The Cell

These bars hold and constrain
A cage of my own making
Built of illusions, wishes, lies
A picture of a life once dreamed

Chapters read, misread
My compass deflected
The map outdated, no one spoke
Signposts faded and fallen

Life is larger than this cell
Expanding, awareness awakening
Testing these feeble boundaries
Self imposed, and self removed

Stoic Poetry

Details

All that distracts
Candles and wine
And wasting time
Fashion and more
Love and deplore

Lost in the details
In ears it rings
Of made up things
The joy it will buy
A beautiful lie

Stoic Poetry

Too many fall before their time
Into the distance crosses by the line
In shady fields their souls now rest
The young and brave who faced the test

In foreign lands so far from home
They bore their task with great aplomb
Above the earth where now they lay
A bugle calls their final day

In times to come we may yet see
Their sacrifice did not need to be
When words unheard become the sword
A bleak sad future we march toward

Stoic Poetry

Artwork Courtesy of Margit Allen

Meanings hidden from sight
Words twisted and torn
So far from the truth
Misleading lies seen as right

Motives and greed abound
Personal gain is the game
At the cost of the others
Dancing around and around

Truth has become subjective
For those who may gain
Forced upon the masses
Based on a flawed perspective

Stoic Poetry

Newborn soul of wind and sky
Angels tread softly upon this place
Eyes of elemental flame
Glowing passion, simmering grace

Feral child of natures plan
Innocence of this earthly place
Learning now the ways of man
His sins to be embraced

Realms of man exact their toll
A life spent bereft of care
Cynics heart, unfeeling hands
Vacant eyes, and deadened stare

Beliefs embraced, preached as truth
Corrupted chants of prayer
Spread the lies of immortality
The guf, no souls to spare

Fire to embers, flames to ash
Life’s goals begin to fail
Within himself he lives and breathes
Good intentions he derails

Final breaths he draws in pain
Memories start to pale
A world now dims in retrospect
As he steps beyond the veil

Stoic Poetry