Alphabet Challenge!

Adventure,

Such a lofty word.

All those who chase it called absurd.

Thrill seekers, vagabonds, flighty or mad.

All onlookers, now judges, say they've had

More than enough adventure for sure,

While they deny that they too feel the lure.

Only immune to its lusty call,

Are those on whom it befalls.

Yes they know it well, but know not when,

It will come calling, or will end.

So to those chasers, beware what you find,

It’s nothing but whimsy on the path of a hind.

And to the naysayers a caution likewise,

Its gifts are more than ever you surmise.

Adventure,

Such a lofty word.

Brazen,

Trademarked label of fools,

Yet to call them out makes one a tool.

Why bother listing all the flaws

of others when you flaunt the law.

After all is said and done,

careful and careless are both undone.

Indeed you may raise the price

If you can keep yourself free from vice,

Do so carefully and you may see,

Brazen,

Just another way to be.

Callous,

What you call one too blunt,

When their harsh words cause afront.

Or if they speak what is true,

When you'd rather they lied to you.

A word tossed round

Without a thought.

Remember it means that one feels naught.

Callous,

Unfeeling yet distraught.

Denial,

Ah, the refreshing state of nothing.

Nothing wrong, all well.

For can’t one deny any living hell?

What's that you say?

I cannot hide?

Try and find me...

Denial,

First shelter when all goes wrong.

Excuse,

Kindly hear these words I offer,

As some explanation I will now proffer

As to why I could not be

Where you needed and expected me.

Indeed I strive with all I am

To be in the place we had planned,

But...

Forfeit,

Give up or pass over do not fully define.

The point of realization,

that regardless of frustration,

The pursuit at hand must be abandoned.

Indeed for all you want, you're done.

At last the case where regardless of chance,

For want of appearance,

The cause is lost.

Forfeit,

Don’t be deceived, not all who have do so by choice.

Grief,

You'd think you only want relief,

Some moment you’re again complete,

Yet the thought will not occur,

Restoration comes when you endure.

Thus when life starts to reshape,

Seek not to escape.

And when looking in from the outside,

Assault not the bereft with your pride.

Just be near, and listen true,

Yet remember the burden is not on you.

All the best wisdom you may give

Is silent attention, live and let live.

Grief,

Wound begets wound until left to heal

Horror,

For want of humanity the world spins out.

However, consider one may not know,

What terror is and how far it will go,

But for those of us who would recoil.

Without the fear, would we still toil

to stave off the dark?

Is there some small piece that would simply revel

in a world without light where all bedevil

their neighbor and nowhere find a friend?

Is that how our world will end?

Or isn't it how we began?

Each other a meal if stone’s in hand?

Horror,

Best left in the dark.

Ignorance,

Bliss.

They say what you do not know cannot hurt you.

Yet, can not knowing make anything untrue?

Has anything lost ever been found,

on account of the searcher not looking around?

Thats weak, I’ll concede, as oft I find

what I need when I leave searching behind.

But has a threat ever left one alone

Just because their senses weren’t honed?

On this one too I must give in,

As many a fear is heightened by seeing the danger you're in.

So these points have been yielded,

What other questions though have yet to be fielded?

Let's put it this way, bear with me as I change the course,

Is there any damage which for the want of your knowledge

Has simply gone away, never to be dredged,

Never to see the light of day?

Never to bring you trouble upon your way?

Frankly, the answer is you don’t know,

and on account of your not knowing, how can you choose which way to go?

So there's nothing which ignoring will ever undo.

Thus that which you don’t know will always haunt you.

Ignorance,

Torment.

Judgement,

Ever we discourage, ever we practice.

We can do so even without observation.

And should you think to call "Objection",

then the motion passed against you

is passed more heartily, even if untrue.

Some will decry these ways,

They’ll declare there's more than what we say.

Then when they have a need,

Be it justice or simply greed,

They too will pick up the scales.

Judgement,

All equal in guilt.

