27 posts tagged with Poetry & Literature.
TL;DR An epic poem in seven parts about Aldren, a mage who learns that true power lies in gentleness and patience rather than force. Written in iambic pentameter couplets with deep occult symbolism. I — LOAGAETH Friend—set thy voice to low and level air, For syllables are seeds that wake and bear. A whispered Name, once loosed, may bend the grain, Or lay a stillness on a raging rain. Ere stone had learned its patience in the deep, Ere rivers found their beds, and chose to keep, The gods drew Breath where no Breath yet could live, And speech became the first great gift to give.
TL;DR A working notebook on English metrical feet, line lengths, and rhyme schemes — from iambs to pyrrhics, with examples from Shakespeare to Frost. Why meter and rhyme There is a moment, and if you have spent any time at all wrestling with poetry, you know the one, when a line you are reading suddenly clicks. Not because of what it means, though that matters too, but because of how it sounds.
TL;DR A five-part lullaby for the poet's daughter, Harper, exploring adoption as a deliberate act of love, the inner music of the self, and the promise of guardianship. I. Threshold You were eight months into this bright, baffling world— eight months of milk-breath and clenched wonder— when I met you. Not a thunderclap. Not a prophecy. Just a doorway inside my ribs opening on its quiet hinge the instant your eyes took hold of mine.
TL;DR A seven-part Masonic poem tracing the soul's journey from seeking splendor to finding truth in quiet labor, mercy, and self-examination. I I sought you first for splendour— as boys seek brass upon the breast, or lovers seek a name carved deep in bark to outlast weather. I wanted the shining proof of you, a bright device to wear above my ordinary days, and set my heart between two inward columns as if a hall could be raised by pride alone.
TL;DR A sonnet-like poem in ten stanzas inviting the reader into a mystical tavern where time unhooks its hands and souls find communion. Where mists of silver robe the pilgrim road, I found a door within the night that sings; Its lintel carved, an omen of abode, And laughter rose as if on unseen wings; There beat a hearth whose coals like roses glowed, And reined-in Time bowed low and rest bestowed.
TL;DR A devotional two-stanza poem addressing a guiding star as both wound and healer — a psalm sung in the dark hours for the one who listens. O Star, dear Star, lean silence on my breast, While all the wine-dark heav’ns do hold their breath; The jasmine sighs; warm earth doth sink to rest, And moths, like prayers, beat softly after death; One piercing Star doth seam the night’s thin veil, And there my guarded silence waxeth frail.
TL;DR A ten-part narrative poem about a sailor lost at sea who finds salvation not in the horizon but in the light of a star named. I I have been longer than hunger on the sea— longer than thirst, longer than the salt’s slow sermon that polishes a man to bone and keeps polishing. The sky unbuttons nothing for me. The sun is a coin I cannot spend. The moon is a white bruise on the water’s shoulder.
TL;DR A prose poem about a single night in North Philadelphia that thawed a decade of winter — an ode to touch without possession. I had been winter for ten years, a house without lamps, a field with the wind walking in it and nothing else, my ribs a gate that refused to open. Then the city rose—brick and stoop and late siren— and you stepped out of the streetlight as if the light remembered you before I did, as if my name were a door and you knew the hinge.
TL;DR A long-form poem about two nights spent with a woman of honest hours, learning that tenderness can arrive without permanence. I speak to you as the lamps go thin, as if wind had combed the room and left it shining. I speak to you with the grain of my breath, you who arrived like winter wheat in a cracked field, you who set your palms on my shaken ribs and said, in a voice of snow and ember, wait.
TL;DR A Cavalier-style poem in eight stanzas exploring the ancient truth that conquering oneself is the foundation for conquering all. At first, my heart made treaty with the night, Bearing my own soft chains as bracelets worn; I shaded candle, called the coward light, And flattered dark as if indulgence sworn; Yet thine own whispers, Soul, like trumpets blew, And bid me face the field I fled and rue. conquer For valor, taught by fear, turns back to charge: I steeled my pulse, and ran into the roar; The griffin Doubt spread shadow-wings at large, And Envy hissed behind her iron door; I kissed the blade that hunted me before, And found it grew a key to Freedom's store.
TL;DR An exuberant hymn celebrating the sanctuary found in a lover's embrace — absurd, devotional, and utterly sincere. Beloved, tonight I bring my whole foolish republic to the wide republic of your chest. I arrive with my cheek as a petition, my mouth as a signature of heat, my hands two humble ministers negotiating treaties of warmth beneath your breath. Under your collarbone—the border— I declare myself citizen. Your chest: not a prize but a province; not inventory, but invitation.
TL;DR A meditation on the stages of love — from first flame to steady devotion, and the wisdom of knowing when to hold on and when to release. When the hush first sparks— skin kindles skin, a struck match in the midnight orchard; sap races, petals burn, hunger sings in the bone. Each heartbeat is a drum that forgets tomorrow. In this bright furnace nothing exists but flame, and even the flame forgets itself.
TL;DR A poem of leaving that is also a victory — walking away from neglect while carrying the lessons of love forward into unspent dawns. I arrived to you as a harbor battered by its own waves, salt‑scored, muttering to gulls that never answered. In your quiet courtyard my storms fell silent— we planted lemons in the clay and their small roots took hold the way forgiveness does: unseen, unhurried.
