Silence is a prayer
Slice the darkness --
‘til each piece settles
leaves upon a river
emptying.
Let the wind chase
itself between your fingers.
Be trees holding tornadoes.
Even the light
shimmers
tunnels --
tiptoes through leaves
to lay quietly upon the floor.
Telling me what is not
never tells me what it is.
All the winners end up on Boot Hill.
When I am empty,
the Lord writes me for a life.
I whittle each day down
or
I open myself up.
Time can etch emptiness with eternity.
I create and each moment as it flies
becomes an eternity I had back.
Living is only an opportunity.
I stand naked on my possibilities
knowing what I reach for
is exhibited in everyone who shares in it.
11:14 PM
Oct. 31, 2008
Alexandria, VA
Author notes
Get naked with me baby and we shall see what we shall see. Get really really naked and it will take all you have to be.
In a list
A contest entry
- Naked A Word Prompt by nevadapoet.
550 points, ended November 11, 2008, 12 entries
Honorable 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
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HM WOW. I stand naked on my possibilities
knowing what I reach for
is exhibited in everyone who shares in it.
Great take on the word Naked... A true gentleman
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Nude is one thing, naked another. I wanted to look at it from a naked spirit instead of a naked body. That is when we are really stripped down as human beings.
Love, Tom B.
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Grand finale!
"Living is only an opportunity.
I stand naked on my possibilities
knowing what I reach for
is exhibited in everyone who shares in it."
Very deep, very profound, and a happy conclusion to personal intraspection
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Excellent...great imagery for me to savor. Nicely done.
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I already got one I wrote on naked. So this time I wrote on baring the soul. If you are ever interested I will send you the link to the first one. Thanks for the HM. I figured the ones you choose would be the ones that won. I never argue with a judge. Still, some of us have to twist everything so it is different from where we had gone before. Thanks for re-intriguing me with a word I thought I had covered.
Love,
Tom B.
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Slice the darkness --
‘til each piece settles
leaves upon a river
emptying.
WOW.
That's all I can say.
WOW.
Jin
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You picked one of my favorite lines. There is a quality to darkness that is more than a mere abscense of light. i wanted show it as I stripped down to meet my maker.
Love, Tom B.
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Such a deep searching for the source of your soul - I felt you peeling through the layers. These lines in partucular were graphically tangible:
Let the wind chase
itself between your fingers.
Be trees holding tornadoes.
Even the light
shimmers
tunnels --
tiptoes through leaves
to lay quietly upon the floor.
Excellent journey into human nakedness.
. Rewarded 6
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Forest prevent tornadoes because they breakup the ability of the wind to organize itself into a coherent force. Ticky tack houses not only have no soul but become breeding grounds for destruction.
Who we are and what we are is more than an assemblage of parts, no matter how much bio-chemist argue for a more defined destiny and character.
Thanks for joining me, however briefly, on the journey. Some paths produce their own rewards.
Peace & Light,
Tom B.
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This is a new way to look at the word "naked" poetically. You have stripped this down to a real eye opening poem... no pun intended
I love that you really went all out on being creative with that one word that can be so over used.
I adore this poem...
my favorite part:
"I stand naked on my possibilities
knowing what I reach for
is exhibited in everyone who shares in it."
That part really spoke!
Mel
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We are, of course, the source of our beginnings and all too often the proof of never starting. In the end:"We stand naked before the Lord" It was one of my starting points. The other question that spiraled around in this stew of disembodiment is how we make an effective difference and so it to played a part in creating the bare seams of a soul to often ignored while we sugar coat the pleasures of our own device.
The lines you choose speaks clearly, I hope, to the idea of making a difference. Perhaps all we are capable of is making clear er how we are all one interconnected family of the same singular Being. Few are willing to stand in the hollow of their own emptiness and find out.
Glad you enjoyed.
Love, Tom B.
There are three before this one that dance with how I arrive at a final poem.
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my eyes are the heart of my soul
I seek all the beauty I can behold, as for laughter I've learned to love what I do and laugh much and often, others laugh with me.Thats the blessing. -
Acceptance through Surrender
Remember the negative we talked about. "Telling me what you do not want" I Gave Up sounds negative to me." Acceptance through Surrender" sounds more uplifting and spiritual.. Just my view,
You are the talented one here not me...I admire you.. -
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I chose "I gave up" just because it could be mis-interperted that way. To be naked in spirit is to be humble without proof.
