Tag: poems

Poem

The World in Words

AutumnB17

A poem by Autumn Brutyn

Escape with me
To a world of words
The realm of romanticized reality
Of seeing things you’ll never see
Sunkissed futures, starlit pasts
Moonbeam dreams and love that lasts
Blue gardens in a far off place
A time your presence will never grace
A honeyed, silver fantasy
An indulgence embellished fancifully
Buoyed beyond the earth and seas
Transcending, bright philosophies

A reverie
Your heart grows light and feathery 
Soar with me on the flip of pages
Let paragraphs pull you to spotlit stages

Reading is a siren in a billowing gown
Whose kisses won’t drag you down  
you dive in deeper 
and deeper 
but you’ll never drown 
The water is warm and knowledge-bound
She’ll lure you in with her sweet elixir 
A tale of lore with adventurous shimmer
A dash of “ancient,” “gold,” and “treasure”
The chapters gust by like a warm summer zephyr

You’re ensnared in her grip 
But the blood doesn’t drip; your life gets better with each reality slip
Of course, to “get away” is a curse and a gift
The honeydew daydreams could lead to a rift
Between what is real and what is not 
You’ll find yourself often in an in-between spot

Escape with me
To a world of words
The realm of romanticized reality
Of seeing how wonderful life can be

When you live in a land of stories
Poem

“American Fire” … a poem

AutumnB17 
When I stand before the flag above
With the beautiful anthem spilling love
The most perfect, imperfect majesty
Those stars and stripes call out to me

Sweet melodies flow into drums
Cymbals crash and tension thrums
Each boom and hiss is a squeeze on my shoulder
With the rise of each strain, I grow bolder, and bolder...

Hotter and colder!
Ice into fire
Pride on my skin, I begin to transpire

Heat and pepper
Triumph and glory
Musketballs, cannonshots, all things unholy

Heartbreak and heatstroke
Frostbite and spring
Our country hides away in each of these things

America is fire
America is war
America is glistening waves on the shore

America is hunger for riches and fame
America is courage, grit, and family names
I see her there, in the red and blue
And wonder if she sees me too...


As the anthem keeps chanting my blood runs hot
Dreams of shining seas and timber trees and hair tied up in pretty knots

Opportunity
Equality
The land that's spied by men at oar

Gold rush
River gush
The hope that lies on distant shores

Revolutions
Bold solutions
Reaching for the sky

America
Who never stops
Who will never cease to try...

She calls to me
Like a siren of lore

be brilliant!
be brave!
Be something more.

She calls to me
She screams for me

And this time
For the first time...

I answer.
Poem

Ancestors

AutumnB17 
It’s such a strange concept to ponder

Yet when my thoughts do wander

I often find myself thinking

Of the lives of those from yonder


Through time and space my mind does leap

Through valleys and mountains in an arcing sweep

And I think of my ancestors

Back in the past, through years so long and deep


I see through their eyes

I see what they have seen, I fantasize

That all these visions in my head

Aren’t just delusions that I actualize


Forests, endless, green and earthy

Loves and losses, their unique journey

I’ll never know if these visions hold any truth at all

How can I discover if my fantasies are seaworthy?


I lie awake, perturbed and restless

These endless qualms always leave me breathless

Because I will never know

And though my own time is so very precious,


I return time and time again, to them 

Those from which all of history will stem

Our ancestors, our past, our blood

And through all this mayhem


A truth emerges, a few things that are certain

Life is a grand stage in which we stand behind the curtain

And once it comes time to play our part

We play our role as we choose, putting our worth in


And those before us did exactly the same

They gazed at the moon through a slightly different frame

Watched our sun chart a course through the sky

And did all this under their own stage name


It’s such a strange concept to ponder

Yet when my thoughts do wander

I often find myself thinking

Of the lives of those from yonder


My ancestors

Your ancestors

Our ancestors
Poem

Tired

AutumnB17
Image from the NY Times
Tired never felt so real
My arms are made of lead and steel
I wake before the sun can rise
And fight off sleep with droopy eyes

Tired, that word doesn’t seem quite right
Exhausted lying awake at night
Grinning faces and cheery greetings
My mind slips as it suffers these beatings

Rest my head on stone and sigh
The world is singing a lullaby
Soft and sweet, an enticing dulcet
I strain not to listen, not just yet

At last the doors of home swing open
A single chance to put my hope in
That I could nap for just a minute
Glance through the window; the sky is sunlit

