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  "description": "Live as You Exist highlights the common struggle of chronic rumination and the cruelty that is its often-cyclical nature. Winner of the 2nd NH Witty Poets Competition.",
  "path": "/literature/poem-live-as-you-exist-by-luc-k-y/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-16T09:15:27.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.ninthheaven.co",
  "textContent": "# Abstract\n\nLive as You Exist highlights the common struggle of chronic rumination and the cruelty that is its often-cyclical nature. The poem itself follows a sentient church’s inner monologue as it watches the neighbouring forest; haunted by fauna and floras ability to maintain beauty through brutality. Collectively these experiences create the forest and though parallels to the church’s self are drawn, it is ultimately unable to acknowledge its own place in the world.\n\n* * *\n\n# Poem\n\n\n    There is a saying,\n    when witnessing beauty,\n    that someone is “moved”.\n\n    To me\n    that feels untrue.\n\n    The unmovable\n    see the beautiful\n    everyday.\n\n    If a cliff\n    were to see a bird\n    it will have never heard of this saying\n    nor would it think to say it.\n\n    So,\n    it would stay in thought,\n    but still feel.\n\n    Which is what happened,\n    on this fateful day.\n    And the next.\n    Then the next.\n    And so on.\n\n    When the church met forest\n    and they stirred,\n    awoken\n    but\n    unmoved.\n\n## A DAY\n\n* * *\n\n\n    I-\n    don’t\n    stir\n    that\n    easy.\n\n    But then-\n    when, I\n    see you…\n    …jealousy.\n\n    I, the church.\n    -you, neighbour:\n    “the forest.”\n\n    Compare your hues,\n    to my trite pews-\n    set lines prepped in\n    confined worship.\n    Worse still, in vain I\n    contemplate purpose\n    Purpose; place, for I\n    hesitate to live…\n\n    …to live as you have been\n    as the breeze, bare; carefree.\n    Free from the confines here,\n    here they insist, they preach.\n\n    And though you may weather storms,\n    whilst my four stone walls guard me-\n    in mass I pray the rain stays,\n    so its’ pour can embalm me.\n\n    I ponder the touch of your trees\n    the wilt of your leaves, whisked afloat\n    by a gust that never falters,\n    by a trust that never- falters.\n\n    I suppose I should admit something\n    I am made of you- soot, wood and rock\n    created by the pious to flock\n    and the trodden to emit their sins.\n\n    In my stained eyes they hung their martyr,\n    so forgive me, my view of you is false.\n    I overhear that you are wild and green\n    but I see sparkled hues and the divine!\n    “The forest” they say, “she’s danger after dark”\n    Yet in me I hear their prayer; that you provide.\n    “The forest” they say, “save us, fill our bellies”\n    yet they still fear what you will hand. Weightlessness.\n\n    A choice to risk all beyond these four walls\n    to wander instead of ponder, to live\n    to see, feel, all you have to offer, flora,\n    lilac perfumes, the soft lick of grass.\n    Your hues-false or not- are beautiful.\n\n    Animals, I have seen thrive and die\n    brutally, but with an honesty\n    that none could decry as false; fate!\n    We live, we die, but not alike\n    as I erode, you grow and grow,\n    decay; a natural process\n    that feeds through rot, keeps you alive.\n\n    Again, flora feeds fauna\n    and vice versa, then again\n    until, until- it’s undone,\n    by frightened seeking shelter.\n\n    A cycle can be ceased\n    when trees become lumber\n    and people build pillars\n    and rock walls between em.\n    I think you know the rest,\n    what it represents,\n    a cycle undone-\n    what happens instead\n    of death; afterlife\n    when born when dead\n    with few prayer\n    and pew not trees…\n\n    I am bored\n    and envy\n    your hues\n    a plenty\n    each new\n    leaf green,\n    fruit peach-\n    when ripe…\n    for\n    lest-\n    …for\n    rest…\n\n* * *\n\n# Author Bio\n\n _Luc K.Y. grew up in the great divide of Queensland Australia with very little to do- but throw sticks and read stories. Now the up and coming poet aspires to give back to the literary world, their narrative poetry exploring the human condition through the fantastical._",
  "title": "[POEM] Live As You Exist by Luc K.Y.",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-16T11:16:40.510Z"
}