Knowledge,

We seek it only if it's cheap and agreeable.

Collect, categorize, collate, codify.

Take apart the world to find

When each piece is alone you’re blind

To the whole of which they’re part,

Just like any living heart.

Label everything to see

There is no label for every me.

For when you put me in a box,

It is your mind that's under lock.

Then if your world is all in order,

And you say you will now shoulder

All that needs to be set right

By simply switching day for night.

Now with your static findings you

Say to all you’ve found what's true,

The world unmade for all to believe,

All in your record, under you, the rieve.

Yet, when all your work is finally done

there's still nothing new under the sun.

Knowledge,

Better to practice understanding

Laudable,

We could not disagree more.

Indeed, present one thing worthy of praise

And I'll show you ten who call it cliche.

We’ll remember when we’re older

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Yet we strive on in our searching,

Hoping for anything universally deserving.

Laudable,

Says one, laughable says another.

Malicious,

So you acted quite vicious,

And your actions pernicious,

Your execution judicious,

Leaving all suspicious,

Though you pretend it fictitious,

Claiming it merely capricious,

Your defense now repetitious,

But we all know you’re just...

Malicious,

When evil is your intent, best be surreptitious.

Nostalgia,

Once, and just once more.

Do you remember the time before?

When you were so young

It seemed your life had not begun

yet somehow it had already gone wrong

left you wondering if you could belong.

Then came the day only a moment past,

you'd found love, believed it would last.

Now looking back you can't unsee,

That all too soon they'd wander free.

Still you'd neither trade a single day,

Nor should you pray for them to stay.

Indeed you must let life move on

forward not back, lies the dawn.

Nostalgia,

No matter how the world turns, the past is gone.

Obstinate,

Like marble, granite or strata of the kind

That builds in the earth till the unsuspecting find

Their progress impeded

Their efforts undone

And lest they concede it,

Their future overrun.

The humble or adroit may recover their pace,

If they are willing to run a new race.

Unfortunate, however, the bull headed ones,

Who striving heedlessly

Contest countless tones

and so they end needlessly

buried where they should have resigned.

Obstinate,

Never to be moved, just left behind.

Prolific,

Selfishly I'll claim this anon,

Long before to this word I belong.

A goal it will be,

A guidepost,

A course,

And for it I'll work without remorse.

Oh drivel they'll call it,

This shameless dreck,

That I'll pour forth endless, (till I'm) up to my neck

In passable prose and poetry poor-

ly rhymed.

A catch here and a line ill defined.

My words will lack structure,

and my thoughts will wonder free,

But…

Prolific,

I Will be.

Quandary,

A decision upon you, a divergence of ways,

An unmitigable maze

And you're left in a daze,

Your thoughts in a haze,

But,

The choice is yours

Though your options abhorred

You must act above board

Not letting anything set you off course.

Still,

On all sides choices await

Like the steps up a tower of hate

You've enemies to make and claims to debate.

And however you turn you must learn not too late,

That

the path you lay will be followed some day

and you mustn't lead your followers astray

For you aren't the only one with a price to pay

And this is true regardless of what you say

So

Choose. Be decisive.

Don't let fear of the divisive

Dissuade you from actions incisive

Dispelling the taunts of the derisive

Indeed,

All your options contrary

And you ought to be wary

For all lead to mockery

Yet also out of this...

Quandary,

Though all outcomes seem fraught you still must choose.

Regal:

In deed and bearing beyond compare.

Have you searched long and wearily

for that which inspires you to simply stand and stare?

Have you made your effort completely,

exhausting all of everything you've ever been aware?

Have you parsed through each memory,

scouring all through every moment that you dare?

Have you too come to the same realization, meekly?

The world holds nothing worthy to leave your heir.

Regal:

A quality which exists only in dictionaries.

First a line,

Needn't be long,

Only to shine,

Some light upon,

The subject or thought or problem at hand,

Just something to help you make some point grand

Wander a bit,

Let the point settle in.

