Then Everything Changed

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed …”

Air
It was always there
I breathed it in
Even to the depths of the ocean
It filled my lungs
In my darkest despair
Always there
For 100 years or more
I needed nothing more

The change in me was like water flowing from the sea.
The river flowed like blood in veins
Bleeding me dry.
Dry ice, frozen in time, 
Would I be yours?
Who are you to me?
Friends to lovers?
How could it be?

Blind to the trees and their colored leaves
Solid foundation of dirty deeds
I’ll move mountains to do as I please
I can’t see how you can’t see me
Too little, too loud
Too much to be hidden in a crowd
I will bend the minerals from the ground
Bind them to myself 
Too strong, too proud

The fire grows higher when released from the flame
Take my anger, take my pain
See the burning in my eyes
Feel the heat from my divide
I walk not in the ways of my fatherland
I am an inferno, sparked from lightning among the trees
Douse me not with water
It only excites me

Everything changed
When the elements were set free
Combined together
Complete with me
I hold them
Fire, Air, Water & Ground
When I release them
Oh what Hell there is to pay
When at Heaven’s gate we play

This is a poem inspired by a prompt that asked us to take one of the four elements and explore it. You can read that poem From The Dirt here: https://theauthorstew.wordpress.com/2025/02/25/from-the-dirt/

The prompt originally made me think of the opening of Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. I had also been seeing a lot of posts on my Twitter feed about ATLA (I clicked on ONE post about Kora vs Ang and whoosh sucked into a rabbit hole and The Algorithm thinks ATLA is my life now. lol).

So of course I had to do a poem about it and share it with you all. So here it is. Enjoy!

From The Dirt

Image by saftladen from Pixabay
Got here from the dirt
You mean the mud?
No, mud had water
We had none.
Salt of the earth
Cause our fields were salted
Killing crops, growing on nothin’.
Hard packed soil
Made into clay
Building walls to make us stay.
Going down by the river Jordan?
Nah, we keep our feet in the soil
Touching grass
Cause we working off our ass
Reach up to the sky
Kiss your wishes goodbye
Stay here on the ground
where you can see the horizon
The same fields you run in
Is the same fields, in the end, you’ll lie in.

This is from a dVerse prompt: Your challenge is to choose one of the basic four elements [earth, water, fire, air] and explore it.

Obviously, I chose earth. One, because I think it is one of the more overlooked elements in poetry and second because I had sort of a gritty (no pun intended) vibe to my muse. I hope you enjoyed!

Feel free to check out a second poem I did with what first popped into my head when I saw the prompt. It has to do with an animated show and if you’re a fan of the show I’m sure you know which one. 😁 Read the poem: Then Everything Changed here.

Shades

Prophet by: Emil Nolde
Shades
       Black and white
Why hast thou forsaken me?

  No color
The rainbow does not fill the page
     All the discourse seems black and white
Where are the shades?
       Nuance paints within the greys

Stark lines
 No curves or bends
Inorganic
  Artificial
Not like the tides or the waves
 It makes me sad
Like Jesus within the garden
 He wept

Shades
Black and white
No color
The rainbow does not fill the page
Stark Lines
No curves or bends

Just a touch of sadness
        With a bit of 
  shades

This was a very interesting prompt by dVerse. I recommend you click the link and read through it. To summarize the prompt was to write a poem about one of the pictures contained within the prompt. After writing the poem go to the second part. The interesting kicker is the second part. The paintings are by Emil Nolde a German artist of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Who rose to fame after WWII by proclaiming himself as being oppressed by the Nazis when in fact it was later discovered he was an ardent supporter of the Nazis. He was basically a oafish, belligerent, who took any position that would get himself the most gain.

The prompt then asked: Are the colors and feelings the same? Does the artwork have a new story? And, finally, are we separate from what we create?

For me I find the colors and artwork the same and the words of the poem I wrote remain the same but the meaning switches. I find it very interesting how the poem fits what I learned about the artist and the feelings they create. The story is not new per se but the overlay of the story changed. Now instead of being a general application it became specific to the artist; yet I can step back and see the original overlay of this being about any person or a general sense as well.

For me, the art is separate from the artist, in that, without knowing the artist or the artist’s story, the art is still there and still speaks. Yet the artist is also intrinsically part of the art, in that, the art is an expression of something within the artist, personal or otherwise. That expression is unique to the artist. Who the artist is is within their art.

I hope you enjoyed the poem! ☺

Consummation Consumption Compulsion

Photo by Diane Helentjaris on Unsplash Edited by: Me
Like lust I want to consume your body
A junkie for the taste of your skin
Fill my mouth, my senses overwhelm 
I want you like a drowning man wants air
I wake, not from a dream of you,
But to manifest my dreams with you upon reality.
I will eat you, messily, greedily, completely 
Wiping your juice from my chin
Sucking my fingers dry, diving in again
Dripping in my hunger, salivating with desire
Let me lick my lips, clear this drool
For I am your fool, drunk on hard liquor.

