"subdues" poems
For so long I wanted to be water
An element that soothes and saves
For I was born of fire
Wild, destructive and difficult to tame
I tried to dull my flames
In order to gain some control
Though the spark deep inside me
Wanted freedom to console
The hatred I held inside
I couldn't accept my role
I wanted to be everything I wasn't
The ocean, the rain, the winter's cold
How can I run free
When all I'll ever do is destroy
The fire that burns in me
Is a passion I can no longer avoid
I finally embrace my element
As it is in my nature
I want to be free to be myself
I've never felt more sure
For so long I longed to be water
An element that subdues and relieves
But I was born of fire
With a warmth that burns so passionately
I am a candle that provides you light
I am the fire that warms you whole
I brighten your darkest night
I thaw the coldest hearts and souls
Nov 24, 2018
Nov 24, 2018 at 2:44 AM UTC
When darkness long has veil'd my mind,
And smiling day once more appears,
Then, my Redeemer, then I find
The folly of my doubts and fears.
Straight I upbraid my wandering heart,
And blush that I should ever be
Thus prone to act so base a part,
Or harbour one hard thought of Thee!
Oh! let me then at length be taught
What I am still so slow to learn,
That God is love, and changes not,
Nor knows the shadow of a turn.
Sweet truth, and easy to repeat!
But when my faith is sharply tried,
I find myself a learner yet,
Unskilful, weak, and apt to slide.
But, O my Lord, one look from Thee
Subdues the disobedient will,
Drives doubt and discontent away,
And Thy rebellious worm is still.
Thou art as ready to forgive
As I am ready to repine;
Thou, therefore, all the praise receive;
Be shame and self-abhorrence mine.
4.4k
'Tis easier to look at a mirror
Than to dare introspect,
As the reflection subdues
The deceit buried in a tangled web of lies.
As the light dances on ripples in the water,
The shimmer it casts
To a void that is our souls.
There's darkness all around,
In our hearts and in our minds.
And in times like these
When our thirst is quenched with only more fire,
Our thoughts become inked in red,
Reminded of the weakness of our fortitudes,
And the shallowness of our words,
Let alone be our deeds.
The story of how a good man goes to war,
Lost to the morals of an unsound mind,
Resounds like a thunder in the midst of nowhere.
And as he raised his hand
And plunged a knife
Into the very heart of another his kind,
There he lost himself to the deafening screams of mankind.
And we find ourselves without voices
Drowning in a sea full of tears.
There is ONLY us,
THIS is all us...
OUR tragedies
OUR failures
OUR deeds.
We let ourselves fall,
Even before the walls came tumbling down.
Jan 11, 2015
Jan 11, 2015 at 6:30 AM UTC
I'm ripping myself apart again,
as the wind continues to call my name.
Its presence subdues me
Maybe I can be myself again?
But then I realize,
There is no self
Only hollow grounds
And I play catch in the hole.
I'd rather something pull me up
But there is no such grasp.
My love bids farewell,
As I shed inner tears.
I know it to be temporary.
Nothing lasts forever
And nothing really matters.
As if the pain could overcome my numbness,
I most likely wanted this.
My love, my ache, my other regret.
If I was dead before,
I am still so now.
At least this painful void is gone,
And you helped me set it free.
I thank you again for the remembrance
And I hope this all makes sense.
But my place remains the same
Where do I go from here?
Oct 24, 2018
Oct 24, 2018 at 1:44 AM UTC
a polar vortex
swirls eastward
on Siberian Tiger paws
bounding over
Appalachian Highlands
gobbling geography
gelling Great Lakes
spawning Erie blizzards
sculpting Wabash ice floes
clogging commerce all
along the Ohio River Valley
this voracious
juggernaut’s wide maw
bears icicle teeth
laughing as it swallows
Pittsburgh, Little Philly,
and a Big Apple, before
gorging itself on
generous portions
ladled into
simmering crocks
of steaming
Boston Baked Beans
growling
blue arctic
air blasts roar
bursts pipes
savages the heat
of blasting furnaces,
bubbling boilers, hot
belly stoves frantically
drinking oil, flaming gas
burning wood and
burping soot
the blistering
jet stream claws
screech a slashing
stratospheric hum
as Frigidaire blasts
swallows breath
brittles limbs
chafes cheeks
gnaws earlobes
crystallizes tears
nibbles nostrils
cubes snot
numbs toes
bites digits
diving sub zero
gradient subdues
batteries to
deaden states
delays buses
derails trains
cuts power
constricts veins
preys on
vagabonds
and animals
get the homeless
off the street!
bring the animals in
check on your
elderly neighbors
don’t get caught outside
and shut the **** door!
do you own stock
in the Public Service?
beware the polar vortex
and next months heating bill
Sonny Boy Williamson
& Otis Spann
Nine Below Zero
Oakland
1/6/14
jbm
Jan 6, 2014
Jan 6, 2014 at 2:43 PM UTC
This empty ***** bottle,
has been cuddled and swaddled and squandered.
