Photo by Olha Kolesnyk on Unsplash
The smallest wave says all will be as it must.
A palm raised to the sky in trust,
Desert arid lives, quenched by this giving lake,
Where beasts and man for their own sake,
Take succour, time for contemplation,
Was here not a promise of salvation?
Do we not now have this right,
To live as we will, take as we might.
We are filled with always wanting,
Yearning, thirsting, our share allotting,
Trying always for one bit more
The appetites at our core.
The match between my needs and yours,
Teeth and nails, fangs or claws,
We all must strive to keep this well
As nature sounds her warning bell,
This font is there for us to use,
We all win, or we all lose.
Comments (17)
“To live as we will, take as we might. We are filled with always wanting,” stood out to me. So true of humans, so much take and not a lot of give! I like the way this reads similarly, but the tone changes. Nice!
I liked the flow of this so much! "To live as we will, take as we might." was my fav line
I really like this one. The differences are small, but feels like a greedy fight going forward and a resignation of what will be will be the other way. Not sure if that's where you were going, but it's what I got. Great job.
Wow Hannah you really did well with this one
Holy shit. This was the best inverse poem I've read. Powerful in both directions.
I really admire how you demonstrated your ability to adhere to a rhyme scheme in an inverse! The title was well chosen, I think it encapsulates the flipped tones really well.
Lovely, subtle inverse poem!
Brilliant both ways
This is great. there is a difference in both readings...slight but in a good way. I've enjoyed and not enjoyed this challenge as much as I thought I might. I usually like the tricky poems stuff...but...yeah. I've found that I either end up making it too sharp either way or it's not different enough lol. This was fantastic and I love your use of words in this one, Hannah!
Well done Hannah. Lovely subtlety in your poem 🥰
So intense and worked so well both ways! You nailed this!
Subtle.
I really like that there is a diference forward and back. A sublte little adjustment.
Great entry.
Excellent poem, either way you read it.
Very interesting 2-way traffic here.
Ooh, this is very good. The subtle difference in the readings, one of uncertainty and perhaps dread, the second peaceful, and letting nature take its course. Superb!