Twixt the spark and feelings flame
is the moment when we can betray
the machines of war and temper’s arc.
* * * *
I.
After the clouds of scorn,
the howls of screams and words --
fired without regard for how they land,
the stillness brings into relief how empty
hurt we are, when love has been forced to flee.
Emotions, so swelled with pain, these eyes of sand.
no tears remain to provide relief. The hands
and arms crescent marked from holding on
holding back, now that the flood is gone.
The fire that burned is out. Emptiness
begins to let us collapse in ash.
Within ourselves each sere
path, leaves us to heal
wishing we had arms
left for an embrace
a touch of love.
II.
Come the moment after storm and ache
when we must choose which path we are
to take. Shall we keep the embers hot,
boil the blood, ‘til in fusillade of pain
shame, all the good plowed under
fields of guilt and blame.
III.
Or as the hand is stretched forth
to allow all the anguish to be allied and healed,
can we let ourselves find the tender place
within our hearts, where we forgive:
first, ourselves for all the blasts we cast
then, willingly let currents flow, to see
if we, both you and I, can grow our garden.
Once again smell the blossoms of our love.
Love’s waters can heal the hurts
should we let them flow, Trust
can bring luscious growth springing free
as we learn to dance together again,
in this rain of being and gifts shared
between ourselves. If we can learn
to still the lash and harm our tempers bring.
IV.
Here is where we start: leave no embers
burn, find a way to compliment, most of all,
everyday find a thousand ways
to pour out and give thanks.
2:38 PM
Sept. 2, 2008
Alexandria, VA
Author notes
I kept thinking about how dry I feel after a fight and rich and flowing when things are working and sharing again. I hope I captured this. It is what your contest inspired in me, even if it is not what you are looking for. Thought it might be and I wanted you to see. 
In a list
A contest entry
- arid saturation by Randomly Beautiful.
600 points, ended September 16, 2008, 5 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think, what it makes you feel, how you are moved.
Comments
1 - 31 of 31
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Love..LOVE..love this poem..you are very talented..may i post this in my blog with your name
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Thank you, feels like a paltry reply. I am more than willing to let you post my poem in your blog properly cited. I feel honored to be so complimented. I do my best and recently realized that my writes have a strong philosophical and spiritual side that I hadn't recognized because I was so caught in the sensuality of the words and idea. Again my thanks. Let me know the response if you can.
Love,
Tom B.
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You know Tom, I really didn't know what I was looking for, but this is beautiful. Truly lovely words.
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I wanted to catch the emptiness, the arid dryness of the desert of anger, then the way we heal and restore the lush center of our love, restore what gives us stength. Glad you feel I caught some of it.
Love, Tom B. -
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Yes I did. You know love well. I can tell you have found what is real. Most never do. They spend too much time looking for fairytales that don't exist. My life is happy, but it is not a fairytale...lol. Fogiveness is a requirement of love in order for it to work. So is compromise.
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Life is a series of obstacles to be overcome. Our mind loves problems and after three days of nothing to do will create a few
We are not our minds. Life is not about us and the world doesn't care. It is never personal.
In my faith and the gift of my marriage vows, I seek my piece. I forgive for it is not mine to judge. I know I am far from perfect and hold no one to a higher standard. More is achieved by helping others upon their journey and little about making mine too important.
Love, Tom B.
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Love’s waters can heal the hurts
should we let them flow, Trust
can bring luscious growth springing free
as we learn to dance together again,
in this rain of being and gifts shared
between ourselves. If we can learn
to still the lash and harm our tempers bring.
You did. This is very thought provoking for me.
For many different reasons. Somber though, and I'm not sure why.
May be just my own weird reaction. Happens alot to my emotional stability these days.
I find it to be something a little too close to home?
Being MAD IS EASY.
STAYING MAD is the trick.
Believe me, it's helped immensely.
The best thing I ever learned about my God was I had to forgive, but I had a right to be angry, they two weren't one in the same.
Fabulous write, as always,
Best wishes my friend,
jin
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This was focused on how dry we feel when we are mad. The sense of emptiness against the richness we have in our life. Getting mad cause there is nothing there to begin with is a different kind of anger. Forgiveness is not about the ones forgiven, it is about freeing ourselves from the history we carry around like bags of trash. Sometimes righteous anger is needed to spur us to action we would not take. This is about healing when we need to take care of the gifts we would lose if we stayed stuck in our anger. This is a big difference and you know what I mean.
Love, Tom B.
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Fascinating in its detail of emotion and response
in the physical. Very connected, these two, but
many do not discover that. Saturation is a very
excellent descriptive of that "full" feeling when
everything seems in harmony. Arid, likewise, is
apt for the temptuous times when voices raise,
and nothing seems to quench the desire for compromise.
