Philosophical Poetry Quotes

“It is not a lack of intelligence that holds people back the most. It is fear — often initially caused by repressed traumatic experiences they had gone through when younger. Without bringing these ancient traumas — embodied in their ‘shadow’ — from the darkness to the light, healing remains but a wishful thinking. The “poor little me” mindset manages to hijack their inner beings, rendering them unable to face their own perceived boundaries and limitations, which naturally also makes them unable to transcend them. Fear, you see, remains the driving force behind many harmful behaviours in life. “Let go or be dragged” as the Zen proverb reminds us.”
― Omar Cherif

“Once individuals become too ‘religious’ about a certain belief or reality tunnel they tend to subconsciously lose sight of the bigger picture. Be it faith, atheism, patriotism, veganism, cross-fittanism among a multitude of other isms and schisms, teachers and followers alike often cannot help but become dogmatic to a considerable degree. This happens when they don’t, at least occasionally, pause, reflect, or question — themselves included — which leaves them blinded by an illusory light at the end of their tunnel. The more certain they become regarding holding absolute truth, the more they drift away from truth; for absolute certainty remains life’s biggest illusion. The key is to do whatever you feel like doing without the need to shove it down others’ throats. And those who vibrate at similar frequencies will eventually find you.”
― Omar Cherif

“When the truth
Is the opposite
The silent liars
Are the true criminals

When the truth
Becomes fear
It's altered
But reveal
The memories
Of light

It's the only justice
In this corrupted earth

The Memories Are The Only Justice”
― Jazalyn, vViIrRuUsS: I Never Forget

“In a world where speaking one’s mind is, by definition, unsettling, when I took art in general and writing in particular as vocations I promised myself that I would never betray my inner being or sell out. To be true, genuine, authentic, and real. To be someone I can love and understand. From repression to expression, this meant not to censor oneself when it comes to creativity. For one could gain the world but lose their soul. At some point along the way I came to accept that, having an unquenched appetite for the different and unordinary, my views will always seem to convey a distaste for conformity and the established norms of the day; that which is considered “popular” by the masses. As an outsider swimming upstream against the current, usually in solitude, who’s looking in at humanity — and through it — rather than looking out. As such, I shall carry on speaking my unfiltered, anti-conformist, anti-establishment mind till the day I die. The true artist who does not fit in often ends up standing out.”
― Omar Cherif

“In a world where speaking one’s mind is, by definition, unsettling, when I took art in general and writing in particular as vocations I promised myself that I would never betray my inner being or sell out. To be true, genuine, authentic, and real. To be someone I can love and understand. From repression to expression, this meant not to censor oneself when it comes to creativity. For one could gain the world but lose their soul. At some point along the way I came to accept that, having an unquenched appetite for the different, the original, and the unordinary, my views will always seem to convey a distaste for conformity and the established norms of the day; that which is considered “popular” by the masses. As an outsider swimming upstream against the current, usually in solitude, who’s looking in at humanity — and through it — rather than looking out. As such, I shall carry on speaking my unfiltered, anti-conformist, anti-establishment mind till the day I die. The true artist who does not fit in often ends up standing out.”
― Omar Cherif

“In a world where speaking one’s mind is, by definition, unsettling, when I took art in general and writing in particular as vocations I promised myself that I would never betray my inner being or sell out. To be true, genuine, authentic, and real. To be someone I can love and understand. From repression to expression, this meant not to censor oneself when it comes to creativity. For one could gain the world but lose their soul. At some point along the way I came to accept that, having an unquenched appetite for the different, the original, the unordinary, my views will always seem to convey a distaste for conformity and the established norms of the day; that which is considered “popular” by the masses. As an outsider swimming upstream against the current, usually in solitude, who’s looking in at humanity — and through it — rather than looking out. As such, I shall carry on speaking my unfiltered, anti-conformist, anti-establishment mind till the day I die. The true artist who does not fit in often ends up standing out.”
― Omar Cherif

“I never had any intention
Or tendency
For intimacies
Outside of the extent
Of being unavoidably affected
By the chaotic emotions
That were brainstorming me
From various environments
In nature
And artificially
But somehow I retained
A stationary stance”
― Jazalyn

“A voice lingered in the sky,
humming narratives
of decay orchestrated
by the mighty one...”
― Lila Marquez, Line Breaker: A Collection of Poems

“Esperanza Impossible Sonnet 2

Truth is the pandemic,
Truth is the terror.
My truth versus your truth,
Your truth versus another.
We speak of truth as if it's a constant,
We chase it as antidote to our insecurity.
Most of our truths bring not understanding,
We cook up truth to fan our self-centricity.
Truth, in truth, is the opposite of stagnation,
Contraction repels all hope for understanding.
Truth is not a fixed point, but an act in motion,
Truth is the courageous act of a mind expanding.
Hence, to seek security one must not seek truth.
To seek truth, with security you must cut all truce.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“May you always value the simple little things in Life. For they make a big difference and hence are quite essential. Simplicity, in actuality, tends to be deeper than complexity. ‘Tis the reason why that which is simple often passes unperceived by the complex. If we look around us, we’ll find that the more one masters a certain domain the more simplification they will strive for.”
― Omar Cherif

“May you always value the simple little things in Life. For they make a significant difference and hence are the most essential. Simplicity, in actuality, tends to be deeper than complexity. ‘Tis the reason why that which is simple often passes unperceived by the complex. If we look around us, we’ll find that the more one masters a certain domain the more simplification they will strive for.”
― Omar Cherif

“Lifecast by Stewart Stafford

Lifecast
Be your play's lead actor,
Beware of its shooting star,
In drama's immortal mania,
Your reputation carries far.

Fish your dawn-gold phrases,
From out the impostor's throat,
Your tongue streaming candor,
Not stumbling forth by rote.

