Backbones Poems | Examples

National Poetry Month

Word choices: Nouns - Yoke, Heart
                     Verbs  - Eclipse, Erase
                     Adjectives - Tender, Cold


Carrying yokes on their necks
To erase the hereditary poverty 
That eclipsed them for so long, 
With strong will in their hearts,
Hiding pain under tender smile,
Struggling together day and night, 
Indifferent to heat and cold,
Minding not hunger and slumber,
Our grandparents and parents,
The backbones of our family,
Burning their lives like candles,
Taught us an invaluable lesson -
“In the midst of darkness, light persists!”


2nd place

Chasening Truths

Baby birds
Tucked in warm pew-nests
Mouths agape to catch 
masticated lies
Rather than growing
Mature enough to bake
The bread of life

Frightened animals
Leaving blinders on
So our blind leader
We can trust and believe 
Rather than being 
brave enough to look
At truths before unseen


Scorpion stung prey
Backbones turning to mush
With the poison venom of
What we want to hear
Rather than standing strong in
The boots and armor 
Of Truth we should wear

Craving

Feathery clouds, cotton candy castles, whispery wind,
My heart craves for the state of mind and existence as Clouds.
Giants asleep, guardians of valleys, backbones of earth,
My wisdom craves for the state of persona as Mountains.

Whispers through canyons, the lifeblood of the land, journeys without end,
My energy craves to embrace life like gushing Rivers.
Sapphire  giants, cradles of life, canvases for sunset,
My passion craves for the whispers so deep as Oceans.

Fight For Freedom

Burning, broken bridges
are fixed when fighters faint.
Learners lothe their limits,
but painters pick their paint.

Builders break their backbones
so we can wonder and wait,
but city skyline sights
ramp a ridiculous rate.

Waiting wasn't working,
so someone sings a song.
It hurts the hearts of heroes
and those what wanted wrong.

We win this war together;
on devils, don't depend.
No one here knows nothing.
Fight with us 'til the end.

Our Ink

You can draw with the yellow ink
while I draw with the green one

Take your yellow ink
and you will sketch the islands of:
Grand Bahama, Abaco, Cay Sal Bank
Bimini, Berry Islands, Andros,
New Providence and Eleuthera
against the dark skin of my backbone

Now I will take my green ink
and will sketch the islands of:
Exuma, Cat Island, Long Island,
Rum Cay, San Salvador, 
Conception Island,
Acklins, Mayaguana,
Crooked Island, Samana Cay,
Ragged Island, Little and Great Inagua
against the light skin of your backbone


Finally we both will take our inks
of azurite shades of blue
will shade in the bodies of:
The Great Bahama Bank
The Little Bahama Bank
The Tongue of The Ocean
Exuma Sound, The Bight of Acklins
and the Florida Straits
against the flesh and backbones
of each other like human canvases
together forming a unique
little archipelago chain of our very own
to embrace the proud Bahamians
we are both  on the inside

The Freeze

January digs deeper into snow drifts.
Chill fingers cripple backbones,
make us walk like matchstick men.
February is just a name we give to tomorrow,
as if we could open that icebox
to see if the sun still rises over un-seeable horizons.
Time drags, then of a sudden, pushes us into snowfields
sprinkled with concrete daffodils.

Trunk and Carcass

very early right after I lost everything
that day was born with me scared in the woods
refuge of one who has forgotten the padded way 
of his own sanity
feeling cold without sun rays or comforting thoughts
the menacing shadows freeze your soul
every sound is a monster that comes to get you
the falls wounded legs and arms
the back in pain is nothing
when the hunger erupts absurd 
on the chaotic horizon of your needs
I fell to the damp ground were dead leaves rot
centennial elm sap flows and writes in its crimp trunk:
"Calm down because you are in your home
you can assume a fetal position and cry alone"
the anthill right there was teeming with life
the ants near my mouth I ate
while the others I chased with my eyes
maybe spend the rest of the worlds here
turning me into an old trunk
in the carcass of a wild animal
in fact I am and we are backbones
I am and we are in our deserved place

Haiku, Rhyme, Reality

may be astounding
often gets the heart pounding
this life which we lead

spiraling onward
in expanding cosmic sea
the planet and we

we carry the backbones
our genes allow to be grown
free standing not prone

eschewing timeworn
helping concepts to be born
egos we adorn

rehashing the past
brings relief which does not last
anger rises too fast

beyond good reason
some humans hope to squeeze in
a full afterlife

searching for a role
wanting not half but the whole
how fragile this soul

life but one small blip 
upon eternity's tip
a truly short trip

no one avoids death
everyone takes one last breath
reference Macbeth

and yet in the end
while there is still time to spend
this life pleases me

Trailer Park Flood

households lurch
creak unmoored
  hulls rocking

the twang of whip lashed rigging
as electric wires stretch
pull up clods
  yards of plantings

where once roots clutched
bricked-up aluminum
long jacked-up boards
  swirl and bloat

bed-springs shiver off
      unwinding sheets
the dumbfounded foaming
  of absconding pillows

