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458 · Jun 2018
Cottonwood
Love is our cottonwood.

Further I give chase,
Further it strays.

If only it may fall upon my palms,
May I fleetingly hold and sway,

Until Wind takes us,
Far, Far away.

~Robert van Lingen
456 · Jun 2018
Summer Shower
Love is a Summer's Rain
Step through my lonely storm
Here I am once again


~Robert van Lingen
I liked the idea of a haiku, but decided to modify it, slightly.
455 · Feb 2018
Clash
At last,
Abashed at the rash decisions of my heart,

The crash amassed the crass dealings of my past,
Fast,
The class to mask the blast,

Hide.

~Robert van Lingen
455 · Jun 2019
I Am
I am Patience and I am Pain,

I am tribulation and trials,

I am horror and I am happiness,

I am not myself, nor I wish to be so.

I am as existence is,

And so I wish to be peace,

I wish,

And I am.
Written on 04-28-2015
https://my.w.tt/fz4hp2raBX
452 · Apr 2019
Here you go
And let me guess,
You threw away the key?

The Trust we've mustered, and dusted off,
In the past, has only set fast our reasons to not.
Time, and time again...

We've finished with this pain,
Locked away,
We keep our scythe-d hearts...
still-bleeding from the wounds of years ago.

Our still-beating heart that somehow survives,
Despite itself...
And the lines we've drawn.

I am the great wall with no gate.
And nothing inside...
But with nothing to hide,
I hope.

I'm just afraid,
You'll come by,
and give me another reason to...


Wait.

You've given me another reason to not.
I hold the keys to many hearts,
but not my own.

You've put the table on the wrong side,
as well as the door.
Six locks,
To keep the blight inside,
But not to hide from us all.

These blue eyes see through those sighs of grief.

You've not locked yourself inside.
Just put your pains away.
You,
May leave your strains behind,
And fly,
Away to breathe the sighs of relief that you couldn't wait to see.

Don't lock away your heart,
Because here's the key
In Response to "Locked Out" by Adrasteia
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/3096497/locked-out/
448 · Feb 2019
Words Mean Everything
Many people say that, actions speak louder than words,
these short little lines we write speak to us in a way a gift or a hug could never,
Actions,
do speak louder than words.
But words,
speak directly to our mind and heart:
bypassing the inconsistencies and shows us one's intentions,
words, do mean something
448 · Oct 2018
I forgot about you
Mindpeace,
   My mind plays tricks,
Like the days,
   Coming.

I remembered that I forgot,
   And I smiled inside..
The thought of not thinking of you
   gives me a peace I haven't known in far too long.

For here,
   Is my first day since,
That I forgot about you.

Too many days,
   My haunted months threaten their return.

A cold winter,
   my old friend...

maybe now that I,
   forgot to remember you,

My winter won't be so cold..
445 · Oct 2018
Poolee
Tomorrow,
   To Borrow Time,
   To sign the lines that resign our lives away,

This is our time.
   Salute,
   And Stand Attention.

For We Are,
   The Next In Line.

~Robert van Lingen
443 · Sep 2019
Hi, Again.
Conjunctory synapsations dominate this space of mine.
Illogictorious messengers flutter across the grey matter.

Ellaborations swim down my being.
Painfulnesses take wing through the nervousness I call anxiety.

It is reading words that can be said, but that you cannot understand.
This is me,
My time,
My ramblings in thought,
I am,
Stranded in my mind.
442 · Feb 2019
heartsongs
Shall I paint you a picture?
With my pen and paper I may yet sing you a song,
With these scrolls I scribe, away to see my each and every perspective, prospective to today's little happenings,
blissfully ignorant to what happened just a few seconds ago.

You see,
My words are the arts,
You paint with your heart.
441 · Jan 2018
Law
Law
Love, Pain, Hate, Shame, they are all one in the same,
What keeps us sane?

The peace of which we seek blinds our eyes of the ease with which we bleed.
We cease to peace when we give in to grief.

This is the law of love and life,
With which we walk unto our paths that we ourselves have never known,
and never will,

Save the day,
We pave peace with our tears and fears for others to stride,
And find their way,

~Robert van Lingen
440 · Dec 2017
Firebrand
Love blunt my blade,
Set in stone my firebrand,

And show me a new way.

~Robert van Lingen
439 · Mar 2019
That Song
Each and every time,
I hear that rhyme,
That song,

I become strung along,
Back to the little basement,
Where I spent my teenage years,
The look on my face when it was just you and I.

Though our adolescent love has faded,
we've become friends, even if distant,
and gone our separate ways,
My love for that moment will never be swept away,

You were my drug back when,
My mind was narrow then.

For I was your hero, and you were my Heroine.



