"Dancing by an Abyss"—The Writing Impact Challenge

yahialababidi (68)in #writingimpact • 6 years ago

Dancing by an Abyss

Crowded, unanchored mind
without moorings, spiritually adrift
citing irreconcilable differences
as reason for the inamicable split
in your splintered personality

Inhabitant of a separate intensity
adherent of an inner imperative
practitioner of a sedentary lie—
buried between the covers
of book and bed

Invalid physician,
nursing recurrent daydreams
recounting tall tales
like Scheherazade
to save your life

Playing with words
your only playmates
but diligently,
using words
to lose words

To sustain the vision
for an eternal moment
to stir the reader
to poetry of feeling
excite finer centers
sound hidden, invisible depths

Having elevated the world
(and reduced it)
to Myth or Metaphor
dissonant music sequence
to echo your noisy silence

Escaping yourself in exasperation
returning with tremulous expectation
discovering yourself in everything
with wonder and terror, inextricable

Aligned with the bright intelligence of your blood
your position of authority rests in standing still,
perched on the precipice of an abyss,
in the indestructible and indescribable faith
that all this is mere apprenticeship
for the great promise: Homecoming.

(Image: Gamze Bozkaya, Unsplash)

This poem is my entry for @Rensoul17's Writing Impact Challenge

#poetry #writing #contest #ocd-resteem

6 years ago in #writingimpact by yahialababidi (68)

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raj808 (71) 6 years ago

Wow, for me this was such an acurate reflection of what it is to 'dance by an abyss'. The poem's journey is really something, through the realms of the uncomfortable dance at the edge

citing irreconcilable differences
as reason for the inamicable split
in your splintered personality

to awakening

to stir the reader
to poetry of feeling
excite finer centers
sound hidden, invisible depths

Having elevated the world
(and reduced it)
to Myth or Metaphor

and final realization

returning with tremulous expectation
discovering yourself in everything
with wonder and terror

This poem put a mirror up to an existential crisis that has loomed large in my life recently. I have read works of fiction and poetry that have caused such strong resonance before but not on steemit, until now. Great poem Yahia

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yahialababidi (68) 6 years ago

Your words mean a lot to me, Rowan. I believe a good reader reveals the poetry to the poet... Would you believe, I did not consciously see the progression you mention? As connoisseurs of the abyss, sometimes we stand too close to its gaping maw to make sense.

But what I did come away with from this poem was a sense of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat/madness and realizing, as I say to myself:

"your position of authority rests in standing still,
perched on the precipice of an abyss"

Here is an echo of sorts that gives me solace and, perhaps, will also resonate with you:

The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute.
The good news is, there's no ground. — Chögyam Trungpa

Peace, brother, @raj808 <3

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