they come and go

Wonderful, Josh.  I love the sunflower analogy.  That is so Rupi to include nature in her personal and poetic evolution.
Well done and best of luck in the comp!

Thank you A. Yeah, your choice of comp title also gave me a lead. I can see why she's popular 'instagram-style' and articulating 'old' truths in a new way/context.

Very nice use of repetition, Josh. Good luck in the challenge!

Thank you Johnny; it was quite a different challenge from T.S Eliot - two very diverse styles.

I think the vulnerable, gentle feel and rhyme are so lovely. I am moved. I hope you do well in the comp Josh. Beautiful work.

I think you've got it there with the aspects of vulnerable and gentle. Rupi Kaur (who was new tome) seems to have a gentle way with words (perhaps that's one reason she's popular in a world that has become so brash and polemical). So I'm glad I managed to convey that.

Flexibility is key. I love the message in this, Josh

Thank you for visiting again Willow, You're spot on with 'flexibility' - now if only I wasn't such a stubborn Northerner  :))

I suspect your pains will go.  You're too fine a poet to succumb to them.

Nice to see you visiting again Crow and for your kind comment. Pains - "This too shall pass" - but I'm generally very fortunate and blessed in this life's journey.

Pains do come and go...lingering a little longer as we age. I live more and more by the this-too-shall-pass philosophy

Hello Gahddess, thank you for visiting. I've just written the this-too-shall-pass philosophy in the comment to Crow above. Coincidence. Looks like we're on the same page here. Best regards, Josh.

Indeed we are on the same page...by and by is another.

Ah the eternal recurrence...what has been will come again and again...so amor fati...amor fati. Great ink Josh.
Cheers...Harry

Thank you Harry. Round and round the spiral we go, meeting the 'same' things but hopefully dealing with them with that little bit of added wisdom over the previous time   :))

Dear J,

Lovely write. I’ve been reading this over and over, last stanza especially. Life is full of these phases as you eloquently put it, exhausting phases sometimes but the good ones minimize the not so good ones. Good luck in the comp. H🌷

Honoria, thank you for visiting again - and for the RL. I was taking my cue from Rupi Kaur of course, trying to get her poetic style 'under my skin' and it's amazing sometimes if you blitz-read another poet how one picks up their vibe yet manage to make something of one's own from it all. Best wishes, Josh.

You have captured the fleeting nature of life. Everything comes and goes. Nothing stays to last forever. A wonderful spill Josh. Best of luck in the comp.

Hello Summer. Nice of you to pop this way again. Glad you enjoyed the write. Perhaps the fleetingness of life becomes is felt more strongly as one gets older and there's still so much one would like to do at the very time one is slowing up  :))

Thank you rose for the visit and comment. I guess we have to repeat old truisms to ourselves in order to hammer it home ... eventually   :))

Its the very basics of life
all know
a minuscule register
rupi has
so have you
josh

Thank you, Again, for the visit and kind comment, and RL. Rupi has a way of gently articulating old truths, so it seems, to a new generation - and that's a good thing in my book.

each one has  a share of success
and as time passes so does it
FAILURE alone is the stepping stone
to the next success

all d best Josh

That first stanza speaks like a young person in an older person's view (and/or vice versa), perhaps speaking of Rupi's youth and wisdom. But the repetition really brings it a nice balance.
Good luck in the comp.

Thank you for commenting Wally. You're spot on. So here was I listening to someone 10 years younger than my own children, wildly successful, and who posts poems on instagram and who has a neat and gentle way of re-articulating 'old truths' for a new generation. And for the comp I'm tasked to emulate her in my own words. It was an interesting exercise, that's or sure. But I'm glad the final result came over o.k.   :))

I love sunflowers with their individuality, they are so much like people. This is a nicely written poem and does have a softness, I'd like to read the poems this was inspired by :)

Hello PR. Thank you for visiting on my timeline again. Glad you liked it and I managed to capture some of the softness which Kaur seems to naturally have in her poems.
I have now added a link in the "Author's Note" to where my inspiration came from for the Rupi Kaur poem.