April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 20

 

Image by Shahariar Lenin from Pixabay

Remains of a concentration camp in Poland

Good morning, Poetry People. Or whatever it is wherever you are. 

Today's poetry prompts converged to inspire some grim subject matter. Add to that the fact that I woke up at 3:30 this morning. I don't know what it is about the 3 AM hour. It's like the veil between the worlds is thin or something.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-20

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt asks for a six-word poem. 

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-11/

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt asks poets to recount a historical event.

One of history's worst dictators was born today in 1889.

I summed this event up in six words with an acrostic.

I believed this brief work would be more impactful if I stuck to facts. It's easy to spiral into hyperbole where people such as the subject of today's work are concerned. 

There is no need for me to directly point out that Adolf Hitler was a monster or that his actions and attitudes inspired destruction. History speaks for itself.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about Hitler is the fact that much of the time he didn't appear monstrous. He loved animals. If he believed he had offended someone, it would trouble him to the point where he couldn't sleep. People who knew him described him as being charming and dignified. During the war, he visited hospitals to offer soldiers comfort and encouragement.

Indeed, the most terrifying thing about Hitler was the fact that a person embodying all the above positive attributes was capable of ordering the imprisonment and murder of millions while believing his actions to be completely correct.

In today's climate of intolerance towards anyone whose opinions differ in the least from prescribed political correctness, it is important to police our own behaviors and beliefs while keeping the following advice in mind.

When fighting monsters, be careful not to become one yourself.

"I think we have got to learn to disagree without being violently disagreeable..." Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by G.C. from Pixabay

Odontophobia

 

Base image by Umanoide on Unsplash

Click to enlarge

Oh, how dearly I fear 

Dental appointment day.

Only I don't overly mind

Needing my teeth cleaned.

The thing that unsettles me most is sitting

Open-mouthed for long

Periods of time.

Having my face numb,

Orifice probed with a drill,

Being unable to leave

If I choose,

And feeling like I'm choking to death.

notes

Buckle up, Bitches, it's gonna be a rough ride! If you're sensitive about swearing, it's best that you hit the back button on your browser and go bye-bye now.

The beautiful picture poem was inspired by this beautiful prompt, asking participants to prettily share a phobia via an acrostic poem.

https://experiencewriting.com/2023/10/12/oct-12-prompts-pulling-back-the-veil/

Poem, not phorm. What the phucque is a phorm?

I added text art and effects to the image using Pixlr. You're welcome to share the poem with all your dentist friends or anyone else, but please credit Cara Hartley/Ornery Owl and maybe leave a link back to this blog. Thanks in advance.

I have fairly severe odontophobia. I'm not afraid of my dentist. He's a decent guy, unlike the first dentist I saw at ten years old, who told me to shut up and enjoy having my teeth pulled. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he was a cunt.

My history of sexual trauma and instances of dental shaming, including from my father who said that the only people who get cavities are those who eat too much sugar and don't brush properly all contribute to my aversion to dental procedures. The garbage icing on this raw sewage cake is my delightful case of vocal cord dysfunction. 

What the hell is vocal cord dysfunction, you wish to know?

Glad you asked! Also called paradoxical vocal fold motion, this means that instead of opening when I inhale, my vocal cords close. Because of course they do. Heaven forfend anything should work properly in this shit show of a body. 

Physicians frequently misdiagnose vocal cord dysfunction as asthma because the person dealing with it feels like they are unable to breathe deeply. I was misdiagnosed with asthma for decades. If I have asthma at all, it's mild and allergy-related. One of the tells is the fact that I never found much relief from using an inhaler. I do have allergies. I take Singulair and Zyrtec, which mostly make it so I can breathe through my nose.

A laryngospasm can be triggered by various stimuli, such as cold air, GERD, post-nasal drip, and your friend and mine, 

When I'm at the dentist, I jump on a vicious cycle driven by this guy. You might correctly surmise that he doesn't give a fuck about comfort or safety.

Image by Alexa from Pixabay

The vicious cycle process goes a little bit something like this.

I get anxious, in this case about having dental work done.

Instead of opening when I inhale, my vocal cords close.

Feeling like I can't take a good breath makes me feel more anxious.

The more anxious I feel, the more intense the focus on my breath becomes.

I start to feel like I'm choking, which makes me feel even more anxious.