In my ***** it seeps to every dame between,
a dad and not knowing her own preponderance.
I **** I **** by the ****** of my hilt,
of the sword of unrighteous, self help,
and filling their wombs with guilt.
I've never helped anyone all of my life.
Though they would tell you different mistruths,
of their positional view, so skewed by proof,
undo, that I sent them through.
It's a fun house of lies and mirrors shaping figures,
of veneers, so botched that plastic surgeon quacks wouldn't own up to
the scars.
I ferment peoples living.
I turn drunk ****** into angels.
I mask charlatan as queens,
and poison my own gut with the fakes in my head.
Crops die.
Crust subdues verdance.
Chronos rhymes the days and night.
Course subjugation to penance.
But now I seethe my own head into my throat,
and end in ink wrote as prose.
Killing beauty. Art.
**** Art.
Today is.
Death.
Tomorrow's not life,
nor living,
breathing nor breath,
oxygen's just a molecule,
it causes no spark,
except in molecules charged,
with dividing and subdividing,
and rejoining and conjoining into something that can use it.
happy flights :)
Mar 17, 2013
Mar 17, 2013 at 11:01 PM UTC
Melancholy in my coffee
Subdues my day
Dresses me in drab
Lifeless clothing
The smile I wore yesterday
Left hanging in the closet
Slightly wrinkled
Sends me out the door
Under the grey sky
My vision clouded
My mind numbed
Even your warm skin
I kiss goodbye
Can't make the sun shine today
Tomorrow, I think, I'll take
My coffee black
Feb 11, 2014
Feb 11, 2014 at 10:23 AM UTC
as the night quells, soft and gentle,
the incessant humming in my head subdues to
a murmured hush, and the white noise is but
a grey fog veiling hazy promises and barbed fears.
the darkness seems to hold its breath as you say: look
at the meteors, they fall so heavily tonight!
it is because we all placed our wishes on them.
yet i only see your tired orbit
set in the horizon of your stony shoulders;
like shooting stars burdened by wishful thinking,
you bow under a burden of universes:
phantom hopes and frayed strands,
as if you were afire from within, the moon
alight in lining of your skin.
tonight the waning moon’s gentle glow flickers
as if in stop-motion, like confused blinking.
in a lingering afterthought I find —
in solitude time is all-consuming,
and i am in an hourglass; time, a thief,
creating a vortex beneath my feet
and in solitude i find myself wishing desperately again.
the darkness is so softly suffocating as you say: look
at the meteors, they fall so heavily tonight!
Mar 5, 2016
Mar 5, 2016 at 1:37 AM UTC
"Ïn love with the moons"
in to her ear, his inebriated
soft murmur pours,
"Don't tell me that"
she playfully taunts,
*"So wicked you are,
moon, one or the other
feels the pinch a bit too much"*
Her disagreement,was meant
to be just the opposite,
the logic of which is clear, only
to lovers, in intimate moments.
Every touch is so orchestrated
to create a provocative effect,
as if there is a secret pact between
the moon and the gentle flow
caressing the mossy river bed, the tide
that comes in with full force,
and flows out spreading peace.
They both stand under the spell,
full, milky moon and wildly dance,
till the effect of moon induced amour
completely, conclusively subdues.
Sep 24, 2015
Sep 24, 2015 at 8:23 AM UTC
Time has put a vagrancy on my mind
Subdues conformity and material worship
With scalding epileptic convulsions of imagination
My mouth blood-stained, shrieking like a pianting
A painting by Munch gives way, yields, yes yields
To an unrelenting detonation of the unconscious
An existential filter of real or imagined transformations
Which by miraculous tongue restores a belief
To wonder and levies no compass on perception
Yet reveals a tormenting estrangement
That does mount a strenuous and contemptuous protest
Against familiarity with agonized shrieks of obdurate tenacity
Where the phantoms of my imagination enact their mysterious mysteries
And produce a poetic alchemy of violated imagination
Sep 23, 2012
Sep 23, 2012 at 3:31 PM UTC
On The Sixth Moon's Night
I came to contemplate the cosmos.
I awoke on a mountainous range:
Projected were ten thousand isles, scattered in remain.
All dancing differently,
But constructing one eternal game.
To what extent might my eye expand?
To what end will death cast its sand?
Upon what shore may the waves crash again
In peace and calm harmony?
