A Poem from my inner weirdness.......

[CaliforniaPeggy]

When you go through something

Horrific

When you emerge

On the other side

Is it really still

You?

I don’t know anymore

Who I am

Someone has taken me away

And left this odd stranger

In my place

I don’t recognize me

Or you for that matter

Where did we go?

Who did we become?

Where is my soul?

Someone did something with it

Or maybe to it

Very odd

My inner landscape is gone

And replaced by this weirdness

[Generic Brad]

1. I like it

I wish I could express my thoughts as effectively as you just did.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. My dear Generic Brad!

Oh my goodness.......

Thank you!

Sometimes I just open up, and the words come tumbling out......

And this was one of those times...

Other times...meh...

Not so much...

:hug:

[fizzgig]

2. i really like that one peggy

my inner landscape is gone and replaced by this weirdness

that really hits home for me

:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear kagehime......

I'm glad this one hits home for you...

It makes what I went through worth it.........

:hug:

[fizzgig]

5. and it helps that we can share these things with others

we all have things we can learn from each other

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. How true that is...

:hug:

[Esra Star]

7. The game is very dynamic Peggy. They keep moving the

goalposts.
:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. My dear Esra Star.........

And wouldn't you think that by my age I would know that?

Oh hell no.......:cry:

[Esra Star]

21. Subvert the dominant paradigm and all that. nt

[leftofthedial]

8. here's to the odd stranger

:toast:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. My dear leftofthedial...

Indeed yes......to the odd stranger! :toast:

Thank you......

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. Nice work, Peggy!

Gives me food for thought... :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. My dear GoddessOfGuinness...

I'm honored that it does...

Glad you liked it!

Thank you......:hug:

[idgiehkt]

12. that is very moving

I didn't know that you were going through a hard time. That poem sounds like one of those 'inner tectonic plate' shifts. I haven't expereinced anything like that in years, thank goodness. Hope that things clear up, sometimes we can get knocked off our bearings but it doesn't change who we are. I've been through some difficult things in the last little while and it's really brought home to me that I am very proud to be who I am and grateful for it; I wouldn't want to be anyone else at this point and that's a new feeling. However, articulating that kind of experience can be very difficult so my hat is off to you. :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. My dear idg...

Your eloquence takes my breath away, sweetie...

Thank you...

Things have been changing in my life for some time now, and I think this poem is a realization just tonight of those changes...

And the words just tumbled out of me, pretty much as you see them here...

It wasn't hard at all...

Those words needed to be said, and I thought that perhaps sharing them would be a good thing too...

So far, it does seem to be striking a chord here in the Lounge...:hug:

[bridgit]

14. we are able to be so changed and effected...

we may even survive somehow,
and feel again; somehow whole,
as whole as once we were...
perhaps as children were once whole perhaps not...
though in a moment,
that moment of unguarded esprit,
where we catch ourselves our smiles now,
a little more crooked in a window front a mirror; askew...
we then recall those moments anew,
and odd
that did strike us where,
once we stood so innocent

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. My dear bridgit.........

These words of yours are very beautiful, and better than mine...

Did you write them?

My innocence is long gone, sweetie......

I still have my naivete, however...

Thank you for posting these for me, and all us, tonight... :hug:

[bridgit]

18. i just keyed them right here right now for you/me/us...

:hug: :hug: :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. Then you have an extraordinary gift, my dear bridgit...

Truly extraordinary, sweetie......

I have never seen you post a poem.......

Sometime, I would really like to...:hug:

[Redbear]

17. Great poem

I feel so much the same way

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. My dear Redbear..........

Thank you.....

I'm so honored to be able to get this written for your sake...

You are not alone...:hug:

[Maineiac]

22. Oh My God

That was me after my stroke. I awoke from the craniotomy after a week in a coma a different person.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

24. My dear Maineiac...

Oh, wow...you did?

So that's how it feels...

You look well and whole to me now...

I hope you truly are...

I'm feeling better today .......

