Poetry competition CLOSED 20th July 2016 6:01am
WINNER
OxyMoronicMe (G.L.)
View Profile Poems by OxyMoronicMe
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RUNNER-UP: LobodeSanPedro

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Regret

gazellemon
Bradley J
Fire of Insight
United States 6awards
Joined 6th Mar 2014
Forum Posts: 372

Poetry Contest

what is your biggest regret in life?
One submission per use.
New or old.
2 weeks.
No judgement zone!

do not view this competition as a confession, but the better you can express deep emotions the more likely you are to win!

MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 86awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5594

Please make sure you finalize your current two comps with winners when they end--your last two had to be sent to vote because they dropped onto the abandoned list. Thanks !

gazellemon
Bradley J
Fire of Insight
United States 6awards
Joined 6th Mar 2014
Forum Posts: 372

lol, guilty as charged. I'll pull thru this time :)

_shadoe_
yiyi
Tyrant of Words
54awards
Joined 25th Apr 2013
Forum Posts: 563

if you put a rag in the bottle, we'd be rebels ~

the world
is still round
though stones have
turned to sand
in the crush
[to dust
or something
of the sort]
long before
so very long ago
when one could
scent kairos
on the breeze ...
... tired bones
are still bones
& i pick them
clean
as i would
any other
[over it again
over again
& again]
falling
*
could i pull
another pin
& scorch the earth,
i'd stand in
your hellfire
burning
being born
blue skinned...
... all tales start
the same way
in
somebody's time

[still & always]
when we are
nothing
but trace
in the wake of
minute hand massacres
the world
will still be round
//

MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 86awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5594

gazellemon said:lol, guilty as charged. I'll pull thru this time :)

Thanks !

poet Anonymous

###

wishfulthinking
Lost Thinker
United States
Joined 8th July 2016
Forum Posts: 10

Spoken Into Existence

If I speak about it now will solve the past and create a better future?
Or will I waste my breath in this endless tango of lessers
How can I be certain that this time is different
That this time you care about my expression
That after I speak I will be saved?
Do you dare to listen deeper to each and every word I string together in a sentence ?
Or will you take me for face value and write me off?
Is any of this getting through or have I once again held it in.

Cira
Lost Thinker
United States
Joined 30th Oct 2012
Forum Posts: 3

An understatement,
The word regret.
If I could, I'd take back
The day that we met.

All of my plans,
All of my dreams,
You took them from me
And tore them at the seams.

The years I spent learning
To be happy with me
Where quickly erased.
And the floor was all I'd see.

The happy sight of us
Was only a facade.
You held it so steady
My throat pressed to the blade.

You took my innocences.
You took my smile.
The thought runs through my mind,
"Charges, why didn't I file."

Because you where the one to marry.
I was to me Mrs. Right.
Now the thing I regret
Is that I let you be my light.

gazellemon
Bradley J
Fire of Insight
United States 6awards
Joined 6th Mar 2014
Forum Posts: 372

Thanks everyone for the great start!

LobodeSanPedro
Tyrant of Words
Sierra Leone 109awards
Joined 16th Apr 2013
Forum Posts: 3304

Unspoken Words of a Son

Taught

Taught me how to dress
I love to wear bow ties and fedoras

Taught me how to love my daughters
Because I watched how you treated my sister

Taught me it's okay to be awkward in affairs of the heart
When you told me about your first

Taught me how to explore the world on less than a dollar
Museums are incredible vaults

Taught me to drive by sitting me in your lap while steering your two ton truck
Guiding my juvenile hands over the stick as we barreled through the city on your delivery route

Taught me to respect men of other tribes
Mr. Ginsberg your boss
Our neighbor Mr. Rodriguez
They were to be called sir, uncle or maybe even brotha to convey love and respect  

Took my sister and I to our first Broadway show  
Raisin in the Sun  
I learned the path men walk can be sweetly treacherous  

For every lesson learned  
I wanted a thousand more  
You taught me because you couldn't listen

* * *

Please ... Thank You

He was reading from the book his father had sent him ...  
 
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."  
 
Who was he to lecture me about what I'd done.  
 
He was the one in jail, hell I didn't even get caught  
 
not really  
 
I just got greedy and careless  
Leaving the new Matchbox cars and pink Spauldings I'd boosted from Woolworth where my mother could find them  
 
I was gonna sell it all at school on Monday ...  
 
but this was prison Sunday  
 
And my father's tired sallow eyes were begging his man child to take heed  
 
for the vernacular of the condemned was no different from those who walked in the sun  
 
He asked the guard "Please"  
to have permission for my baby sister and I to sit in his lap  
on the inmate side of the table  
 
but the privilege would not end with a simple "thank you" ...  
 