Seduced by Seduction: 40 poems about seduction

What are people saying?
“This collection of sensual poems will leave you wanting more.”
“shows us the words to seduce our partner without ever touching”

A collection of seductive poetry with rich imagery and erotic tones. What will you be say after you read it?

https://amazon.com/dp/B08WK51RR6

Comic Book Sans

Zing! Bang! Boom!

Do that thing you do.

That supercalifragilistic, bombastic, pop ‘em in the lip shtick.

Batguy or superwhirl, spiderfan or wander female

I marvel at your decency 

Better you, couldn’t be me.

With power comes responsibility

All it takes is one day.

A dVerse Quadrille with zing. The prompt: Just pen us a poem of precisely 44 words, not counting the title, and using some form of the word zing. 

I hope you enjoy!

My One Desired

Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash


The hint of her arousal sets my desire aflame
I can taste her already on my lips
My mouth waters at the thought of her damp
Dripping slowly, drop and drip upon my tongue
Licking up, around, once again and down
Gather juices to swallow and become drunk.
Let me in my drunken state become one with her
Our bodies swaying back and forth 
Up and down like the tides
Or the crowd at 2am on Bourbon Street
Moving in syncopated staccato 

I am only sated by her fluids
Bathe me in her anointed oils
Shower me in shallow satisfactions
I swim in her swallowed secretions
Breathing in sweet scented air
Open wide, grinding sensations
Her moans, symphony sounding in my ears
Screams in consonant harmony
As we reach the summit of pleasure 
Sweet home Savannah 

You are my destination
My deity destiny
You are where I want to be 
With whom I wish
Come away with me
Let us go home
My one 
Desired

Like what you’ve read? Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out!

A Hint of Longing

Combined by me using photos by David Brooke & Jocelyn Morales from Unsplash
The hint of jasmine a memory of you
Rolling through my senses
Thunder after the rain
Vanilla wafts with the breeze
Combined make melancholy of memories
Betrayed by scents, my sense left, since you left
A hint of longing 
I lay upon your doorstep

A Quadrille prompt from dVerse. Write a 44 word poem with the word hint in it. I hope you enjoy.

I Know Not But You

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko: from Pexels Graphics added by Me
I know not the stars for they hang too high within the sky,
Yet I know your eyes
The depths of the ocean I have not traversed
Yet I feel depth of my longing for you
The heat of July’s dessert’s sun has not burned itself upon my skin
But I’ve felt the heat between us dance upon my body

I cannot decipher the song the birds sing
I can only whisper sweet words in your ear
I cannot open the clouds of heaven and bring forth the rain
But I can drench your body with kisses

Not the ends of the earth, nor the heights of heaven can separate our love. No emotion here in the present, no secret from our past, can destroy our future. 
We do not call upon the angels to bless us with their voices. We do not seek to exorcise all our demons in search of perfection. 
What we have, we have found, 
           within ourselves, 
belongs with none other 
     than between 
                    us two, 
  for none other fits 
that which we ourselves 
                   have found 
       in each other.

This is a post from a “Meet the Bar” prompt from dVerse. The prompt was to use negation within your poem. I hope you enjoy.

Finding The Face of God

The blazing sun stood in the sky like a sentinel; cold unfeeling, waiting for those under its gaze to die. 

“Why are we out in this heat?” whined Charley.

“We’re getting treasure,” replied Justin.

I shook my head. Charley loved to wine and dine the old ladies. That he would sweet talk them out of half their money didn’t seem to bother him or them more times than not. Justin, he was in it purely for the money. Whatever it would get him money he was in it. Me? This was my spiritual journey, mecca pilgrimage, path to nirvana. Where can we find light in this never-ending shade? We must travel out of our cave and into the light. Embrace the sun and let it burn away the dross that shades our eyes.

“I think I found something!”

We found the Face of God.

A prosery prompt from dVerse. Write a piece of prose, fiction or non-fiction, up to 144-words, using the given line – “where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” –From Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”. This is my prosery. Hope you enjoy!

I Own No Other Master / I Fly

Top: Photo by thom masat on Unsplash Bottom: Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy

I Own No Other Master

I own no other master
Noone else carries my heart
I kneel before no other master
My service is theirs alone
I hurt no other master
Tears of love fall upon their chest
I break no other master
Their dominance is my submission
I own no other master
For none other can master me.

I Fly

When I fall out of your arms
I fly
When I cry upon your shoulder
Eyes dry
I can reach the sky on my knees
Serving you
Chained to you I’m willfully held
Being true
Understanding in my blissful ignorance
Blithely content
Giving up all thought to your hands
Complete consent

I fly eyes dry
Serving you being true
Blithely content, complete consent

Read The Sex Cycle Collection.

Over 150 poems that explore the spectrum of sex, desire and relationships. It’s four books in one! Find poems that will excite, make you think, reminisce, hope, lament, seduce, satisfy and satiate. The Sex Cycle: Seduction, Fornication & the After. It all comes together in The Sex Cycle Collection.