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Ouestion? Dear Mr. Tom
Your title confuses me. What was it you gave up? -
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I did not give in, nor did I quit. Instead, I surrender all my barriers to stand naked in the Light. The most difficult lesson in spritual growth to me is acceptance through surrender. It is a winning path, but one that language makes difficult for us to see.
Love, Tom B.
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I like this I really don't get into free verse poems but you did this so well That it felt very whimsical like rhyme was not even necessary (which it wasn't). It is a very special poem and I enjoyed reading it. Thank you for using your points to feature it so I can read it!
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I look, in part, at free verse like jazz. You must create a feeling of structure that carries the reader to places unexpected. You must let them trust your language and imagery enough to set their imagination into your hands so you can open it to new vistas. Thank you for letting me touch you with my words.
Love,
Tom B.
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This was a great write; everything flowed together great and you had some amazing visual words that made me reread this quite a bit of times
To quote a friend of mine - "Nudity makes the world go round."
Lovely write, as always!!!
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Thanks, my friend. I just wanted to play with getting naked on the spiritual end. Glad you enjoyed.
Love,
Tom B.
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Absolute Genius work here Brother Tom....let your work speak for itself.....the best to you and your talent in this Contest,
....thank you for sharing,
Brother Bear ~
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Thanks my friend. This is the second poem I have written for a contest where the prompt is naked and they are "oh" so different. This is a different voice than I usually use, but for the presentation it seems appropriate.
Be well my friend,
Tom B.
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Beautiful work of poetry Tom! This is extrordinary from your pen. THANKS AGAIN! I am touched!!
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Thank you. We struggle and I, sometimes, seek to whittle it down to the barest of essentials.
Peace & Light,
Tom B.
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It's like... summer rain falling and taking away all of our inhibitions to bring about the rainbow...
Your words always hold such beauty.
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thank you for your blessing and benediction. So much more is caught with an open hand. So much passes us by when we try to hold onto any one thing. I am only learning what it means to be alive. It is a gift to have you by my side.
Love,
Tom B.
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"Silence is a prayer"
I'm not sure I've ever been in the silence the way you mean. I'm remembering times when I had to physically remove myself from the barrage of daily woes to a quieter place to listen and commune. Nature often helps, but that in itself is not enough to silence aggressive thoughts. How, indeed can Love fill us with all that it is if we harbor it's opposite or hold tenaciously only to what we can physically experience. What we are able to perceive is what we conceive, but not necessarily what actually IS.
So this makes me think of all that IS but is not. One intelligence knows, is, and can not be contained in counterfeit, which always, on this side of heaven, "king and pawn, end up back in the box." (loved that, Tom!) I think it was Richard Bach's Donald Shimoda, who said that this experience is always for one of two reasons: 1. Education; 2. Entertainment.
In that light where stillness prevails and darkness does not, we see light and are not hid. It knows its own expression, in radiant reflection. What can not stand the light can not live there...
You've got me thinking, Tom. Indeed the letter gleaned, but yet to know the Word -- "PEACE, be still."
Love, ~K
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I think it was Elijah, with his student with him, who went to the top of a high moutain and told the student not to seek God in the highest or the lowest places nor in the thunder of storms or the movement and quake of the earth; but, instead, you will find it in silence as a small, still voice within you. Excuse my bad biblical paraphrase. If we come back more than once and if we are not puppets of predetermined amusement is it not God who opens the door for us and writes us into this play. For I think God is neither morbid nor macbre but knows that being and aliveness are about experience and experience is gained by risk. God is not about safety.
Faith demands question. Not of one's faith, but to learn more about what one has faith in. Faith demands one be willing to live at risk, ready and available to experience God and follow the path he opens before you. The Bible is and opening not an instruction manual to all there is to know for the care and maintenance of God hood. God is not to be contained but to take us beyond the little world we have made of misery and joy and open us to the grander scale.
Your heart and soul takes you to the whispers of God's being he leaves in all of his creations. Listen.
Love,
Tom B.
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A Powerful Blessing
We must all dig deep for our true answers. Well written beautiful poem here. It is powerful to take pain and later sing about it. To give up to the fullness and radiance of the all knowing One is exceptional. He gives our inner and outer life harmony, as you so beautifully expressed here.
All things shall come to light and peace.
"Telling me what is not
never tells me what it is"
Are you searching for something specific in this line? Where is Boot Hill ?
Peace and Love to you...
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First thank you for the review. Remember we all stand before God naked.
The quote "Telling me what is not ..." is an adage of mine. You can tell me all things you don't want and I still do not know what you are looking for, tell me all the things you cannot do and I still do not know what you are able to do. We spend so much time in the negative that we forget it creates nothing and we become nothing but a resource of complaint.
