"impermanent" poems
it is a sea of leaves -- a deep, bottomless, sea of leaves.
you can get lost in there, you know.
lost like an abandoned child in a city of strangers
and lost
like when you drive and drive and drive
aimlessly, mad, senseless,
when your only intent is to get lost and be lost.
but
this sea of leaves
[yes, this vast ocean of leaves on leaves on leaves]
this is myself only on the best of days.
my mind cannot and will not ever find itself.
sanity had been abandoned years before
when i came to the realization that
nothing really matters
too much.
and now i am autumn when all of the leaves fall down --
unordered, hysterical,
all of the time changing
all of the time varying
never the same as a moment before.
beautiful, but knowing
that beauty is impermanent.
soon i will be like the tree branches
when the leaves have abandoned them.
stark, empty, cold.
naked, with all of my flaws displayed to the world
[with all of my life on the ground.]
and i will still be lost.
and so incredibly lost in my mind.
lost.
so let me dive into this deep sea of leaves,
'cause lord knows it is better than being found.
Nov 11, 2012
Nov 11, 2012 at 2:57 AM UTC
they called me here
to this home
to this time.
I listened
I've always been a good listener.
as soon as I learned the
definition
of heed, I began.
it's my favorite word
and so I listened
and we're here
and it all just keeps working.
paying attention to the subtleties ,
the wind breeze,
the crows tease,
the bugs glowing, blue eye…
the crimson show,
the earth moved,
the air beneath this ground,
the vines lasting
stretch to protect the fruit
obviously
grown for us.
never a year before?
I truly wonder still.
when?
now, as he said.
it's now.
I'm only now.
there is nothing to await
though impatience is a mental normalcy.
our friend in the desert
made the connections.
she must have told me
though I don't
remember
hearing her.
I ramble sometimes
and listening is impaired.
of course I'm a work in progress…
it's mostly due to
depending on my memory
its impermanent in its
very nature.
now!
if I lived there, I would
have it a little easier
but I'm still scared of the dark.
one of the remaining fears,
a part of the message
sent;
called me here.
the lessons continue to
self realize
and appear, right
at my eyes,
never before
always on time.
always.
Nov 30, 2014
Nov 30, 2014 at 5:58 PM UTC
The way a devoted fan
refuses to wash the hand
touched by the one they admire,
I recoil at the thought
of thoughts that may interfere
with our most recent talk,
close my eyes so no new images hide
the sight of your smile, your lips
pursed in thought, your thin fingers
brushing the wind-blown hair
from your face, your leopard print
sneakers, your hands in mine....
Or was it mine in yours?
This is the dreaded foretaste
of suffering. We both know
what harm can come
from holding on too tightly.
We have learned by now
that all things are impermanent.
Nothing, not even this,
should be clung to.
We have wisdom
on our side, you and I,
and this is why we
should survive this unsettling
flood of love we feel.
Oct 20, 2015
Oct 20, 2015 at 11:14 PM UTC
everything impermanent doesn't matter
everything is impermanent
s.q.
Oct 16, 2014
Oct 16, 2014 at 2:44 PM UTC
emotion
canoodles
with
thought
begetting
words
frivolous
and
impermanent
until
i
baptize
them in
ink
and
then send
them away
to
be
fostered and fed
by
those
kindhearted souls
who
read and wish
them
to have a
chance
to
succeed
in
the hard hearted world
into
which
poetry bleeds
Oct 3, 2014
Oct 3, 2014 at 12:35 AM UTC
Putting ink and needle
to my skin made me
realize the impermanence
of life. How flesh is a
life time but a life time
is just that,
only some number of years.
They say that tattoos are forever,
but cells flake off, organs decay,
and brains forget
the most important,
beautiful things.
I’m learning that even the
most profound of scars and
aches and pains
are all impermanent.
Because skin is just skin,
and I am just human,
and pain is not permanent.
Dec 2, 2014
Dec 2, 2014 at 5:10 PM UTC
The blank page stares at me
mockingly, an empty wishing well
of impermanent desires, my
thoughts a herd of nomadic
feral cats to be coraled.
It is a mathematical permutation
of the identity matrix, imaginary
numbers and exponents,
fractional divisions with
no order of operations.
Solve me for x, given y,
yield absolute value at
absolute zero as my
function crosses Cartesian boundaries.
| x | = y * (universal truth / personal experience) ± squareRoot(-1)
y = zero; go.
Factor in gravity (9.8 meters per second^2),
we have lost cabin pressure.
Please show all work, points will be deducted,
this is a test.
