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The Struggle

Why do we struggle to be who we are?
Our true face to show, I see you and you see me
Beneath the mask, filtered for your acceptance
Lies the truth upon which I base all my lies
You are you and I am I
Why do I struggle to be who I am?
Is it some traumatic even from my past
Perhaps some hidden desire to be the you
Who was pleased with me
It should not be so hard to be who I already am
Yet I struggle more with that than living in the mask

This was a prompt from BattleBorn This week’s #BornBattleReady prompt word is: STRUGGLE.

A pot of stew with the title A Taste of Stew written over it.

A Taste of Stew
A collection of poems from seductive and spicy to thoughtful and observant. 39 poems from the AuthorStew blog and scattered across the Internet gathered in this collection. We’re sure there is something within this collection to delight you. Read A Taste of Stew and see what you’re missing.

Quite Absurd

It seems quite absurd the rain falling down
Instead of needing the sun to be out
Inspiring rainbows to come around
Insisting that the colors come about

Taming lions and bears
Taking ruby colored shoes
The sun will come out shares
Tuscan red headed orphan blues

Aim for the sky and you’ll hit the stars
Ask the questions why and you’ll answer them all
Another astronaut in a rocketship on their way to mars
Arriving in the spring and leaving by the fall

It seems quite absurd searching for a rainbow
Instead of standing in the rain
Inspired by a pot of gold’s glow
Insisting that we do it all again

This was a prompt from dVerse to write a Trolaan poem.

Trolaan, created by Valerie Peterson Brown, is a poem consisting of 4 quatrains. Each quatrain begins with the same letter. The rhyme scheme is abab for each quatrain.

Starting with the second stanza you use the second letter of the first line of the first stanza to write the second each line beginning with that letter.

On the third stanza you will use the second letter on the first line of the second stanza and write the third each line beginning with that letter.

On the fourth stanza you will use the second letter on the first line of the third stanza and write the fourth each line beginning with that letter. Source

Hope you enjoyed! 😊🌈

How It Ends

This is how it ends, nothing like how it began
Time has turned the page, 
The sage left with nothing to say
I walk away, crossing a border
An artificial line across a very real divide
Never to turn back and see your eyes looking my way

It began rough but smooth seas calmed our waves
Blessed with bounteous apathy
We looked within 
Fun mirrors, 
Distorted images of the world outside
Called us beautiful
Star spangled, blinded by the light, we walked
Into the stormy sea
Drowned in our iniquity 

What happened?
Orange and red hues blinded us
Our lack of luxuries 
Caused us to grasp at straws
Build our house on a strawman’s lies
We cried fake tears when he blew it down
Sharpened our knives
Ready to cut ourselves, a new deal.

Now we stand
I’m not standing for that
Ten toes down
Down and out
At a bridge we can’t cross
Bridges burned in the night
On opposite sides of the river
Right
Left
Wrong
Walking away
In opposite directions

See you on the other side.

Submitting this for open link night at dVerse and the anthology.

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Hunting Sinners

“Jenkins Band/Orphan Band (Harlem)” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.


The evening quiet as a mouse praying in a church
I slip into the night 
The wings of the bat its latest meal in search
Whisper to me dark tidings
My heart will jump and give a lurch
As we hunt sinners this evening

This is a poem from a prompt from dVerse: “Today we are finding different ways of being quiet at the Poets Pub, so make sure your 44-word poem contains some form of the word quiet.“

I’m not a horror movie person so I’ve not seen the movie Sinners but I’ve heard plenty about it. I thought quiet worked well with it. Hope you enjoy.

The Place We Have Come To


So we have arrived
A estas alturas
And have come of age
A estas alturas
At this place and time
A estas alturas
To this single space

Was it by His hand?
¿Divina providencia?
Or perhaps fate?
No. Divina providencia.
That guided us to this land;
God’s country.
Divina providencia. 

How was I to know?
Un inocente
She shouldn’t have been there
Un inocente
It’s not my fault I swear
Un inocente
She’ll get better
Un inocente

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury
We have come to this place
To hand down judgement
Innocent or guilty

Divina providencia, un inocente
A estas altura o
Para siempre

This was from a dVerse prompt: Use one (or more) of the italicized Spanish words from the Cisneros poem above and incorporate it into your own original poem. I chose to use the words/phrases a estas altura, divina providencia and un inocente. I hope you enjoyed!

