.
Old doors to opportunities
are gone, so, not one opens.
Enticements that were there, just tease,
no keys, just slot-less tokens.
Lost gains are gone, missed chances gone,
mistakes abound like raindrops . . .
And storms you walked into are gone.
Don’t fret regrets, then pain stops.
For who needs doors to handle joy?
To be here’s never hopeless.
And what’s not here need not annoy.
You’ve moved on. You’ve made progress.
.
.
Damian Robin is a writer and editor living in the United Kingdom.
Are poems already published on this site considered for the prize if resubmitted with the entry fee?
Roy, Hyphenating/juxtaposing words is something I do often to create Pseudo-compound words that (hopefully) create an effect that intensifies what…
There is so much truth in your lines but I think that underlying them all is your absolute insistence on…
Brian, as ever, you get to the very core of my poems, and I thank you for your fine eye…
Susan, thank you so much for this generous and insightful comment! I love doing dramatic monologues that convey a sense…
Short and to the point on this darkest New Years Eve. “To be here’s never hopeless” will stay with me on what will be a troubled month to come here in old England. Thank you and a Happy New Year to you and yours.
Thanks Jeff, glad my combination of words will stay with you, and may they buoy you up. It is a crucial time for our old England and brexited UK and the younger (bigger) USA. We will all get through because we have to. Believe in a Good future.
Nice poem, I love it!
You may have just summed up the last 4 years of my life in 3 elegant stanzas. I’m going to meditate on this.
Happy New Year to everyone here.
May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you.
Thanks for your positivity, Yael. Glad my poem has struck a cord. Hope it helps you forward.
And I trust your wishes for us all here will be heard and acted on.
You’ve summed it up nicely, Damian. And your oblique rhymes are direct and right on point. Yet the struggle continues, our part in it undiminished.
Oblique rhymes . . . can you educate me, Kip.
Yep, no gain without enduring through. ( I don’t use “struggle” very much as it is soaked in communist sweat.)
“Oblique,” Damian, is just a synonym for “slant” or “half” or whatever when it comes to rhymes. Over here, “No pain, no gain” is a fairly common expression. “No balls, no babies” is rather less common. General Patton’s version was “No guts, no glory.”
Thanks Kip for the mini-lesson. Now I know for sure. I like Patton a lot.
A softer version of his statement (that I was not aware of as being his, so thanks) is “Fortune Favours The Brave.” [US translation “Fortune Favors The Brave.” ]
Insightful and beautiful.
Thanks, Susan. Uplifting words.
Thanks for your positivity, Yael. Glad my poem has struck a cord. Hope it helps you forward.
And I trust your wishes for us all here will be heard and acted on.