Best Audience Poems
among green foliage and slender twigs, perched a graceful mellifluous Nightingale.
Chickadees, Robins, Orioles stopped their synchronised cadence of rhythmic tweets, in anticipation..
a tranquil silence fell in the forest, a quiet trance around...
tall majestic trees stopped swaying their aspiring branches,
plants and shrubs and bushes softly emanated saffron scent,
rustling fragrant breeze whispered lilac mystery,
chartreuse clouds stooped and gently touched the treetops,
tangerine twilight moon flickered ribbons of love,
ravishing flowers opened their petite petals blazing red blush in awe!
Nightingale sang the most melodious song, sprinkling amber passion,
It sang a symphony pouring its heart, weaving
the story of eternal love and loss,
mesmerizing the audience with lavender dreams and hopes
a dazed forest stood still ...
All hushed !
Written May 6, 2021
POTW May 9, 2021
All Yours - June 22, 2021 -Brian Strand
FIRST PLACE
In an audience of one,
He knows everything I’ve said and done.
Though I can try I cannot hide,
He walks with me right by my side.
When I close my eyes He is there watching over me,
He is my strength, this man who walked the Seas of Galilee.
He is the cup from which I daily sip,
He is the friend with whom I choose to fellowship.
He battled the beast to save my soul,
And offers me a mansion with streets of gold.
Just for my obedience and doing what I know is right,
He guides my path with His shining light.
He shows me the dark side of those temptations that call,
He carried me those times I would stumble and fall.
I praise His name to all who will hear,
His message to me has become crystal clear.
I wish to share His love with those who are lost and confused,
He alone took on all our sins as His poor body was mutilated and abused.
He gave His very life just to share Heavens bounties with each and everyone,
And rose from deaths tomb, to claim this victory, God’s only Son.
Beyond the dark trees
Robins bathe in the sand
Watched by an eagle
I had heard about a ...
a writer's group ... in my city
where a writer could recite their poem or short story
on a stage with an audience
I decided on a poem ... of my heritage
~ a feather lost, gliding and drifting, it soars
in the mighty wind, it twirls and swirls
once the 'People' owned all the wilderness ~
I was so nervous and trembled
for days I worked on memorizing the lines of my poem
making all my friends listen
over and over again speaking it to a mirror
with smiles .. and no smiles
~ there, upon a sheer jagged cliff an appaloosa
horse of many colors stands majestic
and this Ojibwe girl gazes under an azure sky ~
we had to listen to several talkers before my turn
they were so good that my heart sank
I would look like a fool ... to my friends
but when my name was announced
I gathered up my 'courage' and strength
and stepped ... on the stage ... standing silent for a moment
~ there, in the mighty wind that roars and howls
eagle feathers in my hair and on my horse flutter
and the vast lands of Canada seek the horizon ~
when I finished reciting my poem
there was a deafening quiet
the audience fallen silent
I take a breath and look around the room
oh, why were people so still ...
and then ... the sound of cheers ring out
and all the audience stands ... to clap
for this Ojibwe girl ...
~ there, above in that cloudless sky canopy
eagles fly ... symbolizing the spirit and strength of the 'People'
and the only sound ... those fluttering feathers in the wind ~
.. and a feather lost ... drifts into the audience
___________________
May 6, 2021
Poetry/Free Verse/the audience falls silent
Copyright Protected, ID 05-1352-902-06
All Rights Reserved, 2021, Constance La France
Written for the Premier contest, The Audience Falls Silent
sponsor, Kai Michael Neumann, Judged 06/02/2021
Connected —
Eyes dipped in color,
Expressions —
"Why not try living your life for an audience of one?" Gordon Robertson
"Why not try living your life for an audience of one?"
Instead of living to please yourself, why not try
living your life trying please Jesus Christ?
God's only begotten Son.
Instead of going your own way and getting lost
along the way? Why not turning your own
life around completely upside down?
If you are drowning your sorrows,
and/or puffing them up in smoke?
It is because by yourself you can
not cope. You can not survive all by
yourself and on your own. At
least if you the only one to lose is you.
If you want to fly like an eagle without
angels wings? And climbing a mountain
which is way too high. Finding out
much too late you can not fly.
Why let yourself become undone?
When all you have to do is call upon
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All those who call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Call upon the
name of the Lord while he still is
near. Call upon the name of the Lord
while you still are able to to. Come
tomorrow it may be much too late
for you!
You have no guarantee of living
more than one day at a time.