No matter how many curtains the Devas will draw
Or how many distinctions Māyā will make~
Always, the un-curved perfection subdues and surrenders to them all.
Like the water-way, cultivating life and harvesting it on the other side.
Formless, it surpasses all stiff form and creates a path of least resistance
To the goal of the heart.
---
You cannot carve a stone buddha out of human flesh.
A stone buddha cannot experience samadhi nor still a pond.
Mind is a mirror
that must be seen clearer!
But behind the glass and that transient social class,
What is that divine perception?
"The Ultimate Peerer"
Aug 27, 2015
Aug 27, 2015 at 1:02 PM UTC
From all I say,
You can tell where I'm at
Whether or not am sincere
Whether it's all pretence
You could easily find the lies and the truths from all I say to you!
I'm an open book before the one I love
And that much control you have over me
You know me enough
You know where my mind is at.
I accept it all.
I don't fight at all
It's all okay.
I'll be fine.
I allowed it in the first place
I have to deal with it.
I just hope it all fades and...
and we get back to normal or the awkward new normal
I don't know what it will be
But I hope it's the good kind
One that blossom
One that subdues the gray area we in
So we both live in peace
Apr 29, 2023
Apr 29, 2023 at 3:17 AM UTC
Breaths drawn
against saline skin,
hands murmur apologies
as all absence is forgiven.
Seconds stretch without end
battle cries, faint now but rousing
disturb the whispered dusk.
A call to arms, precious in its cadence
sings of life to forgotten senses
and finally subdues the longing
felt only in dreams of home.
Oct 21, 2015
Oct 21, 2015 at 6:37 PM UTC
When you open your heart to someone new
You give them your all
Then it subdues
When you hope it will change
And the night will be bright
When you fear they’ll run away
And they stay by your side
When you know that they love you
But you can’t love them back
That is all I know of life
And I would want to retract
Feb 24, 2023
Feb 24, 2023 at 2:09 PM UTC
Kintaro, wonder-child
with just a bib of red and gold
often red-naked;
Kintaro, child of nature
of the Ashigara mountain
friend of rabbit, monkey, squirrel,
tanuki and fox
Oh Kintaro! save us from this wild carp
so gigantic no human can tame
or catch -
Oh Kintaro! Super child, child of thunder
sent by red dragon of Mt Ashigara -
Oh subdue the Gigantic carp,
Oh Kintaro – save us!
and see now Kintaro comes
leaps into the waters
and Kintaro fights the carp
Kintaro subdues the monster
and the waters leap out
and flow like rivers
and they fill lakes and ponds
and Kintaro has subdued the carp
and we are all safe now again!
Thanks to Kintaro!
and so may all boys be strong
may all boys be brave
like little boy Kintaro
like mighty, mighty Kintaro
Jul 27, 2011
Jul 27, 2011 at 3:54 AM UTC
The smell of freshly cooked roti wafted through the air and enters my nostrils
As I walked by the construction site laden with debris, metal, tools and drills
For the first time in a long time my mind subdues its chatter
My eyes come to a rest on a *** of soon-to-be cooked batter
The destitute woman sat by a tiny fire with a handful of pots and pans
Cooking for those whose hands would bring to life the Architect's plans
The look in her eyes wasn't that of servility or resignation
She struck me as one who practised mindful meditation
Two little ones played with a stick within their mother’s line of sight
It was hard to believe that a piece of wood could bring them such delight
Their ages four and seven from the look in their exuberant eyes
Hardly did they know that they were born to be chastised
A stone’s throw away, under the only light bulb, sat a girl in her attire from school
A few books on her lap, a pencil in hand, she sat studying on a wooden stool
She was a dreamer this one, dreamt of making her mother proud
She gave in to nothing but knowledge, for whom humbly she bowed
In the darkest corner lay the father on a wooden cot; bottle in hand
His back to the light, drunken mind wandering through promise land
He had been broken this one; no man’s free without being the master of his own will
Freedom he had never known, for since birth another’s land has he always tilled
Nov 11, 2014
Nov 11, 2014 at 2:32 AM UTC
Strolling in these crowded streets
Wandering through memories
The tune of love within
Subdues all those without
Angst filled void around
Unmindful pain – baffling and novel
See that familiar face around – no surprise
People are but objects reflecting the mind
Unbeknownst – love struck me
And now I am clearly unsure
What joy, what pain – what more?
They say its fatal – but its poetry obscure.
The emotional dissonance – is that right?
A void that is tediously strong
How do I speak my mind – confess the love
I fear end would win me over, before long.