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Pope Goes the Weasel – A Trumped Up Views story

A view of The Vatican with a blue sky with white clouds

Pope Goes the Weasel is another story in the Trumped Up View series that takes a look at an alternate reality that closely mirrors our own. This mini fiction is about a pair of men who discuss if the President would make a good pope.

Adult language. Safe For Work (SFW).

Read all the Trumped Up Views story on my stories page.

ORGASMS

Orgasms
Hot, fiery explosions of pent up 
Energy
Let loose in one single moment
Maybe drawn out
Maybe no
But that single spark
That instant
When everything is 
Released
That!
I want that.
But not just a physical orgasm
No
I want to a release of the mind

An intellectual orgasm
Blow my mind, let it leak
Dripping off my tongue with articulated interpretation
Precipitous sentiments of cerebral provocation 
My mind goes blank, a mental release
This orgasm of the mind
Milk my thoughts through scintillating conversation
Let my thoughts explode
Until I reach nirvana 

Give me an orgasm of the soul
Let our spirits speak, soul to soul
The universe that beats in your chest
Synchronous with mine
Our ancestors speak, our angels cry, our demons devise
Spiritual semen drips into our third eye
Impregnating our conscious with passionate visions
On a plane beyond

I want to come with you
Wherever you go
I want to be there too
I want to be your flow
I want to come together
To create a one from two
Birds of a feather
Me and you

Come
Let us
Share an orgasm

A Taste of Stew
A collection of poems from seductive and spicy to thoughtful and observant. 30 poems from the AuthorStew blog and scattered across the Internet gathered together in this chapbook collection. Something for everyone and every mood. We’re sure there is something within this collection to delight you.

Buy it here!

Crushed Seduction (Alliterisen)

Two threats, open love letter
Wet my whistle the story’s steamy
Clear cut quaint question asked
“Who will be my last love?” you ask.
I answer in art
As is my way with meaning
It is I you yearn to love

Don’t dream about me at night
In wondrous fits of flight
Don’t you undress me in dreams
Ripping apart satin seams
Looking to loose my buttons
I know how this story ends
I will not be led into such a nightmare

Shall I be spurned, belittled
Written off without one touch of skin
How the hell did love die
Before care could even begin 
I cry ice cold tears
My heart hurts, no medicine
Can save my crushed seduction

This was a prompt from dVerse. See it below:

For today’s MTB prompt our poetry follows the style of The Alliterisen, created by Udit Bhatia. It is a 7-line poem (septet) containing a set number of alliterations per line and adhering to a specific syllable structure.

Alliterisen poems can be either complex or rhyming. Choose either one.

Poetry formulae for Complex Alliterisen:-

a 7 line poem
2 alliterations on every line
choose a syllabic count of 7 or more thus:
1st line- x syllables [e.g. 7]
2nd line- x+2 syllables [e.g. 9]
3rd line- x-1 syllables [e.g. 6]
4th line- (x+2)-1 syllables [e.g. 8]
5th line- x-2 syllables [e.g. 5]
6th line- (x+2)-2 syllables [e.g. 7]
7th line- x syllables [e.g. 7]

Poetry formulae for Rhyming Alliterisen;

a 7 line poem
1 alliteration in every line
7 syllables per line
rhyme scheme as follows: aabbccd

I chose both the 1st and 3rd follow the Complex Alliterisen while the 2nd stanza is a Rhyming Alliterisen. I hope you enjoy!

Why Fight Fate?

We give our love to the fates
Our lives we give over to destiny
I choose not in this flight of fantasy
Let the wind choose the dates
In which our eyes lock rusted upon some iron gate
Logic looks down upon us frowning jealously 
We dance to the hidden strings of time if only temporarily
Who are we if not puppets to stars that choose our mate
I lay in the arms of she who chose me
She who took a hold of her own actions
Defiant of stars and Greek sisters three
Determined to fight destiny’s factions
Stand until the end or with my heart flee
Fate will have to wait for our love’s attraction.

This was from a prompt on dVerse. The prompt: I want you to write a poem about fate. How you interpret it, is up to you. I hope you enjoy!

Singapore Nudels – A Trumped Up View story

Singapore Nudels, another story in the Trumped Up View series that takes a look at an alternate reality that closely mirrors our own. This mini fiction is about a pair of presidential followers and their reaction to the news that Singapore is preparing for war.

One is highly anti-Semitic, the other is a transphobe and homophobe. They have a disagreement. Take a look at Singapore Nudels. CW at the beginning. A sfw story.

Find this and more stories SFW and NSFW on my Stories Page.