Elegant and exact. Blue
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I know she asked for liquids, but it felt so normal. This seemed to capture after a few false starts the sense of arid and saturation I was looking for and what I have often felt many poems were but metaphor for. I thought I would do it the other way around. The formating and construction was done in the end after I built this one in pieces and then assembled.
Love, Tom B.
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thank you dad,
this is amazing!!! you spoke to my heart as always.
oxo
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Thought this might ring a chord in your heart. ; )
Love, Tom B.
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Wonderment is my key here, and I have been in these shoes where I wonder how it happen and when it ended.
These are some very beautiful words of strong emotions, how being in the light fades the darkness of anger or pain.
You expression is purely magical.......novy
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Thanks. I wanted to capture the sense of return to life and the floods of joy. Glad you enjoyed.
Love, Tom B.
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This is gorgeous! Filled with emotions as only you can do...This is another piece of brilliance...I love reading your heart...and your heart is in everything you write, as it should be, my dear Bro ...
Lynda
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You are always more than welcome to stop by, my friend. I wanted to remind us of the path from anger and hurt and how it blesses us all.
Love,
Tom B.
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Good work pops. This piece to me discribes the feelings of a storm. A storm of emotional conflict and hopefully healing words to come. The regret that's often felt when one is harsh to a loved one. Thanks for sharing these notes for all to ponder. UNT
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Thanks. There is always the likelyhood of a good rain and seeds opening themselves to growth. We just must plant them and give thanks for the gifts we recieve.
Love, Tom B.
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I was impressed by this. There seems to be an underlying current, in which the poem is reaching out to rhyme, but you resist. The language is very rich, flowing, and emotional.
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Given the subject, should emotion not hold center stage. Given the length, I felt that a strong lyrical flow would help to pull them through. The hidden and slant rhymes are all part of the inner meaning/message of the poem. It is part of an effort to make people dig in a little farther then they had before. Does it work? I am hoping it does. Time will tell and reports from those bespelled.
Peace & Light,
Tom B.
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For some reason, no matter the decisions we make, if we keep faith brightly lit we can overcome. God provides an escape in the midst of troubled waters. He sends His angels as a measure of protection and even graces us with momentary common sense whenever needed.
I absolutely loved the last stanza, what a wrap up!
"Here is where we start: leave no embers
burn, find a way to compliment, most of all,
everyday find a thousand ways
to pour out and give thanks."
The best to you in the challenge!
Much Love ♥
Renee
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Thanks Renee. I learned when I was in pretty dire straits that ways unseen be become self-evident when I was in the midst of giving thanks. Answering fire with fire only guarantees a holocaust. I have learned to surrender in prayer and practice thanks. In this way I am the most open to the possibilities that God would lay before me and that in my ignorance and arrogance I would never allowed to show up.
Love, Tom B.
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There are no words to describe this masterpiece. Simply breath taking
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Thank you. i appreciate the vote of confidence.
love,
tom b.
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Sometimes the fight leaves us so drained we never see the good begin to happen again, you show here that you have found a way to move from the silence back into the light. C
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It is so easy to give up in the face of anger and the desert of pain created. I wanted to show that there is a path out. One that allows you to build your inner strength and then strengthen the relationship.
Love, Tom B.
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I will be back to comment further
BIG
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"Within ourselves each sere
path, leaves us to heal
wishing we had arms
left for an embrace
a touch of love."
being alone can help us heal although it is hard not to cave and want anothers comforting arms.
this is one struggle in man. to give your love freely and forgive. let the embers grow cold and learn to let live.
thanks for sharing.
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This took a lot out of me to write. I just know that too often the cost of a temper is higher that the value received.
Love, Tom B.
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Your poem compounds the hollow victory, the emptiness within knowing one is right but at what cost, what cosmic calamity to the soul that then stands alone?
This reminds me of a personal situation, someone I care about deeply cannot remember what I cannot forget, pleading the fifth is no excuse nor explanation, blaming someone not yet sworn in whilst exonnerating their own private policies which markedly differ to their public persona...
The red of rage is a carniverous animal, indeed we may say some things when the fires are lit that we would not ordinarily say and those times, those times when I forget the wise words of my Grandma, to never react in the heat of the moment but to wait 24 hours, they taught lessons when I forgot them...
Love...it's a word which is used often, loudly and proudly but it means different things to different people and there are so many levels of love...
Yes, let the little things go, let them sail the seven seas within the ebb and flow of life but no, don't dismiss those things close to your soul or you will be left feeling less than whole whilst you shore the tide that will surely turn again...
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I understand. I feel unable to say much more besides thankyou. Writing this poem for some reason took a lot out of me. Glad you enjoyed it. I use to do cost and value assessments with teenagers. What is gained by temper almost always cost too much.
Love, Tom B.
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