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Open Poetry #49
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Redstart
Senior Member
since 2014-05-16
Posts 535


0 posted 2014-07-02 11:39 AM


And when he sought the inner voice
it resounded, haunting like an echo,
from the mountains of his confusion:

'You are the great pretender, a foolish man,
fire-eyed, driven as the alchemist.
Always turning love to pain;
ever folding soft-neck kisses
to paper planes of penance,
casting passion to the swirling breeze of guilt.

You are a wasted thinker,
an architect of futile dreams.
Ever seeking the great fire within,
the conflagration that is enlightenment:
the unattainable myth of the logical mind.

You are water in a stagnant lake,
wasting hope upon the dry beds
of life's forgotten, mountain streams.
You venture, lost, the hollow road,
nursing blisters of frustration
at the brow of each disillusioned hill,
scanning an ever-expanding horizon
with eyes of unreachable tomorrows.

Yet, one pause, one thoughtful, backward glance
and there, always one faithful pace behind,
walks an undying and undaunted love.
For life is not a journey, but a settlement,
where, should it stoically repel
the onslaught of hatred and dire misfortune,
there lies a blessed haven
for the lucky and the wise.'


© Copyright 2014 Redstart - All Rights Reserved
JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
1 posted 2014-07-02 11:55 AM


THIS is very good. This is poetry. A cleansing of the soul as it were. The depth where you wandered as you took to task a seemingly shallow person was deep, gloomy and dark. Eh . . . At the close of this masterpiece you offered a way out of the gloom and doom. Well done, Sir!

~*~ When politicians give up on liberty, it falls to poets to preserve it. Or write its epitaph. ~*~

Margherita
Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236
Eternity
2 posted 2014-07-02 01:17 PM


Your wisdom and talent are well displayed here!

Margherita

Lori Grosser Rhoden
Member Patricius
since 2009-10-10
Posts 10202
Fair to middlin' of nowhere
3 posted 2014-07-02 02:33 PM


I was once where you are only I suspect I got there by a waay different path. It took a lot more walking down that path and contemplation out of the religious box to get where I am today. No matter what anyone believes, it will not be them who has the final say. We are all born the same and we all will die the same. It doesn't matter what your religion is, your sexual orientation, your ethnicity or your gender... what matters is are you a good person? Mean people suck.

Lori

Redstart
Senior Member
since 2014-05-16
Posts 535

4 posted 2014-07-02 04:05 PM


Mean people suck lemons. Offer them a strawberry. If they don't recognise the sweetness, offer them honey. If they recognise the honey, beware. The strawberry should have been good enough; there's a sting on the way.
Michael
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-13
Posts 7666
California
5 posted 2014-07-02 06:25 PM


Wow, the first four stanzas could have been written directly to me.  Liked the way you ended it though... lucky and wise is an unbeatable combo.


Michael

bel1e
Senior Member
since 2006-07-24
Posts 1631

6 posted 2014-07-02 06:42 PM


Onslaught .

What a lovely word. Stay wary, my friend...loved this.

              

Redstart
Senior Member
since 2014-05-16
Posts 535

7 posted 2014-07-02 08:53 PM


I thank you all for your comments. Belle, I'm long past wary, and let me tell you this:  those cold stones cast bitter shadows by the moon. You, my friend, stand warm, and directly beneath her light.
x

bel1e
Senior Member
since 2006-07-24
Posts 1631

8 posted 2014-07-03 03:42 PM


Sadly...the moon's light rarely, if ever, bears any warmth for an old battered heart...I have since learned to bend my knees before they buckle under her weight though....

This was lovelier on the second read...

Xoxo

              

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