Regal cat and dopey dog
Dozing and dreaming like a log
My mind is so weighted, and yet
My thoughts spin in an endless roulette

Blissful sleep evades me once again
Twitter to the next task like a jittery wren
Clock ticks on and still I keep
This encroaching fatigue, ever to creep

Invade my spirit and dull my grin
Hold out hope that tonight I win
A precious hour without any toil
So my soul can rest from the heat of the broil

When the moon seizes the sky
And overhead constellations lie
I can listen to that lullaby I lust for
Drift ever closer to that deep, dark shore

Tired never felt so real
My arms are made of lead and steel
I woke before the sun could rise
Now I welcome sleep with grateful eyes
Poem

I never knew

AutumnB17 
I thought I’d seen so much
Until I saw it all

Used my youth as a crutch
So my ignorance would not fall

I never knew

I never knew

I never knew the world
In its endless, infinite sprawl.

Or 
So
 I 
thought...

I knew everything, deep down
Memories receded

I’d seen life and love and truth
In little moments, long retreated

I never knew the dawn

I never knew the night

I never knew the happiness 
Of watching stars fade into sunlight

But 
Now 
I 
Know…

Swimming beneath the velvety black
Dusk gives way to day

Glimmering, burning, glistening jewels
Fade in the sun’s first ray

I never knew the dark
I never knew the light

I never knew the sunrise
Until it made my follies die away

And 
I 
Could 
See…

Years are not what all men need
To triumph in wisdom and relish in life

For I am so young, and still
 I’ve seen my share of victory and strife

I collected little moments

I cached them in my thoughts

I knew all that I needed to know
An epiphany cut through me like a knife:

Daybreak
Dawn
Twilight
Night…

All joy and wisdom and meaning comes from 
These shared experiences
Of the human life
Beautiful galaxy viewed from Earth
Poem

I don’t know

AutumnB17
“We are what we believe we are.” -C.S Lewis
What is the meaning of life?
I don’t know.
Maybe happiness
Love
 Success
Charity
Giving and taking
Making something new
Watching ideas grow
Take shape
Transcend space 
and time
 and your own life...
I don’t know:
I’m much too young, aren’t I?

Why are we here?
I don’t know. 
Maybe for a purpose
Because life
 Evolved us into being
A higher power
A special role
A calling
A perfect passion designed for us
Another worker bee in a
Grand colony
Just to be 
and live 
and exist....
I don’t know:
I’m much too inexperienced, aren’t I?

Who are you to give advice?
I don’t know.
Maybe just a girl
Behind a computer
Typing the thoughts in her brain
Building worlds and characters into existence
Right there
On a little webpage
With a blinking cursor
Scrambling for inspiration
Wracking my brain
Make haste
and write
and build…
I don’t know:
I’m much too inarticulate, aren’t I?

What do these questions have in common?
I don’t know.
Maybe they’re special 
Because everyone
In the whole wide world
Has a different answer to each
A passion
A calling
A reason to be,
Live
and work
and breathe…
I don’t know:
I’m much too young for this, aren’t I?

What is the meaning of life?
Maybe mine is
To be happy
To be a writer
To make haste
To create 
To love and to hate
To exist in this cacophony 
and wait
and simply be…
I think so.

Why are we here?
Maybe I am here
To be an archaeologist
A microbiologist
An author
A soldier
A researcher
Historian
Zoologist
Astronomer
To find my passion 
and explore the world
and be fearless…
I think so.

Who am I to give advice?
…
I do know:
I am just a girl.
A speck in the infinite river of time
One bright star in a never-ending sky
An author
A poet
A musician
I give my two cents on life
and live
and laugh, because...
I do know something.
I know myself.

I’m a girl
A speck
A star in a beautiful,
gem-studded sky
I’m unique
and wonderful
and meant for great things...
I know so.
Beautiful river flowing through a forest.
Poem

River of Life

AutumnB17
Image from American Rivers

The only infinity on this Earth is the infinity of the questions without answers.”

-Autumn Brutyn

The River of Life

A poem by Autumn Brutyn

Sitting on the shore of the endless sea
A question came on the wind to me 

A question so rhetorical, so subjective, so sweet,
A question without an answer, forever incomplete

Impossible to answer, yet it lingered on my thoughts:

What can encompass life?
Life, so complex, so filled with strife!

A frog on the banks of a never-ending stream?
One speck of dust in the golden sunbeam?

