Most Commented Allegory Poems (898)

Although this land is not my own,
I will remember its inland sea
and the waters that are so cold
the sand as white
as old bones, the pine trees
strangely red where the sun comes down.

I cannot say if it is our love,
or the day, that is ending.



Anna Akhmatova

Shadows of life, mere apparitions, flit and dance among
the living, the dying, laughing and crying. An end with no beginning
call back the dancers of this immortal play,
but not a play, just actors of a farce, one that resounds forever
more and a hollow sound it makes when it
is rungthe final bell, over water deep and blue
sound out one again and the shadows then
prance off, swallowed by the dark

To be or not to be?
I cannot think, I shall not think
for when I think, I think
I have thought wrong.

Like the braggart amongst his friends
I am egged on
to make my next step
to play the game

But they are not here
to feel this immense fear
I have mis-stepped before
felt the bitter mockery of the cold floor

to them I am but a carny
a source for their amusement
it is not a game to me
but truly life or death

The cold winds of pressure
chill my bones to the core
As I sway helplessly in the breeze
the feeling gives out in my knees

I look back at the platform
although there is no one there
to care
to catch me if I fall
I have abused that privilege
they just want this over with

Anxieties, doubts, social restraints
and a figure appears at the end
ghastly and dark, demonic and malevolent
he shakes the ground beneath

Lightning crashes and thunder roars
I cannot stand still anymore
I must make a choice, must walk the line
or surely I will die trying.

So here goes nothing
I lift my leg slowly
as if hoping I don't have to move alone
but suddenly without my knowing
I am.

Gone are the rowdy peanut gallery
gone is the thunder and rain
tis only I against myself
one chance to win it all

GOD ORDER MY STEPS
I cry aloud
He responds not directly
but with opportunity

I see two rocks on which to leap
both are the same
except one is safe
the other will lead to my downfall

No words of advice
no safety net
I give my all to God
In nomine Patris et filii et spiritui sancti
To You, I commend my soul.

Which way to go
I do not know
but already I am airborne
no pros no cons no surveys at all
Time to see how well I chose.


Although I stand here and now
I doubt what I have done
for the game of Life, although I play
is obviously no longer fun.

The weight of all my guilt
remorse and my earlier sins
bear down on me and the rock
I slowly begin to slip.

Memories of thing I have done
and what I have gravely failed to do
unleash their vengeance upon me
I feel nothing but pure agony

tears stream from my eyes
as before them, my life flashes by
a grandfather I failed to love
lies I've told and sins I've done
all the great evils of my life
threaten to tear me off my side

I cannot believe how selfish I was
how utterly appalling I had become
I failed to live a life for the Son
that matters not, for soon I shall be undone.

What good has come from my existence
anything now to relieve this circumstance
I search in vain
and find not one of any consequence
not a deed of any permanence

There were days
That I shall say
where I lightened someone's mood
but that did not last
as what came next
but a differently inspired brood.

Grasping at straws that are not there
any evidence to show I cared.
My prejudices got the better of me
the truth now I should have strived to see

Yet I was protected unaware
ignorant
of what I ought to have done
Satan sate upon my neck
and whispered always in my ear

Where is the good that has come of my life
the clock is running down
Not my donation of tickets
nor my schoolwork or hair
could save me from the eternal despair.
There were days
That I shall say
where I lightened someone's mood
but that did not last
as what came next
but a differently inspired brood.

Grasping at straws that are not there
any evidence to show I cared.
My prejudices got the better of me
the truth now I should have strived to see

Yet I was protected unaware
ignorant
of what I ought to have done
Satan sate upon my neck
and whispered always in my ear

Where is the good that has come of my life
the clock is running down
Not my donation of tickets
nor my schoolwork or hair
could save me from the eternal despair.

I loathe what I see in front of me
what an abomination I am now
A majestic and good creation of God
now a perverted adulterated clod.

I cannot feel any misery
for what I am about to receive
Eternal damnation seems right for me
I have failed to serve the Lord.

My attempts at intercession and salvation
were all for naught
for since I walked on my own
I was damned to die
No chance to be praised
a wicked man indeed.

The stone collapses
the eternal darkness
consumes me as I fall
from not just the grace of God
but from the good standings that I
once held with that gallery.

Nothingness
the hopeless abyss
my new existence
without a cause
I was prepared for it
as I lived
I felt the meaninglessness all along

the futility now wreaks havoc on me
I try to escape
only to return to the nothingness
claws and teeth
attack at me
no protection from the true embodiment
of abandonment

The moans and groans
pervade my senses
I am not alone
but isolated kept
confined
my mind ceases to be whole.

the gashes all across my chest
the incessant gnashing gives no rest
I cannot cry anymore
as blood escapes from every pore

I was a wicked beast
who overindulged in the depraved feast
that is society and its standards
that claimed to have all the answers

With every tear across my face
a wound is healed in another place
such is the unending love of God
protecting us sinners from a brutal demise
a love so horribly misguided
we cannot die to escape the pain

!we!ll!>pac>'em>=like=ra=tz=
~squirl'in->a>way=our=tre~ats=
>just>to>^nIB~ble~Our>mOr^>se-ls>
>at>`each`~>OTH~>`ers->`feets!
?or?=paws=?to?=>re=flect<=
~>T~wine>linin'our!nest!
~>T~Will!BE!~>OUR~>!BEST!<~
!We!Will!CON>fess!
?best?take?our?rest?
?how?was?your?day?
?what?space?=rat=race=
~>now~>let!s~>un~wind~>
=>we!ll!=>free<=what=binds=
=and=ease=our=minds=
>just~>curl~>back<~>here<~
!We!ll!BRReAK!>The>!LawS!
=>scratch>in'>"TailS=WitH=PawS=
=Wi'th="Fleas=To=Please=
>and>i!m!Prom-Is>In>MouS>^In'^>
-A->round->Down__in_the_down___
>cuz>i!m->Aim->In'To>Pl~eas>^In'>
~and->Pl~eaS>^IN'>TO>^CHe-eZ>^IN'!