The anxiety builds to the point where I have a panic attack.

Benzodiazepines (I swear I will never be able to spell this word properly), which are what dentists typically prescribe for anxiety, either work paradoxically on my contrary nervous system, elevating my heart rate and causing panic attacks (most benzos) or the amount of adrenaline coursing through my body overwhelms them and they don't work at all (diazepam). 

I certainly have a restful sleep if I take diazepam, but it doesn't do jack shit to counteract my dental anxiety.

Nitrous oxide helps a little bit sort of, unless the claustrophobia prompted by the mask triggers a panic attack, which is what happened the last time I tried it.

IV sedation for dental procedures really should be covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Severe dental anxiety isn't uncommon, and it prevents people from getting the care they need. Dental health impacts the rest of the body. If people knew they could sleep through the procedure, they would be less likely to put off getting dental work done. 

I always opt for IV sedation where possible for medical procedures. Going under anesthesia scares me shitless, which is a poem for another time. Also, intubation could exacerbate my vocal cord dysfunction, and I sure as hell don't need that.

Dee Snider wrote Under the Blade because being anesthetized and having surgery sucks. The clowns of the PMRC decided the song was about bondage and rape, but at the end of the day, that's all right. The Parental Advisory stickers ended up being a joke, increasing the sales of "naughty" albums. This is exactly what John Denver predicted would happen.

"That which is denied becomes that which is most desired, and that which is hidden becomes that which is most interesting. Consequently, a great deal of time and energy is spent trying to get at what is being kept from you." --John Denver

Like John Denver, I am vehemently opposed to censorship.

I'm feeling mighty generous today, Folks. Here's the 2002 VH1 docudrama depicting the PMRC hearings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZRS6Avu0cg

~Ornery Owl Has Freely Spoken~

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”

― George Orwell, 1984

Naughty Netherworld PSA: Social Distancing Acrostic

Image copyright Annalise Batista on Pixabay

S is for sliding and side-stepping away

O is for only staying within your own circle

C is for care of yourself and others

I is for isolating

A is for always taking precautions

L is for spreading love, not contagion

D is for dancing at least six feet apart

I is for insisting on doing what's right

S is for soap and frequent hand-washing

T is for taking time to be safe

A is for asking others to maintain a safe distance

N is for nicely considering needs

C is for compassion and consideration

I is for indoors in your own home

N is for nature in a place that's uncrowded

G is for growing and changing to find new ways to do things

~cie~

I am aware that this reads like a motivational poster.

Content coyright 2020 by Cara Hartley

Please do not repost

Reblogging is acceptable on platforms that allow it.

Sharing a link to the poem is acceptable.

Quoting portions of the poem for educational or review purposes is acceptable if proper credit is given.

NaPoWriMo: Write a poem about the letters of the alphabet or perhaps a poem where the letters form a short word. I kind of took liberties with that idea.

April PAD Challenge: Write a poem about social distancing. There you have it!

If you enjoyed that poem, there's more in my first published poetry volume, Another Autumn. Available for 99 cents on Kindle.

Cross-Posted to:

Dark Hearts Love Too

Naughty Netherworld Press on Publish0x

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November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 27: Acrostic for Angie

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

All alone adrift

Nothing nice nevermore

Going, going, gone

Intwining imaginative intricacies

Envisioning elusive eternity

Boiling bad blood brew

Love long lost

Unquiet undying urges

Escaping exotic eyes

~Cie~

Notes:

Today's November PAD Chapbook Challenge asked participants to take one or more of the poems they'd created for the challenge previously and remix them. I took my day 2 abecedarian poem Alpha to Omega and my day 7 free verse poem Angie Blue and turned them into an acrostic using the first letters of Angie Blue.

I'm probably not going to share this poem at the November PAD Chapbook Challenge post because it only makes sense to me. Angie Blue is a poem inspired by various songs that I learned to love as a young teenager in the late 1970s.

OctPoWriMo 2019: Day 23: Lost Friends

Photoshop manipulation by The Real Cie

Both of these friends gone too soon

Looking for a home for you

Adopted you myself

Friends from the start

Although you were afraid at first

You were always a big kitten

Eyes of golden-green

Time went by too quickly

Took you from me too soon

Every day I grieve for you

Tiny princess abandoned by her humans

Received with love into our home

In time she became the queen of the castle

Never let me feel alone

I loved you, my best girlfriend

Time robbed me of you too soon 

You are forever in my heart

Your broken-hearted human

Note:

Part of me really hates the pet prompts.