Nov 15, 2013
Nov 15, 2013 at 10:35 AM UTC
*Nothing is permanent
Everything is ever-changing
Change is inevitable*
The dark shadowy clouds of Sorrow
linger over the horizon of our Mind
only to usher the rain of Happiness
And then a Sunlit sky to find
With Moon and the Stars as a guiding light
comes Night after a Day
Only to call upon the Sun
Illuminating the world, to keep darkness at bay
The shower that gushes through Mountain springs
flowing as a River it merrily sings
becomes one with the Ocean, a depth to attain
then evaporates into Clouds, to usher the Rain
The Flower that blossomed is meant to wither
the Pupa is meant to become a Butterfly
That what Arises is meant to Cease
That which is Born is meant to Die
Pain and Suffering is there but to pass
Delight is not going to forever last
One follows the other in Circle of Life
like a rhythmic pattern in Vitality vast
Matter is made up of tiny atoms
we are but merely Nature's vibration
An entire Universe resonates inside us
Realisation of which will lead us to Wisdom
Time, the bird of change, has taught
impermanent in itself it always flies
Things as they really are should be known
without craving or hating the feelings that arise
Ignorance, Conceit, False Hopes and Self Deception
are the very causes of Human Suffering
Consciousness of it all removes the Passion for Existence
in it alone lies the secret of our Well-being
Desire gives birth to Sorrow
nothing else can be so true
because after all "*You only Lose
what You really Cling to! "*
Sep 14, 2014
Sep 14, 2014 at 7:41 AM UTC
Particles collate, clouds gather
An uprising it seems, stronger together
Resolute it stands, till it holds no further
As any body collapses, under mounting pressure
Little drops to torrential downpour
The inconvenience it brings, just what we abhor
Struggle we must with virtuous patience
If we are to enjoy befallen petrichor
Trees are fed, flowers bloom
From this garden, brilliance loom
As all things present, this too is transient
A reality so poignant, about an existence impermanent
Leaves frail, flowers wither
Consumed by soil from which it consumed
No such thing as eternal bliss
Such are the laws of our symbiosis
We arrive from dust and depart as stench
A reality from which, we shouldn't flinch
As we gaze into a horizon so eternal
All we have, are moments so ephemeral
Dec 23, 2018
Dec 23, 2018 at 7:35 AM UTC
She's thoroughbred hunger
From her double shift mom to her deadbeat dad
She tiptoes through junkyard junglegyms
Collecting alleyway beach glass
She learned to swindle
Haggled survival with the big guy
Big sisters traded on corners
She was one
Karma mustve forgotten
While doing rounds
She's got an invincible soul
Stitched of disappointments
Wrapped in sorrow
Hope as a bow
He's thoroughbred gluttony
From mommas limelight jewels to daddy's sin-shined shoes
He learned to swindle
To thrive
Wall street walk on the 99%
Politician promises
To impermanent faces
Costly trips
To extravagant places
Mixing up "enough"
With "more"
Looking for happiness
In a store
Though it seems to me
Whats made of life
Is what makes life worth living for
Feb 24, 2015
Feb 24, 2015 at 4:34 AM UTC
can’t stop the waves
wane until they dissipate
caressing your bleach blonde waves
crave until it dissipates
everything is impermanent, imperfect
until you came into emergence, unearthing
roots that travelled deep towards the centre
i did not think i could ever have a happily ever after
but your potency feeds my possibilities
your royalty fuels my bejewelled dreams
there is no competition, no adversity
Aug 12, 2023
Aug 12, 2023 at 9:14 AM UTC
Why do poets and photographers love fleeting things?
Angled shafts of sunlight piercing a mass
of clouds. A rainbow flashing from dragonfly wings.
Water drops beading like shards of glass.
The fluttering shape of a sycamore’s shade.
The sun sinking into its reflection
In a purple bay. Smoke’s shadow. The rayed
Curve of a finger reaching for perfection.
Whatever churns, bursts, rocks, flies,
Foams, flickers, roils, evades
In pigments of impermanent dyes
We try to fix before it fades
Once I mourned the endless dying
Of here and now, the present always past
Elegized each moment, sighing
Beauty is loss and can never last.
But now I think I had it wrong. In fact
(I learned this from an artist’s eye)
Fleeting beauty reappears faster than we react,
At the speed of a daydream flashing by.
All around, light coalesces into form,
Form explodes into light,
And we live lavishly inside this storm
If we can learn to see it right.
Beauty multiplies, tapering, swelling:
Reshaping, reforming, now familiar, now strange.
This gaudy blur in which we’re dwelling
Is the permanence of change.