Gap – the gap – this gap between…
Would cocoon worlds' entirety
The gap between the lips, longer still
If sealed, once sealed – chime unity
I could sing ballads of love
But I am a lifetime shy to be a poet
I speak my plight in vain hope
Of being one – with you, just for a moment
Virtues will be restored
And boons have been bestowed
If the night unfolds with you beside me,
- My man of gold
May 12, 2015
May 12, 2015 at 8:33 AM UTC
A red that burns across the sky,
Igniting the passion of a thousand suns
An orange that streaks throughout the desert,
Reminding travellers of their insatiable thirst
A yellow that sparks amidst the darkness,
Striking hope into the hearts of the forlorn
A green that sprouts along every blade of grass,
Spreading wisdom and peace across the kingdom,
A blue that blends into the soul of stars,
Fueling energy that bubbles throughout centuries
A purple that bruises every skin and scythe,
Rendering pain and thrills in every soldier
A violet that subdues the exhilaration of life and existence,
Leaving waves of aching sorrows and spirits
Apr 29, 2016
Apr 29, 2016 at 9:26 AM UTC
There is a quiet whisper
in the corner of my mind
it speaks to me on dark days
when the sunlight I can't find
It speaks of secret hatred
wrapped up in friendship's ruse
and though I try to fight it
my will it soon subdues.
I struggle in my silence
hiding all behind my smile
no emotion breaks the surface
as I tell the world "I'm Fine"
There is a quiet whisper
growing quickly to a scream
as I weave a noose of secrets
bringing end to foolish dreams.
Sep 16, 2014
Sep 16, 2014 at 11:23 AM UTC
Behind green eyes a retinal flash
subdues a gentle sense of knowing
with a half worn smile
she calculates line and speed
though unimpressed with detail
she's alert to every possibility
and snatches a glance there
her widening gaze settled
followed by a measured blink
of pure satisfaction
a buzz of a wasp
and a flick of an ear
all is well with her world.
Jun 9, 2010
Jun 9, 2010 at 10:16 AM UTC
When winter comes, the game is over
Until then
I’m tilling the soil, in preparation for the final score
Cordiality
Before the fertility of an ordeal, which grows into the bigger picture
Displayed
Splayed open in awkward moments, momentum picking up
Dust
Doesn’t this dirt, do something… creates… With no need
Of creativity
It just becomes… Nativity bourne… Energy from the stress, stretchin
Gravity pulls
Subdues the aborted missions… Missing the survivors
One
In a million, peal through the milieu, and skews
This present
View of manure, that manifests in the festivities that brings out
The most
Beautiful black rose in spring… Arose from the black
Beneath
Neither I nor you can undue, growth… Destruction just makes room
For something
Bigger to become… Cometh the comets to renew the stigma…
Butterflies
Kiss the bees… Better fly before the sting… Before the sting…
Stung
Death becomes the unlikely pair… The pear drops, to its own despair
This pair
Dies… as the flies, cover the corpse, cadavers and carrion
Carry on
The merry married marred, and in the spoils, spring new life
Young maggots Detested by the world, enters ignorantly blissful, and springs…
Underlings
Lingering beneath the grips of hatred, when it grows, with its
Hundred eyes
It still wont see the picture… distorted kaleidoscopic optics stops it
From seeing
The whys, the wheres, the world, the web
The spider
That sits beside her… and ***** the life out her
The outer
Casings, the crust, the crevice, the crack, the core,
We see
Explore, excavate through the dust of adam, and reach the hot magma,
The lake
Of fire floods the land… and destroys another civilization
“Welcome to earth…”
Jan 12, 2011
Jan 12, 2011 at 3:18 AM UTC
I lust for you
to think of me
daydream
of your scribbled greetings
of your silent longing,
your thoughts of me
(thinking of you)
thirsty
for some confession
of truth
something drastic, something new
in this stagnant springtime
colours, bright and harsh
yet they fall upon me
oh so dull
the wind avoids my skin
walking in a vacuum
so constantly numb
so ardent for
a crack in
the continuity
it subdues
any passion
even my hatred
for routine
letting me subconsciously
slip
into the nightmare
of the "american dream"
the steady pretending
this enmeshment
it infects
the very seams of
my existence
Mar 25, 2013
Mar 25, 2013 at 2:37 AM UTC
Red against a thread of gold
subdues transparency
consciousness leans into the hollows
Where is the burden you sigh to see
In those efforts
you cannot
Follow
A humble eminence hears quiet air that mingles
Watches a sea that glides within
Feels his soul surely tingle
When all those waves
Come crashing in
If you please to leave the shores of a world gone by
Imagine strains of abandon in your air
You can see the burden of a sigh
When your consciousness
Follows you there
Dec 14, 2010
Dec 14, 2010 at 7:43 PM UTC