They are the one thing guaranteed to leave me crying--every fucking time--no exception.

NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 28 + Poems in April 2019 Day 28: Major Changes

Greetings from Grover, Colorado

Guess we're making an offer on a place that is

Really in the middle of nowhere

On the outskirts of the outskirts

Very far back in the backwater

Everything in the past leading us to this

Rural hotel in a very tiny town

Can't imagine that most folks would want to

Own a place that's such a 

Long way from everything

Out on the Northeastern plains

Rippling grasses and whispering winds

Accentuate the solitude

Dreary it may seem to most

Only the broken dream of such a view

~Cie~

Notes:

A daunting move filled with possibilities.

This place appears in the dictionary next to the phrase "fixer-upper" and the word "boonies."

It is zoned as a multi-use property and has given new life to my dead dreams.

This may be the most important move I will ever make.

NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 19 + Poems in April Day 1 & 19: Aprils Ago

Per Ohlin

17 January 1969 - 8 April 1991

Death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound

Aprils ago a

Broken spirit

Chose

Death

Empathy

Found me

Grieving

His passing

Impotently

Just thinking

Kind thoughts and holding

Love in my heart

Made

No difference

Protecting a soul

Quite so

Raw and

Sad was

Terribly

Unlikely

Vain regretting

While wishing that

Xolotl would guide

You to the spirit world by a gentle

Zephyr

~Cie~

Prompt 1

Prompt 19

Notes:

Seldom have I encountered a more troubled soul than Per Ohlin. As my lovely friend, the late Walt Cessna would have said, he was fukt 2 start wit. 

(This was the title of Walt's autobiography. He said that I inspired him to actually sit down and write it. I have always treasured this knowledge. Walt died from complications of AIDS.)

I sometimes become overwhelmed and try to bury my empathic nature. It doesn't stay buried for long. Maybe a minute, maybe an hour, rarely more than a day, and then, as Per once wrote, up from the tomb it comes. I can't ignore the soul calls for long.

I wish I had known about the phenomenon of soul calls when I was younger. It could have saved me a lot of grief, but it's too late now. Anyone who is of a metaphysical mind is welcome to read about this issue here. For anyone who is not of a metaphysical mind, do us both a favor and don't bother. This isn't the high school debate team, I'm tired, and I have no desire to bend anyone to my own particular set of beliefs. 

I am utilizing the Poems in April prompts again, but I am not joining up with the Linky in order to prevent another barney from brewing. Instead, I will comment on a few poems from people who have been kind and supportive along the way. Bit of a shame as I was getting a kick out of having so many visitors, but I find confrontation stressful, so best to keep that gate shut, I think.

NaPoWriMo 2019: Day 14 + Poems in April Day 14 & 3: Late Night in Lakewood

Image copyright The Real Cie

Late at night in Lakewood

As the snow is falling

Keeping the snowplows working

Every hour they drive by

While I, up late as usual

Once in a while look out the sliding door

Out into the world white and cold

Dreaming of a day when life is not so difficult

~Cie~

Prompt #3

Prompt #14

Notes:

I broke my pattern with the catch-up game on the Poems in April challenge. It should have been 14 and 5, but the day 5 prompt didn't work as well with the day 14 prompt.

I didn't follow the NaPoWriMo prompt today at all.

The poem form is an acrostic or name poem.

I am so pleased with everyone's kind comments! I will try to catch up with all of you soon.

NaPoWriMo 2019: Ocean In a Bottle

Image by janrye from Pixabay

So very sorry to say

How terribly wrong and

Awfully awry my ship in a bottle project has gone

Rising waves and

Killer sharks threaten to

Sink this unfortunate boat

~Cie~

Note:

The prompt asked for an instructional poem. So, being a contrary cuss, I wrote a destructional poem instead.