Here's to wellness! :toast:

:hug:

[Maineiac]

28. Your poem really spoke to me

I was a stranger within myself. I had to rediscover the very essence of who I was. It was quite a frightening journey, but I think I'm a much better person now. Oh, and the having to re learn to walk after my legs were paralyzed was quite the trip. here's to wellness

Steve

[Throckmorton]

23. I think it needs the word "Gruntled" in it somewhere

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. My dear Throckmorton...

Hm...

Maybe it does!

But that wasn't one of the words that tumbled out of me last night...

:hi:

[Road Scholar]

26. My Dear California Peggy.....

Pretty good! Different but good. If it were anybody else, I would accuse them of smoking the curtains or something (ha). But coming from you,I know it was insightfull and makes the reader think.Pretty good.:toast:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

27. My dear In_Transit...

Thank you!

No, I hadn't had anything to smoke! LOL!

It just came out of me last night, after a very weird day...

And I was tired, so that made a difference too...

I appreciate your input a lot!

:hug:

[liberaltrucker]

29. Perfect metaphor for the state of our Country

Thanks.

:toast:

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

31. My dear liberaltrucker...

Thanks, sweetie!

I didn't write it as a metaphor........

But I see what you're saying!

Glad you like it....:hug:

[liberaltrucker]

33. I know you didn't

It just struck me that way. Damn, you're good!

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. Ah, I thank you...

I don't really feel as though I wrote it, though...

This was one of those times when I just sat down and the words came from someplace inside...

I opened the door, and the words flowed out......

It's almost effortless sometimes......

Except for the pain that produced them, that is...

[liberaltrucker]

37. I pray you lose the pain

But keep the wisdom flowing.

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

38. Sweetie.....

The pain was transitory...

I hope the wisdom won't be......

Though my husband did say I seem to do my best writing when I'm hurting...

Thanks......:hug:

[SPKrazy]

30. Hey, I Got It Right Here...

your soul... :evilgrin:


no i like your poem, i relate to it very well myself.

:loveya:

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

32. My dear Southpawkicker!

Oh, you do, do you now?

I don't think so, baby!

I know you're kidding me, sweetie......

I was in a pretty bad place last night.....tonight is another story!

Today more than made up for my weird day yesterday...

Glad this resonated for you......:hug: :loveya:

[otherlander]

35. A strange fall into darkness

What once seemed so obvious
like an unequivocal burst of fire is
gone, and into the void
of an unmapped world I
plunge, still clutching those
original threads of light,
but in the great falling
they become tangled, knotted,
and the mind must be reshaped by darkness.
It is impossible to say
when the fall will end
and from the void I will stand
to look back at the golden threads
seeing the mind's fire
and into what strange celtic knots it has been tied.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

36. My dear otherlander.......

Wow, this is wonderful.......

I thank you for sharing these words with all of us, and with me...

Did you write this?

I really like it!

First bridgit, and now you, have been inspired by me...

I am honored to share the space with this work......

Thank you...:hug:

[otherlander]

39. Aw, thanks, Peggy!

Yeah, I did, a few months ago, and I'm glad you like it! Your poems are always pretty moving. :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

40. Thank you!

I only post the ones I think fall into my "best" category....

This one seemed to fill the bill.....

I'd love to see more of your work too...:hug:

[otherlander]

41. I wrote this poem about a year or two ago

and I forget if I've ever posted it before, but just a couple
weeks ago I went back and edited it. So, even if I already
posted this somewhere, this is it again. Yeah, I know, wierd,
that I wrote a poem about global thermonuclear war.

 They have created a new God.

 This new God is a furious one,
outshines the outdated God of the Sun,
and he must be theirs alone.
 So, proceeding, they gave the nod,
and unleashed the wrath of the Neon God.

 A city of stone will be his altar of granite,
in return, more will be demanded.
This God is of science, not legend,
and in His wake, the mortal age will end.
 So, power blinded, they gave the nod
to proceed and unleash the Neon God.