It meant daddy owed  
 
Owing meant breaking those who wouldn't heed the screws' rules  
 
And daddy was built for it, carved from Carolina oak  
 
I often thought he only scolded me because he thought I was soft  
 
a punk  
 
a pussy  
 
that wouldn't be able to handle  
 
the life  
 
I watched the deconstruction of his mind and soul many a Sunday  
 
not understanding he'd traded my rightful place so I might walk in innocence  
 
when he was home  
He'd beat my mother  
 
And I wished him dead  
Revoking his trade  
 
ending his agony  
And mine  
 
true to his word  
he let himself be taken  
in a hailstorm of fire in steel  
 
So I try to stay true to what he said  
On those Sundays sitting in his lap  
 
Always saying  
 
"Please" and  
"Thank You"  
 
while living  
 
A life  
 
not  
 
the life


... Thank you daddy


OxyMoronicMe
G.L.
Dangerous Mind
Philippines 24awards
Joined 15th Feb 2016
Forum Posts: 1470

Paved Path
(Walking Through It)

©All Rights Reserved

More than thirty years, I lived on this earth,
I thought of things that I have yet to experience.
As I mentally recall, pain gripped my heart,
A single tear falls, before my brown hazy eyes.
I have never received a single flower,
Let alone a bouquet, nor a basket full of it;
No one thought to give me, not even my boyfriends.
No one asked me for a date to watch a movie,
To eat in candle lit table or to walk in the park holding hands.

I have never received any candies or chocolates
No secret admirers sent me love letters,
As the list goes on, I stopped to think…
Romance never graced my home for three decades
I have never minded before, but today...
I crave the thought, of a hand to hold and a lips to kiss
And a heart to give me all of those things.
Just what have I been doing until now?

And the I remembered...

I was raised in a world of diverse lifestyle
One moment I was surrounded by people whose faith
Bordered on religious fanaticism,  Hardline christians and morally uptight
With set rules on how to live life -
Church on Sundays, grace before and after meals,
Angelus at Six in the evening...
Monotonous and habitual!

I doubted if it would really means salvation on the afterlife.

Another moment I was hoisted in a world of politics.
Where intrigues and dirty tricks shower my conscious mind
Where needy people comes in every color
Where politician's allegiance changes like a chameleon
Where good deeds and bad intentions sync in harmony
All in the name of public service.

I doubted if those Honorables even mean what they'd promised.

For a time I found myself on the opposite side...
Holding placards on the streets and  cursing the government,  
The superpowers, the capitalist, the imperialist!
Lamenting for the flight of the oppressed -
The farmers, the workers, the students, those who were already dead
And all those who suffer injustices at the hands of the authorities.
I even held arms, learned to shoot a gun and was ready to die for the cause I believed in.

But my family holds an important place in my heart...

I returned home for their own peace of mind
For a while, I was aimless and unsure where to belong
Carcinogen became my lover and liquor, my bestfriend.

My world stopped and became stagnant.

Fads, peer pressure, pure pleasure,  
Wanton abandon, indulgence, bored indifference...
Gin addiction, night life, men, money, controlled substance...
All of the above, I gave onto.
Pseudo smiles, bleeding inside
Reality check, I can't go into
Decisions made, hardened resolve
In front of a fourteen inch black and white T.V.
Drinking gin to numb the pain
A needle in a dynamo pierced my left arm with waves and curves
Black ink marked me for life
Reminding me of who I really am
And as the wound heals, so did I.

I walked away.

No, I run!
That's what I did to pick up myself...
And break free from the detour of the road to destruction.
Accepting the hands of those who was willing
To pull me up and to push me hard

And now, here I am in the mids of my life
My eyes bespectacled yet everything looks clearer
Cobwebs gone from my head, doubts took a sick leave
My heart repaired  and free of aches
My backpack is ready, less heavy, more complete
Baggage packed, I am travelling lightly
The time had come to swim on my own
To brave the current and weather the storms
Where I am going, the road has opened
No more fork roads, no more crossroads.
On my own two feet, I stood tall and proud...

I found the path at last!

I am who I am.
Became the me that I am,
Because of the things I've done.
In the past, my present stood..
In my present, the future hoped.
Remembering what had been...
Lighting the path of the rest of my travel.

Wherever I would go,
Whichever path I walk thru...
There would be no going back.
Only choice is to move forward
There'll be rough roads, humps and bumps
But my journey would never stop until the end of the line.

I'll move forward with pride knowing that all I was is all that I am.

I can do it!
I can make it!

I believe!
I accept!

My journey...
My deeds...

My life,
It counts.

Regrets?
I'll just keep it inside my heart.

Moving on…


UnderYourSpell
Twisted Dreamer
United Kingdom
Joined 21st June 2016
Forum Posts: 50

An American Sentence
Regrets, no babes,  didn't ride the Cresta run or learn the piano.

poet Anonymous

<< post removed >>
Grace
IDryad
Tyrant of Words
122awards
Joined 25th Aug 2011
Forum Posts: 16067

Regrets

If only
the past could be  be relived
the harshness smoother
the extra gesture done
the unsaid words spoken

I wish
I missed that phone call
I decided without counsel
I ignored the whispers
I walked away from it all

If only
I didn't pursue
I took a different route
I turned away
I didn't answer

If only...I wish.


Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

PRINTER ERROR PRINTED

The note you found, a mistake,
I didn't mean to write it,
but I did. feeling nothing,
no pain that I remember.

Sleep-walking with eyes open
and thoughts on hold while typing
the bloodied prints upon keys;
what color were they ever?

I hadn't planned you'd find this,
my lost faith in black and white,
lying ruptured and stillborn
in the sagging paper tray.

But no matter how I regret,
I know what I've done to you.
You're still in deep denial,
and how does that bring me back?

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