OctPoWriMo 2016: Day 2: The Void

Copyright: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo

The Void

Grieving your undeserved ending

Eyes filled with tears for your fate

Running from the one who would destroy your soul

Reaching out for help when you fear there is none

Yearning for love, you came to me

Couldn't stop falling in love if I tried

Let me put you in my pocket and keep you safe

Ice formed in my heart after being hurt so many times

Frozen inside, I tried to resist

Feelings for you that leave me vulnerable

Only you can save me now

Reach into the void that is my broken heart

Dream with me now and forever

To: Gerry Clifford

From: Pepper Baiij

Style: Acrostic

Lost Soul

Image Source

Lost Soul

 

Lost in a strange and twisted world

Only the echoes of my thoughts for company

Sanctuary is nowhere to be found

Tragedy is the order of the day

 

Sadness prevails within a lonely heart

Only the echoes of my thoughts surround me

Undoing any hope for companionship outside myself

Love never enters the dark realm of my mind

 

~Cie~

 

Prompt:

The Reverie



OctPoWriMo 2014: Day 10

Copyright: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo

STRONG TRIGGER WARNING FOR DISCUSSIONS OF EATING DISORDERS, SELF-HARM, AND SEXUAL ASSAULT

My Mind

Bipolar Disorder

Broken on the rocks of my own thoughts

Ill-prepared to face the world

Put down, pushed around

Ostracized

Left to my own devices

Abandoned

Reamed for my inability to navigate life successfully

Dreams never encouraged

Ignorant of the intent of others

Swimming against the current

Opening myself up to the wrong people

Realizing too late that they didn't really care

Dreaming in vain of better days

Escaping to realms of fantasy

Realizing too late that reality bites

~~~~~~~~~

Borderline Personaliity Disorder

Believing that a magical door must exist

Only to find that I didn't have the key

Realizing that I must be damned

Defying convention at every turn

Escaping my pain with substances

Raped by men I never should have trusted

Loving the wrong men too easily

Irritated at the slightest things

Never feeling that I belonged

Easily fooled by anyone using the word "love"

Plied effortlessly by false promises

Enjoying the attention of liars

Reveling in their empty words of praise

Stripped of any sense of self-worth

Only craving a modicum of acceptance

Never having an ounce of self-respect

Able to be a social butterfly as long as I was wasted

Loving misty, nebulous dreams

Intense and mercurial

Trying too hard to please

Yet never being able to please myself

Dreaming always of magical days

Intent on becoming a star

Seeking love in dark places

Opening myself up to malevolent men

Realizing too late that I was once again a fool

Dying inside every time I was pushed away

Escaping in dreams of love and glory

Realizing too late that even my dreams were lying

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsession

Berating myself

Seeing problems everywhere

Encased in a shell of shame

Sometimes attempting to clean obsessively

Sometimes frozen in terror

Ignoring what is really important

Vast portions of my life tied up in knots

Eradicated by my possessions

Creating what appears to be chaos

Owned by the things in my life

Master of nothing

Prisoner of my own mind

Ugly feelings creep in

Leaving me tied up in knots

Sicker inside than I appear

Internalized messages of  worthlessness

Viewing my own failure every day

Entertaining is not even an option

Dead inside my heart

Imagining one day I will be free

Sadly realizing that day

Only could be the day I die

Realizing too late it's not my fault

Doomed to try and fix what I put off too long

Every day a testament to my failure

Reaping the seeds of a poisoned crop I didn't plant

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Pools of tears sometimes well up in my eyes

Originating in events past

Seemingly without reason now

Tears for something that happened years ago

Tears for the foolish, trusting self

Rape while inebriated, they say

Always the fault of the victim

Underneath the weight of his body

Making me helpless to stop him

Asking for it, they would say

Telling him no, no, no

Inebriated beyond ability to fight

Cold and sick as he declared "we're back together now"

Sick and shaken the next morning

Traumatized

Raped

Eager to put it behind me

Screaming inside

Shaking outside

Damaged beyond repair

Incapable of reaching out

Shame filled my very being

Obsessive thoughts controlled my mind

Realizing there was no-one I could tell

Damned because I'd been drunk

Erased because I'd let him in

Raped because I'd been so stupid

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Panic Disorder

Panic grips my soul

Anxiety crippling me

Never leaving me alone

Intense terror 

Crushing the breath from me

Determined I could overcome

Insisting that it wasn't so bad

Shaming myself for being so weak

Ordering myself to be strong

Remembering what I wanted to forget

Damned to hour after hour of terror

Escape was impossible

Relaxation came only when every ounce of energy was spent

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eating Disorder