Boot Hill is a term to describe where gunfighters and cowboys were buried "I want to die with my boots on." In the end weither you won or lost the gun fight you ended up in Boot Hill (the cemetary). To put it another way "When the game is over, both the king and the pawn are returned to the box."
Poetry demands an omniverous appetite for knowledge. Hope this helps.
Love, Tom B. -
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I WANT TO BE LOVED AGAIN
I hoped for God to hear my prayers,wanting to be welcomed and frogiven. -
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Practice being thankful for what you have been gifted with. Dance with the one who brung ya. Only then can you see the doorways to bring the hearts content to truth.
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As poets we bare our souls, love and inspirations..To stand naked before man is truly faith, for God knows our beings inch for inch....I love your point of view on opening our hearts and minds....You know tom if we all got naked eyes closed; what would we see when we listened to each other? This is what I felt reading your words...excellent food for thought and inspiational....novy
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I started playing with "naked" and immediately left sex behind. For it is to full of posture and pretense. I looked at "naked" and asked when do we truly feel naked and realized it is often when we are seen for what fools we are. I came slowly to this spiritual piece and started with darkness and silence. For they are often seen as only the abscence of something, nothing in their own right. Yet, God is "the small still voice within and divided darkness and light from one another.
When we take it all away, strip down to the center of our being, what is left? I hope my silly, simple poem led you closer to an answer.
Love,
Tom B. -
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Tom I see and feel your point...we can be fully dressed and be naked in the eyes of the world...I have been there before....I found it!
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Also, do we not, at times, long to have the one we love see us to our soul. It is hard to accept, in this life, we are truly alone. God knows. Writes us for each moment we are alive.
Love, Tom B.
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'I stand naked 'in' possibilities' not 'on'?
Silence to me has always been a prayer because prayer is personal, it really doesn't matter what others hear. C
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If I was "in" would I not be covered, by standing on them am I not rising above the turmoil of the everyday world. Becareful of being to literal when the world is often found between and echo of a simile and the whisper of a possible metaphor.
Love,
Tom B.
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When I am empty,
the Lord writes me for a life.
I whittle each day down
or
I open myself up.
May there always be something to fill you.
Juls
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From the moment of birth to the time of death we are but emptying ourselves of life. Shall we end a day empty or shall we end it filling filled? Often, it is attitude combined with choice. Thanks for holding me in the glow of your own joy.
Love, Tom B.
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Caught up in it
We have to die to our flesh daily...Job said I came into this world with nothing I shall go out with nothing, I loved the beginning Silence is prayer, like saying when we want to give up and nothing is left...When I am empty, the Lord writes me for a life...surrender anyhow and He stilll will show you your worth...and all and all we can't hide from others or ourselves...very to the point.
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The prompt was naked. I took it on as a spiritual vision. I found myself imaging each creation of God's being naked and came upon the only one clothed and too often obscured to his own sight, humans. The rest is this poem.
Love, Tom B.
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Very heartfelt and knowing words. I especially liked, " exhibited in everyone who shares in it."
May the light of our Lord and Father rain down on us always, thanks for sharing, UNT.
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There is a number of things that do not become real until shared. There are those things whose meaning depends on how are revealed between people. Most often these are the true gifts of God.
Love, Tom B.
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To open one self up, and be totally free, naked for all to see, the spirit that is deep inside of me.
Once blocked by all man had to say, and tell me what was right. Then to be given a chance to be set free, to float and drift upon the winds of life.
Laying naked for the hands of fate to mold me just the right way, is a wonderful thing to have happen.
Your words show that and so much more.
Riftkin
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We feel always visible, but never really seen. When people hear us they don't listen to what we mean.
I wanted this poem to speak to when we are trully naked.
Love, Tom B.
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This is a wonderful write and love the words you used in this. Great job and I wish you luck in the contest
I create and each moment as it flies
becomes an eternity I had back.
Living is only an opportunity.
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I started thinking about what it really means "to get naked" when all the barriers are dropped. I found myself thinking how darkness is not the abscence of light but all together something more. How some touches are forever memories and others forgotten before they are given.
Love,
Tom B.
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I can feel the intensity of your words and right now finding hard to leave a comment that is worthy of how this makes me feel.. It had me thinking of many things that this can relate to.
I loved the feel of this...
Good luck in the contest.
Love
Nor
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If the response arises as this sinks in and settles, once the ripples have disappeared, then I would love to hear what you find speaking to you.
Love, Tom B.
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