TL;DR A spare, elegiac poem about carrying absence like a cathedral — finding beauty even in grief when it is born of love. When the earth held its breath, and the trees stopped speaking in green, I found your shadow pressed into the silence— not like absence, but like the memory of warmth left in a chair after someone has risen. I did not call your name. It was already there, inscribed beneath the skin of rain, folded into the hush of wheat fields bowing under the weight of their gold.
TL;DR A poem about finding one's true self through unconditional love, where giving becomes strength and two souls merge into one. Giving part of one's self so another can thrive, no greater a gift could I ever contrive. Thus my soul I do give to your worthy embrace, to an endless quest, for your fears to displace. Oh! To give you a world where your happiness thrives, that fate I shall seek through both of our lives.
TL;DR A poem about discovering light, contrast, and purpose through love, told as an initiation by the newborn moon. There in the living wood, I found the moon, and she gave herself to me. She is mine, though not to be owned. Sitting high in the heavens, radiating her grace for all to love. Though still all the more mine. All I knew was emptiness, knowing of nothing, blind to my existence.
TL;DR A love poem about how a partner's presence becomes rooted so deeply that they become an inseparable, living part of one's own being. I am not the person from when first we met. Back then I was only a seed, not even yet alive. But watered by your love, you gave me my life. So that my roots did imbibe you. So that I did grow, reaching towards the light, while drawing you into me, and you became a part of me.
TL;DR A mystical poem about a magical tavern born from shared dreams, where time unwinds, truth abounds, and lovers become one under ancient moonlight. In misty lands that the pale moonlight brings, There stands a tavern where it shines and it sings. In this warm place eternal laughter does flow; with a smile for each of the winds that will blow. To seek this land out less must be so much more, then set yourself free to drift to night's shore.
TL;DR A meditation on finding peace in the present moment, letting the past and future dissolve like waves washing over the shore. I hear the waves crashing on time's distant shore. Its salty mist hangs in the air. I can taste its dry burning on my tongue. Feel its sticky film on my skin. It coats every surface, fills every space. I invite it into my body with each breath, though it burns like acid.
TL;DR A bittersweet WWI-era ballad about a knight who rides into battle singing of his love, choosing honor and devotion over life itself. history About this poemThis was the song my grandfather used to sing to me as kid. He used to sing it with his army buddies during World War II. In days of old, when knights were bold, And barons held their sway, A warrior bold, with spurs of gold, Sang merrily his lay; Sang merrily his lay: "My love is young and fair, My love hath golden hair, And eyes so blue, and heart so true, That none with her compare.
TL;DR A poem about finding warmth in the moon's cold light while waiting for the sun to rise again. edit Author's noteI completed my first poem in 2 years last night. Id love any objective feedback anyone has for me. With arms outstreched, still too far to hold. The moon's light touching my weary hand; as ice melting through clenched fingers. My soul is a fire and its warmth betrays me.
TL;DR A poem about finding true sight in darkness, embracing wounded wings, and rising toward the sun. Light pierces through wind torn holes. My eyes ache adjusting to the light. Shapes and figures barely formed. A sweet scent calls me forward. But I know nothing of the day; like a blind man, seeking the sight he once knew. But it is not in the light one finds sight. It is in the darkness.
TL;DR A short, stirring poem about courage, love, and finding worth in a world gone wrong. In days of old, with heart so bold; when courage finds its way. A man comes forth who finds his worth, in love and righteous action. With strength of heart he fulfills his part, and confronts the popular passion. Fighting long and strong in a world gone wrong; the masses fight and plunder. Finding worth in one, then hope did come, the masses pushed asunder.
TL;DR A prose reflection on humanity's sacred duty as guardians and caretakers of all life on Earth. Lives around us are born and die. We live to see the life and death of the plants, animals, and people that surround us. Every year an entire world of plants, insects, and animals die around us leaving a barren icy world reborn new just as quickly as it died. Our beloved pets, our loved Grandparents, uncles, cousins, friends, and even parents are taken from us.
TL;DR A devotional love poem promising an eternal bond that transcends time, death, and distance. Take my soul upon your heart; know that I shall never part. All the void of heaven and earth; can not weaken my love's worth. Not time nor death nor land nor sea; none of these are stronger then we. For all my heart is fixed on you; no wish of mine will ever undo, the undying love I feel for two.
TL;DR A short, hopeful meditation on finding the light within humanity, even when the world feels burnt and gray. The heart of man is burnt and gray; for all our greatness we lost our way. All alone the blind prevail; no more love and we will fail. Honesty and integrity crumble; kings of men fall and fumble. Love is lost, people torn we die everyday and never mourn. But there is light in babies born.
TL;DR A dark, dreamlike poem about desire, destruction, and intoxication, where sweetness and poison grow from the same bramble. Brambled velvet, bloody thorns. The sweetest warmth on my tongue. A distant memory of a soft touch that never was. The thorns are a poison, and the fruit its cure. The sweet fruit that turns the ash in my mouth to wine, the peaceful ignorance of my intoxication. Numb to the destruction as I tear away the velvet fruit, leaving a mutilated husk, its life blood dripping.