Jul 26, 2015
Jul 26, 2015 at 8:32 AM UTC
In one's life,
A Happy Place, which we often recall...must have existed
....t'was where we felt at peace...and contented
None can break the serenity
Of home...or church, or maybe a shady tree
...its proximity...offering safety,
....no worries, no fears that blur our eyes........
...like that easy morning...with blue animated skies
........the smell of rice, ready for reaping, filled the air
....it felt nice, to sit by the creek...wind, messing hair
..........while throwing stones, on the water flowing
.......having fun...watching people harvesting
One day, those rice fields
..............had no more rice to yield
....just wide open spaces left, where young boys
...surrendered to the winds, their artfully designed toys
...colorful, Japanese paper...smooth, with sheen
...framed by several bamboo sticks...long and thin
...big, colorful birds and butterflies, flying high
Naive, impermanent kites..... soaring to the skies
We can never be sure....some kites fly straight away,
............while a few others....stray
...fading songbirds, losing their way........broken dreams,
Heading....towards distant, forgotten realms
.......they're like words that couldn't rhyme
............like discordant tunes of a broken chime...
In our minds, that Happy Place with kites......resides
Sometimes, it stays behind, refusing light...it hides
......for some reasons, it goes further down...deep inside
Oftentimes, it inspires...and becomes our source of pride...
:::::::::::::
Life, after all, is a potpourri of lengthy, and ephemeral strides,
::::::::::::::
Proving further, black and white are two of life's many colors
Light, or dark shade shouldn't matter.....
Because, in many ways...our cups always runneth over.
:::::::::::::::
Sally
Copyright October 5, 2016
Rosalia Rosario A. Bayan
Oct 5, 2016
Oct 5, 2016 at 11:30 PM UTC
do you know what
liminal
means?
liminal comes from latin
limen
meaning threshold
a place of entering or
of beginning
a fine line between the was
and will
a place of transition
waiting
unknowing
and i suppose you could say
this is liminal
this poem
this life
this concept of eternal
that we seem to attribute
to our (sadly impermanent) art
this body of mine
is so very liminal
this voice that i roll around on my tongue
is liminal
this world itself,
a blink compared to infinity
can only be said to be
a threshhold
to somewhere else
h.f.m.
Jun 1, 2018
Jun 1, 2018 at 2:31 PM UTC
All things must end in time
Regardless of who when where or why
I am absolved by the setting sun
In this absence of light the darkness is All, the shadow is One
The Ray of intellect pulls pieces from the vast darkness
Attached by fear, chased by longing
We run in circles, burying Truth beneath flecks of meaningless illumination
Frustation, anger, the illusion of danger.
I am a fool.
I sit, surrounded by water in a rowboat without oars demanding control or salvation.
There is no alternative, no freedom of suffering from pain nor dehydration.
My body, my boat, my ocean are destined to fall to dust
The wise man knows this and worries not.
Just as the sun sets, the rays that illuminate are impermanent
All that ever was transitions to all that can never be
Beyond suffering, beyond pain
Beyond illusory words orchestrated on this page
It is held by a fabric that cannot be named
It resonates in our being as love
It’s the deepest darkness that holds the brightest light.
You may heed my words or continue the Material spin
It’s up to you where it ends or when you begin
But know this truly and deeply my friend,
When your travels are over
Lessons learned and suffering done
We will be made One
Destined to recuperate in the womb of the Sun.
Aug 6, 2012
Aug 6, 2012 at 9:07 AM UTC
They said the fairest of the goddesses
Was the one to give us love,
The one to fetch the maidens
And bring the boys their girls.
What they meant by fair was beautiful,
Not just or right or equitable,
For it hardly seems fair
That she's a goddess,
Enthroned on a mountain with a mirror in her hand
And we're all of us mere mortals,
Hapless humans,
With our ribcages wide open,
With no bone to shield our vulnerable ventricles
And no sense to tell us to cover our chests.
It's no wonder that this otherworldly seduction
Can ****** us
And string us along
And consume us
Until we forget what life was
Before love caught us.
It seems impossible
That these frail, impermanent bodies
Can hold such ethereal infatuation;
It's too strong,
So it ravages us,
Strips away dignity,
Rips away common sense,
And seizes all control.
Our little human selves
Never stood a chance.
Tell me, Aphrodite,
Does it make you laugh to watch us struggle?
From your lofty vantage point,
Do you giggle when the rational become foolish,
When the thinkers become unfocused,
When the innocent become broken?
