Best Circumscribed Poems
Don’t try to straighten tulips, dear - they spread.
They lean and bend…they bump and crowd…infuse
Their sunrise glow - the perfect rainbow-red.
The priceless, Holland-choice, symphonic hues,
Impress a smile from lovers’ lips, a test.
They lean and bend. They bump and crowd. Infuse.
In comely youth, great happiness expressed -
Relinquished to the bulbous fate of time.
Impress a smile from lovers’ lips, a test.
The glass panel aflame - half-dozen rhyme
In partial sun. Such glory circumscribed,
Relinquished to the bulbous fate of time.
Across the morning sky, their light imbibed.
Each vibrant cup with verdant leaves adored.
In partial sun - such glory circumscribed.
When glimpsing life through glass, don’t bind with cord.
Don’t try to straighten tulips, dear - they spread.
Each vibrant cup with verdant leaves adored.
Their sunrise glow - the perfect rainbow-red.
4/20/2022
AN ORIGINAL TERZANELLE
Sponsor: Milton Hankins
HMS and Rhymezone
Categories:
circumscribed, flower,
Form:
Terzanelle
Cold shower today - (early afternoon)
September eighth two thousand
and nineteen more challenging than June
dog days of summer test tolerance
to feel alive and bark at the moon
hypothetically imagining myself
alone in the (suburban) wilderness
fabricating, envisioning crossing pontoon
bridge while humming nonsense tune.
Jolt to body electric induces zing
unlike missus who cannot wing
subjecting her sensitive skin
versus modest bragging
rights of this faux king
please pas din me boasting,
but perhaps explanation
I shower without hot water
linkedin to aging.
Which (no matter cumulative
chronological orbitz around sun
just a number), the fleeting
passage of years doth stun
more so forces me to assess
mein kampf, retrospective
devoid of nothing merit but pun
hushing disappointment plus
self deprivation of fun.
Alas within narrowly
circumscribed realm stale
stagnation doth prevail,
I easily overwhelm
courtesy panic attacks of this male
bred avoidance behavior
(cue Pavlov's dog) hearty and hale
trained to withdraw
from challenging tasks
markedly pronounced when fail
my middle name,
where besieged psyche doth ail.
Fatherhood, albeit necessitated taking ace
sip of courage, sometimes
adept to chase
fear of unfamiliar, though
never totally erase
sing passive behavior
I attest infrequently to face
anxiety inducing situations
poise zenned clowns
feign amazing grace
me convulsing with intimidation
agitating, flinching, recoiling...
retreating into isolated place
while profuse sweat drips
from every porous space
heart beat does madly race
despite absence of any threat
exhaustion spent without
factual, logical, rational... trace.
Time and again work fraught
self into lather for naught
recurring soap opera taught
me impossible mission
to rinse figurative suds
unlike showering/washing hair,
whereby cleansing wrought.
Categories:
circumscribed, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Enclosed Rhyme
I thought of things each day
As if they were stream of events
Through my mind away
More scenes I kept
Within my soul blemished
Haunted and reminiscent
Each action that pricked
My inner being in the wilderness
Of its fruition bestowed
For those who deserved
To savor the sumptuous breed
Of nature who spoke
Within the collective cells
That circumscribed
The essence of my existence
I created everything
That pleased and hurt me at once
But it was just fragment
Of essential things
Needed to propel my desires
To become who I am
And be one with everything.
Categories:
circumscribed, dedication, imagination, inspirational, introspection,
Form:
Free verse
Does strife constrain me from thoughts of your mind?
Does it impede my mind's-eye image of you?
Even with my circumscribed point of view
I know this,—that you're of most gracious kind.
A poet and a mentor, you remind
me of a lost faith in what's pure and true,
ideals once held by me and by the few
that all the innocents have left behind.
So, Anja, I laud you as a brother
with these well-chosen lines from this sonnet;
please esteem them (as you would your mother)
as if your very joy depends on it.
A lodestar and guide, you have earned my love
like the Bard whose muse came down from above.
