Water — Submerged

http://www.nationalgeographic.es/documentSetting/photos/large/YC13TWDL-Z4L4-UCB4IWKPSUEA.jpg
Photograph by Emory Kristof, National Geographic



Write a poem about hidden depths, unexpected discoveries. Let your words flow… What is wanted here are thoughts from deep wells, emotions dragged by wild currents, drenched awakenings...

Bonus twist:  
Selected entries can be considered for publication in the next issue of Serendipity Magazine.  Those chosen for publication will be published under their username (if you want real or other names, please PM me), and include a link to their poems here on DUP.  If you do NOT want to be considered for publication, please PM me.

(Hey, some DUP poets were already published! They participated in the "No Air" competition and were in the last two issues for the Elements of Air and Fire. You can see these issues here:

http://free.yudu.com/item/details/634718/Serendipity-Magazine---Elements-in-Art---Air
http://free.yudu.com/item/details/707552/Serendipity-Magazine---Elements-in-Creativity---FIRE)

I will be choosing a winner here for this forum competition on DUP, but submissions for publication are to be considered by the editorial staff at the magazine.  Anyone interested in more details, please message me or see the magazine blog: http://magserendipity.blogspot.gr/2013/02/poetry-challenge-water.html

Old and new poems accepted
Collaborations accepted
Two weeks
No limit on entries
500 word limit per poem

It is finally here! Until the 4th of March? Count me in! :-)

AscensionES said:It is finally here! Until the 4th of March? Count me in! :-)

Yes, here it is... Bring it, mister.  

Deleted.

Evan, thank you for kicking the competition off.  Your entry is a salty, thunderous one.

Atakti said:Evan, thank you for kicking the competition off.  Your entry is a salty, thunderous one.

Funny that, bringing fresh air to the DU with salty poetry. Hehe. No worries!

Dodging Harpoons -

I read today
"The Japanese will once again hunt humpback whales."
and recall Greenpeace days.

Those were times when I thought
if I saved a whale
I was saving myself.

How do you truly play
when harpoons spear
at the corner of your eyes?

Long ago, someone dove into
the pitch of chasing me
and I bent sideways

as I spun around, and around
in an attempt to clean the algae
of collected years. I drifted

in consideration of him, trying
to ease his breath
with my bubbly smile.

But he mistook it
for an attack, and wounded
me in the dark predator depths.

I read today
"The Japanese will once again hunt humpback whales."
and wonder

Have we mammals truly escaped our end?
Or am I still swimming with the whales
dodging harpoons?

Maggie, thank you for this swimmingly lovely entry.

:)

Submerged

Strapped to the eons
of thoughts
these dear dogmas,
breathlessly hoping
their truths to unfold,
herein belies
the fiction of feelings
the ones
that lie helpless
their truths to expose.

Nothingness
rays through expressly
these motions
balmy less hazards
to consciousness gleamed,
more thrusting forward
the truth of our passage
onward and inward
these truths as
they seemed.

On leveled
acceptance,
convenient
and spelled
magically wondered
and spirit compelled
rounds of all nature
eventual known
these sunken treasures
point to just foam.

Sunken
submerged
drowning
release
death of our visions
dreams of increase,
all these grand measures
of gaining it all,
dark passage
upward
into the great call.

Soul of All Being,
hear all my depth
abandon me not,
not through with me yet.

Teach me
to humble
my will and to see
the grandest illusion
that lives in the sea,
the greatest submergence
the self-righteous me.

Herein enjoin
compassion
my plea,
empathy rising
in all company.

No greater am I
than others
or none,
all is one being
and all of us One.

runningturtle87

Lighter,  for a change

Lighter for a change,
My disposition is betraying me
Making me a fool
Pleasantly mocking my judgement  
 
This is happiness
 
A suiting word.
For a coward like me.
 
If there was a warm honeyed thought
reverberating with kindness
that would be me
 
Who would have ever thought?
 
Following the passage to the ocean
I'm contented with possibilities
Satisfaction a step away
 
Did you know that you could find
the moon in the sea?
I heard that lyrically uttered,
Hit me, made curiosity flow.
 
For I am gleeful, joyous,
I won't hold this in skepticism
I'll free my mind to explore
 
For there is not a darkening malice
Clouding in my mind
A change from me, I know,
How confusing
How uplifting to my mood
 
Back to the moon.  
 
If the moon is in the sea,
Then I'd like to find it.
Good-natured that I am
With brimming content
 
I think that in that event
nothing can go wrong,
I will step into the cold waters.
 
How refreshing as the caressing undertow
pulls me in for an embrace.
 
It is all good to me because,
for once I am happy,
which makes me immortal
In a sense?
 
I'd like to think so.
 
The sky becomes a distant memory  
the current sweeping me away
It's ok
 
I want to find the moon,  
though lack of oxygen
could affect me
 
if I believed in such dark consequences
 
For now I think I'll just see  
where this leads.
 
As my mind becomes
lighter for a change,  
light headed?
I see bursting sparks.
 
These should be stars, they're beautiful
as stars should be.
 
I want to see the moon
At the bottom of the aphotic zone,
surely it would be hidden
 
Where light cannot penetrate?
 
Well I'll make it there,  
for I see the stars,  
and I'm sinking,  
Down to the abyss
 
Sinking in regards to myself.
I realize I cannot breathe
This would be alarming,
If it wasn't such an intriguing thought
 
To embrace outer space  
in the comforts of your own bottomless pit
 
I always wanted to be an astronaut
 
Now I'm living the dream
 
How lucky am I?
 
My lungs are searing
My thoughts blurring
But if only I ride the current deeper
 
I'm not often this careless
It feels good
To cast aside my hardened shell
In search of gratification
In the wanderings of my psyche
 
I'm so glad that I decided to let go,  
To embrace bliss
 
To allow myself that one glimpse  
Of something that could truly
Render me obsolete
 
It will be all right
For even a 1000 feet of water
weighing down on me
 
stealing my breath
cracking my lungs
freezing my blood
 
Couldn't kill me
could it?
 
not in this new found cheerfulness
Nothing could go this wrong
As to die under the waves
 
Searching for the moon
 
At least let me see it once
Before I succumb
 
There's so much pressure
Constricting me
 
Just let me see it
Just once.
 
I want to say I discovered something
Something astonishing
The universe unfolding around me
 
But I can't
I just can't...
 
comprehend
 
There's no pattern
no process
 
Only cold
bitter, treacherous realization
 
How could I have been so stupid?
To allow myself contentment?
 
To believe that it could exist?
 
If there is a moon in the sea
It has lead me astray,
Condemning me
 
Punishing me as it tightens it's grip
For having hope
 
It wrenches from my lungs
The last feeble breath I had left
Simultaneously crushing me  
Without remorse.
 
Blackness settles in,
My heart struggles, in denial  
The sun is too far away
 
Too much water overhead to rise
Out of this grave.
 
This is the most painful thing I've ever felt
Betrayed by the moon
I close my eyes,
 
I never saw anyway, no point now
 
I know the end is coming
I can feel the damnation spreading
Drowning...
 
dying...
 
gone
 
All is gone
 

Adore the comp idea Atakti, I'm always in love with underwater adventures.