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  #1  
Unread 07-18-2017, 08:17 PM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Default Euphoria You Have Known

(97 depressing poems, 2,667 views and counting…You might have known this would be coming)
I'm here to break up this party of despair and isolation -- or perhaps more accurately ask that we step outside the room of doom for a moment and recall euphoria we have known.

IMO, Indubitably more challenging than writing poetry that is depressing is writing poetry that exudes euphoria. The kind that soars. Not the kind that smacks of saccharine. The kind that drips like honey. The kind that shuns skepticism and ventures into the mystical. Go ahead. Make my day. (I have nothing.)

Last edited by Jim Moonan; 12-10-2017 at 07:48 PM.
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  #2  
Unread 07-18-2017, 10:31 PM
Douglas G. Brown's Avatar
Douglas G. Brown Douglas G. Brown is offline
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On the Road Again

When following a hearse, I think a minute
Of how lucky I'm behind it, and not in it;
And nothing gives a feeling of euphoria
Like passing funeral homes and crematoria.

Last edited by Douglas G. Brown; 07-19-2017 at 06:31 AM.
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  #3  
Unread 07-19-2017, 02:15 AM
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Ann Drysdale Ann Drysdale is offline
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Facing the Demon

It was the time before time, before his first wristwatch
but he watched for its coming from the high appointed place.
On time? Who knew? But expected, inevitable,
it came small and muttering between the hedges,
coloured like meadowsweet, thinking to hide itself
among the dusty green and the pale plumes of it,
feigning innocence like a flickering lizard
under the sloping rays of the time-to-go sun.

Now he could hear the familiar arrogant challenge –
I come I go, I come I go, as it rocked to its own music
along the bright track that was singing beneath his feet.

Now it saw him and roared, its lances thrusting alongside,
the grey plume rising and swelling and fizzing with stars.
He stood his ground, repelling the terrible chanting –
rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta – with a long scream
that began as the blunt head entered the space beneath him
and became a triumphant gasp as the tail trailed through.

But the thick plume stayed, rising before and behind him
to make a dark handshake over his unbowed head,
sprinkling hot grit to nip and tickle his skin.
Slowly it thinned and went and he headed back happy,
taking the bitter stink of it home in his hair.
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Unread 07-19-2017, 05:16 AM
Aaron Novick Aaron Novick is offline
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Well, they say laughter is the best medicine...

Life's a bitch,
And then you croak,
But still it's
A funny joke.
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Unread 07-19-2017, 06:09 AM
Brian Allgar Brian Allgar is offline
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Aaron -

Yes, death's a joke
That makes me chortle
Daily - till then,
I'm still immortal.
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Unread 07-19-2017, 07:05 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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After starting this thread before going to bed last night, I woke up this morning to find no euphoria here. (Except possibly for Ann's puzzling poem I'm still rummaging through).

I'll try...


Dog Tale

The tail wags like a sensitive clumsy barometer
of happiness that easily activates after words
spoken with the right inflection; the floppy ear
hears what the heart wants; the tail thumps
at once against the table, the chair.

Or a pat and a scratch behind the ear
brings to life the flag at the rear.
Without a word their thoughts are clear:
I'm happy! I'm Happy!
and, if you listen closely,
You're here! You're Here!

Last edited by Jim Moonan; 07-19-2017 at 07:28 AM.
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Unread 07-21-2017, 12:26 AM
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Matthew Minor Matthew Minor is offline
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I know one person that,
in the face of this title,
recalls the first bag of dope;
Thank god it's not me.

Last edited by Matthew Minor; 07-21-2017 at 12:28 AM. Reason: who < that here
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Unread 07-22-2017, 07:00 PM
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RCL RCL is offline
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“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”
― Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

Wishing I could experience the same much more often!
__________________
Ralph

Last edited by RCL; 07-22-2017 at 09:30 PM.
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Unread 07-23-2017, 05:49 AM
Adrian Fry Adrian Fry is offline
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The vertigo of standing,
Planless, at the start of my career,
My future a shimmering dazzle of the possible,
My present, the town before me
An egg for the cracking.
Hold that moment of wild indecision
Not for long. But hard.
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  #10  
Unread 07-23-2017, 08:05 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Adrian, Wonderful! Euphoric!
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