A man
Protruding in the field
Standing in damp grass
A marshy meerkat
Alert sentry towards the sun
Eyes wide catching rhythms
Of the changing times
Of the passing seasons

Similar to this

A cat
rigid black and short haired
Let out of the house for the first time
Finding a spot
Between roots and mulch
Curled eternally  
Once playful
At permanent rest
Connected to the changing seasons
Signaling grave times

Both lost to progress
And disconnected from nature
Each making their return
to the flow of things


Despite unfortunate timings
And with all the wrong places to be born
The mother takes them both as they are
Grateful for her children returning
Pleased she kept the place inviting
And the hearth burning

“Come, take my hand
Put you feet in the soil,
say goodbye, and let it all go.
The earth will catch your tears
Bring them back to sky and
they will grow new innocents.
You will know peace
and be forgiven”

saw evidence of
reality ignored it
poor human mistake

Dear HP community, my friends, I've been thinking about this for a while and now is the time to act and propose you a challenge :)
I would love to hear from you about this: what does it meen to you to be human? It might not be an easy question but let's give it a try.
In the face of virtual worlds, AI, in the dazzling speed of our world, in the face of our severing ourselves from nature, I find the topic relevant. I hope you do too.
Please feel free to address the challenge any way you like, with depth or shallowness, with fun, humour or depth of thought, with your felt sense or otherwise. As you wish, in comments bellow or maybe in a piece of writing. I hope to hear from you and I won't be offended if I don't. Maybe we can write a collective poem, who knows?
Warmly,
Irina

A lie is an intentional mistruth.
It's when you deliberately try to get someone
to believe something you know isn't true.

A mistake is unintentional.
It's when you ***** up,
and usually,
you end up hurting someone
even though you never meant to.

It's when you let people push you
to do or say things you aren't ready to.

It's when you're still learning what it means
to dream, to live, to love,
when you try so insanely hard
to put it all behind you,
but you can't because people won't let you
forget the mistakes you made.

Just remind yourself that all people make mistakes,
and your mistakes don't define you.

******* up doesn't make you a liar.
It makes you human.

i saw a venue in mind
walking towards the shore
of consciousness once more

many generations of me
splashes among the sea
and it is a heartfelt kind

the echoes resound dimly
i think i hear words
or just an error simply

softly i transverse
in my dreams
the whole universe

awake i am human

I love me. I am golden inside, I am not full of pride. I am love. My skin was gifted to me by the creator, it has exactly what I need for the sun that I'm under. I love my abilities; the fact that I have two hands  and two feet, 10 fingers and 10 toes. I know that I am loved, I can run and jump,  climb, smile, laugh, taste, hear and see. I am love and I am loved and that is all I need to be

Paint layers walls
And walls layer houses
Uncarefully placed
In our carefulness
Comforted in perfection unreachable

And what wisdom lays
In a world that wreaks destruction
On the weak foundations that we sow
And the even weaker plants that we reap
Fabricated
Cheap
An amalgamating mess
Painted onto
Thin fragile walls
Holding up
Thin fragile houses

human bleeds through all
wisdom we must discern what
is within our mind

a possibility the machine is broken
a pause, a stutter
a halt in locomotion
sometimes the parts wear out
not made for the harsh road
travelled
sometimes a weakness will shout
to demonstrate a need for slowing
but after all we've been through
to be betrayed
this far on the journey
I'd chop you in for a new one
if it weren't for the fact
I'm human