I am so empty
Feel your absence in my chest
Where my tears gather
Yellow death rings in my rooms
With the taste of loneliness

A hundred cries will
Tear me at me but the sound is
Too loud to utter
Better to drink a cup of
Nothing and remain empty

I can see beauty
The setting sun and moonlight
Children and flowers
I may sit completely still
Until beauty comes inside

image created by me and ChatGPT

Written in response to the d’verse Poets Pub challenge

In literature, synesthesia is a figurative device where one sensory experience is described using terms from another — like hearing colors, tasting sounds, or feeling scents. It’s a way to blur the boundaries between senses, creating vivid, unexpected imagery that resonates emotionally and sensorially.

This technique draws inspiration from the neurological condition of the same name, where people involuntarily experience one sense through another (e.g., seeing music as colors). But in poetry, it’s a deliberate act of imagination — a way to deepen metaphor and stir the reader’s senses.

Writing challenge: Write a poem that explores a moment — real or imagined — through the lens of synesthesia. Choose a dominant emotion or memory and describe it by blending at least two senses in unexpected ways. Let your metaphors cross sensory wires: let grief shimmer in ultraviolet, taste the thunder or hear the color of longing.

Meeting the Bar: Lens of Synesthesia