No, not that, that’s not right.

Because what of the endlessly multiplying people?
Billions and billions, like rust spots on a steeple

The infinite wisdom in a dragonfly’s eye?
Each meaningless fleck of dirt in a rancid pigsty?

No, not that, that’s not right.

Because what of the young ones, the old, the bold?
Each spirit, so unique, with hearts warm and cold…

Can nothing emulate it, that tumultuous diversity?
The way the Earth rumbles and shakes, all topsity-turvety? 

Maybe, maybe not, but one thing comes close.

Because time will never cease to fly,
I thought, just like the river chugging by

The river, with its millions of glistening bubbles
Bobbing and weaving, like children, no troubles

The river, highway to the sea, comes close

Because it ebbs and flows, angry before it calms,
Has droughts and floods and never-ending qualms

Pebbles shift and change, silt travels downstream
Just like humanity, restless in their dream

That river, roiling and bubbling, comes close

Because...

Life is imperfect

Life is diverse

Troubled

Beautiful

Never a curse

Life is drowning

Life is sweet

Hopeful

Dismal

Take it from me:

There never has been, and never will be, one true answer
Life’s secrets are elusive, captivating, like a masked dancer

But if you seek an answer, please, hear my plea:
Turn to the river! The water! The path to the sea

Because the river, 
To the sea
Comes close
Poem

🐕 Dog in every view

AutumnB17 
Beautiful dog
Dopey smile 
Lolling tongue 
Wagging tail

Candy dog
Chocolate fur
Caramel eyes
Taffy tongue

Feisty dog
Wrecked tennis ball
Rooted-up yard
Snappy bark

Clumsy dog
Strewn-out toys
Bulky hips
Awkward paws

Quick dog
Pulsing heart
Sleek build
Lightning legs

Lazy dog
Sleepy evenings
Sluggish movements
Snoring nose

Hungry dog
Expectant beg
Dripping drool
Shredded bone

Same dog
In every view
You can’t have just one
Because all their love is for you
Poem

🌺 Midnight Lily, Bloom!

AutumnB17
Casablanca “night-blooming” lily, via Earth-n-World
Midnight lily blooms
Flowers lustrous, sickly sweet
Shy, afraid of day

Beautiful blossom
Afraid to show her glory
What are you scared of?

Frightened of the sun?
Scared your beauty will outshine
The red daylight rose?

Midnight lily, shine!
Dare to bloom, under the sun...
Show the world your worth

Petal, blossom wide
Throw your colors to the sky
Life is yours to take

Dwelling in moonlight
Hide away beneath the stars
Tantalizing grace

Midnight lily blooms
Ready to show her beauty
Envy of the rose

Pride of the garden
Beautiful both night and day
Midnight lily shines
Poem, Writer's Wednesday!

Writer’s Block. A Writer’s Wednesday Poem

AutumnB17

Blank sheet.

Cursor blinking furiously against the white.

I’ve been at this all night. 

Blank sheet.

The unfilled space is ominously bright.

Not enough ideas to start this out right!

Blank sheet. 

Tick… tock… tick… tock.

Deadline drawing nearer:

Thoughts aren’t any clearer.

Tick… tock… tick… tock.

A bell chimes the hour, I’m weak in the knees. 

I stare at nothingness, slamming the keys.

Tick tock!

The clock insists, but I’m trapped in writer’s block.

No words.

I can’t seem to think. 

Every word or phrase I’ve ever heard, entirely down the sink.

No words.

Blinking black line.

Begging for some words to write, I have to decline.

No words.

Write it down!

The sheet insists, but my brain is out of town.

Can’t write!

Time is marching on,

Grades and fans will be up and gone.

Can’t write!

Inspiration is sparse.

How can I be a writer if I can’t write for arse?

Can’t write!

Push those keys!

The screen insists, but my ideas are on the breeze.

One word. 

My name.

Let’s turn this spark into a flame!

Two words.

The date.

At least I’m in a better state…

Writer’s block.

Write more!

The people insist, but I’m tired to my core.

Writer’s block.

The blank page stares me down.

I feel like such a clown…

Writer’s block.

Titles evade me.

Should I take a break? Would that just be lazy?

Writer’s block.

One word.

Two words.

Three, four.

The stress is mounting, I can’t take it anymore.

Five words.

Six words.

Seven, eight.

Backspace it all, too late.

Blank sheet.