Neopoet

Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.

whitetea
whitetea
Jun 03, 2025 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

Mishiranu Tenjou 見知らぬ、天井

Navigating the point at which my captive eyes land, an unfamiliar ceiling crowns my shelter,
removed, a world unfurling.

Pupils gulp down
visual stimuli, dimensionless in obscurity. Flippant neurons
piercing through
a half aware state like bullets, this mundane process
of unwrapping the layers of self
Consciousness gives archaic elevations, barbaric blame quilts
salt through each wound. Clumsy and derelict.

Rousing to the fury of wakefulness,
My spirit, clumsily,
wanes into curiosity.

Intellect so foreign to this bizarre vessel
of supreme appetite and need, summoning cycles.

My doorstep stands watch, guarding a realm,
where I swim
in a jaded ecosystem,
my teeth
reveal no sharpness,
my claws, dulled.

In this feverish morning, I conjure,
collecting Self after the library of slumber.
Inquiring
where am I---
I look up at the ivory creases during this stand off,
sheet rock barrier shielding the sky,
and connect a cloud white constellation
of a sheep wandering,

and next
a pensive bird

with one wing.

About This Poem

Last Few Words: Looking for words that either illustrate or unsettle. I have long covid and cognitive changes, this is not the topic of the poem, but in general the way I process the world has been somewhat altered. This is about how bizarre it is to wake up and connect with consciousness. Plato talked about the body and mind connection and how different they are. I was living in my second place, it was very lonely, I don't adapt well to new environments and when I wake up somewhere new it is unsettling for a few weeks or so. I wrote this about a decade ago and reworked it, here is the original. Mishiranu Tenjou 見知らぬ、天井 Unfamiliar ceiling caps the walls, the point at which my eyes meet when I wake. This is where I am; a world removed, One peek away from rapid connections, this is a process of unwrapping myself I am awake now, My spirit fuses to furious intellect. outside my front door is where I swim with sharks. I need to ask Where am I--- I look up at the ivory creases and connect a constellation of a sheep wandering, and next a bird with one wing.

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Editing - draft

About the Author

Region, Country: United States, USA

Favorite Poets: Chrystos, Mark Strand, Adrienne Rich, Naomi Shihab Nye, Rachel M. Simon, Donald Justice, Mary Oliver, Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker, Bukowski, Mary Lambert

More from this author

Comments

Geezer

Geezer

3 weeks 1 day ago

Decipherment...

I think I can decipher the basics of this poem.
I feel this way myself, on a great many days, in instances of recognition.
I wonder where I have gone, and if I will be back; sometimes, life seems so bizarre. You have written a piece that may not be understood by some and dismissed by others, but there are a select few that will get the proper perspective. The lines that affected me most were:

My doorstep stands watch, guarding a realm,
where I swim
in a jaded ecosystem,
my teeth
reveal no sharpness,
my claws, dulled.

Thanx for this gem, ~ Geezer.
.