Does it please your fair reflection
When those devoted mortals go to ungodly lengths
For this love that you inflict,
Until they have nothing left of themselves,
Until they're worn to the very bones
That couldn't protect their unsuspecting hearts?
Do you revel in the irony,
Aphrodite,
When, exhausted and dejected
And downright tortured,
They still worship you?
When they bow
And sacrifice
In gratitude?
When we miserable mortals
Thank you for these feelings that destroy us,
Because for tiny moments
We felt transcendentally good.
Perhaps she'd had better intentions,
That goddess Aphrodite,
Thought that she was filling our open hearts
With something to give them meaning.
Maybe she thought
We'd left our ribcages open on purpose,
That we'd all simply been waiting for her,
Wondering when she'd reach down her power
And give us a love to cling to.
Or,
It could be that she had it right,
That our chests were left gaping
And our hearts were left empty
So that Aphrodite could look away from her mirror,
Smile from the clouds,
And send us someone to make us whole.
Nov 27, 2010
Nov 27, 2010 at 6:39 PM UTC
When you boil it down,
really get down to the flesh,
bone;
marrow;
mitochondria;
I am nothing but a fizzled
thing
pushing
third-rate
pulses
out of a fourth-rate heart;
that's why when I ***** you to me
in an impermanent cowgirl;
chest
to
chest;
a good, running thump
is answered
by a
descending blip.
Jan 18, 2012
Jan 18, 2012 at 9:50 PM UTC
weird how something so impermanent
can feel so permanent
weird how laying in bed all day can be so tiring
weird how the afternoon was made for naps
weird how the rise and fall of your chest
can make the ocean feel jealous of such flawless movement
weird how these memories still remain after years of abandonment
weird how we never knew we'd end up here
weird how the winter winds brought me to tears
weird how you are everything and nothing
weird how i now have nothing
Oct 27, 2015
Oct 27, 2015 at 8:27 PM UTC
Somewhere deep in the skies of Montana
a lonely street corner flickers
casting coded light
upon the distant albino hillside
It was once a great lake
of snow and ice and melt and
unseen by life
It drained and died
and its beautiful lakebed sands
became the hillside
again
to tumble and fall
into valley and time
again
there we built an impermanent road
we pave and pave
maintain
with trucks and slabs of dirt and grain
roaming those Roman roads
again
Somewhere deep in that heartland
the strings that pumped the musculature
of a dying nation
slowly giving way to a violent attack
from within
oxidize and pool
into great tides
to one day see the coast
I am in California
but I see it clearly as a dream
where the great plains meet the mountain face
and the Cheyenne carved their heels into the dirt
for a bit
spirit
eroded into the winds
today the miners spit
at a coffee-town bar
into copper cans
licker than split
Owning the land that shakes
and shifts
redrawing god's lines
with a paper pad and a pen
for a bit
And the dresses the ladies wear shine
lacquered wood and the horses cry
and beside the interstate
the trucks steam and chuff
and their drivers gaze starry-eyed
onward, beyond into the night
beyond those flanking hillsides
to the flat ocean land sponged anew
that left the oil fields in Texas and the tar sands in
Athabasca
set ablaze in the fervor
of a death rattle
American heart
pumping to feed these hillsides
again
for tomorrow we begin.
Jun 13, 2018
Jun 13, 2018 at 2:18 PM UTC
Take your medication darling you are no better
than the lies you tell
and theres a light inside us all
that only dogs can smell
-- even they get their skulls smashed in
In a house of glass of rubies and jewles
in a world where the sun doesn't set
I am blinded by the harshness
of it
too much of a good thing
is never a good thing
haha
smell me now
smell me now
feel your
pulsating
-something else that taste like the memory of you
because once someone is gone
they've never existed
not even your corpse
looked like you
now you sway from clouds
from that same noose you built of maple wood
and Tony's scars--- honey
baby please
but sweetheart
you know I hate those names
sweet pea
Put a gun to my head and tell me im beautiful
I can breathe like you
I poked my finger into your unflinching eye
not a yelp in surprise, darling
people are lemon tainted goldfish
bitter and boring
(I should really try not to use the word and so much but sometimes things don't make sense- and we need connectives to explain them)
explain this.
