a collection of souls

What you can find here is a small, not yet finished collection of poems that follow the theme of “souls”. How you define a soul is entirely up to you – there are only 4 rules to follow^*:

each poem has to be written entirely in lowercase;

each poem has to be reasonably short (maximum 5 stanzas, incl. 1-line ones);

each poem has to be personal in some way;

each headmate can only submit one poem to this collection.

This is meant to be a collection of simple poems, written in a way that we are not very used to. For the reasoning behind this project, scroll the entire way down to the bottom of the page – otherwise just enjoy.

^*Although, of course, intentionally breaking the rules can also work as a poetic device.

fossil

feels like my soul is so heavy inside me

as if i were in chains

he says, a spirit doomed to wander the earth endlessly

though it’s more like a mammoth to me

big, strong, and soft to touch

but just a little too late

a little too dead

mars

my soul keeps being forgotten

over and over again

i write its wishes down with a silver thread of starlight

when i wrap your body in a warm blanket’s embrace, wanting only

for you to survive

(it’s a selfish desire)

a note in your journal that shouldn’t be there (and yet is)

a note that reads

i love you.

let me save you.

i will be your loyal dog i’ll take part in every war

the law of the universe

my soul drifts by, weightless

a dog that’s been kicked way too many times to know any trust

nonetheless lacking the ability to bite the hand that feeds

or a shapeless voice in your ear repeating softly

crimes committed in the name of good are no more right than crimes committed in the name of evil

but do you need me to be telling you this?

i sleep in the shed detesting the village’s bricked up walls begging someone to please regain control

please please regain control

and spare some for me

shark

my soul is

sharp teeth

a knife in-between your ribs and

nails rattling inside your lungs and

the smell of a chilly summer evening by the lakeside, so strong it feels like your head is about to burst

with the memory of childhood

i submerge my body under the water

let the bubbles of air disappear into the blue

torch

my soul binds together the past and the future

— in this task, it has no physical substance at all

so,

the sun, maybe, majestic and great

or a fire, burning long into the night

or a deer in the middle of a meadow, standing calmly,

a deity staring you straight in the eye, saying,

you can be saved, i’m here to save you

or a boy born from a tragedy, never meant to exist at all

but what is it all worth, without plants to sip the sun’s nutritious juices

without a soft little animal to bask in it?

what is it worth without time reaching inside itself

without a world capable of creating a world?

morning star

my soul is blinding white

surrounded by shadows from all sides

so you want to touch. you want

to be near. you seek

connection. interaction to fill the hole

in the soul of your own. a cure for boredom,

a sparkly, shiny thing. you crave

a spectacle. you want

a first row seat. you attach

and detach, in a snap of a finger.

a human life only matters as long as it keeps your interest. you want to watch, you want to touch, but never hold. you want the destruction, or you want the destruction to remain unaddressed. you want the spectacle. you want the spectacle. you want the main character, someone to outshine all the other actors on the scene. you want the dance, the clown in a circus, the fall of man. out of all the souls, mine is the only one you want, and i detest you for it.

is this too long for you? am i being too hostile towards you? oh, you wanted a short, simple poetry collection? you wanted poetry, you wanted to connect with my words? you wanted

a metaphor?

okay

time wind hum sound shatter shards of mirror ice snow avalanche

the fall

(i don’t have the slightest intention of giving you what you want)

dove

my soul is clean, perfectly groomed white wings

that yearn for flight. you told me once, when i was younger,

that i could fly anywhere i wanted and reach for the stars.

you told me i was born for greatness.

the sky is light blue and full of white, fluffy clouds.

there are places i have never seen

and will never see. the voices of people, melodic like music,

follow me everywhere as i pace around

within my gilded cage.

you told me i was born for greatness, but i

just want to observe the world as it is without me in it.

you told me i could reach for the stars

but i’d rather stick to our earthly sky right here.

calamity / the wreckage

my soul passes through grassy meadows

as sunlight is pouring over sparkling river water

the boy tells me, “look, this was all

completely meaningless

thousands of worlds ending one after another

in the silence of an uncaring star

how many more tries will it take for us to stop?”

i haven’t the slightest idea

i wouldn’t call myself a savior

i stand atop a thousand corpses, and he is

every single one of them somehow

but even so, we must try

there is sunlight still and i can feel its warmth

and maybe it will save us or maybe it will kill us all

The poems are arranged based on the order in which they were written, with newest ones being placed at the very end of the page. New souls poems will not be sent via the RSS feed¹ – they’re for you to find only if you wish to look for them.

The idea behind this project was to give some artistic purpose to our journey of introspection. The poems are meant to be simple and short (with the one single exception we all agree was understandable and allowed – and even then, the author still tried to keep it simple, even if obnoxiously long) to avoid putting too much pressure on those of us who are not big fans of writing poetry; the goal is to increase our compassion and understanding of each other, not to divide us further by needless comparison.

If you are interested in which poem belongs to whom, there are (pretty obvious) hints in our about page. That page does not link here. This side of us is only available for you to find if you’re interested in our poetry in the first place.

Some of the poems are written by headmates who don’t want to be listed anywhere, or by headmates who have fused by now. You will never know the authors of those poems, and that’s fine. They’re not disappearing from this collection either way!

The meaning behind the poems, of course, is way better understood by us than you – they weren’t written with an external audience in mind. (No, not even that one.) Having said that, if some of us decide to share an explanation of their writing process, their thoughts will be listed here:

N/A

¹ This is due to a privacy concern. If you were to be notified about each new souls poem, you would be able to figure out who was fronting at the time of the update, which goes against some of our headmates’ wishes.