Abyss

She led me to the

Edge of the cliff,

Jagged stone edges,

A big dark rift.

I told her I was

Afraid to fall in.

I told her I was

Deeply scared within.

She held my hand

And said to me,

“An abyss, isn’t it

Eternally empty?

And we all think

That it has no end?

But we’ll never know

Until we descend.”

Her eyes were

Sparkling with light

Of some kind of

Vision or sight

Of what truly lay

At the end of this

Never-ending

Eternal abyss.

And I, bravely

Or foolishly

Trusted her so,

And said clearly,

“I, too then,

Will go find out

This abyss’s end

And what it’s about.”

Her smile was so

Precious and sweet,

It made all worthwhile

And made me feel complete.

And so, us hand in hand,

In almost full bliss,

Took a leap of faith

And went down the abyss.

Okay this isn't good or anything and I'm not very happy with it, but I sat down to write and this came out:

She falls. The darkness engulfs her

And

She falls.

Her tears fall, but

She falls

Faster than the crystals of

Her sorrow.

As she tumbles

And turns,

She sees

A light.

It's not below

Or above

It's beside

And

Around her.

She laughs

And the

Crystals of her joy

Fall with her.

But no longer

She falls.

She flies 

Okay, so the first thing I think of, as someone who's life got taken over by the Riordanverse, is *spoilers for Mark Of Athena* the Percabeth fall into Tartarus (I realize now, in a dif book series, there's another sinister place that's literally called "the abyss": Wings Of Fire...), so I reference that, and I kinda wanted to parallel it, but break it into thousands of pieces... :D

Also I see WildWolf had the great idea to screenshot it so that there's no chance of the formatting not going through, so yeah, thanks for the idea!  

Thank you 

An Honest Review of My Experience Sinking Into the Abyss

There are many types of darkness which would take me. For example,

deceit has tugged enticingly at my wrist

and flashed many a too-white grin my way; and

cruelty knows the weight of words like "worthless" and "unwanted". The 

Abyss, however, is a beast which neither bares teeth nor sharpens claws; it is

rather shapeless and eyeless, and at first

presents no reason to disturb one's peace.

I have found that sinking into the abyss, contrary to popular belief and caution alike,

is as slow and hypnotic as the tug of an ocean tide

on a quiet beach. Blissful and painless, the

process of sinking unravled the agony sheltered in the

deepest recesses of my being; and, while it did indeed absorb my greatest joys too,

there is a unique aspect of the abyss that so endears me to it:

it does not know my name.

the abyss has no ambition to bury a knife in me, but rather

remove all the pesky bindings which would make a knife such a bother.

And really, what is so wrong with

belonging to a darkness that has no sharp edges?

I would highly recommend. 

Abyss. Noun. Definition: ‘a wide or profound difference between people’

I suppose that’s what you could call the

stretched out air between us

tension twisted into a dreamcatcher

that takes and takes and leaves behind

awkward silence and half smiles.

silhouetted against the blank sky

which coughs up flakes of snow into

our hair; with our hands linked

our shadow becomes an analogous

thing, a beast with claws and teeth.

I think the space between us could

swallow new york city whole

or perhaps it would fit between the

spines of the discount rack outside

the bookstore that we browsed together.

the difference that split the ground

between us is that you love me and

I don’t love you back. at least I think so.

that could just be the abyss talking.

best to ignore me until I’ve gotten far

enough away from it and you and 

brooklyn and frost freezing our hands

together in the January cold.

(sorry if formating is sketchy) Honorable Mentions:

WildWolf! I thought the line breaks and bold text here was an interesting approach. It was especially cool how you could almost read the bolded text as another poem within a larger one. Short, but to the point and still powerful.

Hawkstar! I’m in awe of people who can rhyme their poetry. You did this amazingly without making it feel forced, which is really impressive. I also like the contrasting moods—cloud nine vs. downward spirals.

Luna! I think you had an interesting idea here—that even if you’re stuck in all-consuming darkness, there’s still light. I like the length of each line: it feels slightly disjointed in a way that fits the theme.

AvaraStar! Nice repetition of certain themes (mostly falling in some way). I think it was cool how you split up your sentences/thoughts into multiple parts and lines. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but I really liked how the ending (already a cool concept) didn’t have a period, as if it wasn’t totally over.

[gosh I’m running out of adjectives XD sorry about that]

Rainbow! Ooh, Riordanverse~ it’s been so long since I’ve read those books. It’s always cool when the shape of poetry mimics the message, like you did with ’f e l l.’ I can’t pretend I really remember the plot you’re referencing, but it’s still an interesting premise.

Luna-Starr! This was a nice contrast with most of the other poems with shorter lines and titles and stuff. You also had really carefully thought-out ideas. They all somehow managed to streamline together with your impressive punctuation skills, but still stay disjointed and flowing.

Third Place: Moon Wolf! Again with the rhyming, it’s seriously impressive. I really liked the dialogue and feeling of speaking to someone else, and I think you conveyed trust and nervousness well here. 

Second Place: Celine! I thought it was cool how you added in slashes to separate thoughts like when you quote poetry; it separated the ideas but kept them in a more centralized thought. I also liked your capitalization of key parts like ’Abyss’ or ’River.’

First Place: Silver Crystal! Your imagery was beautiful—’tension twisted into a dreamcatcher’ was probably my favorite. Each stanza felt separate but together they somehow managed to convey an artistically vague theme that was very relatable. I appreciated the locations you added as well to ground the poem.

it's super great there’s so many submissions this time! I remember the days of ~yonder lore~ when there’d be only one or two. keep writing, everyone!!