 Down fell the ash, away boiled the sea,
and Earth became the kingdom of the new-age deity. 
Soul vaporized in otherworldly light,
and with the rise of the sun was eternal night.
The inventor's skull gave an eyeless nod,
to death, in the face of his apocalyptic
     God.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

42. What can I say....but wow!

This is very good, IMHO...

Quite breathtaking....

And scary too, of course...

Very final...

No wiggle room or last reprieves.....just final death to all....

Thank you for posting this tonight! :hug:

[otherlander]

45. I got the "neon god" idea from

The Sound of Silence.
"And the people bowed and prayed/to the neon god they made/and the sign said the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls/and tenement halls/ and whispered in the sounds of silence..."

Well, I'm going to bed now. Goodnight! :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

46. I remember those lyrics!

Excellent choice!

Sweetest of dreams...:hug:

[6000eliot]

43. Peggy, Do you want a critique?

It's very good, so I don't want to say anything too negative.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

44. My dear 6000eliot!

I don't mind criticism, not at all!

By all means, critique away!

I'm glad you think it's very good.....but most work can stand to be improved in some way....

Have at it!

Thanks for coming by .....:hug:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

47. A very old poem of mine that says somewhat the same thing

THE MASK

Whose eyes are those that see through me,
as I gaze back at you? What thoughts are there
that know of me, as I sit knowing not?

Impassive face, that mask you wear--
It hides you from my sight-- Yet you see me
(most thoroughly!) and mock my very soul.

Oh, hidden man behind that face,
I think I should know you-- You scare me,
but I don't know why, or how.... or who you are!

Are you my judge? What have you seen?
Do you condemn my life?
Oh, faceless man, behind the mask--

The mirror says
you're me....

© 2007 Steven A. Hessler
All Rights Reserved

[CaliforniaPeggy]

48. My dear Prisoner_Number_Six....

And yet another poet, with his work...

Thank you for sharing!

Yours is quite different from mine, and from all the others here...

Yet I find it resonates with me!

You describe the dissonance we sometimes feel as we look into ourselves...

I like this! :hug:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

49. I was a young drunk when I wrote that

It took many more years and a whole lot of living for me to recognize the face behind my mask.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

50. That is a remarkable admission......

I thank you for your candor......

And I rejoice that you were able to recognize your true self! :pals:

And I thank you also for enabling me to get this thread to flame status...I had not expected that.....

[wildhorses]

51. ---

:hug:


and thanks for this thread, lots of good stuff in here :loveya:

what a bunch of talented people in this thread :wow:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

54. My dear wildhorses!

There are indeed a lot of talented folks here.......

And I'm talking to one of them!

And I'm wondering just what you edited out........

:hug:

[DIKB]

52. Great job!

I can totally identify with that feeling.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

55. My dear DIKB...

Thank you!

I'm glad you enjoyed this one...

Seems as though I have spoken for many here...:hug:

[GenDem]

53. I love it, Peggy!

And I often wonder, depending on the horrific event, who will emerge? Will it be someone stronger and better, or someone more fragile?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

56. My dear GenDem!

Thank you soooooooo much!

I'm very pleased you found this worthy...

I've wondered the same thing you have...

And I have no real answers...:hug:

[RetroLounge]

57. Very nice

I don’t recognize me
Or you for that matter


How that resonates...

:hug:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

59. My dear Retro........

Oh, thank you.......

It means so much when an established poet takes the time to talk to a n00b like me...

Glad it resonated with you....... :hug:

[bigwillq]

58. Good job Peggy.

I like it. :)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

60. My dear bigwillq........

Thank you so much!

I am really glad you like it......

I never know what's going to come out of me, or if it will be any good at all...

:hug:

[bigwillq]

63. You should post it

on your myspace page.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

64. Hmmm....hadn't even thought of doing that...

Perhaps I will.....

:hi:

[Guava Jelly]

61. Wierdness has been a way of life for me

Great Poem btw
:thumbsup:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

62. My dear GoPsUx....

And for so many, it would seem..........

Glad you liked the poem, sweetie...:hug:

I'm sorry about all that weirdness.......