Everything you eat turns to fat

Abominable fat

Terrible, horrible, awful fat

Intense self-loathing follows

Never satisfied

Gruesome vision in the mirror

Damn the lies of our society

Imbuing people with self-hate

Shaming certain body types

Obsession with thinness

Ruled by the scale

Dreaming of impossible beauty

Eating becomes a shameful act

Removing any sense of true worth

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Self-Injury

Stupid, stupid, stupid

Evil, ugly bitch

Let's see how you like this cut

Feel the burning in your disgusting sallow skin

Injury to the body

Numbs the emotional pain

Jarring the nerves with sharp stinging sensations

Ugliness flows from within

Rending the flesh

Years later, the scars remain

~Blooming Psycho~

Notes:

I was not correctly diagnosed with bipolar disorder type 2 until I was nearly 40. I was always diagnosed with "depression and anxiety" and given medications that made me feel a lot worse, then was berated for reacting badly to the medications. I'm a real "problem child," and react badly to the majority of medications. I cannot take SSRI's, the darlings of the psychiatric field. They make me both manic and psychotic, when I am usually neither.

Whenever people say "you need to just open your heart and love will come to you," I want to vomit. Trite truisms don't work, especially when opening myself up to someone that way tends to run the risk that I'll end up in the emergency room with slashed wrists. I once walked the streets near where my cheating boyfriend lived dripping blood from my arms and writing his name in blood on walls along with the name of a demon whom I hoped would eradicate the idiot he was cheating on me with.

 I would like to think I wouldn't do something this extreme now that Lithium has calmed the worst of my impulsive overreactions and I understand the nature of my disease. However, part of preventing such a relapse involves carefully protecting myself. Cinderella is a fairy tale, and a prince is not necessary to complete oneself.

My obsessive-compulsive disorder is in some ways harmless. I have compulsions to do things like color coordinate push pins on bulletin boards. I have a counting system to help me make decisions when there are multiple items to choose from. These things are harmless and don't interfere with my life.

I also have a lot of trouble throwing things away. I have boxes and boxes of items accumulated over the years before I realized what was going on with me. Work and dealing with my family tends to prevent me from going through them as often as I should. Also, sometimes when I see the mess I'm faced with, I become crippled with anxiety. So, pardon me if I get my hackles up if someone proudly proclaims that they watch "Hoarders." Turning people's problems into a freak show is not cool.

Seventeen years ago this Halloween I was raped by an ex boyfriend. I never reported it. I knew the cops would say that it was my fault for being drunk and letting him into my house. 

I thought he had left. I was so wasted that I went to bed with my clothes on. I don't think much time had passed when I woke up with my clothes removed and him on top of me. 

I had horrific panic attacks which would repeat on and off for most of the day for a year after that. I could not get anyone to listen to me. My own family told me that I needed to "just get over it." The drugs I was given gave me rebound attacks and made me suicidal. I eventually ended up taking far more than the recommended dose of the natural substance Kava to get me through. Eventually I found out about biofeedback. This helped me far more than any of the drugs ever did.

There is never an excuse for shaming someone for their body type, including concern trolling larger people. 

If I hadn't discovered Health At Every Size and size acceptance, I would still be yo-yo dieting my way through life, calling myself names like fat pig, and not exercising because it doesn't lead to weight loss. It does, however, provide other benefits regardless of one's size, if one is capable of doing it.

I may never love my body, but at least now I don't disrespect it. I will never be thin unless I end up with some terrible disease. SO WHAT???

These blogs were very helpful to me and may be helpful to others (particularly larger people) who are struggling with body image issues.

Dances With Fat

Fat Heffalump

Fierce Fatties

This is Thin Privilege

My proclivity for self-injury became prevalent in my teens, but I truly believe it started in childhood when I would berate myself for making a mistake by spanking myself and screaming that I was "bad, bad, bad."

I do hope readers take away more from this than "damn, at least I'm not as messed up as Blooming Psycho." I reveal my truths in the hopes that people will see the person behind the diseases. People with mental illness are, in fact, human and deserving of equal treatment.

OctPoWriMo 2014: Day 8

Copyright: audiohead / 123RF Stock Photo

The True Madness:

A Set of Acrostics Addressing Extremist Attitudes

Full Moon 

Freedom is one of those words that people like to bandy about

Until they are confronted with thoughts different from their own