Give no rhyme.

Make them search for some reason.

Then comes a break,

And all catch their breath,

Now surprise with a turn or overwhelm with great breadth.

Words now are tools,

Ounce old rules for fools

Who's minds are shackled

Constrained and humdrackeled

For this effort they're free

To be shaped as you need

And in no time you'll learn

This license is taken not earned.

So follow and see,

Systematic,

Poetry

Systematic.

Who cares if the outcome's tragic

Take any means to stop the magic

Doesn't matter if they're drastic

Everything must remain static

Now let's not be dramatic

It's not like we're psychopathic

This shouldn't have to be traumatic

The process is automatic

We can't stomach your erratic

behavior.

Systematic

The system will be your savior.

Totality,

Not a piece missing.

Entirely sound.

Nothing left behind.

Completely complete.

Without any void.

In no way fractured.

In every way whole.

Full without question.

Intact and uncut.

Totality,

Nothing left out.

Umbra,

The point full dark and by shadow shrouded.

How many ways are there to say

One can only go up from here?

Will we ever find a better way?

The message remains, hold on my dear.

Oh we accept the old adage,

There’s no way out but through,

Though it irks us to hear at any age.

What about, it's easier to say than to do?

The question rattles in the mind

Of them who are seeing what's true,

So don’t think they are blind,

They’re just making their way too.

Umbra,

Would it worry you less to know, a healthy heart never sees light.

Verity,

Water will certainly wet you.

As we strive for new perspectives,

We often lose sight,

That regardless of our objectives,

Objectivity is a thankless plight.

Truly we strive to better

ourselves and each other in turn,

Yet when we overlook our fetters,

Why are we surprised we don’t learn?

Truth is a cold teacher,

It cares not for your attention,

It speaks not with the voice of a preacher,

Nor is it found in convention.

If you search with any expectations,

You'll find only the lies which you bring,

And the more you keep your reservations,

The sharper the truth will sting.

No boulder in motion will pause

for a lesson in momentum and mass,

It will carry on according to nature's laws,

And dispassionately crush your ass.

Verity,

Fire will certainly burn.

Willful,

Unrepentantly persistent.

If you called the sun,

Would it rise at your command?

And if you told water where to run,

Would it surge with a wave of your hand?

Could you tell the moon to just be done,

Or stop the oceans on the sand?

Yet do these facts matter once you've begun,

Do you even choose where you take your stand?

It seems that you just run run run,

As though you know your thoughts are canned.

Willful,

Unmoving, unremarkable.

Xenophobia,

Seen as essential to our past.

How we tarried at the thought,

That you might trust what you know not,

For indeed, in truth, and act,

The unknown may you attack.

Yet what is unknown today?

The stars all far away,

Or what is behind the dark,

Or whether life is not but stark.

Once it was our neighbors see,

We knew not who they may be.

We knew not if them we could trust,

We knew that only the dead are just.

Yet what is unknown today?

What will the future hold or sway?

Can we any problem overcome?

Will humans live to leave this sun?

I’ll tell you what is known today,

That any monolith can be swayed.

Xenophobia,

Known to be the end of our future.

Youth,

Free to explore, to grow, to change.

Stay awhile and share with me,

All the life you dream to see.

Tell me of the wonders of days,

And show me all the trails you blazed.

Walk down a new road each dawn,

see all the rivers the ocean has drawn.

All the world is open before thee,

but only once you see.

Youth,

Doomed to end.

Zealous,

today all seem to be.

Jealous,

they guard endlessly.

Watchful,

the guise of their action.

Hateful,

of all kinds of distraction.

Objective,

they could never be.

Deceptive,

comes to them more honestly.

Venerable,

we would once have said.

Vulnerable,

the thought echoes in my head.

Rebellious,

and lacking in discretion.

Zealous,

committed beyond question.

Truth cares not for your opinion,

Nor will it weep to learn its bland.