social commentary
There's a rich history of poetry serving as social commentary, intended to inspire calls to action.
Addiction's Whisper. Runner-Up in Static Challenge. Top Story - August 2026.
It whispers... The constant tension, bound in crackling, gradient whiteness the fast fragmenting sound of barely camouflaged crisis the colorless hymn of stasis singing in each last ear the rhythmless hum, a basis for every background fear. And I listen. It whispers... Like coiling spring or serpent, it's a long-impeded flow all made of breath, unspent, with nowhere good to go; a hungering voice without vent - charged, and waiting to blow. And I listen. It whispers... Torn 'twixt fight and flight, this body opts for freeze, quaking, cracking, cast alight upon the venomous breeze; clinging to numb marcescence while captured is all of time by this atrophying presence: drone chorus without a rhyme. And I listen. It whispers: who, and where, and why you are never shall they change your light is lost, a stillborn star in resting place most strange - a flickering screen, a dim-lit bar - anywhere in this addiction's range. And I listen. It whispers... and I think to myself it is about time that I said something back. before lost am I forever in whispering fields of white, and gray, and black.
By Gabriel Huizenga3 months ago in Poets
Three senses against one
"A picture's worth a thousand words." They see a worm from far away, So why are we not ruled by birds? The words are felt and seen and heard, But pictures still require rays. A picture's worth a thousand words? The written knowledge man transferred Could still destroy the birds of prey. So, why are we not ruled by birds? Clichés can charm while truth gets blurred. It's one whole sketch to show "malaise". A picture's worth a THOUSAND words? With flags and eagles on their shirts, The bird's the boss they seem to say. So why are we not ruled by birds? Though eyes in instants are preferred, It takes too long to draw "cliché". A picture's worth a thousand words So why are we not ruled by birds?
By A. S. Lawrence3 months ago in Poets
