was Orthodox is again
Within the eyes of most of man.

Such twists of countenances,
Such distortions of their own doctrines.

What scripture is not perverted?
What documents are not violated?

What laziness by the righteous
In eye of such cutthroat ruthlessness,
For the extent of the lack of justice
There is not nearly equal ire.

Get out & do something,
Stand up for what you believe in,
Lest you're unable.

Keep calm & carry on,
Be civil & observe decorum!
Keep calm & carry on,
Be dutiful & raise the standard!

There's barbarians on the border,
We're facing invasion
And enemies from within!
False citizens who lifted the gates;
Members of the house & senate,
District & magistrate.

The foreign threats grow,
We're completely surrounded
By enemies along our walls!
Backstabbing friends conspiring against us;
Those honored to be called partners & allies,
Apparatchik & Goldfasanen.

There's a war being waged
By the likes of values, beliefs-
Through our culture!
Capricious celebutantes with secret agendas;
Members of the paparazzi & cinema,
Big shot bankers & developers.

Every discussion is a battle,
For the extremists are everywhere,
By wealthy like terrorists!
Tyrannous minorities with their backdoor deals;
Those revered of the fraternal & esoteric,
Seedy elites & naive henchmen.

So much most repulsive, henious,
By perpetrators most traitorous.
Mesmeraldo Jan 24
The lowest point of the pendulum is a stable point, there is order within this point.

If you give it a little push it starts to swing about this low. The more you swing at the right times the higher you come. It's virtually impossible to start swinging to a high point initially, you gotta give a bunch of small pushes.

The highest point of the pendulum is an unstable point, there is order within this point.

Every small mistake will try to pull you down but you must correct and go back to this point, like balancing a broom on your hand. Keep on correcting and it won't fall, but once you do it will--

fall, towards the bottom.

But that's not the entire story.

Because it will zoom right past the bottom back up again, and you can try anew.

However if you miss this one once again it starts to swing lower again.

And again.

Every mistake will add up to returning to this lowest point.

And ever swing will bring you higher towards the highest point.

So what is the right swing?

Only you know.
A pendulum without friction will oscillate for eternity
Waseeq Nov 2024
under the lost perch dreams are dying  
birds crashing without batting a wing
fungus growing in circular rings
the thud of tiny footsteps hoping for a better day
innocence just wanting to play
sun tired ending its shift early moon oversleeping day and night cry
oreo black across the sky
nightfall crashing left and right
neighborhoods acres of no light
courts closed due to the dark
***** stop bouncing lost in the park
darkness now spread from zero to one the end of light has just begun
Is the end nigh?
Nat Lipstadt Nov 2024
~for Paul & Art~

<>
melancholic, contemplative, introspective,
put on the songwriters of the Sixties,
looking for the comfort of old songs
that I once knew complete, from the days
when I believed, knew my own true self complete,

the tablet lifted, the spirits keening, a forth
will be coming, to soothe and purge, commence to dress my own wounds,
Whitman would be attentive, perhaps
a tad sympathetic, tho my wounds are
entirely self-inflicted

and alone, cry out for an assembly
of words, well chose, smoothly chaotic,
mirroring the lathe of my sharpened
disarrayed confusions, two old troubadours
come to comfort, with sweet harmonies,
and simple, but novel rhymes &
syncopated rhythms that all can
carry, sing along, all of us smiling

with ease, we cross the borders of each
other’s mind, paring snippets into
poetic clasps that keep us well attached,
filing away the roughened edges that
we all in common posses, and like
jigsaw pieces, we finish each other’s sentences, and we emote satisfaction
with smiles, laughs, sighs and sarcastic
groans, our words grasp, connect and

ease is in the air, there but for this grace,
we go together, you and I,
sailing away from
troubled waters
8:19pm 11/11/24
Danilo Baeta Nov 2024
Time passes and takes me,
a secret from the sea it brings.
Spare me from this spirit
that corrodes veins and more,
leaping beneath the body.

What secret does it hide, then,
paralyzing the fevers,
raising fear within me?
What spares me from the soul,
keeping my breath sound?

