Born from Mother Chaos and Father Order
Mother vivid, brash, capricious, and tormented
Father drab, introverted, obsessed, and tormented
Each ordered in their imbalances, each oblivious
I acknowledge order whether I see it or like it or not, for
The paradox of order is in chaos and the illusion of control.
My hypervigilance is on guard against the illusion of chaos
And the ordered predictability of abuse and exploitation.
Imposed order is an impossible misfit but keeps me warm
I wear it willingly when in vast sterile plains of rumination
I have my orders and you have yours, our toy soldiers
Sometimes line up and march side by side in parades
How can my obsessions and compulsions for order
Be disordered? Too many choices, too little choice
Too many chosen, too few choosable, in perpetuity
Order is an illusory anchor that tethers my homeostasis.
Laura Bloomsbury is today’s host of dVerse. Laura says:
today’s prompt is ORDER – the NOUN not the verb:
“the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method.”
– Write a poem that expresses, directly or indirectly, 1st or 3rd person, your relationship with order – do you like it, want it, need it or resist it?
– Think of the way order turns up in our lives: e.g.the order of the seasons, of ceremony.
– Use the word in your title or in the body of your poem if you like
– For an extra challenge, put your poem into the order of formal poetic patterning.
Good observation: “Imposed order is an impossible misfit but keeps me warm” I like the thought that we may be tethering ourselves to an illusion of order in chaos.
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Thank you, Frank.
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Nicely done Li.
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Thank you, Sadje.
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You’re welcome 😉
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Your last line is a powerful summation; looking for focus and balance on a shaky rope bridge in a torrent. Your introspection is refreshing.
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Glenn, thank you.
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Imposed order isn’t real order, is it? It is someone else’s construct, for THEIR own sense of order. Taught order, modeled order, suggested order, help-with-order … those are different things altogether.
Well done with the prompt!
Na’ama
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I had in mind imposed order being societies rules, work procedures and protocols, poetry forms, etc., not necessarily for any individual’s benefit, more like a shared set of rules all are expected to follow (which, regardless of any of these examples, will never happen).
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Yes, I hear you. I was thinking of those, too, and not only of the imposition by an individual. 🙂
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Theres a thin line between order and chaos, but they need each other. (K)
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Agreed. Relativity says they co-exist, and which they are depends on the viewer and the moment.
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I really love your poem Lisa. The first line explains it all, yet like a blooming flower it keeps blossoming into a prize rose!
Each ordered in their imbalances, each oblivious So true of many!!
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Dwight, thank you so much for your insightful comment.
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Wow! Our predicament worth pondering, Lisa…often our attempts at order are illusions of control.
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Yes, it is, as long as you don’t get too caught up in it. That’s the wasteland of rumination 🙂
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Truth!
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in the end you have to be yourself.
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I enjoyed your flow of consciousness in this one Lisa …
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Thank you. Exactly how it was written 🙂
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you rock!
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🙂
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that first stanza sums it up so well – the contrasts are vivid and the choices between the extremes like a yoyo pulling both ways. Well done! And thank you for joining in the prompt
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Thank you, Laura, and you’re welcome 🙂
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Glad you took this Chaos/Cosmos (cosmos almost literally means order as the opposite/ duality that grows from Chaos and vice versa.) angle I first thought I’d write about. Can’t have one without the other, no duality in reality. Thank god I didn’t as I am happy on my poem and yours is just amazing! Like WOW amazing!
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Thanks, Anthony, glad you like it. Those first few lines are meant in a cosmic sense, but they are also meant in a very up-close sense, as I am describing my actual parents. Quite the pair they were. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and they are a perfect example of it.
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Loved this poem JadeLi. Particularly the first verse, so descriptive in its intensity. You seem to be saying that there is order even in chaos.
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That’s exactly what I’m saying, Len 🙂 Thank you, and glad you enjoyed it.
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Love this ❤ I swear you take what's in my head and rearrange things so they make better sense. ❤ Your poem gives me goosebumps.
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Your words make me smile, Lael. Thank you ❤
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❤
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So many choices make even order seem like chaos… I think you captured that aspect of modernity soo well
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Thank you, Bjorn.
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I love the internal and oblique rhymes, which disrupt the orderly rhythm, and the line “Too many choices, too little choice”
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Thank you, Alexandra. How goes it in your neck of the woods?
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