Categories:
circumscribed, appreciation, friend, friendship, poetess,
Form:
Sonnet
The masters of buzz words
used to instill fear
Clutching their pearls saying
“liberals take what’s dear”
Right wingers with their
inescapable nexus
Says its liberals insistent
political correctness
If the “Woke” amplified the
so called cancel culture
The extreme right has weaponized
it for years like vultures
Confining the first amendment,
to burn books and ban,
Limits free speech, squelches
protests, circumscribed all they can
As always it’s the least entitled
to complain the loudest
Claiming they are right and
most patriotic proudest
Canceling or firing those who’s
views don’t meet theirs
Every problem they will
say is the left’s affairs
Not a day goes by that they
don’t say the left will cancel you
Reminiscent of “Stalin”
they seem to take their cue
Conservatives need to breathe
and mind their own house
Take notice what it is that
they themselves shout
Liberals are rising to defend
old-fashion tolerance
Not sitting around trying
to show dominance
Like the illiberal witch burning
preformed by the Protestants
While screaming the loudest
how liberals are communist
Ben Shapiro claims cancel
culture is a left wing invention
When they’ve been doing
it thru history with cancel tension
Canceling those who defied
any of their moral strictures
In living memory, I can show
proof with mental pictures
Colin Kaepernick , Dixie chicks, Nikole
Hannah-Jones, critical race theory and more
The kings and queens of
canceling calling liberals whores
Honestly can’t we all just get along,
stop being so damn righteous
Realize that everyone right
or left we are in crisis
Lets keep it real Liberals are
not without fault of their own
Why can’t we all not practice
what we preach and showing
Categories:
circumscribed, political, truth,
Form:
Rhyme
The flame that lit my heart,
And then love, faint in death below.
Their voices no longer heard.
~ should I cry?
Yet, a brave despair has arrived.
Recurring death of trust,
Embittered. Circumscribed alone.
~ should I cry?
Tried to revive within me
The symphony of beautiful memories,
A song of an innocent soul. Failed.
~ should I cry?
...should I?
Categories:
circumscribed, cry, feelings, heartbroken, pain,
Form:
Free verse
I dwell on virgin moments lightly spent
beyond the lips of verdant fairy glens
A grand invincibility was mine
and life, ah life, the sweetest purest wine.
I danced on dainty rings of dryad saddles,
I fought and died in bloody, death-less battles
but always mother earth denied a tomb
as though a rootless seed in fruitless womb.
A wild and reckless heart so often pleased
while thrills were fresh and rousing novelties.
When youthful whimsies never found a yawn,
between the ocher fires of dusk and dawn
and life's bold color spectrum never grayed
the sunshine eyes of vibrant, youthful maid.
But then I dared to chance a fatal dance,
escape, be swept away in the romance
of damning, mortal love so circumscribed
by life's short boundaries that death applies.
And in those borders such a fury raged
it slipped my mind that he was Time engaged.
I yearn alone for Time before I learned
to want, to need, to hurt, to love, to burn
for more than what the earth and sun could grow;
for him and mortal life that comes and goes.
No grave-spared hearts could have survived my sorrow,
the anguish greeting infinite tomorrows
for closing peace prevails when death endures
and ends the war with Life's one fated cure.
Eternal life, no less, my gift, my curse,
my soul forever knows a deserts thirst
its mouth wide open dragging sorbent tongue
with these forever cravings of the young.
I'd gulp a bloody Nile, consume Earth's breadth
to quench the thirst, the hunger snubbed by death.
No blade of respite either kills or stills
discomfort in my cries, insanely shrill.
Ten thousand wounds can't bleed the noxious taint
of mortal love complete with Death's constraints.
Nor can the magic of the vernal Fae.
take from the Earth a mound of pall decay.
I loathe the way that I anticipate
the lonesome endlessness of constant fate
when once before I lived for nothing more
than just to see what sunrise had in store.
Ah Life! I would, could I find exodus
espouse my ever-living flesh to dust
or maybe find contempt for Man’s love spells
and damn the man I loved to hell!
