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Desire's Puzzle

The need for your acceptance
will usually keep me quiet,
but not today.

I feel weak, but strong,
alone and surrounded.
I feel left out, expected,
dearly loved and neglected.

But if someone,
anyone, can hear me ...

I want to be seen and forgiven,
in control,
yet out of my mind.

Lost, found,
locked in
and locked out.

I want to be anonymous,
but who the famous talk about.

I want to be remembered and forgotten,
and one day, one glorious day,
accepted.

Style / type: 
Free verse
Review Request (Intensity): 
I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
Editing stage: 

Comments

thanks for reading, hope all is well on the Carolina front.

author comment

Yeah, that's how it is, wanting fame and anonymity at the same time, for sure.
Like Chrys, I see nothing to point out, except how good this is.

Respectfully, Race

"Laws and Rules don't kill freedom: narrow-minded intolerance does" - Race-9togo

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Race_9togo

This is one of those crazy poems, glad you liked it.

author comment

Moonman I love this writing of yours of acceptance or non acceptance you write with feeling that is easy to distinguish within your write. Bravo to you on this one. I like it.

Love Mona

Thank you ma'am, I hope all is good for you.

author comment

Quite the contradiction! Where up is down, squares are
circles, what we know to be true isn’t….lol
What is it that makes us all of a sudden say enough is
enough and we take that first step that there is no going back from?
Perhaps it is a mix of empowerment and doubt?
I can find nothing to change. There’s a passion of extremes.
Like that feeling when you hyperventilate! lol you are breathing
really fast, but still can’t catch your breath.
I like all the verses, but my favorite would be…
“I want to be seen and forgiven,
in control,
yet out of my mind.”
That says it all……
Nicely done, Richard.

Always,
Tonya

Yes, the contradiction of desire ... one minute we do, the next
we don't.

I think the "Lost, found" is cliche as all get out, but at the same
time felt it fit ... life is so contradictory.

thanks Tonya, loved the analogy you shared, "hyperventilation"

author comment

Life is full of contradictions! and our desires are always changing - It's a funny old world. But there is one thing most of us want and that is to be accepted!

I enjoyed reading this thought provoking poem Richard.

Well done

Love Mand xxxxx

the write really twists and turns emphasising confusion

to me, and this is maybe a funny reading of it to you....
i get the feeling that if you can fit the puzzle and be everything, then that's IT...
you're 'done' - 'accepted back'.

i love this the way i read it so
in this case i don't really care what you were trying to say (smile)
- bookmarked

love judy
xxxx

'Each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
shall draw the Thing as he sees It, for the God of Things as They are.'
(Rudyard Kipling)

that my thoughts on reflection, were unique! Damn, that was good! I hope that things are as good for you, as you wish for everyone else. ~ Gee

There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.

I love the way you state the great human contradictions. You have this unwavering way to cutting to the heart of the matter. I cannot pick favorite lines as they all are great. It is so good to be reading your poetry once again.

love, cat

*
When someone reads your work
And responds, please be courteous
And reply in kind, thanks.

Nice to read a Richard poem again.

I think when we finally accept ourselves *inside* we notice that we are accepted and have always been accepted *outside*, if by no one else, but the universe has always been on our side, so to speak. It's lovely toe experience that.

Love.

~

Acceptance is an elusive commodity, like money for some. It can also be ephemeral, even when it appears to exist at all. It is somewhat restricting, acceptance -- living within bounds of others' reality that might accept yours, if but for a moment, or at least as long as you don't step beyond the boundary. Tricky -- acceptance.

Victor

"When a pickpocket meets a holy man all he sees are his pockets."

Unknown (at least to me)

It would seem to me that self-acceptance is even more crucial to know then it becomes self-love, and this self-love radiates out like the warmth of the sun.

But yes, I bow, Richard, because I am, you are, we are that paradox. What an insight!

Love.

~A

.

Richard,

I must have missed this one, as I see it has been around a few weeks.

Great title and a perfectly contradictionary poem. It kind of had a way of building up and then falling down: the ups & downs of life and what we really want.

Good mix of stanza's and the rhyming stanza, stood out, but I am pleased you didn't rhyme it all, it kind of needed to be a little complex, almost a mess...but in a structured kind of way!...and if that isn't a contraditionary line, I don't know what is!! Lol!

Enjoyed it!

HS

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With all that I am and all that I could be, I walk this earth, yet nobody sees me.

It seems this one's been commented on without me even
realizing it ... thanks, Mand, Judy, Gee, Cat, Anna, Victor,
Anna again, and Dan ...

Acceptance is an elusive beast with the contradiction of
our own selves in its way ...

thanks

Richard

author comment

you are a long time member of the human race, and you are always accepted. Even though you are a contridiction of disires like the rest of us.
you always write puzzles, which make for great conversation!
see you around Professor.
Your Bud Eddie

LIFE ISN'T ABOUT WAITING FOR THE STORM TO PASS
IT'S ABOUT LEARNING HOW TO DANCE IN THE RAIN.
VIVIAN GREENE

thanks for reading this little poem, this is one that I liked
but wasn't at all sure that anyone else would ... glad you
liked it my friend. Life is a puzzle, and at end ... the pieces fit.

Richard

author comment

this rings with a sincerity and vulnerability which leaves me with goosebumps and deep reflection...
thank you for nudging me towards this gem of a poem.
your Proprietress

There is no better thing a writer can hope for,
this is one I have trouble reading out loud, I get
too emotional (I know, big baby right !)

hugz to ya Kata

author comment

I shudder traversing this
magnificence across which all
stalwarts have commented barring one...

still I dare to show a bold front
and
not wishing to confront,
as you had referred to Anonymity,
I thought perhaps it could be…
but alarmed
ain't
no,one acknowledges me
except you,
for having once been stubborn,
but since molten

loved

We are all anonymous yet not
we seek to see but remain blind
we shout but no-one hears
we, the human discrepancy
the love-sick ideology
pampered yet calloused
and forever maligned

author comment

And Gemini’s of 1958 birth...
have
an exceptionally
broad and outstanding mind,
so I never mind ...

Anonymity is the green blood of mine,
as I am the rotten

AUTUMN leaf or leaves combine.
Thanks for being mild,
I thought you would still be wild...
at me.
Grateful
sorry for being
the same stubborn one...

loved

You did a great job capturing the conflicting nature within most of us. I'd have probably need twice as many lines to say the same thing lol........stan PS isn't it a pleasant surprise when a poem you think forgotten resurfaces?

We are such conflicted beings it's not hard to see it,
just hard to admit.

I love it when a forgotten poems resurfaces, but I asked
the proprietress to read this one (shameful ain't it !)

thanks for dropping in Stan

author comment

but you must also mention that I had asked for a few new poems you think I might enjoy.. you seem to remember my taste in poetry very well...

I think, in the end, we all want to leave something of us behind, something that feels as if it will be part of history, so to speak. For poets, it's poems....our inner conflict, for all to see.

~A

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