orionid

Edited again to simply say I haven't had any significant alone time in weeks, but when I hit a quiet moment my minds been bubbling over with more thoughts than I can keep up with. Somehow, though, out of all of the noise, two poems have been generated. These are the first two I've written in over two years, and, combined with that last one, the first three in nearly a decade.

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The sound between the waves

Hear me, oh, Mother Ocean!
Please answer this for me:
What is that sound between the waves
in the whispers of the sea?

In faint echoes across the night
when air is hanging at its most still,
come subtle hints and aural cries,
sighs, and slipping will.

What is this sound I hear
when my thoughts are turned within,
when I think of where I'm going,
and ponder where I've been?

Tell me, oh, Mother Ocean,
with waves from distant shores!
What ghost is singing in my ears
with a voice both mine and yours?

Here in the candle-cast darkness
aft the stars and moon have said g'night,
the sounds wash me o'er with chill
and ghastly deep insight

I hear you, Mother Ocean
and that faint and distant scream--
the painful, crying wails
of a child's dying dream



Edited to note: The italicized text below was intended to be indented. BBCode being what it is, well....

Dammed

I am a reservoir
full of water
full of life
I am surrounded by voided desert
vast, dry, empty
I am dammed.
'Twas not always so
Once I was a stream
ever-flowing
My world was small
a beautiful oasis
Then came the drought
I shriveled
The oasis slowly died
abandoning me
when I lacked self
I dried out
no life left to share
I was one with the desert
I was an empty stretch
lifeless
voided
A stranger came into my world
and built a dam
in the night
But I was still desert
empty
hollow
void
Then came the rain
A trickle at first
But, oh! It was great!
to feel that cool life
once again
I grew
slowly.
and different.
dammed.
I filled with life
but there was no flow
no oasis
Only a dam
withholding me
withholding life
The rains came more frequent.
I swelled.
But still I was dammed.
Surrounded by desert
no oasis to be seen.
only me within the void.
My life grew within
teeming
new
fresh
Yet still I was dammed.
surrounded by desert
unable to flow
Creative rains now come in torrents
as many years ago
I am filled to the brim
so much life to share
but
The spillway sleeps
and
I am dammed.
Never before have I felt so full
of vigor.
teeming with life
yearning to burst forth and share
But I am dammed
stifled, stagnant,
and dammed.
Something must give.
I fear I can no longer contain
the boundless creative life within
teeming
dreaming
screaming to break free
to burst forth
I will be an unbridled flood
raw, primal
pure creative force
destructive
life destroying life
A controlled release may help
to share my life
without destruction
But still I am different
As the desert void around
without oasis
I am a reservoir
I am dammed