You were lost And you tried to find yourself in the ruins of Every yesterday, every time that did not sing And after sifting through the ashes You thought to build yourself anew Erect a hollow frame from The art of graceless flight and sleepless nights
Yet your soul did not rest easy
And you know you cannot weave a tower of shadows Silence does not sing in caverns as the breeze once did These echos of memories do not hold the sunlight You know this is not your sanctuary
Do not shun this yearning for more Do not fear the night within
Restless child, weary child You will come to know the road as home You will find yourself on some lonesome path Hear the way the earth resonates in your chest Learn to dance as one does When held in the arms of eternity The sky shall cradle you And the sun will kiss your brow The stars will sing you gently to sleep
Do not forget that day Do not forget that place For it is good, and it belongs to you
Young and so afraid When the night came You set yourself ablaze
Now flames have finally died And you drift in clouds of smoke Yearning vaguely for stars so far from home
When the night grows cold And your wandering falters When you long for earth's gentle kiss Let me hold you, let me show you How to breathe
How we wrap our hands around mugs of bliss And fingers trace constellations in dewy panes How we close our eyes and trust the dark To gaurd us through our dreams
Fragments of eternity Reaching forth to cradle weary souls
You’re a storm hidden within layers of skin And the face in the mirror is not your own
The slithersnake flickeringtongue shiftingeyes creatures around you do not seem to know The meaning of thunder, nor the whitehot pain of lightning strikes Nor the cold fury of the lashing rain The confusing swirl of wind not seen How chaos can reside in a smooth shell of flawless, hollow perfection
They offer you words of comfort (scorn) and reassurance (mockery) And gaze at you with sympathy (unease) You drank in these lies with hope (desperation) (terror) (reckless conformity) That they would sooth the rage within
It has taken you all this time to understand That gifts of poison do not appease the sky
Sift through the scattered pieces of Every drop you took so willingly Intermingling with tears unshed And breathe them back into the space between us Let your hollow heart throb on Catch the pain in gentle embrace Cradle it closely, for it knows This darkness is not the home it seeks
When you have learned to ride the waves and sing the wind to sleep And the clouds have curled back sleepily into the heavens And the rain whispers softly to the newborn shoots below When you have learned to hold the meaning of pain and beauty within the same palm Without flinching from the fangs of onlookers You will begin to see the storm within us all And know that this ragged collection of fragile creatures All bear the same mark of humanity
Daughter of the moon You once drank the stars You know well their taste You have sat in the blackness that followed and wept
Mourn no more, child of light The sky calls you home
Spoiler! :
This one feels sort of incomplete... But it's in response to one I wrote last year:
There is one experience I will never forget- Silently drinking the stars. They slid down my tongue And burned my throat with passion One by one, Leaving infinity an endless night.
It is indescribable- The taste of liquid diamonds and fire, Ice cool and burning at once, Now residing in your belly. A pile of embers Thick and uncomfortable.
I wonder some nights, Staring at the empty sky, If I shall ever be able to open my mouth And set them free, And if they could ever return to a world so vast After living so long in silence.
I really like the idea to write poems in conversations with other poems so I thought your last one was a neat response to your last year's napo poem. Also you've got some really nice lines and subject turns in the first three.
I just love the imagery and phrasing you have right here:
"And fingers trace constellations in dewy panes How we close our eyes and trust the dark To gaurd us through our dreams// Fragments of eternity Reaching forth to cradle weary souls// You need not fear being lost to the wind"
there's something so sacred and contemplative about those lines and how you make the world into poetry. I look forward to reading more poems from you!
you should know i am a time traveler & there is no season as achingly temporary as now
Gather the silver threads of time in your hand Run your fingers through them as you give them names Here lies what was, and here is what may be Count them one by one and know their texture
And when you have finished, give them to me I have learned to weave with strands of strangers’ dreams Watch in silence as I tangle tomorrow and yesterday Don’t look away when words unspoken knot with bitter regret
Sorrow and promise both stain a crimson red Tears and laughter hold the same sway Trails of time wraps around my wrists as I work Knitting wings of courage and frailty
This night is nearly over One last song remains If you’ve wondered at the taste of wanderers’ tales Meet me where the edge of the earth touches infinity
At first it felt like safety Viewing the sky through a watery haze Reaching up to grasp at strains of sunlight filtering through Silent screams bubbling up to uncaring surface And all the world muted and wrapped in velvet darkness
But the silence grew too heavy Dragging at my weary broken heart The darkness crept around my vision and wrapped me too-tight in unknowing bliss-turned-terror Water seeped into every hollow place in me and stained the ink of my being I was crushed and I was silenced and I was sinking
So forgive me the dampness of my words As they come stumbling from heavy tongue My lungs are learning to carry the weight of air
Last edited by KaiTheGreater on Sat Apr 21, 2018 2:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Breathing in the familiar taste of smoke Flashback, time stops Time for us to dance Play the part, burn your bridges Turn your hopes to ash Don’t let the wind carry you away Step by step Set the world ablaze You’d never know your lines If it weren’t for the trail of flames Build your city of embers Walk a long road of coals to the place you never called home Don’t look back Never look back
You skim the skies on papercut wings Threading stolen strands of cloud through your feathertips Flutterhands frame the world with soft pink of chipped nails
You are afraid their bullet-words will clip holes Through the lining of your dreams So you fly away above the noise
Whispering trees do not speak their secrets to the clouds Sunflowers do not brush their petals against the sky You fear the weight of gravity, so You built yourself a cage of air
Tell me, how does it feel to be so free To forget the smell of earth between your toes?
Spoiler! :
I feel like a lot of my endings are weak. I just kind of lose momentum after a while, and don't know how to wrap things up. Also- the alliteration is entirely accidental??
RoseAndThorn there are so many lovely lines in these last few. Just super provocative phrasing that's a little dark and feels like there's a lot more behind the words.
For instance I adore you opening lines for 8 & 10 especially: "Drowning is not a pretty thing, I have learned" & "You skim the skies on papercut wings". The series of line progressions in 9 is really interesting too, how you mix the phrase about "burning bridges" with the hopes to ashes. You're doing a lot of interesting stuff in these, and although I know I just commented, I just wanted to say again that I'm really appreciating your NaPo!
you should know i am a time traveler & there is no season as achingly temporary as now
The path to healing lies in the present moment But you struggle to breathe past the cloud of memories hanging over your head This world is painful and bright And everything you touch turns to smoke Vanishing into the fog of confusion
Wrap yourself in the steam of hot baths and warm summer rains Take in the familiar shock of gentle force Wipe the stains of pride from your fingers Learn to exhale with practiced aggression
Say goodbye to the knives in your pocketbook Cut ties with the wind that held you prisoner The sky spilled your secrets before the world While you slept in vigorous defiance
The first step into the forest is never the last. You have wandered shadowed places for far too long And you have come to know, Though whispers entice many times over And the yearning to know more ever grows, Hues of shade vary only in darkness And never know the touch of color. Sunlight’s sweet embrace is a treasure to be sought After time spent long in night.
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