Best Alee Poems
Bessie, out hiking, had to pee,
She glanced about, choosing a tree;
To her distress
She made a mess:
Windward, she’d squatted, not alee.
Her beauty dwells unfettered by
Disguise, pretense or scheme
But heaven-sent as dove in flight
Majestic and serene
She shows without, what glows within
Through purpose not misplaced
The warmth and grace of summer winds
Where sadness melts away
And from her lips flow words so kind
Not earned, but just because
She looks past flaws for hopeful signs
Of victory, not loss
When life deals blows and I need rest
She offers me her arms
Alee from harm with tenderness
My troubles are soon calmed
And though her face be more than fair
Her mouth, eyes, nose and chin
That regal skin cannot compare
Her beauty dwells within
Tripping Point: An Opioid Odyssey
There are lines we cannot see, hardly know exist
Until we cross them. Then, as if by trip wire,
The temptress snare catapults us into a world
Of primeval darkness with no guide star.
“Hear my song and have a life of feel good”, she promises;
Her dissembled melody the dirge we can’t stop hearing.
Like a virus embedded in DNA she corrupts the message
Using us to propagate her death traps for more unwitting.
Lust for this mistress, Sans Merci, becomes insatiable,
Devouring all we love or live for - even hope itself!
Oh had I Circe’s warning:
Bind me to the mast, fill my sailors’ ears
With wax and sail alee of the siren’s song.
Copyright © 2018 Paul M Thomson
The Silent Legion
Tucked into closets both near and away,
Amidst cedar planks, now alee of the fray,
Rest class A’s once borne on frames
Straight and young.
A legion of aging uniforms hold fast
Fading ribbons of campaigns past,
Honoring selfless acts inked indelibly
Upon the wounded minds.
This suit of my country is not kept to don
But to never forget the inseparable bond,
Forged in grave times by young men
Who held the lives of each for the other.
Oh, to once again form ranks with all of us
Who were once that Unum from the Pluribus
And rise to the call of cadence, sung sharp and clear,
Holding sway o're a platoon of ground-crunching boots.
My faithful ones, my brothers-gray,
You did not shy from the call to obey
The just tradition of those who stood
Their watch in the shield of freedom.
You fought for liberty on Concord Green and Lexington,
Belleau Wood and the Marne, Normandy and Iwo Jima; Inchon
And Chosin, Ia Drang and Khe Sanh; (a Cold War twice inflamed)
From Ramadi to Nuristan, and places unnamed.
When our flag is on parade and some take a knee,
The Red, White and Blue is the veteran’s guarantee
Paid for with the Sacrifice, Courage, and Honor
Of those whose remains they dishonor.
It is to you America and the world owe thanks,
(Steadfast guardians of freedom’s frailty)
For now your sons and daughters join ranks,
Defending liberty with life,
And risking return interred amidst cedar planks.
Copyright Paul Thomson 2020
(Land that doth marry mother lode
of sublime earthen land and sea).
Age of exploration
ushered cruel fate
against “red” men living
in bliss by agents
patch of eden north
o the Mason Dixon line
latitude: 39.64839
longitude: -75.95591 alee
perchance designed
by divine providence
with dyslexic humorous bents
Cecil county Maryland
lies like plump backward letter “e”
witnessed topographic erosion
pocked imprimatur marked
meteorological dents
thru inundation of
oceanographic propensities
melding coastline like the Galilee
in particular by Chesapeake Bay,
that body of water
abutting like natural fence
first witnessed by captain
John Smith in 1608
mistaking himself tong tied
in sole of Italy
learned faux pas, when crossing paths
with Susquehannas hence,
offered tobacco sticks to natives
while recovering
from injured wounded knee
said other sundry tribes curiously eyed
then (I utilized poetic license)
took smoke from packet of Kents
which twist on actual
historical facts manipulated by me
but more truthful account awash
and replete with more
than interspersed nonsense
and incorporates tract situated
in so called Fertile Crescent – see
settled by Europeans of English stock,
who emigrated with nary a pence
“taming” shrew like “noble savages”
plied Leviathan sized ukuleles
whose might exploited for felling forests,
which timber built cabins with vents.