Why waste another minute of your life?
When Jesus Christ is knocking at
your hearts door!
Love in Christ Jesus!
Roxanne Lea Dubarry
Roxy Lea 1954
Roxy 1954/ October Country
May 23, 2020
Betrayal Demands An Audience
Pretty smiles
dressed in camouflage
full in view but hidden
talking sincerity
to silent attentive listeners.
Impressive Actor
his stage now set
for betrayal demands an audience
he's inspired from arising cheers
see, his deceitful decorations near.
And when found out
he's drawn them in
his performance was just to win
his stage impressive
and the Actor glorious
for the betrayal demands an audience.
An audience in the overhanging trees
glean upon the sight darkening light appease.
Free spirit blotting out the sun shortly ease;
dancing image in the shady shadow seize.
Glean upon the sight darkening light appease;
nesting birds departing and upward release.
Dancing image in the shady shadow seize.
with the assist of teasing most fickle breeze.
Nesting birds departing and upward release
reaching out to touch the outspread wings ~ shall please,
with the assist of teasing most fickle breeze.
as they cry breaking the angst silence unease.
Reaching out to touch the outspread wings ~ shall please,
free spirit blotting out the sun shortly ease;
as they cry breaking the angst silence unease
an audience in the overhanging trees.
12/19/2019
resubmitted poem on 10/17/2020
A Monorhyme Pantoum
An Audience, was inspired by the birds that are always singing day and night in the tree in front of my bedroom window. It is written in a Pantoum form using all same sound rhyming words called Monorhyme.
The name of my book is called
Rhapsody of Poems Copyright 2020
An Audience is found on page 90 in the book.
Front Cover is an oil painting called “Tea Party” painted by me in 2014.
My daughter-in-law modeled for the painting. I dedicated the book to my loving husband that passed on August 29, 2018.
The book contains a variety of short stories and poems, in the forms of Free Verse, Rhyme, Abecedarian, Quatrain, and others.
Your symphony cut short.
My heart rings with the tension
of your unresolved fugues.
My audience is dwindling here on the Soup
Perhaps I should write about love stead of poop
Seems I've lost my way
Need help I must say
To come in from the wilderness and get back in the loop
Why am I threatening?
Why am I threatening to do this thing, it is in my mind to do?
I am a man of action,
I am a man of deeds.
Why am I threatening?
Am I seeking approval?
Am I so self absorbed that my mother’s madness and daughter’s sorrow, my wife’s anguish,
and my father’s rage toward God mean nothing?
Am I so selfish that I would put them through such that loss just so I can escape to a
cowardly reverie?
I am not sure.
But I am threatening, and that thing is in my mind.
Perhaps I need an audience,
Perhaps I need an audience, for the things unsaid and unheard about me,
Perhaps I need an audience to remind me of a God that is better than my reckoning of
abandonment.
I am not sure.
Will I do this, or just threaten.
Perhaps I need an audience.
A story probably most of you already know.
This took place on a football team not too long ago.
The owner and all the coaches together agreed,
that a star receiver was their immediate need.
The best all-pro pass catcher played for another team.
To have him render his services here was their dream.
Just picturing him wearing their uniform was nice,
as the team knew his presence would come at a high price.
There was competition from others to snare this guy,
but the offer from this owner turned out the most high.
Everyone on the team knew this man was a winner.
Their contract he signed while being treated to dinner.
All greeted him when he appeared at the training camp.
As he went through the drills, they felt the team was a champ.
Throughout the season, he coupled with the quarterback,
Together, they composed a high-scoring pass attack.
Best winning record in the Conference they achieved,
To go all the way was what many fans had believed.
When the team played in the Super Bowl in Jacksonville,
that great big coveted trophy eluded them still.
This receiver stayed out of camp before next season.
His thought that he was worth more money was his reason.
The owner said “You signed a contract to play with us,
so report to the training place and end all this fuss!”.
So his demands for higher pay were then retracted.
Soon, the team became annoyed with the way he acted.
The coach said “We’re suspending you without any pay.
Clean out your locker; I‘ve had enough of you today!”
The fact that this man has played his last game for the team
is quite apparent now, and a big shame it would seem.
There are some other teams with a wide receiver need.
If he gets a new chance, then this advice he should heed:
Please control yourself, and keep your mouth in a pucker;
should you get the urge to call the coach a ____________.
(I’m letting the readers fill in the blank.)
