Day 25 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Just a dream?”

The road is lonely at night
as the mind departs from life.
Rewriting the script from the
hours I spent trying to sift through the strife.

I walk on paths filled with stars.
Friends move in step as we walk
then they fade away into
trees, a forest rising around me. A hawk

gives me its feathers, strong and
beautiful. I run, take off,
finding flight to be just as
lonely as walking. I decide to cut-off

my wings, falling back to the
starry path, a crash landing.
Blood dripping from the old wounds.
The forest sways. I feel my fear expanding.

Poetic Form: Endecha

Poetic Form 77: Landay

 

Love your neighbor, they holler as the

blood runs from wounds to the head and heart by prayless hands.

Neighbor needs a new definition,

besides the reflection we use from mirrors on the wall.

Poetic Form #77: Landay
The landay form varies in length but the couplet is the base structure. This means the poem can be two lines or several pages. The form most likely originated in the area of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. The couplet consist of 9 syllables in the first line; 13 syllables in the second line. Landay poems tend to reveal harsh truths (love, grief, war) using biting wit.

There is not a specific rhyme pattern for a landay, though the lines tend to end on the sounds of "na" and "ma". This is difficult to replicate in the English language.

Poetic Form 39: Triolet

These Days

These days of living bruise my soul.

Lost in the maze of uncertainty,

following the path to a broken north pole.

These days of living bruise my soul.

Another paper line used for damage control,

tears and blood blurring the line mournfully.

These days of living bruise my soul.

Lost in the maze of uncertainty.

Poetic Form #39: Triolet

The triolet form has a unique structure. It is an 8-line poem with the 
following format: 

A - first line

B - second line

a - rhymes with first line

A - repeat first line

a - rhymes with first line

b - rhymes with second line

A - repeat first line

B - repeat second line

Forgiveness

Everyone says that forgiveness is for

    the betterment of your heart

That forgiveness releases you to be free

I can understand that

But see, no one tells you how to find the key

    or gives you the combination to the lock

Even

if by fate

    you find how to unfasten the lock

They don’t tell you how to untangle your heart from the chains

    that you have spent years wrapping tightly around it

    Chains of time

    Chains of regrets

    Chains of promises unkept

    Chains of memories that just won't go away

   

The chains have become protection

You have used them to stop the bleeding

    Wrapped them in all directions

        trying to keep the blood from filling your chest

    But it still drips through the links

        At night you can hear each drop echo in your mind

       

Madness is found in the repeated noises of life

Other times the blood comes in a rush

Spilling down the stained links

Life has a way of jolting us

    even on the most sunny days

So, you add another chain,

    tightening it

    wrenching it in place

        until the pain is just a dull thumping

            just behind the beat of the drips

    Chains are not made to heal wounds

See, even if you get to the point of figuring out the knot of the past

    till you can see your heart

    How do you heal the wounds

        the nicks and cuts

        let alone the gashes left unattended?

    How do you removed the indentations of the chains

        that crisscross your story?

    How do you find the faith to let your heart be unprotected?

I don’t know if I am that strong...

To A Young Poet

I feel your words

  The angst of youth crossing every T

  The deepest questions dotting the I’s

I once raged on the page as you do

         Now I envy you

It’s not that the words have abounded me

   They can flow like water at times

      Creating new rivers of discourse

      Through the landscape of life

But I find it harder to get the words to bleed

 To cut through the skin

 To pump through my aorta

But your words fill the poem with emotion

  Needle to vain

  Band-aid needed after reading

  Two cups of orange juice just to have enough

      Energy to get off the page

Maybe I have run out of blood

    Or have become too afraid

    Filled with fear and age

          To let my heart be seen by the world

Because I’ve learned that I might speak truth

But the reader always has their own connotation

And too many times they don’t match