Mantra has been working on something I have interrupted for the past week. Truthfully, more than a week, but I let her finish it this afternoon amidst other goings on. Want to see what she has been trying to accomplish? I know how she voted in the poll.
When it began, it was crass and not in keeping with my mood, so I shut it down. It had more to do with I could not see where she would go with it. Little did I know it would take so long to get to the place where she was venting the true issue.
This is the reverberation of things, in both the real and virtual worlds, which have been tormenting many lately.
In a twist from our normal course, where I struggle to name what Mantra creates, this one came with the name in the beginning. Unknighted. She took her sweet time getting to how the title would come to factor in the verse. She has come to say a mouthful.
Unknighted
Are you bound? Tied hand and foot?
Are you tethered to the ground?
Did your mired feet take root?
How can you stand? Make no sound?
My soul’d be crushed by demands
If I was only standing,
Worried and wringing my hands,
Instead of charging right in
To discover what I could,
Do what I felt, what I must,
To turn the tide back to good,
Ensure the treatment is just.
How can apathy rule you?
Keeping you from those you love?
Did you want me to stand, too?
Give up what I’ve control of?
What purpose could be served by
Ceding my independence?
I refuse to even try.
I haven’t lost my good sense.
Sacrifice is noble when
Someone benefits, it’s dear,
But not only to maintain
A safety net filled with fear
Of losing the here and now,
Which is certainly no gem,
For a lifetime view of how
Life’s lived on upper stratum.
The shackles and chains are not
Instruments of amusement
When branded with fear’s ingot.
Despair and disappointment
Populate the balcony,
Fill the aisle and the front row,
The seats for the symphony,
A packed house for Pity’s show.
Offered the strength of my back,
Dryness of my staid shoulders,
Mind which is sharp as a tack.
They fell on your deafened ears.
Not handicapped. No, not deaf.
Filled with incessant chatter
Of excuses strewn like chaff.
Echoing makes me madder.
Stop reciting your design.
The frame’s so warped and broken
None of it remains benign.
Contrition’s not its token.
Instead it’s a monument
To abysmal nothingness,
About which you still lament.
A hymn, surreal nonsense.
You hold a ticket in hand
For the road you’ve not traveled.
I gave it because I can
Guide you winningly ahead,
Away from the status quo,
The miserable comfort
You hold on to, even though
It’s rife with mindful discord.
You’ve walked in the unfit boot
So far, you have a limp now.
Skewing and rumpling your suit
Of armor. To pain you cow.
Believing you deserve it
For those fictitious misdeeds
the others conjured to get
Rescued by you on your steed.
Only to have them proclaim
You had no hand in it all.
You hang your head down in shame,
Believing the folderol
Of you causing all the strife
Willfully, knowingly caused
In the miserable life
Of those contrived holocausts.
Take off the helmet so caked
In gore, filth, excrement.
In clean breath you must partake
To clear your brain-defragment.
The barnacles extend down
Over your dented chest plate.
Years of abuse which no sound
Could ever try to negate.
Spent shells at your feet once held
Those bullets lodged in chain mail.
Greaves adorned with wicked spells,
Hateful shouts meant to assail.
Doff this all spent protection
Bare your skin to warming rays.
Take the elucidation
Wrap in all its bright array.
I’ll share the salve and sun block
To keep you from burning in
Your first stroll beyond the lock
And key fear used hemming in
Your passion and withholding
Happiness just ouside reach.
Walk slowly with me holding
My hand on a wind-swept beach.
Let the waves wash away more
Of the memories just past,
‘Til no sound of voices yore
Echo, silenced at long last.
Finally, you have a choice
To end the pain, taste the joy,
Raise your hands and find your voice
Together the hurt to destroy.
I charged in and succeeded,
Discovered all what I could,
Did what I felt I needed
To turn the tide back to good.
Will you stand there still tethered
To the ground? Bound hand and foot?
Or will you drop the weathered
Vestige of the life of soot
Borne in flames of fear and hate?
Your soul shines dim beneath it.
Still steady, heartbeat of mate
Yearning to be consoled yet.
The Mermaid ~ Waterhouse 1901
I shall wait beside the sea,
My heart shedding phoenix tears
Hoping you come back to me,
Healed of your lifetime of fears.
Do not dawdle, for alone
I shall never again stay.
You have but until the dawn
‘Ere the tide sweeps love away.
010520121528
(c) Ann Marie Dwyer
~~~~~~~~~~
For now, I shall say no more. Tell me what you felt through this poem. What stanza stands out for you? Did something grip you? What did you hear? What does the poem say to you?
valentinelogar
/ May 1, 2012This was entirely wonderful. I will tell you later what gripped me most, or maybe knowing me you will guess. I think I won’t tell you here.
valentinelogar recently posted..Hope in Peaches
Red
/ May 2, 2012I shall have to read it again, but I suspect I could guess.
Don't remember who I am
/ May 2, 2012Rooted ground,strife and turmoil. The steps are taken and Life is awakened. To be held with Pleasure and surely Treasured. Very well written Mon Chere <3
Red
/ May 2, 2012Thank you, Cherie <3 I like "Life is awakened" a lot. Glad to see you today.
Sue Dreamwalker
/ May 2, 2012This Verse gripped me Red
“”Let the waves wash away more
Of the memories just past,
‘Til no sound of voices yore
Echo, silenced at long last.””