Let no Salieri hand,
Override your author's claim,
Even if remuneration's elusive,
You may still relish the acclaim.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The Ascending Eagle by Stewart Stafford

I shall not stray down spurious alleys,
In pursuit of such desiccated husks,
To be a leaf adrift in vacuous air,
Bewildered on my windswept path.
Past the labyrinth of rustling choices,
Swirl fragments of doubt and error.

Life's force is a finite magic spark,
Some squander before they depart,
When climbing into our grave pits,
Twisted wreckage we leave behind.
Yet, in regret's deepening shades,
Lie orphans of our broken dreams.

The eagle, in cerulean-skied flight,
Took wing as a frightened chick,
Victory plucked from disaster's beak,
Trial and error are brick-tough fellows.
Guided by shimmering thermals below,
Soaring to its future beyond the horizon.

© 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“A Mind's Minotaur - A Soliloquy by Stewart Stafford

In a labyrinth’s mental corridors, prisoner of consciousness,
Fleeing a Minotaur I fear is me.
Achilles' heel, masked by strength hath shown,
An arrow cometh from Time's swift flight,
For those with bountiful time enow,
Find themselves slain in a heroic light.
When thou dost gaze upon the world below,
And scorn its depths, thou canst not comprehend
The truths that pool o'er its shadow, glow.
No tears stain that meadow of solace,
A phantom limb, tickling in memory's store,
Galley slaves in hurricane's heart so lashed.
Transient madness and renown, conjoin on pomp’s bridge,
Champions of the joust wave paramour's kerchief,
Revered statues limp from a pedestal's ridge.
The signs of pride and brittle ardour,
The hubristic bite of isolation's cur.
The death warrant quill must ne'er be stilled,
For authority doth stifle beauty's song,
Staged chaos through the written word is willed.
Phantasy's balm to verity's scourging,
A cleansing soak of battle-scarred minds,
And in the dark, imagination reigns.
He who hath fear of the dark hath vision keen,
Whilst those who see but naught are dull and plain.
Thus, let us not be swayed by others' lore,
But splay in error, heal to prosper once more.
Idolatrous moth to lechery's candlelight,
In lover's tongues, passion's seared delight.

© 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The Physician's Pageant by Stewart Stafford

Can aught endure the masquerade
Of this world's blindfolded night?
Melancholy's strike doth calm the raving,
As babes roused from stillbirth in fledgling light.
We know that the womb doth wander,
Around the body, causing ills without care,
A pessary's charm doth anchor it in place again,
As bait doth lure the quarry to the snare.
Burn sulfur, rosemary, lavender and juniper,
Or foul dung smoke to cleanse tainted rural air.
Light aromatic torches in the playhouse and market,
Let vile odours and miasmas in these spaces beware.
Though ragged contagion and death still doth assail,
God willing, some blessed souls still shalt prevail.

© 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved. ”
― Stewart Stafford

“The sun does not apologise for its vibrancy
Nor the wind for its gust
The moon does not feel guilty that its lunacy
Does not always appear perfectly full around the crust

Brother, forget the ‘should’ and the ‘must’
Do what thou wilt with love and self-trust
Stay true to thyself — shine on with beaming lust
Keep flowing and glowing like our ancestors, the primordial stardust.”
― Omar Cherif

“We all suffer our causes
yet not everyone calls our life a tragedy.”
― Laura Chouette

“Poetry is enough for a soul in pain.
Love would only heighten the senses and destroy the illusions of it.”
― Laura Chouette

“We are our own tragedies.
The people we love seemingly are only endings that we prefer before the curtain falls on its own accord.”
― Laura Chouette

“How the pale green leaves press upon the gray mountain silhouettes,
I saw mortality inside myself,
inside my own family.”
― Laura Chouette

“I always knew the mountains would take something from me one day.
I wrote about their fine lines, their graves, and their shades.

Then, one day, I looked up upon the gray—
it takes everything and then nothing,
even if you offer them everything.

You can’t survive it,
you live with it—
in small pieces,
small steps,
small moments.

All along, it takes you,
survives you—
you’ll never understand it.”
― Laura Chouette

“Sometimes you just have to let things go,
so that they can fall out of place
and grow in the right one.”
― Laura Chouette

“My kind of love is made for the stage,
untouchable and unbroken;
its fate is to be doomed in repetition,
in the most beautiful form of art.”
― Laura Chouette

“Walking away
from someone you love
doesn’t break you—
it changes you
into someone else.

With each step,
you feel yourself losing
something—forever.

And it will never be the same—
not tomorrow, not even in ten years.

You have to live with the person
you are now
and forget the two
you left behind back then:

The one you loved
and the one you once were—
they are gone.”
― Laura Chouette

“A heartbreak won’t kill your love—
the pain that causes it does.”
― Laura Chouette

“In this world, you can’t carry your love on your sleeves—
that’s why we hold it in the cages of our ribs.”
― Laura Chouette

“Pain changes everything —
even the way we love.”
― Laura Chouette

“For time washed over my scars
like the waves cure the shore.

Your words drowning the ocean
by wanting every last drop from it.

And the ink turned my blood
into the highest sacrifice.

Wounds turning into words
and bleeding out your name.”
― Laura Chouette

“A soul is a monstrous thing,
weaker than the heart
yet stronger than the mind.
What you can’t give your heart,
feed your soul with—
and reveal everything hidden.”
― Laura Chouette

“In this life, you don’t get many choices.
Real choices.
Meaningful choices.

So once one of these comes, embrace it with all life and consequences.
Make something out of it.
Make it count.

It’s that simple—
it’s not the right or wrong choice you made,
it’s about the opportunity.”
― Laura Chouette