Keep me sound and alive,
a fruit, crystal-clear,
that storms and thunder
cannot shake,
preserving its branches.

The secret whispers
in the waters of the dead sea,
calls my name and moves on,
reaches my feet in the tides
of the windiest waves.

Fingers beneath a thousand drops,
walked through gales,
dark and salty they are.
The moisture reveals
the beats of my heart.

Fever cuts me and fades,
in the time the voice comes,
in the depth of this sea,
with love that wraps me,
with a touch of warmth.

One dreams when the sky,
unashamed, cries,
with love and sadness,
wailing and breaking its voice,
never to return again.

The secret is a secret.
In the depth of the soul it lies,
in the depth of the mind it stays,
it lives what time keeps,
the voice of the sea and the desert.
Luke Vandillen Oct 2024
We are all like wildflowers. We fall to the ground as seeds, some are swept away without a chance, while others begin to germinate and sprout after some time in utter darkness, enveloped with earth for what must feel like an eternity.

We begin to form ourselves into the ideal shape under ideal conditions, and even under conditions which would more than likely do us in, by the grace of the universe and process itself.

We gather up sunlight as the manifestation of motivation and courage, and we begin to satiate our spirits with unspoken gratitude, which spills over into joy and laughter, which we commit to our subconscious memory, and we let it build us up into stronger, more beautiful versions of our truest selves.

But this inertia and energy only lasts so long, until we are buffeted by the harsh winds of unfortunate events and circumstances, until we require rejuvenation from the universe and from the very depths of our subconscious once again. There is a waiting period for this to occur, which I would call depression. When we feel like it’s not worth the effort, when we feel like giving up or not pushing ourselves to our limits, or even when we feel like just not so much as enjoying the passing moment, we must gain strength from outside of ourselves at times when we feel we do not have what it takes to keep pushing.

The beauty and magnificence of life is ultimately contagious, and when we realize that bad times breed good times, we realize that good times ultimately spill over into inevitable bad times. The Yin and Yang is a good example of this. “As above, so below, as within, so without.”-The Emerald Tablets.

When we reach our peak, our flowering stage in life, we are so beautiful and full of radiance, and everyone around us thinks so too. That’s what I mean when I say the beauty and magnificence of life are ultimately contagious, but the same can be said for negativity, doubt, hatred, self loathing, fear, pessimism, and the false idea that life is only to be enjoyed by the rich, and that there’s no hope for the average individual. These thought patterns will hold you hostage, they will break you down, and they will make you virtually unable to process any sort of joy regarding this incredible experience we call life.

The only way to break the cycle of negative thoughts, is to take a step back and practice gratitude and awe for the absolutely insane process of our evolution, and our growth as a species, our growth as wildflowers, who are strewn about the countryside basking in the sunlight, swaying in the breeze like our very emotional states often do. We are a thing of untold majesty, the true personification of all that is, and when we finally say goodbye to our oldest and closest friend, Gaia herself, the planet, the life cycle, our temporary blip in the history of mankind, we can we can hear her laughing, giggling like a young girl at the antics of a playful kitten, telling us that this life had not gone to waste, and that our memories and energy will live on, and that all of us, no matter how seemingly insignificant, have made an indescribably positive impact on the world around us, and that the world was made infinitely better because we were here. We, the wildflowers, are here to give people joy, and to see the beauty in us, and ultimately all around us.
Norman Crane Aug 2024
across the grass, the highrise
becomes the horizon,
as i lie on my back in the park,
and the line that separated land from sky
runs now vertically on
through evening into the dark.
Norman Crane Aug 2024
of what's a house built,
tatami mats without
figures, ghosts within walls,
haunted by the absence
of anyone of substance who calls,
ozu, can you hear me? in
these rooms of noh occupants,
transients staying only a night,
staging a performance for no audience,
except me, turning slowly to dust,
late spring in tokyo twilight,
floating weeds in an empty house,
by a projector's light.
Manx Jun 2024
Spaghetti condors and
Mango vultures,
Gobstop gumbo;
Velociraptors in the Bayou, and
Doves made of mildew.
Tell me, is it all
Getting old?
Next page