Best Bestride Poems


Dance of the Damselfly

Across the moor
To Wicken Fen
Where brume swallows all
Into mire, of the life,
                                      At river‘s end

But, begins 
The serenades of dawn, unto sipid dew
And they gather into warmth 
Upon and onto rising shines,
                                     Of morning plume

She mist 
Of the brittle heath 
You may slip away
But, what does awaken, nymphs of lore
                                     Poised to face this day

And in trust 
Beauty charms the wind 
Upon what was last 
                                     Of once a virgin wing

Over forenoon lust, a blush 
Swoon those marsh lily eyes
And perch upon fragrance of Lady’s slipper
Thus, the dance romantic
                                     Of the Fenland Damselfly

Round twiddle round and through
As Adler to the willow
A maiden’s flight in sapphire circles
Alluring danseur fly a ready
                                      Hasten, beset to follow

Bestride, thus straddle oft 
Atop the grain shallow reed
Softer cross the moss of peat to settle
To end nature's pretense
                                       Sow and plant its seed

Here aloft the glisten, venery ends
Vixen drinks in insect life
Of instinct passions by danseur prey
A finale at river’s fen, resets the stage
                                          Once again to the "Dance of the Damselfly"

Fervent Feelings

In all desires that my words beseech
Do not annoy thy heart of our affair
And curse thy thoughts when I am out of reach
In all desires that my words beseech
Quarrel not with lovers, or gifts to each
What lovers hath beauty of thy compare?
In all desires that my words beseech
Do not annoy thy heart of our affair

For it is that thy face, an Angel's mask
Brightens my night and gloomy afternoon
And I shall do whatever thou shall ask
For it is that thy face, an Angel's mask
With elegance a well completed task
Holds Nature's craft beyond melodic tune
For it is that thy face, an Angel's mask
Brightens my night and gloomy afternoon

After thy lips commune till death do part
Thou would be Queen and mistress nevermore
Temptress of time shall not tear us apart
After thy lips commune till death do part
Bestride beside my throne precocious heart
Do with whatever that thou dost explore!
After thy lips commune till death do part
Thou would be Queen and mistress nevermore

Too Late

The night would steal his love away 
across the bridge of the moon. 
He knew that it might try one day, 
But it has come that bit too soon. 

It cut itself a creature, 
From its own satanic cloth, 
And a rider plucked from Hades 
Did bestride this behemoth. 

Oh hear the sound 
Of pounded ground 
Beneath its fissured hooves! 

See the craven ravens 
Seeking highest high-up havens! 
And the dizzy weak-kneed witches 
Hiding timidly in ditches. 

The bats, the rats, 
The mice, the owls, 
The creatures that slink through the night; 
The foxes and stoats 
And blubbering toads, 
My, how he puts them to flight! 

Evil will fear greater evil, 
more than it fears good; 
And even the daemons and dusky elves 
Risk refuge under the Church’s rood. 

Oh hear the churning of crumbling earth, 
The turning helpless ravaged turf, 
The creaking croaking breaking trees, 
The rivers sprinting to the sea, 
The children crying, 
The weakened dying, 
And the distant hiss of burning hope. 

My prince, my prince, wake up, wake up! 
The gate is opened, the drawbridge down! 
Where is your armour, where your sword? 
The lady will give you just reward! 

The night has stolen his love away 
across the bridge of the moon. 
He knew that it might try one day, 
But it came that bit too soon.
© Paul James  Create an image from this poem.


Enjamb Me

My girlfriend climbs on one knee and en- 
jambs me; ecstasy.  Her elation 
is so, so delicious; 
so very capricious; 
poetic female domination.  


*Enjambement is French: straddle, bestride.  It's also a poetry term.
© John Smith  Create an image from this poem.

