Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Do the children imagine it’s a door?  If so ,  to where?  
I can  see the  Old men lamenting it as some sort of  warning , but
failing to recollect entirely.
   Lovers, sometimes, mistaking it as something they feel
a need to fill ,
or trying to force it to become a  shelter.
  But no one carries away the same story after standing before it.
Those with  the fleeting courage to face it
These shapes in the world
stepped aside.

An absence, that draws
air leans differently there,
             palpable,
   as if even silence forgets
why it started
or how to stand.
To approach and look in.
  speak, to it with an unsteady  voice
returning
  broken,
smaller, as if ashamed its self .
Others refuse to stand near it at all, afraid of the way the edges keep their secrets sharp.
          Is it not empty , or emptiness ?   Was nothing ever something ?
That much is certainly   uncertain.

In the mystery,
does it wait ?
As if wanting and waiting   were its only language.

And can those  who manage to leave it behind
find themselves walking differently ,
lighter, or heavier, depending on what they thought they learned ?

Neither teaching or the teacher.
A space
wherein sits what we think of as nothing.
In reality we can’t perceive what is there but, it’s not empty
only our desire for it
to be .
...  This piece  doesn’t show the hole In fact, it never even uses the word; it is the hole, in all its seductive, unnerving incompleteness. The subtle wordplay makes it recursive    its absence IS the  piece   ,  the idea of wholeness, as if nothingness itself has a structure inexorable influence  ,  weight, and even intention.  ..  ( This is   limited time  note, I will remove  it )
Bree Sep 21
The men chuckle lightly, almost insinuating a secret.
Their eyes dart one to another, and I know this at least:
the men are horrible at keeping secrets.
“Why do you all chuckle?” I ask with complete and utter resolve.
Again, all their eyes darted to one another.
They dart back mainly at the Captain.
So I darted my eyes to see this secret message.
His eyes are dark, moody, all seriousness.
The message is unclear to me, yet instant for them.
Wind starts to pick up. The dry air swirls for mere seconds, dissolving into a broiling heat, contained in this valley.
High hills, and dry stretches bake us into a frenzy.
The men start to holler and yelp, as they do.
They all run to the pond. It is a very large pond.
There is another larger one behind the Barn as well.
These ponds were fashioned out of the earth by years of the non evolving men who claim stakes to this land.
Kalliope Sep 16
Refuge to some,
A battlefield to others,
A chronically online
Midwest single mother-
Who loves to lay in the rain
And feel it on her skin
Enjoying all the storms outside,
Though they all come from within.

Is she a tornado?
Or maybe a meteor shower?
Beautiful in what she does-
not recognizing her power
Or maybe it's a fault,
To hide away in the in-between?
Participating in all activities while remaining completely unseen.

She glides right through your sky,
A pretty view for you-
Until she lands upon your ground
Destruction does ensue.
You thought she was just mesmerizing,
Easily made to bend,
If that's the kind of love you crave
You've picked the wrong girlfriend.

She puts things back together
At a slowed down lego pace,
And when she doesn't like the result?
Her progress completely erased.
So it's back to the drawing board,
Though she's never been good with paint.
Maybe some blame falls to you,
loving chaos but expecting a saint.
If I'm mindful of your trauma
And you're mindful of mine
Don't you think it'd be easier?
I guess easy has never been our vibe
RT Naintial Sep 15
You remember my behaviour
In moths,
In peace,
In scarce,
In pities,
Yet you distinguish it.
Not as separate entities but parts of me,
They bounce around in circumstances.
Belittling me,
You remember
my touch of fragility,
my mourn for sincerity,
my interest in variety,
You did no mockery,
When i look at myself,
I see Ordure absorbed in sins,
yet the love of you reminds me
The person i am and can be,
A greatest gift i ever had and worth thanking for.
A poem about my friend who remembers stuff about me and acknowledges me.
Arii Sep 12
If “I love you”
Was a burden,
Would you still
Eagerly return it?

If “I hate you”
Was a warning
Would you still
Say it so easily?

