a tiny little spider

A tiny little spider
floating upon the river,
flowing rapidly hither
headed nowhere, forever.

 

This poor spider
half-drowning, always frowning
and outwardly sparkling �"
fake smiling, smiling smiles
like electric lights shining!
hidden pains and sorrows;
sorrows that keep piling.

 

Riling, in agony,
the spider in the river
filled with antagony
his limbs begin to quiver.
And fighting on and on,
under the shimmering sun,
the water rough and rapid
everything �" bland, insipid

Drowning, for eternity, it seems
drowning in an endless dream.
Fighting for his dear life,
fighting for his kids and wife,
children he raised well,
as far as anyone could tell,
well, anyway, it must be said �"
by god he tried his best.

 

Fighting to be the best,
fighting to get the best,
fighting because he feels blessed,
fighting because there’s nothing left.

 

For tiny little profits,
tiny little wars
in tiny little worlds
on some blood-soaked,
gut splattered,
flesh-caked moor.

 

It had no idea when its life began,
what life had in store.
joyful, it might have been,
before the river and endless war
“well, why not fight?” it might have said,
“for life is such a bore,”
and in its tiny spider head,
it found something worth fighting for.

 

Eency weency spider
lying in the gutter, drowning;
drowning in emotions
so easy enough to ignore.

 

Drowning, Dying,
Fighting, Floating

upon the endless river.
Another day, another war,
another fight, another moor
battles over precious nothing
soon to be no more.
That’s just how spiders live,
in their tiny spider worlds,
Unhappily, ignorant, misunderstanding it all �"
life is but a speck, a farce
there’s nothing here that lasts.

 

When its life began it had no idea
what death had in store!
Did it imagine it would float like this
down the river forevermore?

 

Or had it imagined
… freedom
from this circulating river,
that’s flowing faster and faster,
hither

and tither

?

 

A tiny little spider, looks forward to a better dream,
an eency weency spider, going down the stream.

Author's Note

i love reading all your comments! i don't care if it's short, i still cherish hearing from you all.

Reviews

[camac1994]

All I know is how it makes me feel. Eency weency makes me feel good about the spider, that the whole world is so large and eency weency is so small.
From its beginning, Eency weency is fighting to stay alive!
Ern, what about those days Eency weency is just chilling in its web, the wind is blowing lightly, the gnats are abundant and flying into the web...Not much work to have a gnat to save for the whole spider family cookout!

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

Hey Cam. i'm glad this persona (a spider!) connected with you. yes, its life is small, but compared to the universe, so is ours. and while i too wish the spider - and all of us - could live in peace and enjoy the world's small offerings, that is, regretfully, rarely the case.

[camac1994]

Ern, so wise, so humble...I believe if the whole world could talk like this, we would all live in peace. There was a Coke commercial that I loved: "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlR0KElxxVg

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

i didn't expect such wisdom to come from Cocacola of all people (organisations?) but i'll take it on board.

[Arundass TP]

Struggling scenarios in entire poem. The poor spider. Nicely written poem

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

thank you sir! yes, struggle is what this work is about and what life is about for all sentient beings.

[Neville]

There's no doubt about it, life is one heck of a struggle & I don't believe I have ever considered just how BIG a struggle it is before now when I tried to look at life through the eyes of a tiny spider .. Neville

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

i'm really glad this opened your eyes a little bit. some people think they have it hard, but just imagine being any other species! but nor is being human so easy, we are also caught up in our own river system.

[Titilayo Sarah Eguridu]

Some where in the course of this reading…
I imagined a human swimming against the tide.
I settled for a dual interpretation.
Half spider, half man
More like spider man.
Ern this is brilliant.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

thank you. yes, the spider is alive just like we are and struggles the same.

[Sami Khalil]

A grim reality of man and his survival down this journey personified by the small spider and how we fair in this vast universe. Hardships abound, fights are plentiful and outcomes can be desirable or not.
An excellent poem!.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

you said it very well. i'm glad you took something away from this.

[Sami Khalil]

Yes siiiirrrrr. You are welcome sir.

[Samuel Dickens]

Whether life is a flowing river or a road that must be tread, we all know it's fraught with hazards. Your telling of the spider and his dangerous journey is much like our own trials and travails which must be either endured or given up on. Some just don't have the strength and will succumb to the river. Others hang on until an island appears. You've written a fine, allegorical tale.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

thanks Samuel. you are absolutely right. i'm glad this poem gave you something to think about. life is a struggle and if we can't hang on to something, we have to swim.

[Chris Shaw]

Great personification of the spider here Ern. Resembles the struggle that so many encounter day to day. There was a sadness here. I live by the River Thames and all too frequently those “spiders” are fished out after going missing. Speaks to me about the hardship of life. Very nice narration here.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

i did not know you can find spiders in the Thames. i'm glad i learnt something new today. there was no specific river i had in mind, it was a more a metaphor of, as you said, the hardships of life. i hope those hardships aren't wearing you down today and that you enjoy surfing the waves.

[Chris Shaw]

The “spiders” in the Thames are the bodies of those who have taken their own lives. That’s where your poem took me Ern. Sadly, it happens quite frequently where I live :)

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

oh... sorry i didn't pick that up.
i hope this poem and my writing can teach people that they are not sufferring alone and s*icide is not the answer.

[Marie]

An amazing poem. I am not a fan of spiders but you have created a little spider who is so lovely and for me he is symbolic of how tiny each of us is in comparison with space as in, if someone was on the moon our planet earth would look like a little small ball where all the lights came on at night and twinkled like the little stars which clothe the universe at night. I love how you tell your reader that everything in our world is transient, nothing lasts and agree with you 110%. The little spider has a life span as each human being has also. I don't know how long a spider lives for, I guess it would depend on what kind of spider he was, but many human beings have short lives also and I think it isn't the length of our life which matters at the end, but what we have learned from our experience as a human being, how kind we have been to others and how much love we have given to them. All we can take from this life to the next is the love we have received from others, regardless of how wealthy we are, the only currency in Heaven is Love! Wondrous thought provoking, insightful poem, dear Ern M. You give your reader a beautiful basket of food to feast on in the quieter moments of their day. Thank you for sharing, I so enjoyed reading...

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

i think we agree on many many things. the transience of life, depicted as a river, and the smallness of our existence, like a spider, these metaphors mean something to me. this poem comes from my heart and my beliefs. so i'm glad you enjoyed reading it, and very glad that you engaged with the text. that means a lot me as a writer.

[Marie]

Most welcome, dear poet...

[Red Brick Keshner]

Tiny, little Eency is an explorer of the existential struggles of small creatures, drawing parallels to human life through vivid imagery and rhythmic structure. The poem critiques the futility of life’s conflicts while maintaining a glimmer of hope through Eency’s search for meaning. The skilful use of metaphor and emotional depth makes this piece both compelling and relatable. A reading well and truly enjoyed! Here’s to climbing up the spout again, or maybe not, the first time around being once too many.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

ab-so-lutely. glad that this poem gave you fuel for thought, and yes, let's all climb our way out of this.

[AYVID N]

Isn't it extraordinary, how closely the life of the tiny little spider resembled that of a man. The analogy was just great.
The same hope, disillusionment, and the final oblivion. Life is a bitter struggle for everyone and no one is spared. You did beautifully with expressing the hopelessness here.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

absolutely. it's something we don't think about often, but that is the truth. thanks for stopping by.