Clip-Pity Clop Drip-Pity Drop

Clip-Pity Clop, Drip-Pity Drop

Clip-pity clop clip-pity clop 
Pencil-toed I walk aloft
The pavements wet and glassy grey
Isolated lane for me to bestride
Bloomy flowers my umbrella atop
Spraying their heads at a riotous fair
The rainy waters like elves in sprite
Streaming down from the dark skies above
Slide down my floral domey roof
Encircling my every moving step 
Like the brandished magical wand 
To keep all evil at the farthermost bay
Puddles before me my mirrors be
Umbrella held high by cocktailed ring
The skirt a-swish in another hold
Two small leaps on stones for bridge
The helm a-safe did bring a pride
The cooing in the heart the sparkle in the eye
The rainy elves rounding the clippity heels
My heart walks in the rain drippity drop drppity drop

Balveen Cheema 
August 23, 2015

Boys of Ix C

Kabir and Shivam – best friends tied
To another as a fly to honey when spied.
Gems of the world - all boys my pride
Are happy and make so when tried;
Jaimin and Aayush with all stride 
Ahead to mark Bhavya deride.
Fenil and Jainam are charms and pride -
Intelligently innocent, and Jayesh’s guide.
Guide for me and class in our collide.
Aryan and Manan are silent asteroid
Who burst with Mahir and Nirav wide.
Priyam and Shiv are innocently flied
In hostel during tuitions and are allied
With Kabir who beside Shashant denied
To be a part of tuition, but with Shivam tried
To save skin, as did Shyam, by moving aside
When problems for Varneshiyas don’t subside.
Siddh, Dipesh and Bhavin – solid chloride;
Burst in class or ground if any belied.
All twenty dear and precious stones I vied
As my sweet angels in life without snide;
I hope they’ll never forget my bestride 
For them and come in my bad cyanide.


Spontaneity

The ties of time and tide bestride 
the man who is defined by
clock and compass.
He who embraces spontaneity
and keeps a happy heart
will garner more good will 
than over-planning ever could provide.

Kathmandu

Kathmandu
a quaint, romantic name, 
had wanted to go there now it is a dream.
Nepal, this small mountain country
often used a golf ball between big countries
for purely selfish reasons.
Thousands of people killed and classical
palaces are reduced dust covering 
mountain tops 
as a fog of sadness  
Cry my lovely I can only offer you friendship.
But for the tourists who evacuated on 
Himalayas’ sacred top.
Filling valleys with empty cans of beef
 and toilet paper flapping in the wind,
I have little empathy
rich tourists that had to bestride and befoul 
a holy mountain.

Across Realms

Seated on my Jupiter*, 
To many places I go, 
Scenes go by in a fast blur, 
As I fly without wings, whoa! 

Across realms of ecstasy, 
I ride to the moon and back, 
Fulfilling flight fantasy, 
It's an adventure laid-back, 

Rounding through all planets eight, 
Propelled by stardust power, 
'Bove the earth, I levitate, 
She helps me cruise in rush hour, 

My pride, she moves like a dream, 
With her, driving is a breeze, 
Shining like silver moonbeam, 
She has been fashioned to please, 

Across imagination, 
Bestride her, a trip of joy, 
Out of the world sensation, 
Sit behind me and enjoy. 



(*Jupiter is my scooty) 

30th April 2023


Contest: Pick-A-Title Vol. 36
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh

Edgar Hp and Mr King

A written word wistfully wrought into a compendium grim,
Of the darkling ravens beset upon the plutonian shores,
Hither did your shapeless muse invade our psyche and vapid minds dim,
Edgar has retired his effete quill yet still
it inscribes beyond our slumbering doors,

Into the ebony emptiness of a nebulous
night,
Stranger the stars wheeling acrid the sky keening past the silver gate,
The grip of Hypnos tugs upon the astral cord of Dantean flight,
Around Innsmouth conticent shadows arise unbound by the dreamer's fate,
Missdeeming angles converge the zenith disguised,
The hounds approach Tindalos has awoke from his hypnic repose,
Descending down to the fathomless depths within R'lyeh's halls Cthulhu prepares 
for his imminent supernal rise,
H.P. you dared to dwell upon the periphery of folie your mantle taken up by future 
librettist anew to compose,

Mr. King, Mr. King your words, sui generis, liberated this vestigial mind,
Carrie the queen, Cujo, how does your coat gleam Neath an insomniac's sky,
Silence plays in the streets of Lot just
around the bend Christine's cherry shine,
Tommyknockers knock after a Stand is taken, dusty boots bestride upon a pathless 
road naught is heard but a lone gunslinger's sigh.

