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When the wind works against us in the dark,  
And pelts with snow  
The lowest chamber window on the east,  
And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,  
The beast,
‘Come out! Come out!’—
It costs no inward struggle not to go,  
Ah, no!  
I count our strength,  
Two and a child,
Those of us not asleep subdued to mark  
How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,—
How drifts are piled,  
Dooryard and road ungraded,  
Till even the comforting barn grows far away
And my heart owns a doubt  
Whether ’tis in us to arise with day  
And save ourselves unaided.
Francie Lynch Mar 2017
Ungraded roads have many holes,
Gravel, and running ditches.
Before a rain, they seem more wide than narrow.
Long but terminal.
These roads I'm led to roam,
Not straight, but bending to travel.

Signs warn of deer or bumps,
With a bridge dead ahead.
Chances are, it's a single lane,
And timing dictates crossing.

My spinning wheels clear the ruts,
But soon they fill again,
As if I never passed.
CRH Mar 2013
Enough
ungraded papers
to make
a coffee table.
Hello, Sunday!
When does one get old enough to stop procrastinating?
Sydney Victoria Jan 2013
Lights Whirling,
Fate Twirling,
Space Swirling,
Hope Mirroring

Pain Belated,
Fears Sedated,
Failure Ungraded,
Courage Reigniting

Atoms Meeting,
Glitches Depleting,
I Am Breathing,
For The First Time In Life

Angels Singing,
Thoughts Flinging,
Wounds Stinging,
Only To Be Healed    

To Find The Wonder,
In A Crash Of Thunder,
Go To The Stars
I Really Have Nothing To Write About:P Not Extravagant But Please Enjoy!
Just Heather May 2011
Reading your words of hate I start to think
Was it me that pushed you to that virulent brink,
Contemning the world, or were you always that way?
I don't recollect or recall ever hearing you say
Satan gripped your throat, or that your angels cried
Tears of blood when you looked to their mournful eyes.
I confessed to biting the apple in their sympathetic trials,
But more lies still concoct in this alchemist's phials.

          I found myself writing the way I used to long ago,
          But God knows I don't feel the way I did.
          I try to remember all I learnt in Eden's groves,
          But I can't find the lessons in memories I hid.

You can hate me all you want, it changes nothing,
'Cause it's dead and gone and I find my new self coughing
And choking on the words that I have to whisper to them;
I am silently descending to a distant end.
I've painted all my sins onto these walls in my mind,
But someday I'll be leaving this all behind,
Taking nothing but the signatures and faded scars,
Leaving behind pieces of my blackened heart.

          Have I found myself, or is the girl I am long gone?
          I don't know the reflection in the pools of tears.
          As I sit hear repeating words of other's songs,
          I met their expectations by embodying their fears.

I failed and ruined every single thing that mattered
Lying in the shards of glass from mirrors I shattered.
They cut into my lungs and rattle in my hollow chest
As I lay here and force out these final breaths.
Your heart dances to read I'm close to the end,
Do you remember when we said we'd stay as friends?
I was wrong, it turns out I do despise you,
I can't forgive or forget the monster I see inside you.

          I find myself look up and ask "Who are we now?"
          And see nothing but bitter clouds blocking the sun,
          A deadening silence cascades on all that surrounds,
          I am lost, but this is something you haven't won.


                                    (If life is just another ****** up examination
                                     I'll die ungraded, degraded by this thoughtless nation.
                                      If life is just another step towards a place in heaven
                                       I will gladly walk to hell, 'cause I am filled with the seven.
                                        And it is with no knowledge of on whom I can depend
                                                 I will sit here, won't pray,
                                                     Continue to pretend
                                                         ­   I'm okay.)
Druzzayne Rika Feb 2024
Dabbling in to faith
such a serious note,
Corrupt is on the throne
considered the God,
Blindfolded our eyes,
all the words mistranslated
and misconstrued,
I don't wish to speak about
this heavy subject.

It weighs heavily on my soul,
are they true or hollow?
should I listen, learn
to who do I follow?
Cannot trust my brother
in this century,
Then are those people
even holy, undue glory?

Sudden storm in my mind
pressure very unkind
People are on divide
Just blow on the horns
Whispers of taint
Rumour mills manufactured
urgency ungraded,
my faith repents
the spirit latent.
Nat Lipstadt Jan 22
Disclaimer:
an unintended very long poem
from a very long walk,
hoping it might come
to rest within your
heart
but feel free to go your own,
another direction

<•>

“Another writer told me a few weeks ago of his New England Yankee mother,
who believed there are no problems
that aren’t made at least slightly better
by a long walk, and
none that are made worse.“
<•>

a moderate walker am I,
on the Promenade,
hard by the wide & narrow strait,
a tidal estuary, that divides our urban island
from its suburban Longer cousin,

this my path, most oft traversed,
a time spent usually creating,
reciprocating verses from a
copulating mind

every walking expedition is
an-in-transit composition,
an enchantment by a song
anointed, appointed and a
derivation
of a song about
going home

the last of my family
to be buried, l,
to be interred,
finally grounded,
in a park of cedar trees,
next to my immediates,
for can’t think of any other place
that might, would willingly,
not resist mightily, taking me in

it will thy will that they bury me
there if they can get permission
from the heavenly authorities,
but told the betting odds
are 3 to 1
against,
the Lords of song not so happily
with the quantity and the quality
of my unseeded spilled,
of my un-indeeded actions,
they were not entirely
rainbow colored,
some very berry blackened,
urgently misdelivered
with no justifiable delicacy
warranting memorizing or
further discussion

most likely will continue
to remain a pedestrian,
though unlikely I’ll have to
look both waysides before
crossing over

I’ll carry copies of  my scriptures,
psalms and even my one and only
flawless poem in hand,
wrote here so long ago,
s small proof that my theorems
were not
always entirely wrong,
but my replica action figurines,
were posed and struck,
were sufficient evidences
that my overall demeanor
of demeaned marks,
were negative numbered,
irony, they were unlettered
and ungraded,
mostly average, only worthy
of a place in the sadeyed lowlands

So walk I shall,
hoping they give me decent
walking & wailing shoes,
a warm suit,
a fedora or a watch cap,
cause it is more than chilly
down by the uninhabited riversides

this thinning vision is not
tinged with
any tingling regret,
nor sorrow,
what I did, what I wrote,
every word mine alone,
the way I lived,
walking solitaire is
something grown quite accustomed,
and a pretty fair pre~text of a
judgement coming
down

on the morrow,
will walk with no
measurements needed,
not speed, nor distance,
not counting crows or any other
unenumerated birds of a feather,
those on a wire or a river railing
spying observers watching,
who will go unnumbered,
as will all my
steps of no value

so this poem’s title absolute right,
no needs for solving
for absolutions,
was never ever sorry for
taking a walk,
and there are no more vocabulary
modifiers,
unneeded words left, like,

but nonetheless

only
just don’t know how
this river poem got
so long
Yonah Jeong Jan 29
At the bottom of her
shameful pain overflows
Sometimes
accusing fingers
of the unpleasantness

without normalcy
Her bottom life
there is a landscape of labor

ungraded
the love of us all
Unclimbed.

— The End —