~Robert van Lingen
Re-worded re-post with some grammatical corrections,
Sets this poem in the direction I want it to be.
439 · Oct 2018
I'm not
I might seem strong to you,
Truth is,
I'm just too broken to ask for the help I silently need.
How am I still here?
I'm too selfish to remove myself from the equation.
Why are you still here?
Because I lie to myself and tell myself that you are.
Because I'm terrified of losing everything I'll never receive.
Because I live under the assumption that I'm worthless because all past evidence points to it.
Because I'm broken.
And If I ask for help,
I'll probably break you too.
And break myself even further.
Because I'm afraid of everything.
Because I'm not,
Who we think I am.
I secretly hope no one reads this because I don't want you to know how broken I am. I only wrote this so I wouldn't break down and talk to you.
435 · Apr 2019
rANDOM #-2
You will read this,
We will cry,
At the silence,
Between you and I.
430 · Sep 2018
I
I
am so,
alone.

i need a friend.
i want to talk to my friend

no.

Why?

you'll be a burden, she's busy.
she's got more important things to do.

then..who do i talk to?

me.

but, you're me.

I,
am so,
alone.
i want to fall asleep,
and when I wake up.
I want it all to have been,
just another nightmare
429 · Feb 2018
Novel
Miles and Miles, the isles file away,
Walking past, walking fast, and I find myself astray,

Bleeding deep and needing peace,
Let fly one more tear,


I find myself in need of that which I never knew I never had,

But wait,
The novel forever unfinished,
Read me one more page.

~Robert van Lingen
427 · Jul 2018
To Catch a Poet
Eenie,
Meenie,
Miney,
Mo,

Catch a poet by his toes,
If he suffers,
Let him go,

Eenie,
Meany,
Miney,

Oh...
422 · Oct 2019
?
?
what
am
i
supposed
to
say

when
nothing
is
what
it
seems
Music in one ear,
Chatter in the other.

An endless stream of thoughts in the other,
A restless mind in the other.

Smother'd by the descending fogs of doubt,
Another moment,
Another fake smile.

I will laugh with you,
as I hide inside.

Otherwise,
under covers,
Today is,
Just like any other.

~Robert van Lingen
re-write and post of poem formerly called "Many Ears"
420 · Aug 2018
Two in the Same
The seance,
Between my heart and mind,
Serves to intertwine,
My thoughts I might find,
Buried in my heart,
The kinds that tear me from my feet,
Up till the moments I've died.

Every unwaking second,
Is a moment I find,
That my heart and mind,
Can be...

Alone.

~Robert van Lingen
420 · Jan 2019
?
?
What is this curse I bear...
To always be aware of my doings,
But never knowing why?

I am a lost ship with no rudder or flares,
I am a roaming car with no wheel,
I am a scout with no compass...

I am,
a soul,
a heart,
a mind,

with no truth
no light
nigh even a tenuous sky...

when I lay these eyes upon where the stars would be,
Mindnumbing shudders grapple my limbs and slay me forth against the walls I'd built but only to keep my heart safe,
mindrunning awild as I can only see behind me.
Time, rushing away from these brittle bones.
I,
have no idea
The single thing I've been chasing for as long as I can remember.
Perched Gracefully upon my fingertips,
Only to fly away.

Leaving me on to watch enviously at its untouchable beauty, not knowing If I'll ever see it again.

One can only Hope.
Peace.

~Robert van Lingen
418 · Aug 2019
Random #89 ½
I lust for the grasp of hope's embrace.
The gentle slumber of no further worries.

I crave the eyes in which I will drown,
and the restful days within them.
415 · May 2018
You Are the Light
Why are you running?
Pull down the sun,
Look in a mirror and see that it is you.

Why try to escape?
Wave away the clouds and fear no fear,

Why let your tears fly?
Dry them and step into the stars and you will see,
You are there.

Why chase the light?
When you are shining already.

You Are the Light.

~Robert van Lingen
414 · Dec 2017
Sail Past
Who are you?

What is this?

What is happening?

Grappling with my defenses as I slip into despair and confusion, comatose.

Just as I feel all is well,

The gentle swells turn to tsunami,

Crash upon my shores.

The moors sink into the unrelenting waves.

I see you and I cry inside.

Why?

I don't know.

The mere sight of you still shakes me to my bones,

As I sink and drown I watch you float past in your bliss,

Sail past me, unawares.

Somebody save me...

~Robert van Lingen
412 · Nov 2018
Every Day
Once in a day I wake,
And once in a day I fall away.

Once in today I looked inside myself to find the ways I used to be.
Once in one day I still cannot see who I will be.

Once in two days I fall astray and I forget what I've meant to forget to remember.

Once,
I sway to the sounds of my approaching sleep,
Everything goes away.

One, in this way,
I slip,
I fade away into the peace I wish I'd find,
Every other day.

~Robert van Lingen
410 · Jun 2018
This War I Wage
This war I wage.
A new chapter.