“I mean it, really I do.”
Then why is it filled
With insincerity?

A joke,
            A bluff,
                         It always is.

But do you

Weigh
           The meaning
                                  Of the words you spit?
I strode one day through the luscious forest of life, and amidst the fresh droplets of spring morn, I found a harsh and lonely creature.

"My name is despair," he told me. And surely he told no lie, for every moment that I spent breathing in his dust, I fell further into misery.

I stumbled away, he following me like a shadow, miring in all that would be, until I had so far lost my footing that I knew not which way to turn.

I tripped and staggered one day, across the dusty plains of understanding, and in the remains of the debris, the cracks and crevices splitting the earth asunder, I heard yet a soft whisper–so soft, indeed, that the voice of despair nearly drowned her out.

"I am hope," she told me. Weary from my sorrow, I crumbled to my knees. Bitter salty droplets of despair fled from me to such a degree that I feared they may drown the grain of hope.

But surely, she told no lie. For she stood, growing in height until she could wrap watery arms around me. And in the cool freshness of her fragile embrace, I heard her say, "Despair may hide hope for a time, but in the end, hope shines through the darkness of despair."

Taking my hand, she brought me to my feet, and though despair followed us all the way, hope held my hand, a lantern in the darkness of the land of understanding, until I reached the other side.
I wrote this while listening to "Returning to Breath" by Etta. It made me cry even as the words fell from my fingers. They say that we write what we need to hear. I think I needed to hear this.
Esme Calder Sep 10
It’s not fear I smell, it’s future
Because even from then, I never imagined continuing on since I’ve lost her
Thinking over the moments where laughter coated our eyes
And life was a game, no mask, no fear of smile lines
It’s not fear I smell, it’s hope
There to hold you when time runs out, that’s the only way to cope
Imagining a world where fire doesn’t devour the hands of a hero
And ice taking the heart starting from point zero
A world where ties do not become knotted and tangled to let just one free
Where we hold hands with pain, interlocking with needs
A world where I never lost you
The story just keeps going and I don’t know how to stop the pages from turning
To bring you back to the place, but I know you’d be hurting
My own desires to be silenced shall keep you safe in a place where
I'm not there
Debating on the choice whether to stay or leave here
What would you want if you saw my face in your reflection
What if you saw the world fall before you even when you know there is no commotion
In the water below you, it’s brimming with shadows
That you think are monsters but it’s just an overdose
It’s not fear I smell, it’s the future
But that is the space where I am scared
A world where I could heal and a world where I could nurture
My love is a universe I cannot imagine
It’s not fear I smell, it’s you
Up above where I could hold you once again in my arms
Where I hope it is safe, but I know that my hands are only capable of harm
But still I reach for you
Savva Emanon Sep 8
It is not the fair-weather friend
who writes their name upon your heart,
but the one who, seeing the storm,
folds their umbrella shut,
choosing wet shoulders beside you
over comfort alone.

Anyone can walk in sunlight,
laugh in the soft meadow,
but it takes a rare and quiet courage
to stand ankle-deep in puddles,
to let the thunder bruise their sky
so you do not face the lightning alone.

Love is not the absence of rain,
it is the gentle hand that finds yours
when the world is unraveling,
the warmth that lingers in cold mist,
the voice that says without words:
“I will not leave you here.”

So bless the drenched, the loyal,
the ones who stayed when staying cost them dryness.
For their devotion shines brighter than any sun,
and their soaked clothes
are the garments of saints.
Copyright 2025 Savva Emanon ©
The Poets Loft is my new YouTube Channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@PoetsLoft
Letting my soul speak as I converse is daunting.
How would a familiar stranger ever understand my existence and pain?
My quiet agony, my hidden fear?

When the wanderer stands before me, will the wanderer ever be able to see my unmasked face or my soul that goes deep as the ocean?
Or witness my heart that loves so deeply without measure?

But I must not, I cannot place my heart, my soul into the wanderer’s hands.
I am more of importance than putting the two things I treasure most into the hands of the wanderer or of this cruel world.
Next page