“my favorite restaurant”

at the four top in the corner
they’re all lookin’ kinda blue
three guys and a well dressed girl
i wonder who’s screwin’ who

the waitress, she’s on crack, smell the monkey on her back
her patrons can’t quite tell for sure
they know something’s just not right
how will they calculate the tip for her

busboys don’t have to live up
to the hype of the slick bartender
they only have to slide some of his tips
beneath their shirt and fake suspenders

the food is pretty good
though often times too spicy
don’t argue about it with the chef though
he always wields a fillet knife and his attitude is dicey

horse carriages, segways and a bridge with lions at the end
just another day in a paradise of sun, sand and questions
pity the glazey eyed tourists, not knowing where to go
the homeless won’t eat their leftover pizza, but don’t mind giving directions

Is it wrong to fall? To expend one's potential as drawn to what one may not alter to only flail at guidance? The gravity of choices inexorable to defend against?

I woke up on a tight-rope
above what I could not see
such is life, for me and others
facing worse
Today, like another strung bead, ends
as on the street passes a child wheeling another
legless and unable to grasp anything

his hands are useless except to cradle
what I press there - a coin

this boy is cared for only by another
together making 17 years
and together they find life
as it is for them
found by fate without design
though the whole world might be blind
to their plight
while gringos look the other way
and those who live on the shore
polish their views from picture windows
not a whit to spare
to help to give more life
a fraction of ascension

and I overextended
facing a sinking treasure
pass to him and pal
and to old women
and the solitary blind
my meager funds
happily joyfully
and trust that phenomena
will spare me and mine kind
desperation though destitution
tortillas and salt each day only
garnished with wild herbs - weeds

while touristas sit plush and flush
and drink old wine from crystal
and gaze with vacuous souls
out the window
thinking of trifles and trinkets
and worrisome of a stain
on a designer shirt
or if the suitcase is big enough
for what they've
bought
knowing the history
it floods me past and present
and presages the future
where I gaze upon Chi ya'- Near water
and imagine the ancient priests
tear hearts out of slaves and prisoners
and captured warriors
feeding blood to their idols
offering the still beating heart to them
then casting their bodies down the temple stairs
tumbling rolling
crashing heartless in the dust
to the glee of their captors
who take them home headless, as trophies
and perch them dressed upon a seat
where they feast and celebrate with others
the misfortune
that still today we wreak upon our brothers
and especially upon
the children

a child at my gate
Francisco has waited
for my return
his clothes more soil than cloth
make him all the more
invisible
he has found the small coins
I left him as usual hidden
under our secret stone
but that was yesterday
and so I fish more coins
from my scant supply
from my too fine bag
and hand them over making big eyes
which he gleefully replicates
then he sees the bread
"y pan?" he asks
already tasting the spongy goodness
eyes looking up at me and beyond
and remembering that
a prophet once said that man
does not live by bread alone
I tear a big piece from mine
and thrust it at him
and give a bit of life
by the grace of the prophet

Na ka bii'? I ask his name
and he searches himself
for a proper reply
Majon Pak ; Without Money

and so we have touched
bridged by bread and a coin
on this muddy path
strewn with garbage
souls white as dough and
hard as bronze
each of us this day
this yesterday and tomorrow
look forward
each in his own way
down or up the path away....

i am a stranger now
even to mine own self
the anchor chains
have rusted in the salt of my sea

neither brother nor sister
nor friend can i muster
whether the hand proffered or no
for it is an alien world
all that is within it and me
incomprehensible

the sun shines not for me
the bell tolls not for me
i am a side track on an abandoned line
where old boxcars are left to rust
and the heat of summer simmers
in myriad mirages
so that what once was important
is now an illusion

adrift,
i am adrift without mooring
without course
without the glory of even a storm
i wander within myself
and no longer even bother
to peer across the fence of the horizon
nor to seek what I once craved to know

all assails so that i am bewildered
and cannot find a path nor an end
no high ground from flood
from which I might find vantage
and know the why of it or even you

sunrise brings fear and despair
sunset is a dying each day
oh whither come such things, such symbols and cymbals
and gods and Gods
what do we chase that is not made of dust
that is not a flash in the pan or is
that might make one wallow in happiness and understanding
and feed upon the earth
that nurtures the tree of love
from which all fruit forbidden
has fallen and rots upon the ground?

i chanced upon a beach
for there tugs my heart
and being lost
i was found
and as the tongues of time
spoke their watery words
in the caves of the cliff
i heard the voices of phantoms
one so sweet
i approached the cliff
the better to listen
to her beckoning song
knowing it to be
only the sound of water searching
deep within the caves
my heart spoke to me
anyway

so I gazed along the shore
as i walked on sand renewed
there being shells aplenty
some yet full of life
so many-colored
and glistening aquamarine
i filled my pockets with some
smooth some sharp
til i felt silly carrying
what abounded
and began to unburden myself
of them where found

but the last
being so
I gazed upon it
to feed my eyes with its sheen
and glint and allure
and upon
this empty shell
i saw your face
knowing that all reflects you
each the same
this one not being more
nor less than the others
i tossed it into the sea
as the sirens sang in protest
and hissed in dark crevices
where in rushed the waters
of your words