Best Cactuses Poems
another day in the woods. on Strawberry ridge
looking out over undulating green hills to
the next great wall of mountains. the last
morning clouds left from last night's storm
hanging in the valley mistily. the sun eventually
burns them away.
the respect between old Paul Karlsen and I continues
to exist. even though he's a Mormon and I'm a fallen
New Yorker. the work is comparatively easy, lifting
hundred pound bags, so you can just imagine what
we do other days. in fact, it's fun, especially for
young Bates. we get all white (and our lungs dusty).
on the way to and from the work site I read
in Silent Spring, the chapter against herbicides, gathering
inspiration for the upcoming controversy. in the end
perhaps I'll be fired for refusing to lay down Tordon
beads. realizing this, as I drive with Bates,
I see the dark green conifers and begin to miss them.
Rocks and rattlesnakes, bluebells
and mountain daisies, grasses and cactuses, mahogany
bush, lodgepole pine and quaking aspen, lush forest
and dry sun-tortured mountainside, wind and seed
carried by wind, ants, streams, hummingbird
and hawk, deer, badger, ground squirrel, wolverine.
Categories:
cactuses, day, green, inspiration, morning,
Form:
Verse
In between deserts
Ocean there I lie
Pachamama
As high as elimino tide
In dream in one piece
Palm heart cactuses
Tides echo pacific whales
Land of accasias in treasures
Pachamama fly my soul in whale
The wound grow ashes in tears
Desert to pacific gate to open forbiden
Meet Kurosho collides Oyashio
Pachama will comeback all in one piece
Categories:
cactuses, history, inspirational, peace, people,
Form:
Free verse
Take my senses away
Make me crazy,
Stir some memories
Make a story;
Oh, Love me to death,
Give me a life then kill me.
Show me the way
Then lead me astray,
Enrich me with love
Then waylay me;
Be my friend, betray me,
Be my God, bedevil me.
Let's congregate in a tavern
Worship in this safe haven,
Follow no faith
Pander to no priest;
Let's hobnob with the angels,
Befriend the demons on the sly.
Drag my soul through the desert
Then carouse there in an oasis,
Set me ablaze with your passion
Then douse it with your sweat;
Let's sleep on a bed of cactuses
And thumb our noses at the heavens.
Ha, let's grow up
And just kid around,
Lie down in a grave
And wake up in a cradle;
Let's usurp the world from Atlas
And rattle the hell out of its core!
~A Strand (1047) contest
~Sponsor: Brian Strand
Categories:
cactuses, conflict, confusion, me,
Form:
Free verse
A vultures patience in
hand,
My naive soul wanders in sand
Into a vast desert of life.
Battling in strife,
Through sand and dust storms.
A trekker of me it transforms.
Impelled into cactuses
incarnation
And hence surviving long thirst
duration.
At times, enduring the scorpions
sting
And all other hazards that spring.
A calloused heart I now possess.
With experience, the future I
bravely assess.
Deception of the mirages
No longer deceive my eyes.
I can see through the dust,
For I have gone through worst.
With globules of faith and
determination,
An oasis I will find at my
destination.
Categories:
cactuses, inspirational, life, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
Somber psalm, Translation of Carlos Bousono’s poem : Salmo sombrio
(from Carlos Bousono’s first book of poems, written before he was 22 : Subida al amor (Ascent into love), 1945, and dedicated to the 1977 Nobel laureat, Vicente Aleixandre.)
Do not pass by me , O ! God ! incognito,
do not cross my path like a sky emptied of its stars,
for my body turns in upon itself in flames,
loving you in silence with such persistent anguish.
Do not cross my path while I keep loving an obscure entity,
while I continue to whimper among cactuses, among stones.
So turn Your face away, Your face that I fear
during such a roaring and wild night !
Keep Your distance from me ! Abandon me in the dark !
so that I may wish to be the source and thirst of this earth
in order to be able to love this twisted
trunk of a body sans light, all alone in this blinding wilderness !
© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2013
Categories:
cactuses, god,
Form:
Dramatic Monologue
I see you hipsters in rustic coffee shops with pictures of Marlyn Monroe and contemporary art,
the girl in all black with a black beret to make her look more avant-garde and red colored hair that was obviously bought from a drugstore. Strolling through the downtown streets wearing swedish backpacks that are a statement piece for impracticality for they are not large enough to hold textbooks but are meant only for small sentiments of music and poetry. Their fishnet stockings that only go up a little past the ankles to be seen out of the tops of Doc Martens shining against the sips of a blue moon witbier brew. Drinking lacroix which in my opinion tastes like a substitute for watered down alka-seltzer or more like sprite without flavor. Listening to their radiohead and pink floyd and nirvana in a fervorous rage against conformity or simply riding a chill wave through the early 2000’s. The boy with his colorful button downs buttoned all the way to the very top- which is somewhat strangulation because I have tried it myself. Where they occupy their bookshelves with paperbacks of Jack kerouac and John Green while looking for Alaska on the road travelling through paper towns. I see you modern day rebels wearing your frown with a fedora or newsboy cap which never looks as good as you think they might because newsboys no longer exist like that. Beanies that hang off the back of your heads while you wait in line for your frappuccino to condense. Hanging from the ceiling are small cactuses and crystals among bouquets of dried roses and daisies. Flowers and succulents are to be cherished like baby from dirty dancing who never gets put in the corner along with the Buddha and Billie Eilish although no one ever really went through with the eightfold path because it took too damn long and besides Kurt kobain turned out to be a saint anyway.
Categories:
cactuses, art, community, culture, fashion,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Why be afraid to admit the truth,
When the truth is all we have?
If when one door closes, another one opens,
why even dare looking back?
The following sentence is false,
The previous sentence is true.
Always accept a challenge,
what do you have to lose?
When you love someone so much, you hate them,
Now that’s true love.
There’s no harm in spending life as a chicken,
if you dont want to be a dove.
Everyone learns
Faster on fire.
So don’t let it control you,
act on desire.
All life is just a slot machine,
And it’s your turn to bet.
Life is a foreign language,
We all mispronounce it.
The best man never wins.
The good always die young.
We all have a face only a mother can love,
Don’t ruin it by a slip of your tongue.
Learn from others’ mistakes,
And by God! Make your own.
Always respect your mother,
I don’t want to hear that tone.
Life is like a box of chocolates
You never know what you’re going to get.
You know the best thing about pain?
It lets you know you’re not dead yet.
Life sucks, get a helmet.
Stand tall, fight hard.
Life’s a hand of poker,
We all get dealt a bad card.
Don’t outsmart your common sense.
Don’t bend until you break.
When times get tough, suck it up.
Because sometimes it’s all you can take.
Never play not to lose,
Always play to win.
Keep the key to your heart in good hands,
So only true love can get in.
Just because there are cactuses in the world,
Doesn’t mean you have to sit on them.
If you decide to wear the pants in the family,
You better learn how to hem.
Love is a battle field,
Dreams can come true.
Just have realistic dreams,
That’s all you have to do.
But don’t forget to live for now,
And don’t leave anywhere without a knife,
Because everybody will fight for an easy ride,
On the merry-go-round that we call life.
Categories:
cactuses, lifelife, love,
Form:
Cactuses are less or more interesting
One at first appears less interesting
But it has spellbinding flower
With its beauty to awake the soul has the power
That flower is as colorful as a butterfly
And in its unusual texture its beauty will lay
Its complexity is like kaleidoscopic eye
It is hard to believe it comes from earth not the sky
That flower reflects what is even more bizarre
Void that has no space even as far
As last light of the soul
No space in Omni verse as a whole
However from that void like from the womb
New universe will bloom
Conscious is more than existent
Unconscious is more than not existent
So opposite of nonexistent would have to be
Something beyond conscious maybe
Immortality
But beyond all consciousness it would be
So far beyond immortality
Or infinity
As this grows more and more abstract
Makes me think what is beyond abstract
As this opposite of void
Is in certain reference point
What is pinnacle of thought from every point?
And philosophy that knows meaning of life from such point
Categories:
cactuses, flower, universe,
Form:
Free verse
The desert is upon the sun
Pallid from being dried up without water
The pyramids stand tall among the howling wind
Made holy by the sanctified Egyptians
The desert being as long and wide as an ocean
in a sudden reverie of a daydream,I think i am there
With thorns on all the cactuses I pass them by
I discern the fact that I cannot touch them
Without realization I come upon a statue as scary as the dark night
Hoping not to seem repugnant I step away fast trying not to offend the statue,for it
may come alive
I give my name quick,Patricia so I can open the gate
As I step in I feel illiterate because the writings on the wall I cannot read
But then I follow an Egyptian cat who eyes glare
Deviouly I indirect myself from the cat
only to see that the statue is blinking at me
Deftly I make a skillful move to ensure I get away although being assertive in my
own right
did I profusely receive parting gifts
Coming from the dark abyss
Unscrupulosy I am told I can take these gifts free of charge
Not wanting to leave ,but having to lose myself
Always remembering though why the desert is so still
Categories:
cactuses, adventure, history, imagination, dark,
Form:
Looking out of the window
I see nothing.