Categories:
circumscribed, imagination, death, death, earth,
Form:
Rhyme
here
are those
whose bones inhabit clothes
and muscles feed on flesh
except for mine —
here in concrete and florescent light
between closing walls and slamming locks
where the doors bear names
and all things soft and sensuous
are excluded
and nourishment so circumscribed
it’s turned to medicine
and even sleep is rationed
and even the sun shines just
one hour per day
men here
some with hearts of porphyry
but more with hearts all made of bruises
and men whose hearts beat scherzo time
to mock the waltzing world
men more varied
than all the work-day men
who stumbled into power’s ken
and there must bide
sharing time to kill their numbers
where solo time is hard —
here
in jail
serving to remind the rest
that freedom’s theirs who use it less
Categories:
circumscribed, prison,
Form:
Free verse
By constraint and definition
are they so outlined
in the pockets of feckless charity
so circumscribed
and life be ruled by gutless fear
the survival mechanisms
and judgmental machinations so conspire
to pitiful wealth
Life
for all those in spiritual aspire
drag their heels in a pennies worth
to splutter and cough
an apologetic withdrawal if life costs too much
By paper and coin are they so defined
and caring to love has it’s limited price
each homeless reject
has their guilt so steadfastly refined
a paupers lack of respect for the money they’ve earned
and cannot afford to feed them
these parasites of a bankers environment
as empty as the cash flow
they long to protect
Empty of everything
except the money they have
The trinkets, the baubles
these grope for pitiable attempts at survival
turn them cold to inhumane
and frozen in their hearts they all remain
with their subscription to life
they are so luxuriously self contained
AH! Should a beggar preach at their door
and appease indignation with gratitude
simpering then stroke at their ego
how magnanimous are the purse strings of the soul
bite the dust, eat the stone
twist every mouthful into a choke
every morsel can then stick in their throat
Life
for all those in spiritual aspire
drag their heels in their pennies worth
to splutter and cough
an apologetic withdrawal if another life costs too much
By paper and coin are they so defined
they are the money
they are the debt and profit of a livelihood
the toll gate of giving
and their spirits are empty
these parasites of a bankers environment
So buy some comfortably
for the solace of excuse
purchase the paraphernalia
of securities abuse
the taxed exemption for being no-where near human
the cost of living
the price tag of life
the receipt and the overdue payment of love
If survival is the goal
how generous are the purse strings of the soul ?
Categories:
circumscribed, life, money,
Form:
Free verse
THE INEXPRESSIBLE…
Vocabulary passes into oblivious dissolution,
And embankment of expression
Awaits the fragile knocks of fear,
Wholeness circumscribed the lonely emptiness
And the subdued self desires to draw
The figure of its universe
In the shrinking shell of consciousness.
Self’s unceasing preparedness
To stretch the arms of tiring limits
Into the unending horizon
And pluck the infinite’s blossom
To treasure in the finite’s tranquil corner.
Rigidity’s readiness to melt
And softness’s eagerness
To acquire the subtler version,
At the warmth’s tender touch
Alluring the champion of establishment
Into an inebriated exuberance.
Heart’s risky plunge into voiceless depths,
Motionless its march,
Inexplicable its unheard oratory,
Adventures into crucified crux-
Seeking the immortal enchantress
In the diffused darkness and densest ignorance.
Breath’s ultimate competition-
To kiss the zone of silence.
Smiting life’s breast
With rosy lips of death’s beauty.
And the defeated twilight succumbs
Before the advancing darkness.
Not for the annihilation in
The veil less vast void,
But to embrace the stealthy unfoldment
Of “Divine Bliss”-enwrapped in the
Petals of the approaching dawn..
Categories:
circumscribed, philosophy
Form:
Verse
WoodStock - Fifty Years Ago August 15-19, 2019
I knew nary a whit about
rock n roll history
soon to unfold August fifteen –
eighteen ninety sixty nine
mollycoddled, nestled,
obliviously preoccupied
bajillion miles away
attending Baker Park Day Camp
within Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
innocently naive shy lad
hidebound, yours truly
to prefer tried and true familiar turf
quite limited radius
circumscribed physical world,
yes quite sheltered proximity, where
birth family resided
324 Level Road Collegeville
outward bound sphere
comprised safe circumference
nsync within unhealthy insecurity
arising, whereabouts arbitrarily
drawn circle defined mine safe haven
hence, ignorance prevailed
encompassing world at large,
hence bajillion miles distant
Max Yasgur's 601 acre (2.4 km²)
dairy farm in the town
of Bethel, New York,
asper outside realm consciousness
pertaining to yours truly
absolute zero awareness,
where stripling, (and stripped bare) youths,
some approximately twice my age
immersed themselves into
unforgettable experiences of lifetime,
which Woodstock Music, and Art
rock music festival teases
fanciful overactive imagination
speculating buzzfeeding aural
oral, nasal, tactile, visual... senses
ruing, lamenting, bemoaning...
owning cowardly risk averse
demeanor shielding self
against bazaar panoply
augmenting exposure inviting
bizarre phenomena,
versus being tethered
predictably within familiar bubblicious
range umbilical cord (albeit figurative)
linkedin (courtesy known environment)
allowing, enabling, and providing regret
(benefit of 20/20 hindsight)
to tweezer what if...scenario
transcending comfort zone,
which looming fear of unknown
hogtied opportunity to sample novel
adventures (as opposed to reading
such tales of daring do sequestered
as avid bookworm) expending hours
as quiet natured kid (rarely heard or seen),
and reading still predominant passion
providing passive access, now
finding me remonstrating the detriment
against exhibiting proactive modus operandi.
