Knots-besotted
(too canny for a granny)
as sailors go (and they will)
of which I am (still) one
(when day is done)
I can bend a bowline
(from stern to stem)
with the best of them
(just so's you knows...
the rabbit out of the hole comes
'round the tree runs then back down goes)
and tie (not hit) a reef (or square) so fine
or (none too sheepishly)
yank a sheepshank
in a (fairly hefty) hank of line
also (if it's not too late)
do a (non-binding) figure eight
(with half a minding) to stop the rope
from sliding (I hope)
(and/or) fraying
to (defray the cost)
for new cordage paying
(in time a stitch)
yet there's one more which
(so all's not lost)
(clever clogs) calls a clove hitch
When I compare my love to frozen vines,
repressed beneath the frost’s relentless grip,
while sweetness looms, I nary taste the wines
of love that lingers taunting me to sip.
My aching skin, akin to frozen grapes,
betrays the warmth your nectar must exude.
Though pressed by weight and time, still on I traipse,
a doom I meet, forbearing interlude.
I crave your taste, but yearning still haunts me.
Your ardour shines yet coldness stains its glow.
Your charm forbidden till a bride to be,
conserved in mem’ry neath the depth of snow
Besotted by a love that’s crystallized,
Unripe fruit, yet adored, and idolized.
O my heart, why?
Why do you despair?
Why not be more patient?
You wish for the unwishable,
Love is but an elusive maiden
A wistful illusion…
Who has ever reined in the whimsical wind?
Who has ever ensnared the sunshine?
Who has ever fettered the waves of the sea?
Who has ever restrained color?
Who has ever confined beauty?
Forbear, my heart, make no such efforts,
Know you not
that love is fraught with longing and loneliness?
Why then,
Why do you yearn in vain?
~08/09/22
~Contest: Strong Emotions
~Sponsor: Emile Pinet
~Emotions:- Love, despair.
A young lady named Laurie Ann McGee
Had an incredibly short-lived crush on me
So long since besotted
My name soon forgotted
When she met up with Timothy McFee.
Why are you hiding from my sight ?
Then I hide in the shadows without you
Days passed as cool and dark
Like a saint living in the mystery
Lost my dream somewhere
Thoughts of you sorronding always
Iam lost if you are away
You are the beating of my heart
You could share the beauty of your mind
Be someone who is always there
May you feel God's presence in all you say and do
I wish to say that you were perfect
I will be always with your side
Your image, the happiness of my soul
I never try to talk and see you
I always come of stress and tough
In a way a bunch of sorts
Not interesting in learning more
however I just want to be happy
No matter how far away you are !
Daddy comes everyday when the twilight
Bifurcates the light into shadows
Like a miscreant, grasshopper
Intrudes into the cracks of walls
Mom became a vociferous loudspeaker
Alcohol staggers inside his belly
Like the movement of snake..
He never came that day
Mamma's hand freezed with
Wheat flour and dough
My rapacious belly was ready to suffer
Starvation.. And I thought
Where did Those besotted legs and trampled
Shadows go?
It can't go to some other pastures
Some other homes,
It can't slap some other shoulders..
Myopic eyes often started to sew the dress
again enhancing the sartorial elegance..
I missed those shadows hued with that
Of pickles and spirit..
Still I proclaimed:
Shadows have gone..
Light is yet to come...
Life is yet to start
Jealousy eats at me, masticating my miserable flesh,
each time I see your opulent smile it takes yet another bite,
chewing slowly savoring and seeking my heart to enmesh
. . .as visceral emotions move slow through molasses midnight.
12/25/2019
Gregory R Barden
Arbitrium Divisa contest
Taken from "Jealous"
I love you even more when day is dawning
When you wake up in the morning
Without last nights make-up on
I don't know where you come from
Or why I stare more and more
Having seen you a thousand times before
Maybe its because you are so hard to ignore
I love the way you sleep
I love the way I can't take my eyes of you
Even when you are doing something as trivial as sweeping
My only regret is that we didn't meet year's earlier
So I could have seen you even more
I love you to my core
I love walking behind you onto the dance floor
I love you so much I wonder if I am in fear of loosing touch
Or of never knowing despair
But for in the here and now
I don't care so long as i can stroke you hair
And kiss you on the cheek
All I ever wanted , all I ever needed
Is here by my side
And I thank God i am alive
Prejudice and malice
Both besotted beggars
Gamboling, galumphing, griping and gripping a solstice
In limpid lives whose tigers and daggers
Stagger, simulate and strut along
Craven
Oblong, wrong on a song gong
Sloven and driven
Unexpectedly pop up in interpersonal interactions
Writhing like serpents
Wreaking heady havoc in their insurrections
Contents, events, proponents and deponents
To defy, modify and stupefy logic
Contemplate disunity
In a rogue republic
Whose unity
The besotted beggars bring down
Tearing one member from another
Assuming every crown
Becomes anathema as Jack and Jill like each other
To the detriment
Discord prejudice and malice promote and quote
In every contrary condiment
Ever taught or caught.
Can the sun usurp the throne
of chilling sister moon,
To warm the wily midnight air
As though it yet were noon;
And can an earthbound soul take flight
To soar beyond despair?
Oh yes – when you are there.
Can some metamorphosis
Those daily tasks transform
Into a ritual love dance
Between two souls reborn;
And can the ugliness around
Escape my blinkered eye?
Oh yes – when you are nigh.
Can the ash of burnt-out dreams
Send forth on Phoenix’ wing
The resurrection of my hopes
For what love yet may bring;
And dare I whisper of my love
Into your eager ear?
Oh yes – in dreams I fear!
While sitting back and listening
to my confreres in their conversation
a glass of wine – red and quite strong
with Tuscany’s best Brunello as a brand,
gives that taste so good; a fodder.
Its spirit makes me reinvigorated
as I think about relationships;
be they human or in a different context
generates that appetite to communication.
Served as a conventional version
in any gathering or a meal, for example,
wine is indispensable, inevitable –
especially for the Italian people.
Uncalled and strange to my culture
having a wine on the table
makes my Asianness wonder
that truly this is wonderful!
It’s a beautiful experience I tell you,
a relaxing moment with a glass of wine
itts goodness and meaning to celebration;
adds glitter and joy to every person.
With an inspiring mood it unfolds,
spontaneity like in music with rhythmic vitality,
with benchmark sentiments and robust sound
wine’s spirit in general makes me speak up
and interiorize certain reflections about human life.
love
letters-
pictures in
the language of
love
Ekphrasis -Fan cycles for Alma by Kokoschka