View to eastern hills,
Blocked by lorries, carrying soldiers
In combat-fatigues,
My town looks like a fortress.
In my room,
Cramped with books and history,
Surrounded by dusty calendars,
I wage a war for freedom
From captivity,
Wishing for a breath of green air.
In this prison of thoughts,
I close my eyes and remember
Golden calendulas, cactuses with tiny red blooms,
Whispering orchids and giggling ferns
You once tendered in distant time,
In a faraway garden.
Thus I ignore the walls.
Categories:
cactuses, art, baby, beautiful, best
Form:
Violet orange gold sunset beautifies the sky
Towering cactuses on endless expanse of the desert lie
The dream of stone winds- ancient catacombs will never die
This is the gift of mind’s eye
For soon you will find
You are not in the desert but in your own mind
The dazzling smell of sunset would guide you if you were blind
By the vastness of stone winds the soul is defined
The night appears above
The stars in clear desert sky sing of universal love
Your spirit grows like a grove
Your soul is filled with love
Suddenly among the stars you are
Traveling with every star
You see moons orbiting planets from far
Distance is immeasurable yet you can define it from where you are
Stone winds are bliss
That sails celestial abyss
You see strange life forms hiss
From many planets spanning the cosmic bliss
The seas of methane dazzle with vastness and majesty
Mathematical base for life different then on earth will be
Elements different then on periodic table fill the planet’s sea
And who ever possesses the soul of it all can write their own destiny
Categories:
cactuses, fantasy,
Form:
Rhyme
They could grace the cover of a magazine. Meet my colorful flower garden team; So bright and bountiful this spring.
More glorious than ever it seems. The smiling Irises can't wait to be seen; Sitting stately enthroned like beauty queens.
Decoratively surrounded by plenty of green, The big-blossomed roses make their annual scene, Full of red, yellow, maroon, and very pretty pink.
They're on display like a well-orchestrated machine, Some of which lie slightly against the window screen. Like homemade greeters, the cactuses hover over them all,
Yelling loudly to all comers, "Hello yall!" The mulberry tree stands broad and tall, Flashing its shade against the walls.
042320PoSpCtest, Spring Rhyme, Emile Pinet. 11P
Categories:
cactuses, beautiful, flower, spring,
Form:
Rhyme
Cactuses
Of a fringed existence upon a solitary majestic beholden expanse,
Saguaro forest brims an Arizonan desert thirty deep in noble stance,
1000 foot profound ampleness their protrusive inward succulence,
E'er so oft a filtered beauty blossoms unscathed of shielded intense,
Thirty growing crowns shadow a summit as a mauve sun pretense,
Night strips down and starry-eyed cacti glamorize a lunar entrance.
2020 February 13
*Honorable Mention*
STRAND SELECT N,any form ,any theme
~~Brian Strand
Categories:
cactuses, growth, poetry,
Form:
Rhyme
Despite the clouds
Despite the tempest
I will stay
My sands are
Crowded with shadows
Dark and irritating
In your bouquet
I have seen
Splash of love
Despite the cactuses
Despite the nettles
I will stay
I have been
To many temples
Same lonely shadows
I have been
To churches too
Same tall eucalyptus
I have been
To many windows
Didn't find rose
Despite the refusal
Your sharp statements
A flame was unmistakeable
A flame for
My hungry palm
Waves of warmth
Green and soft
Leaves like lotus
Peace in nucleus
A blue nest
A little rest
A cool fireplace
My shocked canvas
Tired and torn
Will now rest
Let me lean
Against your thorn
Until the day
The flowers glow
___________________________
July 22, 2017
Categories:
cactuses, conflict, image, true love,
Form:
Free verse
I like roses, lilies, cactuses, and other beautiful
flowers that display their blossoms most of the year.
I like red, white, pink, and even bright yellows.
I like all flowers, birds, bees, and green trees.
I'm different from others, but I like myself too.
God made us all to be ourselves and do our best,
and like His entire creation, to depend on Him.
So, once a year, one of my colors is purple.
I say hello and encourage the rest of God's creation
to blossom where they are planted and be their best there.
I remind them that whether it's rainy or shiny, calm or stormy,
God will be there with and for them because He always cares for us.
Categories:
cactuses, flower, god,
Form:
Personification