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Open Poetry #48
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Michael
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Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-13
Posts 7666
California

0 posted 2013-05-19 01:34 PM


Diminishing Returns


It's come to my attention,
After years of suffering,
I no longer hold the conviction
That led me to cry and sing.

Life's never ending river
Full of dire twists and turns,
Has proven emptiness a giver
Of diminishing returns.

The pains I so long clung to
No longer yielding reward.
The passions I've been wrung through--
The chaos I've so run toward,

Now amount to more than nothing
But a distant memory
Of me at least feeling something,
If increments of misery.

Still I never envisioned
This tunnel ending in light.
But, vapidity my prison,
Well I guess it serves me right.

As even the great empathy
I used to experience,
Can't fill this hollow void in me
Tethered to consequence.

I pass it, more than embrace it,
As an ingenuine touch...
Roll my eyes, rather than face it,
Having needed it so much

In days long past, when need was felt--
Need to be part of ALL.
One more thing I've watched slowly melt,
Behind this listless wall.


Michael Anderson

5/19/2013


[This message has been edited by Michael (05-21-2013 09:53 PM).]

© Copyright 2013 Michael Anderson - All Rights Reserved
Alison
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Member Rara Avis
since 2008-01-27
Posts 9318
Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!
1 posted 2013-05-19 01:49 PM


You write with an understated power - if that makes sense.  Some of your poems reach through my screen and smack me hard.  This is one.  I really appreciate how you use words too.

Alison

JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
2 posted 2013-05-19 02:43 PM


The void you are experiencing, in my opinion, is a needful thing to blunt the arrows and knives of that other dire world you lived in for so long. There is light at the end of this period of your life, a light I hope you will embrace, even with a cynical view. You have passed one hurdle, you have one more to go to leave the void and smile.

~*~ PMS jokes aren't funny, period. ~*~

Lighthousebob
Member Elite
since 2000-06-14
Posts 4725
California
3 posted 2013-05-22 02:07 PM


Heartwrenching!  For me, your poem emphasizes the point that a man should not be alone... well, um, at least not for too long a period of time.  Like I said before, you have a Great Big Heart, my friend, and I feel, hopefully, hopefully in the near future, somebody out there's gonna find themselves very, very fortunate to be with you.  
Kit McCallum
Administrator
Member Laureate
since 2000-04-30
Posts 14774
Ontario, Canada
4 posted 2013-05-22 02:28 PM


"In days long past, when need was felt--
Need to be part of ALL.
One more thing I've watched slowly melt,
Behind this listless wall."

I love the way your words make me pause and ponder, Michael. I enjoyed the way you wove the diminishing returns back to the efforts put forth in the past, very nicely written. I have watched from behind this same wall Michael, and enjoy reading you always.  

Best wishes,
/Kit

Michael
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-13
Posts 7666
California
5 posted 2013-05-25 06:36 PM


Alison, it makes perfect sense, and thank you, it's quite a compliment.
  
Jer, I don't know about "leaving the void."  Seems like maybe the end of the journey, not just part of it.  I won't argue semantics, however, but will just patiently await time to tell, all the while bludgeoning these pages with my black, dismally fading to gray outlook.  
  
Bob, while I appreciate your optimism, I must make clear that I am alone by choice right now, and have serious doubts that this is something I would be willing to change... something about hopping a thrice-cursed train is echoing in the back of my head, even as I type this.     Somethings are just better left alone; I do believe I am one of those things.
  
Hi, Kit.  Yes you, I know, could understand the efforts I've put forth to cloak myself in darkness.  It only saddens me to think you have been behind this same wall as well.  ((Hugs)) to you dear friend.  I'm so glad to see you here.
  
Michael

JamesMichael
Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336
Kapolei, Hawaii, USA
6 posted 2013-06-01 10:24 PM


Fine writing...James
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