Looking aloft
Envisioned dream
Dawn at Sea
Tides crash abeam
Seas mystery
Attempts to bend
Ready bow
Sails to mend
Backstay about
Apparent wind
A close reach
Clew torn within
Navigated course
Needed cleat
No buoy insight
Captain feeling beat
One sits astern
Another alee
Corrupted chain plate
Desires to flee
Thoughts come about
Center of effort tried
Eye of the wind
Heel another tide
Weather the storm
Splice, I say
Tell-tales in line
Not falling off today
A painter, grommet
Ship shape, spreaders sway
Searching, missing hanks
Love of the seas headway
Staysail
I comport myself with quiet pridefulness,
plus intellectual whimsy
aware that "FAKE" pretentiousness,
could be mistaken foreign egotistical vitae
furthering, feathering and figuratively
undermining jestingly,
poetically, and zealously
oozing, gushing, bubbling over
with faux snobbish suave re:
pulse sieve literary fatuous
haughtiness, and ludicrous narcissistic pre
ning all the while chuckling to me
self, and indifferent if
some anonymous browser
with Dutchman's breeches rolled up
upon cresting wave over Zyder Zee
disparages mine harmless
badinage, hence if ye
might qualify as such nitpicker,
who doth cavil - dee
crying wading thru
quagmire of verbiage,
a gentle reply to thee
might be more wise to turn energy
toward, how in many another country
the village people haint so free
spouting, sporting, and spoiling,
vis a vis intellectual sparring
(albeit innocent) black
barbs hatch chee
ving, and raising urgent
attention against he
(who whiz squelching
constitutional rights) re:
pressing, rescinding, reviling,
et cetera access toward key
underpinnings within these fifty
constituent United States
of America beckon alacrity
for obliging citizens across
all points of the compass to alee
v8 his indiscriminate flee
sing, sans bedrock nation could tee
tear on the brink of calamity,
which political plug quite inadequate
to staunch hemorrhaging, viz upending
many a sacred liberty,
and foo to you reprimanding
against any agree
gee us objection to pen about polly lee
ticks and/or religion!
Two doves atop a bare dead tree with uninterrupted view
Huddled close on a Summer's day with naught to do but coo
Birds stop by on top most branches chirp go their way and back
It's storm cloud close with tickle breeze, grey and blue and black
Upturned leaves reflect sky light in every which direction
The humming bird preens on the line in feeder glass reflection
It's all so still and heavy now then leaves go all aflutter
The doves are gone the coming rain is more than just a mutter
It pounds on in with rushing wind at once the streets afloat
Then lightnings flash and thunder rolls the wind picks up then stills
And in the pregnant silence I eye the moored boat
She's under tarp and sitting well with room to ride the least of all my ills.
It's time to batten down and wait for weather to be gone
To sit alee and watch with glee as Nature carries on
poetically, and zealously
oozing, gushing, bubbling over
with faux snobbish suave re:
pulse sieve literary fatuous
haughtiness, and ludicrous narcissistic pre
ning all the while chuckling to me
self, and indifferent if
some anonymous browser
with Dutchman's breeches rolled up
upon cresting wave over Zyder Zee
disparages mine harmless
badinage, hence if ye
might qualify as such nitpicker,
who doth cavill - dee
crying wading thru
quagmire of verbiage,
a gentle reply to thee
might be more wise to turn energy
toward, how in many another country
the village people haint so free
spouting, sporting, and spoiling,
vis a vis intellectual sparring
(albeit innocent) black
barbs hatch chee
ving, and raising urgent
attention against he
(who whiz squelching
constitutional rights) re:
pressing, rescinding, reviling,
et cetera access toward key
underpinnings within these fifty
constituent United States
of America beckon alacrity
for obliging citizens across
all points of the compass to alee
v8 his indiscriminate flee
sing, sans bedrock nation could tee
tear on the brink of calamity,
which political plug quite inadequate
to staunch hemorrhaging, viz upending
many a sacred liberty,
and foo to you reprimanding
against any agree
gee us objection to pen about polly lee
ticks and/or religion!