I fought my battles,
I bled my blood.
I followed my orders and by God I marched,

Little did I know,
In this war I wage...
I fight on both sides...
I'd buried my only fear so deep as to make the Gods wonder,

I'd built my trust,
Back up from the rubbles of my decimation,
I'd trusted in one more than any other.

And yet,
You'd managed to find that too.
Well done, sir...

Once more you've taken my trust to a ****** ropes' end.
Again you've manifested the fear I'd kept locked away.

That's too bad.
Now There is none more for you to bring to life.
There are no more towers for you to topple...

Yet I stand before you.
I.
Will.
Not.
Fall.

You've no more stones to cast.
I will use your wretched ammunition as bricks,
And my blood as mortar.

It is no longer I who will fall.
You have nothing left.
I am.
405 · Aug 2019
Brass
Bound to a destiny encased in brass,
I await the fateful day,
Standing by,
Feigning my existence all the while,
Holding the beast at bay.
405 · Aug 2019
REST
Mental heart at rest,
At rest...

At best,
I must arrest my restless mind to slog through the rest of today.

At Rest.
At rest,
Birds nest of anxieties...
Come to rest.

SILENCE!

insolent mind.

Be, at rest.
405 · May 2019
random # 7
-
My,
capacity for selflessness,
veracity for honesty,
fervency for forgiveness...

i never turn my back.
however,
what is the cost of caring?



Mindful is the falling plum of its fate.
Doomed to be trod upon, yet,
From the remains is always born new life.


-
405 · Jul 2019
Fool's Gold
Ideas cast in thoughtless gold,
Will rend no fortune's tale.

Though dreams forged with dauntless hold,
Will breathe truth preveiled.


~Robert van Lingen
402 · Oct 2019
Kindling
I am merely a reflection of the shadow that walks beneath my feet.
My heart chokes on wildfires of yesteryear,
Nary the rarest sputter,
Yet I have nothing to lose.


As the smouldering candle simmers,
Fit to set the world aflame,
Is my being,
Wound like a clockspring,
Pull my trigger,

And I will explode.


Reignite Me.
402 · Sep 2018
what is next?
Hold tight to hope's embrace,
   wait...

I've heard this line before.

   This corridor I've walked along before,
I walk along once more.

Breathlessly tracing my fingertips along the walls as I stroll through the halls,
  
   Feel the infinitesimal imperfections,
akin to the ones in my mind.

Mind the gap.

Ahead here,
   is a dead end.

the point I cannot see past.

what,
What is behind my wall?

~Robert van Lingen
401 · Mar 2018
Day 1
Lights sputter,
Ringing in your ears,
Held tight in hope's embrace.

Tears pour,
Muffled screaming,
Everything you knew is gone.

Ground is shaking,
Dust in your fingernails,
Blood on your arms,
Curled up, you pray this isn't real.

A bright flash.
Silence.
Nothing.

What happened?

~Robert van Lingen

------------
A poetic prologue to One Year,
a short novel by Robert van Lingen
A poetic prologue to One Year,
a short novel by Robert van Lingen
401 · Jul 11
To Love a Poet
To play the heartstrings plays a song that only we can hear,
To love the artist in words,

Every string that sings the easing pluck of fingers on the page,

To love a poet,
To sing and grow my wings unfold and brings the snow it,
Lingers...

Under my fingers.

The tremble of little, unspeakable things.

Speak to me your fears.
The Pen and paper rend and savor the bend and sway of a heart that dares to hear,

The black pours from the poet sword.

Fingered on the page I bend and wage my war,
Inked and torn the paper bore the tears.

To love the art,
The burns too sore to heal,

To love,
The start,
The pen and art that bleed apart the papers,
Your eyes reveal the arcs I forgot to read,
The swings of ease,
My mind rings a wicked song,

I squeeze the pages between my aching, bleeding fingers,
The ink stains my blood,
Black,
The sting,
The flood of feelings, the shaking dealings of thought.
You caught my sighs , you caught my lies,
Now sing to me a different song.

Red fades to grey,
The lines begin to grace my fingers,

The cuts now painting my pains upon the pages.
My rage subsides,

Under the gates of shining hell,
the wells of golden swell.

My eyes crash again.

And there you are.
396 · Aug 2019
-Less
My heartless time rivers flow'd.
My restless adversary.

My thoughtless mind had show'd,
My inundated tributary.

Flood'd,
By the sleepless anxiety.
Constant reminders of my perfectionist's folly;
My immortal immorality.

My logic's subsided.
Sanity's mistaken.
Slow'd to a dull roar,
Blowing in the wind.

My Intuition's annulment,
Blind'd by the songless hymns.
That heartbeat melody,
What set me on the brim.

My Mindless heart.
My heartless mind.
This is life,
In this peaceless soul of mine.

