I reject
This death
In life, and
Throw myself
Wholeheartedly
Into joy.

#poetry

stranded in the mud
looking for a better world
an elephant waits

We have an elephant sanctuary here. They are so magnificent and deserving of rescue!

#MastoPrompt - better
#dailyhakuprompt - strand

ART
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/colorful-elephant-art-on-white-sharon-cummings.html

#fediart #mastoart #art #handmade #handmadeart #elephant #elephants #africa #african #animal #animals #artwork #colorful #homedecor #poetry #poet #poets #poem #poems #animalwelfare #animalrescue #climate #climatechange #global #animal #nature #naturelover #naturelovers

Alt...

Colorful Elephant on white in a furniture setting.

Alt...

Colorful elephant on white in a furniture setting.

A poem from Edna St. Vincent Millay, published in 1922 when she was thirty.

#poetry #poem #ednastvincentmillay #ageing #grownup #Adulting #adulthood #1920s #quote #quotes #quotation #sleep

Alt...

GROWN-UP Was it for this I uttered prayers, And sobbed and cursed and kicked the stairs, That now, domestic as a plate, I should retire at half-past eight?

I am grateful
That I am made
More of stars
Than silence.

#poetry

Please,
Let me live
These days,
Not merely
Survive
Them.

#poetry

You sworn
Oath of
The cosmos,
You fire become
Flesh,
Stay brave
In the face of
Forever,
For you are
A part of it.

#poetry

After inflicting
Your own,
You find yourself
Lost without
My map of
Scars.

#poetry

You are a
Void into
Which all
Words wasted
Are stars still
Falling.
Burn away,
Bottomless
Nothing.

#poetry

Deeper the cut,
Nearer the
Golden bones
Of hope.

#poetry

For all this
Vastness,
We have been
Brought together
In this moment.
Lamplights in the
Dark.

#poetry

I dissipate
Like a dream
Upon waking.
You couldn’t love
What isn’t fully
Here.

#poetry

There are
Teeth marks
Where I
Held on
Too long,
Afraid of
The falling
When I let
Go.

#poetry

I only have
The chrysalis
Of this body.
A life full of
Becoming,
And I am
Ready to
Fly.

#poetry

Tonight on translations that are almost as unhelpful as the idiom itself, “mark a boat to find a sword”:

There once was a guy on a boat
Who found out that swords do not float.
He pulled out his dagger
With native Chu swagger
And said “I’ll just make me a note.”

#translation #poetry #poem #classicalchinese

Alt...

An excerpt of Classical Chinese about the guy who marked which boat he lost his sword from as if that’d help find the sword

You are
A faceted
Jewel fallen
Loose from
The velvet
Night,
Long may
You shine.

#poetry

And I come
To know,
To love
The small
Universe
Of every body,
Ad infinitum.

#poetry

You were
Born from
The light of
A thousand
Stars, you
Needn’t fear
The dark.

#poetry

Behold,
The night sky,
A mirror,
And a map
Home.

#poetry

New 3”x 3” stickers available in the shop!The poem is “Become”, one of my favorites from Library on Fire. https://www.nihtgengapress.com/product/become-sticker. Free shipping in the US!

#poetry #books #sticker

Alt...

WHAT CHOICE DO I HAVE IN THE DEEPEST DARK, BUT TO BECOME THE STARS?

Beneath the
Church of
My ribs,
The catacombs
Of lost love,
And found.

#poetry

It’ll be
Warm as
A wildfire,
Cold as a
Knife, and
Everything
Everything
In between.

#poetry

Let me be
Guided by
No angels
Weeping,
No devils
Laughing,
Just love
In its purest
Form.

#poetry

May this
Suffering
Become
So much
Kindling
For the
Fire inside
Us all,
That we may
One day
Outshine
The dark.

#poetry

Woodland

Amid trees, lonely
on a hill, the breeze whispered
of distant secrets;
I heard, and realised how
it told me of my own heart.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

#tanka #poem #poetry #PoetryCommunity

I am more
Than a home
To darkness.
I am more than
A canvas
For scars.

#poetry

You and me
Entwined like
Time and gravity.
Slowly pull me
Out of my mind.

#poetry

You, who
Contain
Multitudes
Of stars,
Need not
Fear the
Night.

#poetry

I finally
Understood
All of my
Nothing
Was always
Full of stars.

#poetry

Flying will
Sometimes
Feel like
Falling.
Hold fast
The wings
Of your
Desire.

#poetry

Here in the
Unknowable
Vastness,
We inexplicably
Collide.
How brief, but
How beautiful
The sparks.

#poetry

I am not broken,
But rearranged.
Have patience
While I find
My way back
To my heart.

#poetry

There are
Prominences
From the Sun
That could
Swallow the
Earth a
Thousand times,
And I guess
That’s what
It feels like
To truly
Open your
Heart.

#poetry

Oh, the
Horror and
Exquisite
Beauty
Of an
Ordinary
Life.

#poetry

You’d rip
Me open
To read
This viscera
As signs and
Wonders
Where there
Are only
Blood and
Guts.

#poetry

Let the stars,
Still shimmering
In my veins,
Guide you
Home.

#poetry

There’s light
Enough to
Blind you,
If you were
Really looking.

#poetry

Bride of blessed night
Throw off your veil,
And greet the stars
With a kiss.

#poetry

Out of
All the devils
In my head,
You laugh
The loudest.

#poetry

It’s called
“The dawn of time”
Because there was
An emergence of
Light, which
You are a part.

#poetry