LONELINESS

This competition is about loneliness.  We have all experienced it in some context.  Write a poem about your experience or perhaps use a friend's experience.....you have a poetic license!

- 3 poems maximum, old or new
- any genre
- any length

I will be happy to clarify any points...just ask!

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Loneliness appears to have intensified in every society in the world as modernization occurs. A certain amount of this loneliness appears to be related to greater migration, smaller household sizes, a larger degree of media consumption (all of which, it should be noted, have positive sides as well in the form of more opportunities, more choice in family size, and better access to information). For more on these subjects, see the social capital entry.
Within developed nations, loneliness has shown the largest increases among two groups: seniors[16][17] and people living in low-density suburbs.[18][19] Seniors living in suburban areas are particularly vulnerable, for as they lose the ability to drive they often become "stranded" and find it difficult to maintain interpersonal relationships.[20]
Americans seem to report more loneliness than any other country, though this finding may simply be an effect of greater research volume. A 2006 study in the American Sociological Review found that Americans on average had only two close friends in which to confide, which was down from an average of three in 1985. The percentage of people who noted having no such confidant rose from 10% to almost 25%, and an additional 19% said they had only a single confidant, often their spouse, thus raising the risk of serious loneliness if the relationship ended.[21] The modern office environment has been demonstrated to give rise to loneliness. This can be especially prevalent in individuals prone to social isolation who can interpret the business focus of co-workers for a deliberate ignoring of needs.[22]
Whether a correlation exists between Internet usage and loneliness is a subject of controversy, with some findings showing that Internet users are lonelier[23] and others showing that lonely people who use the Internet to keep in touch with loved ones (especially seniors) report less loneliness, but that those trying to make friends online became lonelier.[24] On the other hand, studies in 2002[25] and 2010[26] found that "Internet use was found to decrease loneliness and depression significantly, while perceived social support and self-esteem increased significantly" and that the Internet "has an enabling and empowering role in people's lives, by increasing their sense of freedom and control, which has a positive impact on well-being or happiness."

Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant feeling in which a person feels a strong sense of emptiness and solitude. The causes of loneliness are varied, but it can be affected by social, mental, emotional, and spiritual factors. It is a natural phenomenon, since humans are social creatures by nature.[1] Loneliness has also been described as social pain — a psychological mechanism meant to alert an individual of isolation and motivate him/her to seek social connections.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loneliness

I AM SO LONELY

Dark and dreary days of December make my life hell, I remember, the days of summer with their glory, telling me a different story, with pale rays of sparkling sun, my mood is lifted, all around the heat rises, percolating my muse who is caribbean born and bred, by warm tidal waves is fed, a muse so handsome he must be the son of Poisidon, King of the Sea, with black and gold specks in his eyes, he draws me out to where ideas lie, I give in to him, my muse of water, caressing me and holding me close, the whole universe becomes a chorus of sighs which then split up and become thousands more, holographic memory to store, macro and major poetical sentences, ready to group into form and grow, while my sea living lover brings me higher and higher, he is Apollo, I now know....in the flesh and in the fire....not extinguished by watery desire, I want to run and stay with him, but he and I are not earthly kin, he is a god of sea and beauty while I must return to my poetic duty.....

Alone,
What a word,
Lonely,
Just gets worse,
Can you fix it?
Probably not,
Can you fix me?
Not a chance,
When alone,
At least you can dance,
And no one is watching,
For real,
When lonely,
At least you're not heartbroken,
Like so many other chicks,
So let's plaster on a smile,
And find someone just as lonely,
To spend time talking a while,
About the loneliness,
But instead of one thinker,
There's two.

Thank you - Queen of Despair for going first!

somelikeithot said:Thank you - Queen of Despair for going first!

:D no problem.

Here's one I wrote when Uley was *in-country* (He is a medic. He was doing a tour in Iraq.)

When He, and The Tulips Return -

She rarely swells uncovered. As if a tree
froths of blades are worn to glisten.
Then stripped limbs appear nothing more
than breakers of bones when wind is frigid.

Nerves snap, like icicles off of edgings.
The first tickle of snow-sight
brighter than any October morning
she does not mind.

Because she shimmers in Autumn for him -
full of color, and cut. It is a brisk beauty
crisp, ready to crumple up under his accumulations.
Then barren spotlights blow out

florescent freezing white, petrifying
her dead-day bones. Slaps of cold
bare bottom her and all she wants
is to shut up for the winter.

To catch her... in that time of falling
before she becomes a bract of frozen need
requires a cupped hand close by
to press upon exposed branches
shedding it all away.

Eyelids blanket the day, and dreams spring.
A good season, the reason for hibernation.
She will wake up, she promises
when he, and the tulips return.

Maggie...thank you for competing....

Written while my husband and I were separated.

