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Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

Just another poetry thread from me. I may also post editorials I have written about poetry. I will also link my DeviantART page for each poem, since it's my main literature community online nowadays.

Here's a sonnet that I wrote a little while back as part of a collaborative crown of sonnets.

Without Excuse
We lie, drunk on the star froth of cosmic beer,
Deceived by senses much too limited
And minds that toward the vast unknown hold fear
And trembling trepidation. We fidgeted
For trifles, treasured things we claimed
Would be as natural as deepest space,
Answered questions we ourselves had framed
To boost us up into the highest place.
We lie, for we have fallen drunk and drained
Of vision seeing what was made unseen.
The cosmos cries, so greatly is it pained
By gullibility so great and green,
That we have built our everything
On metamorphic elements, and sing.

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Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

Newness of Life

And out emerges a fair butterfly
That, born of struggle, feebly flaps her wings.
They, like her chrysalis, are shriveled dry,
And pump lethargic blood through veins like strings:
Concerted circulation to the tune
Of flowers ripened in their brightest bloom
Beneath the ultraviolet of the noon,
An overload from former dark and gloom.
Her first flight takes her to a little leaf
Where remnants of the morning dew remain.
She thirsts. The dewdrop is such sweet relief;
To tear her world apart was quite the strain.
Within the waterdrop a current stirs
The glassy sphere once void, now felt by her.

OperationNilo
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OperationNilo
3,937 posts
Shepherd

Sonnets...I just love sonnets, I'm not sure why. And I love yours. Keep it up, sir.

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

This is a modified version of the first poem I ever posted on AG, which won the poetry contest on "Tea." I changed it into a sonnet petit.

The Love of One
What were the dying thoughts of falling first
From branches to a steaming, boiling hell?
As lifeblood ebbed in bitter streams, what thirst
Could justify that gruesome deathly knell?
What color was that leaf before it died?
The fresh young green of fruitful, peaceful springs?
Or like the cauldron gleaming, open wide,
That bronzed complexion only autumn brings?
What love was this, that one death led to bliss?

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

The Spartan and the Samurai

Tremoring dewdrops
Slipping and sliding to earth:
Footprints in the grass.


O son of Zeus, with helmet proud and cloak of red,
Stand firm before the swordsman's cautious tread!

The sharpened crescent:
Cool to the touch, but the edge
Unleashes warm springs.


His spear in hand, sword in scabbard, lambda shield,
Is this a dream, or still the battlefield?

To think sakura
Fall with but the slightest breeze
And blossom again.


The thunder cannot match the roar of steel on steel,
Nor seas compare to sweat corporeal.

Through wispy mist,
The sunbeams piercing through.
Divots in the ground.

A severed spear, a shield in shards, unwitting aid:
For speed, old disciplines are cast away.

A tightly bound bud
Needs only a touch of wind:
A drift of petals.


A frog that hears the buzz will flick its tongue with aim,
But those that bite the bees will be to blame.

Bronze and steel in flesh,
Fully sheathed, never to speak.
Finally, birdsong!

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

Easter Sunrise

Though dusky clouds obscure the rising sun,
Their darkened billows smothering the sky,
The spell of night shall always come undone
By penetrating light that flows from high.

Emotions as the sunrise fills my eyes,
As dusk gives way to dawn I realize:

I do not love that which I loved before,
Or rather now it seems to be quite small
Compared to him who loved us so much more,
His life for ours, his sacrifice for all.

He lay interred, and mourners came to weep,
But stones and guards could not his body keep.
Though circumstances plunged him to the deep,
He pulled our spirits from their mortal sleep.

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

Some cowboy poetry commissioned by one of my friends.

Just Passing By

What happens to a dream deferred?
It's like a rider dragged through dirt
With heel in stirrup, spurs like hooks.
From horse to mustang, that's all it took:
A shot in the dark and nary a word.

What happens when your plans go broke?
A tumbleweed fleeing from the smoke
Of torches searching reddened earth,
A-tumblin' away for what it's worth,
A tangled mass of rimless spokes.

What happens when a vision fades?
The doctor's eyes dart and evade,
The slightest stammer, beading sweat.
Though you can't help but feel upset,
It's some relief the truth's conveyed.

What happens when life intervenes?
The coffin-man has kids to wean.
The desert plain is short on wood
So costs are high. It's understood
The nails are plenty, the planks are lean.

What's it like to feel olden times dying?
It's hearing the mission priest's sermonizing
Of times from two thousand years ago
With hands folded together and head bowed all low,
And realizing all through this time you've been crying.

What's left to do? What happens next?
The hole is dug for our respects,
"He's in a better place, I'm sure,"
The desert flowers reassure.
It hurts less, but I'm still perplexed.

What happens when a dream is meant to die?
Does it matter to know the how or the why?
It's time to fly, don't keep it pinned,
So it's gone with the wind, gone with the wind,
Gone within moments up into the sky,
Gone that another comes passing you by.

Maverick4
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Maverick4
6,804 posts
Peasant

So it's gone with the wind, gone with the wind,


As a Southerner, this line seems terribly out of place in a poem about the West. It's very good elsewhere. I especially like the fourth stanza.
Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

Haha, I support it would have that effect. The person who commissioned me was a Texan, and I think she liked it. The allusion wasn't intentional, but I was loath to change it without changing the whole stanza.

Maverick4
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Maverick4
6,804 posts
Peasant

Texans, grrr. One moment they're pretty chill. Then they go off about how beef is BBQ too.

Hehe, it probably stems more from me being a native Charlestonian, and wanting to go to the same school whose cadets fired the girst shots of the Civil War. Ir may be I just really like the movie and history. ^^

But again, it's a great piece. Structurally I'm challenged to find any faults. So you should definately post more, yes?

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

Writer's Block
A Spencerian Sonnet

The pressing feeling one feels in the marrow
That seems to squeeze each drop out of the bone
Like toothpaste from a tube that's wrung out narrow
And rolled up tighter than a pebble-stone.
Both dabblers and professionals are prone
To fall into this uncreative curse.
The young, the old, all certainly bemoan
The tight'ning of imagination's purse.
Alas, how long, how far must I traverse
This desert clime that robs me of my rhyme
And leaves me not a verse so very terse
Amidst the arid sands and filthy grime?
Take heart, O sojourner fit to expire,
Take calm inspire, though the times be dire.

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

On the Eve of Battle
A triolet

Beneath his helmet, tears are in his eyes,
Though tall he stands before the battle line.
He feels that swell of raw emotion rise,
Beneath his helmet, tears are in his eyes.
But in that proud array, it's no surprise:
No fear or grief are in those tears that shine.
Beneath his helmet, tears are in his eyes,
Though tall he stands before the battle line.

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

The Waif
A sonnet petit

The child passed by my seat with empty palms
And begged for love to fill its soulful eyes.
For 'twas not hunger nor the need for alms
That left the waif so piteous in guise.
She had her home, if four walls and a roof
Was all the meaning she should yet require;
But in that place all hearts remained aloof,
A negligence deserving of all ire.
She stood in place; I stood and turned my face.

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