Love between two people of the same sex, for instance, or

Liberal political agendas

Madness sets in when those who close their minds to

Opinions other than their own

Opt to try and destroy the one they've deemed their enemy

Negotiation is the furthest thing from their mind

Moon Madness

Madness prevails in today's troubled world

Obstinate fixation on a set of twisted values

Oppressive values that leave no room for variation

Not values designed to protect people from harm

Moral depravity is decried

Atheism is said to be the worst of immoralities

Deism speaks to me more than atheism

Nonetheless, I believe in freedom to believe or not

Extremists would take away the freedoms of others

Satan may be something whose existence could be argued

Sadism, however, certainly exists

Creativity

Certain factions would like to limit creativity

Reactionaries want to ban certain literary works

Evil has its roots in ignorance

Absolutist ideas never served any population

Terrorism exists on many levels

Ignorance and intolerance are twins

Vain hopes of controlling even the very thoughts of others

Ignite a passion for power in the souls of those with small minds

Terrorism is not only guns and bombs, it is also

Young people whose minds have been filled up with hate for others

Water

Wish upon a star

Ask the heavens to bring peace; however

Take it upon yourself

Ending hate must be your primary priority

Reactionary agendas never served any population

Nostalgic

Nostalgic wishes for bygone eras

Only soothe those who fail to realize

Some things look better when they are behind us

Tragedy has existed throughout history

All times have had certain aspects needing improvement

Love has always been the answer

Greed has always been the deceiver

Ignorance has always been the match

Catching the tinder of hateful ideas afire

Impulsive

If you think it might be empowering

Meeting with terrorist organizations

Plotting to destroy those who do not follow your agenda

Undoing anything that does not suit your narrow view

Laying waste to those that you would subjugate

Strewing dead bodies wherever you set foot

Incinerating the homes of those you call enemy

Vandalizing, terrorizing

Evil is the only word that can describe what you are

Dynamic

Death comes to every being

Yet why be in such a hurry to dispatch another living soul?

Nothing gives you that right

Atrocities are being committed every day

Murderous individuals

Ignorant ideals

Cruelty reigns supreme

Bold

Be the change you want to see

Only sow kindness

Let others be who they are

Dream of and create better days

~Wanda Psycho~

Wanda's note:

I am not trying to target any religion as bad or wrong. I am targeting extremist attitudes. 

In my time in this world, I have met kind people who are Christian in the truest sense; they want to behave in the pacifist and loving manner modeled by Christ. I have also met people calling themselves Christian who are anything but; their souls are rotten with intolerance and hate.

 I have also met kind and tolerant Muslims. Following the 9-11 attacks, I listened to a talk by a man who stated that the Greater Jihad is the war fought against one's own lower impulses; the lesser Jihad is acts of war within the world. Such acts of war, he stated, were to be in defense of one's homeland; not attacks against other nations. 

The actions of ISIS are horrific, and I was certainly dismayed to learn that people from the U.S. have seen fit to join in aiding this terrorist organization. I feel that these misguided souls are seeking some sort of glory in a world where it is difficult to feel that one's actions have any meaning. However, I most assuredly do not feel that the members of ISIS represent the beliefs of the majority of Muslims. I would say, in fact, that the opposite is true.

I have come to identify as a Buddhist; however, I by no means claim to be an expert or adept of any kind. I haven't yet been able to achieve full vegetarianism, for instance. However, I have become more conscious when I do eat meat about choosing meat fro a source where the animals are treated humanely.

Nobody is perfect; however, if we all try, even a little to take more right action, the world can become a better place.

A is for Acrostic

An Acrostic poem is a poem in which each line begins with a letter of a given word or words.

Here is my effort, summing up how I feel of late; how I've felt for a long time, if the truth were to be told.

Working For a Less Than Living

 ******

Tired, so tired, of working each week

Only to have it all gone in a flash

Industrious me, and yet what is it worth?

Lost to the tax man, the holder of the inflated mortgage, the high cost of living

Lies I tell myself to get through the week

About someday getting to the top

Belief is gone, yet I fool myself

Only to turn around and do it all over again

Reaching for a dream I can never achieve

Dreams are for the young and the foolish

Reason is too dismal to contemplate

Unless miracles happen, and they usually don't

Death is the only way out

Gainful employment is an oxymoron

Eventually we all must pay the piper

~Faith~

Here is a cool list of poetry styles.