Brilliant Poem! 🙂
Love and Blessings to you xxxx
Sue Dreamwalker recently posted..Another Year~ Childhood Memories
Red
/ May 2, 2012I rather like that one as well. This one was filled with images and feelings. I hope everyone finds at least one for them! Thank you for reading this one, Sue.
{HUGZ}
Red.
xxx
MysteryCoach
/ May 2, 2012Narcissist came to mind and how they siphon through a person’s mind, in and out and weave their webs in someone’s head… It’s like digging into the person’s soul who was involved with them, saying how hard they tried and why can’t this person see?
In the end… it was futile because the individual wasn’t sane to begin with, nor anything the individual trying so hard needed.
It’s like in the end, she took her life back…
I’d like to read it again, I’m distracted by my daughter walking in and out so I couldn’t absorb into it fully the way I want to, but it’s excellent! 🙂
Red
/ May 2, 2012Glad you like it, and I do hope you return to give it another good read. I have read it nearly a dozen times and am still trying to find the passage which strikes me the most. Good to see you here tonight. xxx
Angela
/ May 2, 2012“Will you stand there still tethered
To the ground? Bound hand and foot?
Or will you drop the weathered
Vestige of the life of soot”
I like that one best because it goes with things I have been dealing with lately (in another realm). And it’s a good Christian analogy. Are you going to stand there held by the chains of your fear or step out in faith and accept what is offered? Very good poem, Ann Marie!
Angela recently posted..Surrender
Red
/ May 2, 2012Thank you, Angie. I opened with this was passing through the virtual and real worlds. Very honest assessment.
Lizzie Cracked
/ May 2, 2012Finally, you have a choice
To end the pain, taste the joy,
Raise your hands and find your voice
Together the hurt to destroy.
I charged in and succeeded,
Discovered all what I could,
Did what I felt I needed
To turn the tide back to good.
actually all the way to the end.. I have a lump in my throat.. I don;t know what I feel or what it means but it very certainly speaks to me…
thank you.. 🙂
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..MaNaMaNa Mid-Afternoon Mental Moment
Red
/ May 3, 2012I love the idea of choosing happiness and freedom. I am glad it spoke to you, Lizzie. xxx
Lizzie Cracked
/ May 3, 2012the choice part is what grabbed me to start with that stanza I think. I went back and read what I chose..because I was having a hard time..choosing haha how ironic, sorry anyways…that is the definitive grabber for me “Finally you have a choice”. The whole poem was speaking and moving for me but you asked for our favorite part. That;s what I kept coming back to and yes I think that might be where it felt lighter too..in my heart..
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..MaNaMaNa Mid-Afternoon Mental Moment
Red
/ May 3, 2012It is where you say, “I did what I can to make the path smooth. Now, step on it.” I have been known to get off the motor grader once or twice. Any clue how many people have been either the night or the mermaid? I can think of, hmm, let’s see, all of them.
Lizzie Cracked
/ May 3, 2012it’s almost…the knight needs saving
I guess it made me think of.. trying to save someone who when we were together… saved me..and I him, but now
he is lost.. and I know the way.. but he will have to find it for himself ..while I wait.. waited. there is hope and frustration..and letting go?
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..MaNaMaNa Mid-Afternoon Mental Moment
Red
/ May 3, 2012You nailed it.
Lizzie Cracked
/ May 3, 2012amazing.. 🙂
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..MaNaMaNa Mid-Afternoon Mental Moment
prenin
/ May 3, 2012I felt echoes in this one Red.
Maybe it’s time to stop my father’s hate and evil dragging me back.
I don’t need his approval, though I’ve never had it.
Lovely poem!!! 🙂
Huge hugs always!
Prenin.
prenin recently posted..Wednesday – more writing.
Red
/ May 4, 2012Remember, from Wisdom, just because they are family, does not make them special in terms of being human. And no, Pren, you do not need it. You have the approval of plenty who do love you. They are far more important. {HUGZ} Red.
Androgoth
/ May 4, 2012As with all poetry there are many meanings within the lines, it can be spiritual pressing back the years and treasuring the delights, kissing upon the lips of yesteryear and indulging in the warmth of conviction, treading softly and yet reaching forth into pure waters and recognising that time is forever advancing, etching upon the tablets of life and adding a new world of hope and a perception towards feelings that became unresponsive.
Threads of thought cascading upon a seashore engraving a new world where only the past had been, fulfilling the path that was laid down long ago in an everlasting dream that offers refuge within the psyche, not a full consciousness that speaks out with a resonating clarity but one that adds to the next phase of enlightenment, an illumination of the soul caressing upon days gone by but with a fresh explanation of a life yet to be lived and a peaceful continuation.
The knight’s blade soured and sweetened once more by the touch of a loving kiss, a forever feeling to be savoured and restored, to be at one with the earth and its foundation in the breathing of time.
Well that is one way of deciphering it I guess? 🙂
Have a delightful weekend Red 🙂
Androgoth XXx
Red
/ May 4, 2012Precisely. I knew you would understand it. I hope you are having a delightful morning, Andro. Thank you for reading through this one. I like your interpretation. 😉
Androgoth
/ May 4, 2012And I like your thoughts that are intertwined within this fine piece of poetry my great friend 🙂
Have a very sweet weekend Red 🙂
Androgoth XXx