Tag: cycles

Poetry

A note from the caterpillar

Post author By K. Samways
Post date November 10, 2025
No Comments on A note from the caterpillar

The caterpillar is nice to visit
            … in a way

He smokes his pipe
and blows his opinions
               in your face
     whether or not you’ve asked for it

But how much more you enjoy Alice
    pretty and naive, a human even
    quiet and observant, stupid even

                    (What would it be like?)

The girl and ‘pillar
     both approach the end of a cycle    transitioning, evolving
     but one appears an ugly ascension
     better left ignored
   the other’s gracelessness is hidden
           within, ignored

I am not Alice, a girl

secretive or demanding
wishing for non-blond understanding
I have never been lured
by a white rabbit or a rabbit hole
afternoon naps are not really my thing
and I’m awakening from my daydreams

I am the caterpillar
         before it’s eaten by the bird
never to say a butterfly word or whisper
no kisses, no gratuity, no drinks
only brief passers pausing
for wisdom, absurd
or for entertainment to enlightenment
as I age to a disgraceful degree, resisting
before acknowledging

I’ll never fly

    I’ll never be seen as

                Alice

the caterpillar says goodbye

Tags absurdity, alice in wonderland, butterfly, canadian poet, Canadian poetry, caterpillar, creative writing, cycles, human being, lament, motif, poem, Poetry, rebirth, samsara, secre lives of insects, wisdom, womanhood

Poetry

Echoes

In each life
   we walk away
      from one another
       thinking this life will be different
   we tried it again
and now
   we walk away
      from one another
       a different name
       a different place
       a different time

if the karma remains
unpurified

again we’ll try
again we’ll try

Tags attachment, buddhist lesson, cause and effect, creative writing, cycles, echoes, emptiness, karma, loss, love, meeting, parting, reality, samsara, suffering

Buddhism Poetry

the Runner

smart mouth, ignorant mind
quick to speak, quick to die
life too brief, running out of time
creating causes to ever find

endless suffering

why me?

fast talk, soft skin
feel without, see within
fast decisions, a life of sin
feel samsara hook you in

with attachment

why not me?

as I seek the highest highs
I learn the lowest lows
then suddenly sink lower
than I’d ever thought I’d go

the lower realms

not again

yet always I’m forgetting
the causes of my pain
making all escape attempts
nothing but in vain

putting me to shame

again

the blue of Mount Meru
reflects into our sky
all the flesh and bones
of all my lives gone by

exceed its mass

and still, again,
I try

Tags attachment, creative writing, cycles, cyclical existence, emptiness, karma, poem, Poetry, realization, renunciation, samsara, suffering

Photography Poetry

The Rideau Canal | FF 17

I made you a picnic for dinner
many nights that week

You showed me where you used to live
with your last ex (there are many)

I’ve joined the lineup
and I’m not eager to see

our once-sacred spots shared, although
in hindsight, it was predictable

your memories still float, caught
in the historic locks of

the Rideau canal

Tags canadian lit, creative writing, cycles, Firescape Fridays, historic locks, memories, moving on, ontario, poem, relationship, rideau canal, sunset

Poetry

Pandora’s Box

I’ve come across you
twice before

and each time

I opened you!

Alas, even
the second time
I knew!

To tell you
the truth…

I would do it again.

It is said,
we run straight
to the causes
of our suffering

My experience
could be proof

Though I may act
quite aloof
(or at times a goof)

I am burning with
desire inside
egotistical pride

seven sins wrapped
up tight

in the unforgetting world
it is difficult
to let go of attachment

So faced with the choice
once more – to open
or leave closed
hell’s wicked door

I swing it wide
and hop the hearth
to the other side

to tell you the truth…
I’m just exhausting
negative karma

bringing about
the end of these
tiresome cycles

how ’bout you help?

Tell me the truth…
would you open the box?

Tags choices, creative writing, cycles, evil, familiarity, negative karma, pandora's box, poem, Poetry, repetition, samsara

Poetry

Worn Out

You thought I was slipping you
on and off, like a worn jacket
but I had carved you on my soul
a long time ago, so you were –
are – always with me

If only you had respected my needs
not the ones you wished I had,
but my actual needs, I think
I could have fulfilled your desires
had they been anything more
than temporary, but you didn’t carve
stories and you had no
purposeful plan

Even Bonnie and Clyde
had a plan

Now I’m rinsed like dishwater
and you’re onto the next old bag
easier, to escape, when you
can attach yourself to star light,
star bright the gasses burn tonight, fast,
and you’re quick to eat it up, put it out

It’s naturally sick you play the songs
at the beginning that we’ll sing
at the end … your poor girlfriend
how many nights she’ll spend
waiting for you …

If I believed in God, I’d beg
may He have mercy on you both