But cat's know this of humans
they are born with the innate knowledge that
people are **** they will never love you for long
that human loyalty is fickle
impermanent
so they daze off indifferent
independent
while dogs will chase you around, crying
when you are gone
I am a dog
woof woof
bark for me baby
you little *****
on the floor
I am still trying to make your feet reach the floor
But the noose was wound too tightly around that lamp
you had pretty feet
I always looked at hands
If I could lay under you and catch your death as it fell
I would swallow it and leave it there to rot
where all the dead things are
I looked for a heartbeat but there was none
crystal windows reflected blue skin we were swimming under water
this aint no fairytale
May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012 at 7:17 PM UTC
The Great Niagra Falls
Spilling over like my love
loose and reckless
alive and fruitful
And having found a source
an outlet for this outpouring love
this deep inborn desire to say 'yes'
with all of me; my life
This thick lust for life
and for love
and this perfect intuition
to give it all away
I am proud to be alive.
And to have the capacity
in my bones and in my flesh
to say 'yes' with all of me
So small and so fragile
yet having existed forever.
Nonetheless, impermanent, I am.
Here to make a permanent mark
with this pen and this paper
and this racing heart
so uniquely my own
and so beautifully similar to the rest.
All here through the great devotional
journey of our ancestors
so gladly outpouring life,
like the great Niagra Falls
Into the present moment,
into our hands
And so,
I pick up this pen
and I write.
Aug 10, 2018
Aug 10, 2018 at 6:53 PM UTC
I see you sit expectantly biting lips
on the extended museum steps leading
to a veranda around the building, that invites
a flash mob,of your ilk, effervescent, to come together
perform and celebrate, nothing in particular,
except giving a shock pleasure to all those marked "the other"
Once you made me believe, together we make a whole,
that is the story we live on I was told, I merely listened,
I and you missed few beats and steps here and there
find us now in pages different, why, even ages apart,
"What a fine specimen,!" a pacifist, I can't but appreciate
watching your elan. As if seeing an alien in my home ground,
I watch the spectacle, gulping down my discomfiture dutifully,
while you romance with much finesse,to the cell phone,
you cling on as if it's the beau you want to show off.
"Wouldn't she make a fine museum piece?"
that would point towards the life style,
that highlights only the moment present,
and constantly on the run to remain there,
while past vanishes and future becomes obscure more and more.
With a gentle smile for you to pick up, when you are at peace,
I move on; more than the museum pieces still living,
I am interested in regular exhibits I easily grasp.
Sep 20, 2014
Sep 20, 2014 at 10:20 AM UTC
Love life, love the world,
for it is all you have.
Love the stars, and the people,
and the breeze and the rain,
and the reflection
of the lights on the water.
Love because you exist.
Love because you can read this,
because you live in a time
that will one day be thought of
as romantic and golden.
Love because you won't be forever.
Love because
everything is impermanent,
because this day will end,
and never
be visited again.
Love because all we have is enough,
and because
nothing we can imagine
can match it.
Love because there are others
you share the world with,
who love too.
Love the night,
the silence,
the shadow of the trees by the water.
Love the imminence of dawn,
and of things someday gone.
Love the light of a candle
and the warmth
of the earnest conversation lit by it.
Love the joy of sharing the world
with other beings as troubled
but as sensitive to beauty and love
as you are.
Love nature's gentle rattle,
and its tempestuous outbreaks.
Love because you are all
you will ever be,
and life is immense
and beautiful, even in its darkness, and it is yours.
Nov 15, 2018
Nov 15, 2018 at 3:45 AM UTC
A friendship lasts longer than impermanent lovers
Which is why the two often merge
I’d rather a soul mate in intimacy
Than one consisting of passions absurd.
Oct 28, 2015
Oct 28, 2015 at 7:49 AM UTC
"The mother's heart is the child's playground."
i have one story to tell to me again and maybe again, i caught myself dreaming the boundary between the energetic darkness and the travelling light. this vital story when the mornings were pure the nights full of unknown beings, the rib cage the only space i knew rippled by the vital waves, by dread, incomprehensible vibrations, the beat of my heart unprotected, the horizon had not yet been invented, nor the sisterhood and brotherhood. pain was an incessant falling into the void, the desire infinite, my body shattered into vital fragments, a misattuned orchestra of delight and terror (body-mind-reality continuum forever broken). at the crossroad of deadness and aliveness i was stamped with fire and water, i was an imaginary being without limits. even now i use a strange language and visions of the infinite haunt me, i taste life when i confuse myself with you and her and him and them, so that death is not incomprehensible. i was once a pool of vibrant nothingness, this terrible pain of life crushing itself inside the flesh, of reality and imagination, longing and despair annihilating each other.
my body carries patiently the invisible tattoos of vibrant scars, she waits for me to learn how to love the simplicity and the serene fullness of life. all i need is more words, new vessels for the infinite desire, more "i" in this i from the imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.
Apr 11, 2023
Apr 11, 2023 at 1:56 PM UTC