Categories:
circumscribed, anniversary, appreciation, celebration, friendship
Form:
Epic
Pardon me if I disbelieve
that bumping ugly is still a thing
even though the evidence
states quite the opposite
the fair practices once pursued
enjoyment of the lovely views
are now lost to distant days
spawned from acts that cured malaise
purity is circumscribed
by a god in holy writ
even as adherents longed
for the same as lust implores
indulgence taken in the flesh
look to the testament that came before
there the needs were clearly met
taunting me as consequence
to consider religion’s rules
this slows few with dire decrees
company found without clothes
for the sake of coitus’ charm
a convent would be the home
suited for my dearth of joy
there the belief would support
the nothingness of incel’s cult.
Categories:
circumscribed, sensual,
Form:
Free verse
While Shuttered Up Inside... ©ozy
Snug Air Conditioned Demesne...
Analogous to my boyhood
cosseted and bereft, I assay
to poetically elucidate how majority
of mine years found me
deft keeping danger at bay
only thru the pour substitute
of my imagination
remaining safe within the causeway
of a quasi Norman Rockwell picturesque
unblemished near utopian day,
where trumped up "FAKE" danger
stoked courtesy of
anticipatory anxiety didst essay
when pinhead size
pores faux stressed
every epidermal square inch
populating skin oozing perspiration
along I-59 pro Roman
lix spittle sweaty freeway
precipitated, via illusory mailer daemons
unavoidably pitching me
into an inescapable fray
unlike late twenty somethings
(Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan,
whose cruel fate
at the hands of Isis militants
published online by Irish Times),
evinced carpe diem
existential Great Gatsby
live life to the fullest
created an extraordinary journey
(now forever immortalized as
daring adventurist trekkers)
with ample horseplay
deliberately, egregiously, fanatically
and wantonly killed,
when purely exalting in zest
promulgated by indomitable spirit
found me choked up,
a baby boomer i.e. west
tern civilized married bloke,
who opted to die vest
away from blatant uncertainty
never daring to experience unrest
outside a severely circumscribed perimeter,
exempt from a life
and death litmus test,
where very little harm extant,
when taking repast or rest
only ushering, venturing,
and taking, sans
quotidian cerebral quest
ensconced within four walls
without nary a pest
except...pet peeves of mine
within psyche built a nest,
nonetheless hounded by many a vicious beast
whose predatory cannibalistic feast
comprises thine psychological state greased
with until mortality expires,
asper being temporarily lend leased.
Categories:
circumscribed, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Carpe Diem
Incorrigible Recalcitrant - Doppelganger (mine)
Ala Goofus and Gallant
highlights my diametrically
divergent alter egos
always the reserved
obedient docile boy
afeared to stray outside narrow
circumscribed comfort zone
figuratively tethered
extremely short leash
choked me like yoked oxen,
albeit non red dually bullish
under bated breath
otherwise submissive
internalizing fury and rage
relentlessly lambasted
daily school bus ride
analogous highway to hell,
thus envisioned monstrous physique
linkedin to superpowers...
whereby giant beastie boy
within scrawny nerd
visiting jocular comeuppance
bopping "jocks" on their beanies
with rotten tangerines
(Tom Lehrer would be proud)
knocking senseless nasty brutes
gleefully pummeling rapscallions
casually, heroically avenging
purging immediate threat
while smugly jauntily
relishing carefree blessed awesome
fistpumping air joyous ride
duplicating bad ass daring
do dexterously doubling
(wishful) dream come true
one prior pipsqueak - yours truly
punishing pestiferous classmates,
who sadistically doled
out daily dose,
non USDA approved
cavalier fierce injustice
taken aback when mine knuckles
compress hoodlums opprobrious
wicked yakking (actually silenced)
fountainhead spewing toxins
exuberantly effusively ebulliently
cleaning principle ringleader's clocks
at long last
traumatizing measure for measure
antagonistic arch nemesis
inflicting insufferable torment
once passively quaffed ruffians threats,
now all's well that ends well,
no matter yours truly expelled
forever pleasantly humming
merrily merrily, merrily,
merrily, imagined life
tis but a dream.
Categories:
circumscribed, 11th grade, 12th grade,
Form:
Free verse
The curves blush with love strokes,
Exploited moves in pure desire,
Over smooth silky indulgence,
Smitten by omnivorous dreams?
A shade to blend in crimson hues,
Voluptuous juices in frolic,
Fondled raptures veiled and crazy,
Tendrils circumscribed to bondage.
Raw love in the tender bites;
My pure submission to delights:
Categories:
circumscribed, lifelove,
Form:
Free verse