Survivors

Survivors

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Emptiness


©  Steve King
All rights reserved

I have taken all I could from emptiness—
have suffered old desires to breach anew
and fill the fast expanding space;
have stumbled through each blindness,
all wit and happenstance,
and called on shadows there to resonate
through courses of new moods,
though softly as a wish might ever be.

I have given all I could to emptiness—
have tried to see across to latter ends,
feeling for small ripples of discontinuity
in smooth inviting fabric that surrounds,
in silence that would mock all reverence,
and smother each small echo,
even of a beating heart.

I have savored what I might in emptiness,
conjuring imagined sounds
to sing me what in emptiness
may anytime be found;
though everywhere beyond,
I know cacophony abounds.

I have settled into emptiness,
not a passive tenant of the void,
nor an idle roomer,
safe, as it would seem, with small comforts;
but as must every restive creature be
when flung by unrelenting tides
to the embrace of unsought shores,
close within its frail shell,
listening for each faint note,
and longing, as it waits, for some far sea.




A new poem for the Poetry Pantry
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13 comments:

  1. This is delicate and strong as an old vine, climbing the truth with unfolding new tendrils, but gripping with the knotted bark of age--we journey through emptiness, even as it journeys through us--the end is both forlorn and hopeful in its way, that the process that has flung us aside could just as easily take us back up once again. Lovely and inspiring to read in my hibernating fallow period, Steve--thanks.

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  2. There is a forlorn hope in this, a taste of the heart. Very well crafted and it flows really well.

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  3. Settling into emptiness - to me this talks about making the best of a sad necessity.. There is both an ordeal and comfort in your word that talk strongly to me. An excellent write.

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  4. Emptiness powerfully expressed. Great write.

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  5. a plaintive piece - the symbols of emptiness are eloquent still leaving room for emptiness to be breached.

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  6. not so bad to settle into emptiness with small comforts...

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  7. You have really described well the depths of emptiness in your poem -- safe but lonely but still longing.

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  8. I do enjoy play on empty space,
    it is such a freedom.

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  9. Oh I resonate with this poem......more than I can say........beautifully expressed...one feels the mix of resignation and hopefulness.

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  10. Very well written, the way ti fit together was great.

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  11. Agh. Rather a painful poem for me tonight, after a very depressed day! But so beautiful. Settling into emptiness, but perhaps not so settled if you, like Ulysses (or even Joyce at Martello), are listening for some current that may move you away. One feels, well, a fellow feeling here-- how does one deal with age and disappointment--I think our culture does not well prepare us--and though we know that we should find pleasure in the moment, small comforts, understanding that this really is what life may be made up of, we want something more than all that sand! It is really a lovely poem, Steve, thanks. Both your kind comments and poem are much appreciated. K.

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  12. A really good poem, I was going to say I especially like the singing stanza, but honestly, all of them are quite wonderful--it's like the stages of acceptance/denial/grief, but honestly--if you are writing like this, you are far from empty. k.

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