Transcendence
Winter strides past halcyon autumnal daze
On sweeping ariels of barren hues
Brittle bones of blue with fiery breath
Sun drench soul icicles marrow like nebula stars
When decrepit doldrums descend
As winter Daphne slowly returns
Her satin clusters, in chilled fragrance, bloom
Then flood lassitude with transcendence
To intoxicate icy vapors of wistful wandering.
Early harbinger ascends above the solstice
When vernal visions transcend hibernation
Dormant malaise and feeble sight,
Blurred by floating cataracts of blizzards,
From dark welkins raw melancholy’s cadence flutters
To glimpse enchantment in hindsight -
The sweet scent of butterflies and bees -
As Daphne coaxes a threadbare season
Into a blackberry winter of vernal vitality.
1-11-22
Contest: This or That
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title chosen – Transcendence
Blackberry winter is a synonym for spring.
Welkin is a synonym for sky.
I have two pots of winter Daphne by my front door. They bloom in January.
Storm
Dethroned beggar of a borrowed callow mystery
Heaves a lightning staff into the waves -
Thunderous and raw clandestine secrecy
On luminous swirling ariels sheering the celestial
12-2-20
Liberum Divisa 3
Sponsor: Gregory Barden
Taken from The Tempest
The Tempest
Upon enchanted sands of shipbreached shores
Dethroned beggar of a borrowed callow mystery
Heaves a lightning staff into the waves -
Thunderous and raw clandestine secrecy
On luminous swirling ariels sheering the celestial –
Into the curfew of castaway souls as a hoary appeal
Where storm surges loot delirium in foreboding typhoons
As rioting angels brood in their search
For the orphaned heart in tattered rags of upheaval.
Hear the muted tempest of dark depths roar
As wintered tantrums rock the shores
Leasing waves with unseen spells and charms,
Harnessing the tidal astrals in purifying
Tsunamis of holy risk –
Storm watch night, for souls in cataclysmic squalls,
Reshape the shallow shoals infected by deceit
Refresh the tidal pools emptied by betrayal
Now calm the ruffled gales -the shattered glassy sea,
Return from shipwrecked isle to fury abandoned shores.
11/3/2020
Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 6
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest
My grandson has a lot of tees
With Mario imprinted.
His sister wears her Ariels,
Her mermaid passion hinted.
Which made me think of certain shirts,
Quite popular back when
I though that Dr. Kildare
Was the handsomest of men.
They didn’t have his picture
But resembled what he wore
And how I wished I had one
Sitting in my dresser drawer!
In doctor-white, with buttons
Going neck-high up the side,
The wearer would be filled with
Fans of Dr. Kildare pride.
A classmate owned one and she wore it,
Showing off, at school.
Ironically, she found Ben Casey,*
M.D., much more cool.
Compared to tie-in clothes today,
A Dr. Kildare smock
Was rare enough that even E-Bay
Has not one in stock.
*Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey, M.D.
were two popular T.V. shows about doctors
in the 1960’s
Five lines in the sand – his quintet of children is skimming the surf
Like ariels chasing youth not yet knowing Plath’s substanceless blue
Streaming chariots of gleams into fireflies dragons dinosaurs and castles
Oblivious to extinction the full impact of tides and dereliction of beauty
Just foot prints on the shore reaching fast for jetsam flotsam and joy
21st April 2019
Looking upwards the clouds saunter by
whites and greys pierced with a playful glint
Sunlit fingers of god
Shunning the disbelievers
Parcels of ocean blue
with untethered blooms whispering by in unified singularity
The sky swallows my eyes
and self is lost to the outer
Misty ariels and titans of girth
Splayed in awe
No artist capturing its truth
But the soul finds reason and acceptance
The grass gently embraces me
and my time has meaning
Closing my eyes the gentle tendrils of summer eve
caress my face
Child of the universe
rest