Best Cactus Poems
White wails of weeping willows
Winding in the blue breeze
Like lover hoping for heart’s hero
A lifeguard for the passionate sea
Failed relationships create creatures
Some salty some sour some sweet
You are the red rose with features
A thorny tongue meant to deceive
To appear hazel harder and tougher
Than is your true tender blue heart
Overcompensating for past lover
Satin smile hides your cherry scars
What tells you’re still a red romantic
Is the light behind your emerald eyes
The quiet way you purple panic
When bluff is called by the perfect guy
Fairytales may be only in books
And life isn’t always so grand
You are read in one look
By a man who understands
Thorny tongue’s kiss is sweet
Despite its first green reveal
Sour and mysteriously tricky
Until you found love the real deal
A lean coyote chases a hare through
heat of desert winds. His swift doe
darts past my boots. They've managed
to escape, this time. He'll lead the chase
away another day.
I pause to watch the side-winder as he
considers a kangaroo rat, before moving
on between two century plants to a
rock ledge nearby. The tidy yellow rat
continues eating seeds, gleaning moisture,
never needing to sip drink in this dry
yet vibrant land.
The cactus wren with spotted breast
sits atop a prickly pear. The gilded
flickers' rosy cheeks and banded wings
are a colorful reminder of the beauty
I find out here. Their sturdy tails prop
them upright against a great saguaro,
carving out a hole for nest.
I crunch the tangy bulb of a white
desert lily whose green tendrils curl
on the ground. And here, as evening
cools walking back to my new home,
a silver moon illuminates my path. I
glory in this wondrous desert scene.
No one knows how this
Desert became about
The desert has cactus
There are two rolls of them
One row is separated
by a road
On the other side
Another row spread
In the evening the cactus
Light up the cactus bright
Further in the desert
Are cactus curved
Like a waterfall
Only in the eve
During the day the
The hunched cactus
Yet remain in their shape
All this happened in the strange desert
As Hedgehog-type cactus in bloom,
With claret-cup desert perfume;
Red-orange petals
On top of nettles-
I guard with my sharp, thorny, broom.
I'm hardy, resistant to clime
In weather where sunshine is prime.
Yet, still thrive in cold
When nightfalls unfold;
A mainstay for mundane, sublime.
My flower is tender and smooth
As velvety surfaces soothe.
My buds, I protect
With me, they connect-
And nurturing them, they improve.
Yet, thorns are my standby defense;
Protecting my blossoms- intense.
My keen spears await
To keep safe our fate-
And predators- anxious and tense!
July 9, 2020
Premiere Contest: The Flower, The Thorn, Or Both
Sponsor: Chantelle Anne Cooke
Theme: "You are the flower, the thorn, or both."
Cactus
Your soul needs food and nurturing;
Your heart needs water and life;
Your body needs both to be fulfilled;
A thirsty soul will be weak and die.
A starved heart will corrupt and wither.
A body without a heart will lose the soul.
You may have water and still be thirsty,
You may have food and still starve,
You may have everything and have nothing,
For all is but at best vanity, vanity, vanities.
What a long hot year here,
the cactus are wilting.
Cement is getting soft,
birds in the trees are cooked.
Long hot days with hot nights,
must stop for everyone.
Let It Rain-cool rain now.
a blooming cactus
Big Bend, a national park
last spring in April
You hide away in summer
When other blooms fill fields
In a dark room you sit and wait
'Til Christmas time is here
Is it the joy of Christ's birth
That awakens a welcome stranger
Do you peer out to see the light
That hovers above His manger
You are the only flower
That seems to recognize
The hope and peace in hearts
And angelic carols in skies
You would assume I am thirsty in this dire heat,
Or that my needles would cause others to quickly retreat,
You would conclude that my flowers were only for show
Or that if someone didn’t water me I would never grow,
But what you don’t see in plain eye sight
Is that I am flourishing with waters of integrity and might,
Under these thorns you call choked up defenses
Breeds the strength to survive all forms and pretenses,
To you I require little maintenance… but I know better,
I know how to absorb all I need in good and bad weather,
For I was strategically placed in this atmosphere,
All I need dwells in my structure enabling me to stay clear
Of beasts that lurk when sandstorms arise,
When mirages start to mesmerize,
When signs and wonders appear in fallen skies,
And soldiers forget to break ancient soul ties,
I stand my post and flaunt my spikes,
A cactus heart survives all flights.
By: Sabina Nicole
Written: In a Very dry Place
Contest: Forgot
Contradiction viewed
As flower blooms on cactus
A plant of spines
A cactus survives
upon a painted desert,
a needled fortress.
Three day's journey from Coachella to Paradise,
felt like adding beauty to my day, and you did.
Pretty painted toes peek from muslin wool socks,
all your nametag revealed: Hello, my name is...
Once looked at me wondering am I the one.
Let me spare you some disappointment, I'm a coward.
Hey, not squeamish at the sight of a little blood,
tho' scared I'll be unable to save you again cactus flower.
Sense a phantom pain from a missing limb,
still afraid I'm borin' you to death.
Laptop key tied to you in gentle refrain,
just another heart left out
by an absent-minded tin smith.
Your illusions wistfully missed my cactus flower..
without true love, what a waste our finest hour.
'Til then let nametag be proof that we exist,
a paper illusion called 'Hello, my name is....'
She hugged me and bit my earlobe
Scratched me and pricked me with a probe
That way she made love
I forgot my glove
Cactus my wife without a robe
I planted her in my bleeding heart
She came from Mexico with love tart
I was not careful with her spine
And drank from her goblet of wine
I should have known her skill of black art
Love or Hate pick a subject #2 - Poetry Contest
Sponsor Shadow Hamilton
Penned on 7th March 2015
A darker song reaches skin and bone,
On panel streets fading steely gray,
Long and far, I fear you are gone.
Dark clouds are melting in time,
Touching the days of humid spring,
A heat-wave dancing too far within.
The mirror speaks, “You are now alone!”
While asleep you cast a fated twin.
Careless to say this is not forever,
Under the night, eyes stretch like leather.
Missing you now, my breath goes astray,
You beckon me here to capture the fray,
Only to see you gone from my view,
With less than hope, I go my own way.
Lizette Woodworth Reese
Spicewood
The spicewood burns along the gray, spent sky
In moist unchimneyed places, in a wind,
That whips it all before, and behind,
Into one thick, rude flame, now low, now high,
It is the first, homeliest thing of all--
At the sight of it, that lad that by it fares,
Whistles afresh his foolish town-caught aires--
A thing so honey-colored, and so tall!
It is as though the young-Year ere he pass,
To the white riot of the cherry tree,
Would fain accustom us, or here, or there,
To his new sudden ways with bough and grass.
So starts with what is humble, plain to see,
And all familiar as a cup, a chair.
Rare desert jewel, you flower with ease
among those many thorny leaves
your fearless petals open wide
to touch the sun up in the sky.
Your beauty mocks your prickly cage
entrapped within its imprisoned stage
how brief your budding glory shines
a resplendent bloom with lovely lines.
So bold, you awake the desert scene
with brilliant colors unforeseen
a floral enchantress, that you are
a mesmerizing wild star.
Written on 3/29/2017