Time is my commodity,
Ever so rare,
What has me blind,
To this peace of time.

Perhaps, somewhere in this mind,
Ever so scared,
I may yet find,
This peace of mine.

~Robert van Lingen
394 · Jan 2018
No.
No.
When the day is down,
You look around and there is nothing there.

Just look around.
You will see the dark,
You will hear the sound of those who are.

When the day is down,
When the end whispers in your ear,
Say no.
Say no and go to where you will,

Your end is not here.
Say no and go to where you are meant to be.

~Robert van Lingen
Written on Aug. 17, 2015. Transcribed and ported from my Wattpad.com Account
392 · Mar 2019
Treacherous Questions
If asking these questions,
Leads to the edge's ends,
Then so be.

This way I see,
Will no longer breathe life,
Into the clouded seas,
Of a scene,
That serves only to see,
To my demise.

It may be wise, then,
To just say goodbye,
And breathe the sighs,
of our relief,
To once again walk the streets,
Without using our hands and knees.

Then maybe,
Once again,
In few years' time,
We could say hello,
In and of a new light,
Once we've seen,
Who You and I,
are truly meant to be.

~Robert van Lingen
Broken Light,
  shattered nights,
My blight with which I dance and weave.

To and fro,
   my wonderlust flows.
My fascination with the fight.


The shortest distance between peace and I,

Is through Hell.

~Robert van Lingen
391 · Nov 2018
You
You
Who
                               Are
  You
           To
                                     Judge
                  Others
For

     What
                       You
                                      Are

              NOT
390 · Nov 2019
Stop-Gap
Stopgap.
emotional stocks wrapped with paper wings,
which burst'd into inferno at the first broken sight of spring.

Baseless transition into faceless thoughts,
Caught in webs of speechless dreams,
laced with poison's tasteless lessons taught.

Stop that.
Think back,
at the wasted scenes graced with cold embrace.
Winter's faces breathe,

Lies stand by your faithless eyes.
instead.
dream,
of flame-less skies.

Stop the gap in nature's lap,
and sit upon her shoulders.
See the skies that breathe your sighs of reprieve,
nigh your dreams seized with whisper'd echos breeze.
Set them free...

p.s.,
you may already be.
but beware.
hopeless eyes are doomed to live with lies, disguised by strife's hypnosis,
ensnared by defeatist blight.
389 · Jan 2019
Count the Sounds
Count the syllables,
One by one,

The eternal tale,
Spoken lines,

Reading our silence,
Word for word.

~Robert van Lingen
387 · Dec 2017
To Write This Fight
To write the fight is my way to speak,
To fight the might of life is my reason to live,

Set me free to my mind and I will never look back,
To myself I am the one and only.

I am in control.

To write the fight is my way to speak,

Breathe to me,
And show me who I am.

~Robert van Lingen
386 · Mar 2018
Adrift upon Forever
The Dream,
The relenting call,
Here I,

I want to believe those fleeting dreams,
To move on and be,

But,
I am beguiled by the seas of everything I wanted to be,
Adrift on the forever of it all.

Writing the lines forming before me, ultimately trapped in time,
A relentless mind running blind in the wilds of what I will never become.

Unkempt,
Yet I am young.

I follow the beating drums of a different tune,
A strange mind,
Step,
Waltz to the curious muze.

~Robert van Lingen
386 · Apr 2018
Shallow Deep
Little whispers in my ear,
Strike as silent screams,
My heart the amplifier.

Speak to me and I shall find meaning you can't understand.
Scream to me,
All I hear is death in my ears.

A gentle whisper,
A harmless little ripple,
Perpetuates in my torrid waters,
Becometh my reaper grim.

Your little words,
Whisper to me as I drown in the shallows.

~Robert van Lingen
I don't trust,
   Trust me.

I only see what my broken mind allows,

All the times I'd need'd myself most,
   I wasn't there.

and still, I am impresent to be but what flows,

Please beware,
   my mind.

Never speak to me a promise.
   'tis but a lie you don't yet know you've told.

~~~~

I don't know what I'm writing anymore.
   My hands move if but of their own accord,
whilst I watch the show.
   Every line is a piece of my story I've never read before.

So please ignore,
   if this makes no sense.
I am always tensed with what I don't know.
So,
When my mind and heart conspire,
I scrawl,

I scribe my pains away.

~Robert van Lingen
384 · Jan 2019
bloody scribbles
Chicken scratch,
Chicken scratch...

scribbles,
   Slashed against the page...

What is this rage?

This ink is my blood.
   Let me bleed some more.


~Robert van Lingen
382 · Apr 2019
The Angel's Curse
I don't want to leave this moment.
This dream,
Is both inordinately beautiful,
and unforgivingly painful at the same time.
Dancing with an angel,
So tantalizing.
But when I realize it isn't real,
It hurts far more than it has any right to do...

I want more.
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