No Conclusions, THE PROCESS OF PAINTING ***
Not often between lines.
Crossing lanes. Consuming spaces.
Ordering gray shadows
Like shaded fog or misty traces —
In a measure of displaced displays
Of reality’s clarity
In impressions or abstractions,
To emphasize the building theme — with
The colors smudged or stippled or stroked long
Outlying and blending — cautiously —
Of as if themselves in a trance,
Running away
Circling off the canvas;
A rhapsody of shapes forming,
To be perhaps perceived,
Playing hide and seek —
If viewed in a turning to upside-down,
Or then seen from a look far off
From another side, across the room,
As if from beside some seaside beach
Of the moveable imagination
Of possibilities, yet a stroke by stroke
Closer to the finished effect —
To be appraised and lauded, at that exhausted,
But nevertheless, rejoicing end illumining —
Witnessing, according to open examination
Of life scenes below, beyond, or high,
Blended in new colors
Often strangely named, to
Guess their nature by their new pseudonyms:
Like Earth’s Crust Brown or
Baby Fair Yellow Hair.
The painting
Now ‘till forever will be
Beheld hung up somewhere, (or
Kept back in the black of a closet’s corner floor)
Where it stays, not resting; not still!
But running
Through time’s approaches to
what whatever’s passing popular in art interpretation.
Painting after painting,
Whipped up in the winds
Of a viewers’ risen remembrancs—
Spirit to Sight
Picture to Touch
Art to Power
Spurring minds and moods into possibilities of
Re-seeing journeys
Into themselves through this painting
Always being as if magically moved
Through an instant
Lost, then
Re-addressed.
————————————————
(c) sally young Eslinger 9/27 - /21 rewritten d12/24\2022
Glory to God…
I keep trying to rhyme but the rhythm keeps losing the message.
Next I try to count 5-7-5, but the puzzle of syllables denies the center I want to surround.
I can't count myself into my disclosures,
I can't couple two lines and Shakespeare my way into commodious insightful wit,
All my feelings, a plain short sentence inside of prose.
I spend hours trying to say in a timeless way that:
I need change and I need to stay the same.
You love me cause my core is eternal but you despise me because it continues,
you love me because I am strong, then you despise me because you can't break me.
and we're both patient
and we're both constant
so we never move on.
I spend hours trying to say in a timeless way that:
I'll love you even more though you don't love me anymore.
I forgive your ill will because I made your ill will,
I give you my devotion even though you never really had any for me,
And we're both fed up,
and so we're both disinterested
so we always look for something else.
That is how I know I'm the woman you always wanted, but the woman you always push away. Why can't you want me less, and hold me closer?
Your higher power is your audience,
and my higher power is my fear,
How can you please them when I run away from their booo's and their applause?
So, your vision of the future has changed cause the crowds are displeased,
and my vision of the future has changed because I avoid the future,
but I am evolution at the pace the world was made,
and you are mankind at the pace that innovation adapts,
But I'll never give up on you because the beginning will be our end,
though the middle varies...
the climax is where we will fall in love again, where we will share the same stride,
and your higher power will become forgiveness
and my higher power will become faith!
I've spent hours trying to say in a timeless way that:
I will change and I will stay the same,
and you will be in love with me again.
solitude descending over mountains at tangerine dusk,
a mellifluous Nightingale perched among green foliage and tender twigs,
crooned nature's most graceful sonata of happiness and sorrow.
sprinkling amber passion, it sang a symphony of love,
pouring its heart, weaving the story of eternal lovers longing for each other.
mesmerizing the audience with lavender dreams and hopes,
a dazed forest stood still ...
Robin, and Oriole, and Red Breasted Blackbird joined
its perfect cadence with delightful rhapsody of their own,
tiniest Hummingbird chirped the sweetest song of the forest,
the landscape turned into a perfect rendezvous of songbirds,
captivating entranced creatures amongst tallest trees,
shrubs and bushes, emanating lemon scent,
misty breeze rippling from birds’ wings, smelt saffron fragrance,
a chartreuse waterfalls falling on coral rocks, and.
gentle strokes of raindrops created a magical stream of melody,
gossamer mauve sunset twilight turned the vista
into a haven for musician birds
to celebrate purity and harmonious blessings of nature.
May 8, 2021
SECOND PLACE
Original Title: Voice Of Nature
Inspired by " Nature" Premiere Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Regina Mcintosh
FIRST PLACE
For "N" Old Or New Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
For Strand 1050 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Brian Strand