bedrooms fall out
of plunging submarines
chests and draws
shedding a put away sundry 
then the roll and billow
  baffle and muddle

the face-up exposure
of everyday innards
  sweeps by
riding the backbones
of the up-turned
  the bowled over

hard to fathom
that a river of storm clouds
could move all this
manifold clutter
  the cheesy and cherished

dumping down clumps
into wet clay models
  of any new address

Glorious God

Glorious God that grips and grabs the heart of great grandees
Who wangled on the walk-way of war and wastage
They truly troubled me and I trembled tremendously
But HE breaks their backbones bits by bits without blinking
Salute shrew sire for saving me from shackles of slavery
Darkness dig deep distracting and dragging me to death
Praise the potter who put past pest problems to rest
Father of faith fraternized freedom for fraudulent friends
Covering and cleansing concise minds; cutting corrupt cabals
Made  me mode my life much more than male mugger ..

8-28-2020

Tomorrow

Yes, yes I forgive you.
I reach, eyes closed, for your naked paws;
for are you not faithful? Like a dog you wait 
and I bless you now for your patience.

Mother comes out of you, father to,
and my son makes a cradle for me
with his elegant fingers.

Many backward facing faces
lead me to our surrender -
I to the undercroft and unknowable clouds,
and you to these steps I have carved
into my ancestral backbones
where time has climbed its hand-made ladder.

Yes, I see you now,
you are no longer mist or miasma,
but clear of eye as an infant,
for yes, you are a mirror.

Let me not die this night, and if it must be night
let it be your tomorrow night.
Soon I must pass into that looking-glass
where all is birthed, even death
and all that I have known
will be recorded there, and all that I have forgot
will be remembered.

I will not call you: future, present or past,
If I so thought, or did so call
then there would be no womb for me
in the ever ripening cosmos
of that which has yet to be yet.

Joblessness

JOBLESSNESS!
Oh joblessness, you aweful, aweful thing!
I know you again and the misery you bring.
Never do you keep away for long, do you?
You evil doer, a form of a devilish 
mind, you seek to demise the good of mankind. 

You are not a child of the Earth, but a weapon
against it. You shall not grow and those who nurture you
reap what they sow; they too, your fodder and foe.

A pacer you made me, from door to door, besotted am 
I to even the score. But, whoa! I am not poor! Be still so
the great book does say, for I am God, and will make a way

Your enemy will triumph over you, you evil thing!
Employerbility! Rear to my mind, but I kept you away, 
The slander, the lies, the witchhunt, the callousness of your way, 
your masters, without backbones know what to say.

Bitter am I for the future is bleak, they chose my words
And I could not speak.  Friends do say, you come and go, 
How long you last, I shall never know.

Alpha and Omega

Alpha and Omega

The reality is that I love men. 
They are perfect, just as they are. 
Not always doing as they are supposed to do. 
Not paying attention to fears that are false. 

Strong backbones, fierce fighters for right, 
and assailants to all wrong. 
Fixing things, making things, creating. 
God loved Adam, 
and he was made in His own image. 
What a glorious fact. 

Woman, taken from the side of man, 
to be close, loved and cared for. 
What a precious gift. 

The two become one. 
A circle is complete. 
A family is born.
Children the blessing. 
For some if not all. 

The greater gift, 
the spiritual walk, 
with each other, 
through life, 
and its ups and downs. 

Depending on God in all things, 
knowing that He is with you...
both.

Bitter Pill To Swallow

We know you must break the law to join them,
So why are we pandering to them,
Letting them rule too many streets,
And even whole towns.

Is it not way past time for push back?
To grow some backbone,
And say to them,
If you sell our sons and daughters drugs,
And they commit a crime you will get double the sentence they get. 

We should also tell them importing the ingredients for making drugs,
Could be deemed as an act of treason,
As they have no regard for the nation,
And may well be helping terrorists flourish.

Can we afford to let these organised criminals?
Posing as gang members grow any stronger,
If we want to be fit to champion the cause of all the,
Bright, wonderful, yet extremely vulnerable children.

Is it not time to give them the message?
That their time is up,
And the choice of what happens next is theirs,
As to whether they want to spend time in the sun,
Or take the chance our backbones will remain unfit for the task.

Millions of Species Going Extinct

Millions of Species Going Extinct

Species loss is hundred times faster than in the past
Without good habitat half million species will not last,

27,159  species is the threaten tally
Includes half the plants and more if we dally.

680 backbones species are gone
So what did we do wrong?

Half the planet's land
Is now used in agriculture and for man.

We turned forests and grasslands into farms
Built cities that left plants and animals more harm.

Oceans are doing just as bad
A third of fish are gone and  that is sad.

We dumped tons of metals, in land and sea
Polluted with solvents, sludge and debris.

Fossil fuels were too hot for some to stay alive
Changed the climate  for some species to survive

Invasive species pushed out animals and plants
Economic fights reduced government grants.

Last bird specie  was "dusky sparrow" 
Now cousin "grasshopper sparrow" is imperiled.

But, if one bug has to go
Let it be the number one killer - the mosquito.

And remember if the honey bees disappear
They will be taking us with them it is very clear.

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