A Mist departed for a raven flurrying to Lenore,
It dropped Poe's Palladian laurels before
H.P.'s forlorn feet,
Visions of the Crimson King preparing his
generous gift, a Colour from space not seen before,
A Delphic legacy handed to a youthful King entranced by a sulphuric smile and a 
clown's gentle wile the circus awaits all below Derry's cozy streets

Raptured Tempests

Verbose crystalled tears bestride
Flaring high on ornately veined clouds

Racking thunderclaps fracture the horizon
Protesting the abdication of daylight

Here the morose summer showers weep 
In heavy erosion washing yesterdays pains

An ascending dusk pursues the mislay moon
Lost in the felled bodies chafing the steely skies

Phantoms murmur atop flamed winged steeds
Dancing on the peaks of the worlds rooftop

Tombs satiated in truth opening with echoes
Are purified by the banks of rolled morning mists

And the harmonious stillness of dawn
Drones out the silence of innocence

Agemo - the Goddess of Forms

Hoary Decree, dateless Order, 
Anthroposophy of the cradle,
Bewilderment of upper echelon,
Agemo - the goddess of forms.

You are the word, you utter not any;
You are the history, you tell no tale;
Cogent than ingredients and concoction,
Fiat is your potent and reverend name.

When the Earth was total gel
And the World was all indigo;
You drained water into the depth
And made the Earth bear its face.
Diktat of the premier flame:
“Let there be light”, how eloquent!!!.

When the godlings begged for cool;
Scorching was the amber they groaned,
With your fiat, you drowsed the flame,
And made moon comfort the godlets.

The day stiffeners berated the Bulkhead,
Sued Mystery for the contest of forms,
Yellow they were like a chip of sulphur;
You were yoke like the full moon in the sky.
When they were blue, black and brown;
Your apparel appeared beguilingly -
More blue, more black, more brown.

In poppycockish sobriety they roared:
All hail the absolute goddess of forms,
Never shall we grimace at Chameleon 
And applaud the farce of any Caricature.

They dare you not, I say the dare you not;
When we know the fierceness of Shango,
Do will still rebuke the King of Koso?
Who shall pick his nostril with cobra’s fang?
Who shall bestride your path Agemo?

Spontaneity

The ties of time and tide bestride 
the man who is defined by
clock and compass.
He who embraces spontaneity
and keeps a happy heart
will garner more good will 
than over-planning ever could provide.

Nepal

Nepal 
Kathmandu
a quaint, romantic name, 
had wanted to go there now it is a dream.
Nepal, this small mountain country
often used a golf ball between big countries
for purely selfish reasons.
Thousands of people killed and classical
palaces are reduced dust covering 
mountain tops 
as a fog of sadness  
Cry my lovely I can only offer you friendship.
But for the tourists who evacuated on 
Himalayas’ sacred top.
Filling valleys with empty cans of beef
 and used toilet paper flapping in the wind,
I have little empathy
rich tourists that had to bestride and befoul 
a holy mountain.

Girls of Ix C 2017

Gems of world - all girls my pride
Are happy and make so when tried;
Drashti & Mansi – best friends tied
To another as a fly to sugar when spied.
Sanjana and Dhruvi with all stride 
Ahead to make others deride.
They are my charms and pride -
Intelligently innocent, and guide
For me and class in our collide.
Lucky is a silent asteroid
Who bursts in hostel wide.
Darshana innocently flied
In hostel during Yoga allied
With Udita who always denied
To be a part of Yoga, but tried
To save skin by moving aside
When problems don’t subside.
Meshwa and Tamanna – bromide;
Burst in class if one belied.
All nine gems of Akbar’s I vied
In my sweet angels without snide
I hope they’ll never forget my bestride 
For them and come in my cyanide.

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