Neurotica

there is a forgotten space
where wanderlust hands have abandoned
and time is frozen in collision
with memories seeking context-
 
aftershocks of your breath
echo across barren shoulders
exhaling phantoms of jubilant whispers
that leave goose-bump headstones in their wake
 
I secretly savor
the imprint of your nape nip
from staking your claim
to my surrender, so long ago
 
now we just mime the motions
of the emotionless
letting mechanics maintain course
for the sake of monogamous marionettes
 
I want to be made whole
not just filled
Venus wept

im
sitting in
my
room with a bullet in
my
hand
waiting for
my gun so
i
can float away.

Bare bones

All I have is the bare bones of a life
the rest was ditched
back when it was cool to be cold
and I'd easily have sold two heartbeats
for a bucketful of lady's tears

It's never easy waking up
especially after years of slumber
to find the cold can no longer supress
the need, that overwhelming need
to talk , to touch, to kiss

The brave man
would stand bold upon a plinth
throw out his arms
and lay bare his heart for her
the one, that magical force that brought warmth
to an otherwise frozen  crusted shell

and he'd tell her all of the things
that need saying
before the right time passes by
so she'd be left without any doubt
about the purity of his intentions

All I have is the bare bones of a life
that much is still true
'cept lately  I've been wanting so much more
than a self imposed solitude

A thousand wishes scatter like autumn leaves
Drifting away in unison,  floating on nostalgic sighs  
With a thousand regrets even the wind grieves
Thinking back on all the how's and why's
The wind and I, we're cut from the same cloth, but what are we to you, the wind and I?
Just a whisper in your ear, or a soundtrack for your fear?
Just once we'd like to join
I called for you, didn't you hear?
It must have been the wind again, we don't get on the wind and I
And I'll always wonder why

“Forever Teardrop or Two”
http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/images/uploads/poemimages/82444.jpg
With bloodshot crying eyes,
I perpetually think of you.
I’ve romanced you with
endless loving verses and rhyme,
seduced you a million times
inside my aching mind.
My endless daily nocturnal
emissions have taken me
beyond my wildest dreams.
Yet, I scream inside
my breaking heart filled
with sheer loneliness,
stutter to find kisses,
utter words senselessly,
I’ve done myself in.
Think I’ll get that
teardrop inked on
my sad face today.
Maybe, I’ll get two,
I’ve earned them.

they say there's lots of fish in the sea
well, they all seem to hate me
loneliness is my only friend
a friendship I doubt will ever end


The songs I lure from my guitar
they all seem so sad and far
the world seems to be having fun
unaware as I come undone

my life is dark, it's cold and stark
what's non existent still leaves a mark
easily a blade piercing through my sadness
loneliness comes like a raging madness

well fuck this, no-one seems to care
my sanity's hanging by a hair
Its forlorn grip won't let me be
I hate loneliness but it loves me

I hate loneliness, but it loves me.

I'm lonely, always in silence    
Alone with no one to hear my screams      
Dead in my mind and totally blind      
Fear arises and takes control      
Crying, blood rolling down my cheek      
     
Alone and cold to the bone      
Sitting on her throne      
She opened her eyes      
and relized just how empty her space      
She was alone and prone to nonexistent place      
Utterly sad and crying, tears running down      
her pale expresionless face      
Blood runs from my dark and lonely heart      
I've been alone and apart from the world      
for so long listening to her broken hearted song      
Over thinking      
Tired of waiting      
Crying inside      
Dead on the outside      
Trapped on the inside      
Falling apart      
Tired of being used utterly confused      
I'm completely imperfect      
This loneliness a feeling you'll never escape      
Destined to walk my journey all by myself      
Draped in blacked cape      
Crownded with thorns      
Blood stained soul      
Destined to dwell in the sewers of hell  
The devil has won his crown      
I drown in pain until her dying day      
Down on bended knee to pray      
It will be today her end of time is near she has no fear  
She lost her soul long ago

So, that was that and It was what it was;
A brief scenario of merry-making and scuzz
The first in a while and the last of the season;
why and because I don't have a reason

To feel as if I'm being or at least acknowledged
I am what I am and I am of that full fledged
Surely not on record or I'd gain a new memory;
Since that's all I've known for a relative eternity

Isolated from life - Yet I still feel effrontery
I've been pleased for so long by a cheerless dreary
This hermetic dis-order is all I can cherish with avarice;
Even though my desire leads to a different device

I've met with so many whom I now only know in lore;
And their faces are gone at the dawn of thy first score!
How many can I lose until I'm completely empty;
Of how I became adorned with this fictitious personality?

And, If I were to misplace that - I might become nothing
A passionless solitarion like a fish with no feeling
How can I be satisfied by loneliness when I'm so ashamed?
How do I stay dreaming even as I'm being blamed?

I do suppose this repression is just my anxious defence;
A troublesome flight mechanism worth every pence
If being paranoid is a sheer sign of being delirious;
then how real is the figure lurking in my conscious?