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Hermes, Hermes,
What's it today?
You provoke them, spewing the things that you say.
Talking misfortunes in an upbeat way,
Skewing perception-
Quite the boastful display.

Moving, persuading, audiences of your play,
Could not have anticipated the anguish at bay.
'A catalyst,' You'd proclaimed,
Eyes revealing the dismay
The windows to your soul are in shambles
"Right this way!"

Down the winding paths where memories shall lay,
You'd brought my brother by here last May.
Nostalgic glimpses of family, a price to pay.
"Farewell, false wise one. Hope you took time to pray."
He cracks jokes on the way out
Anthony Pierre Jul 2020
What's twisting is paradigm
On the mind's circumference
Spins like the great red spot

Then in it: an illumination
Like the three fallen candles
which the winds of heaven blew

Casting it beneath the feet of men
the candles of his illumination
Thoth Hermes Trismegistus
Smoke and fire in my mirrors
Pyrrha Jun 2020
Everyone loses their way
Lost in their chasmic minds
Lost in their bismol worlds
Lost in their abysmal emotions
Some find a light to guide their way
A melody; a sign; a feeling
Others search for a distraction
Someway to forget the failure and lose the guilt
But for me, Hermes guides my path
Like a soul into Hades,
He always brings me home
Back from my friendly worm named Loneliness
Back from my terrible sense of direction
Back from my endless attempts at self sabotage
He makes me see the truth; the reality; the destination

Everyone is all so full of deceit and corruption
Pleasing themselves by pleasing others
Becoming someone else to be above all others
Blinded by envy and seething with a jealous rage
They hold out their open hands to me
But he whispers in my ear
"It's all a lie"
And I keep my hand down by my side
And watch as they go to the next person
Holding their hands out just the same
And chaining the gullible fools with honeyed words and empty promises
Binding to them now like a contract over their souls
Enslaved to the whims of the corrupt

He has me dream of lands across the sea
Speaking a tongue that is not mother to me
I fall in love with these foreign things
The sights he sends me, the sounds, the smells
All the excitement of leaving to somewhere new
With no fear of the unknown, trusting only
In the path on which he guides me
I see it now, so far away
I reach my hand out and I feel it on my fingertips
I close my eyes and the words slip into my mind
With every phrase I learn, the freer I become
And I walk his path with knowledge I am safe

In meditation he guides me
On a starlit beach I find myself sinking my feet into the sand
Swiftly he approaches with a grin
He holds his hand out to me and I feel at ease
No strings or "you-owe-me's" await
And with winged feet he sends me back
Gently placing me in my body
And I awaken safe and sound
The worm part is a knock at my first poem The worm named Loneliness
Anya Mar 2020
You saw it as I did, clear as day:
Orpheus, with his heart on display
Raising his golden voice as if to pray
That Hades would not make his lover stay.

I saw it as you did, on that stage,
Eurydice opposing Hades' rage,
Rallying the dead-eyed workers to engage,
A songbird trying to break free from her cage.

We watched it unfold before our eyes:
Hades penned that fateful compromise,
Persephone, her arms raised to the skies,
Hermes already fearing their demise.

And in those final moments, I was sure
As lovers faced each other on death's door
And went their separate ways to love no more
That I'd never loved you so much before.
Liam Labbe Jan 2020
he slinks through the shadows, wispering in peoples ears, spreading messages, stories, passing from lips to ear, hidden behind hands,

"he tells the best stories"
"he's so funny"

the words tumble out his mouth, faster and faster, a rushing river of need to say, of get it out, loosing control, saying it to any ear near him, to anyone who will react, who will hear his cry

"I didn't want to know that"
"why'd you tell them that?"

listening ears turn away as the words twist, become mangled and ugly, things that should be forgotten but are engrained, stories of when he went to far, almost fell, almost lost his thrown

"keep it to yourself"
"what's wrong with you"

but the words keep coming, they need to be heard, to be shared, to be listened to, he needs someone to hear his story because maybe if he says it enough, if enough people listen, he can be free


he stands alone in a dark room, no more whispered words, no more passing secrets, no more truths spilled, he talks to empty ears, tears on his cheeks

"it's not enough"
InfranGilis Feb 2019
I am the Bird of Hermes,
I devoured my own wings,
And that is how I keep myself tamed.

Like a dark ghost you haunt me,
Wherever I go, your memories stalk me,

You think you knew me,
But the reality is far from the fantasy,

You have just seen the worst in me,
How would you look at me now?
A piller of strength,

One, with dangerous potential,
in the end, it's all sequential

Part of the tragedy is that life is unforgetful,
So strong that others fear my potential,

So dark and timid, yet so calm it offsets,
the storm that goes where I go,

To the point where I have to bite my wings,
And stop myself from soaring,
Cause this is not the story of Icarus,
But of the Fallen Bird that outgrew the master,

Yes, I am the Bird of Hermes,
And I devoured my own wings,
So that I remain tamed.
For all those broken souls who have found healing, but cannot help think of the dark past that shaped them.
Brandon Conway Jun 2018
These celestial strings pull
Through a vessel of silence
100 eyes
Watching
Staring
Peering
Judging
Guarding
Shrouding clouds on the inside
These emotions I can't get out
Giant slayer I must be
To set my spirit free
To live a life of happiness
For eternity
There is something inside me that keeps me from verbally expressing myself with other people. A problem that has been with me since I could talk. Its time to slay the guardian and to set my soul free.
Nick Stiltner Feb 2018
Words of honey and liquor would flow,
At temples along the rolling hills,
they would grow and ripen and
be uttered at sacrificial flame
If I was born in the vein of Apollo.

Words would meet paper
with crackling energy loaded, ready to burst,
robust in power and accompanied by crashes of thunder
If I were bred of the mighty Zeus.

My speech could flow like lapping tide
and slam against the sterns of braving ships
If I carried within,
the flowing will of Poseidon.

Perfectly forged syllables struck on metals
passionately burning. Resounding clangs
and crashes from my shop would ring,
If the strength of Hephaestus guided
my hammer swing.

But as portraits are painted and
are gone to wind,
Their light touch fleeting pass,
Remorse not felt but only desire
to express and to deliver,
to paint, drop off, and be gone.
My words dance with winged feet
and then exit in retreat, with a bow
and a dashing leap,
Disappearing down the street.

Caduceus snakes wrap about my pen
and whisper rhymes softly in my ear.
Rising laughs echo down the trail,
a man dashing to his next delivery.

Light feet dancing forward,
hand whirring from line to line
and his eyes posted firmly to
the nights sky,
The stars singing his Siren song.
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