Best Clumping Poems
day in the life of a coal miner
in the darkness you hear them
their boots clumping along the cobbled stones
not dawn yet ...yet still they are on their way to work
young lads of 15 plus.
these are miners sons
following the traditions
each generation go down the pit
twelve long hours
twelve hours in the dark and dust
twelve hours shovelling the coal
hewn by their elders.
horses are used to pull the trams along
eight hours they work....
young lads work longer.
their little food tins....tiny tins..
a chunk of bread if lucky a dripping sandwich
a bottle of water completed the feast.
they stumble on that cobbled road to home
tired and weary, hopefully a hot bath awaits them
in front of the fire.
nearly too tired to eat the meagre food set out
falling asleep dreaming of sunshine and fun
reality such a different story.
penned 18 May 2016
Audio Below
Categories:
clumping, life,
Form:
Verse
Frayed edges, dust and dirt clumping in little hands
After the sun shower, cast out to the rough cobbled
Street.
Newborn in her arms, mom watches as the children
Climb the three foot rope-swing, merrily dangling
Above toy trucks and doll-houses.
Smiling, we glide past, comforted, family at my side
As we carry treasures from the street market back
Home, knowing I too enjoyed such moments, and
Share them still today.
Portland, Oregon
June 2021
Categories:
clumping, family,
Form:
Free verse
A is for algae, red, green, blue cells, soaking up sun, sliming teeth
B is for bacterial mat, clumping underneath, earliest born, never asleep
C is for coral reef, the place we all find cover or the sand parrotfish chew and release
D is for diatom, all seeded calcium, all float free, all denizens barely seen
E is for eelgrass, nursery meadows of the anchovy, and other browsers of green
F is for fan worm, filter feeder like a flower, 8000 species on which fish feed
G is for giant kelp, floating on bladders of air they’re forests of cold waters clean
H is for helmet, the royalty of snails who protect our feet, queen, emperor, king
I is for isopod, the chameleon crustacean, they color match what they eat
J is for jellyball, or cannonball jellyfish, not upside down or moon, avoid their heat
K is for keyhole limpet, favorite food of ochre stars, will erect its own wall
L is for laver, the sea lettuce of nori, it swirls red skirt as ocean falls
M is for mermaid’s purse, the sack of the skate whose yolk keeps them alive
N is for nerite, the prisoner striped snail of the rocky zone as numerous as a hive
O is for oyster drills, the snails that slurp oysters and use them to lay eggs
P is for pleurobranch, a sea slug answer for oranges, with one active leg
Q is for quahog, the bivalve seaman who can survive eating the mud
R is for rove beetle, the one waiting to snatch the unwary beach hopper for good
S is for saxitoxin, those red tides produced by mating that can paralyze humans
T is for tubular sponge, they squish, bore and encrust as space lends
U is for urchin, those spiny skinned balls, no eyes or noses but dig food in sand
V is for Venus, Music Volutes dined or Vampire Squids skimming along land
W is for whelk, not the musically inclined, but the slow moving snail in a shell
X is for X and a half, the six rayed star, hungry for anything on the half shell
Y is for yucca, blooming on the beach, they bloom nice and tolerate the sand
Z is for Zostera marinara, the address of eel grass when they're feeling grand
All of this green life is what crunches, stinks, dries and slips underfoot
The rest that find the housing and dining compatible means someone’s on the look.
Categories:
clumping, adventure, animal, beach, death,
Form:
Couplet
Haiku With Variations (Both Sonnet & Free Verse)
Haiku Number 2
hail rides air updrafts
raindrops crater planet's skin
your breath’s clouds, fall skies
May 12, 2016
Mother of a Winter’s Night – Shakespearian Sonnet
Her distressed sighs rise up like nascent hail,
(Tears blown to ever colder zones of sky),
Where frozen prayers see gravity prevail,
Release their pain on what they think is lie.
These raindrop tears sew cratered fields as well,
While farmer's labor washes out to to sea,
(Those tender roots that split rock - time's to tell),
But impact strips her lover’s legacy.
And with the fall as cold means leaves turn blue
New growth goes dormant and awaits Spring’s lease,
Confusion reigns as her breath’s clouds subdue
And haiku’s calmer images release.
If I am wrong let no one take offense
She’s not to blame, but my own lack of sense.
May 14, 2016
Poet's Note:
Please excuse the paraphrase of Shakespeare Sonnet #116's couplet. :-)
Mother of a Winter’s Night – Free Verse
Your distressed sighs are the updrafts
That hurl nascent hailstones skyward,
Freezing tears colliding, clumping as they go
Into tortured spheres that could kill a horse,
Certainly knock shingles from the newest of roofs,
Or pound a field of sunflowers straight into the ground!
My vulnerable fields cratered by your tears,
Whether in their frozen form or flowing wet,
Top soil now enroute to the sea itself,
As if the history of its creation were of no consequence,
Tender roots that pried a farm from solid rock,
Swelling into cracks that are always present,
Turning stone to fertile soil.
The sea’s surface, that not so long ago
Mirrored a most gorgeous sunset,
Now a tortured and a rabid foam,
Laid to waste, craters overlapping craters,
Gone in an eye blink, all my love a non-event
In geologic time it seems.
Winter has come early as your breath’s clouds
Mask all reason and confuse me,
A bitter chill fills every corner of fall’s skies,
Even leaves turn blue and cannot breathe,
Oxygen sucked from the room we live in,
My only recourse is poetry and prayer.
May 13, 2016
Long Tooth
Poet's Note:
It was an interesting challenge to try to write the same poem three times and keep the meaning of the original haiku intact.
Categories:
clumping, love, poetry,
Form:
Free verse
Based on the BBC news article "Diamond rain falls on Saturn and Jupiter"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24477667
Mighty Jupiter - king of planets
Noxious gasses form a blanket
Fearsome storming - red spot raging
Timeless tempest never aging
Lightning cracking - breaks methane
Sooty puff clouds fall like rain
Clumping forming - makes graphite
Dropping further losing height
Pressure rising carbon crush
Diamond snow in downward rush
Heat increasing gemstones melt
Further down as mist does pelt
To carbon ocean 'neath the sky
From boffins' sums in their mind's eye
Categories:
clumping, ocean, planet, rain, science,
Form:
Verse
The Pink Joey or Dwarf Pink Kangaroo Paw
when cataloged made botanists quiver.
For it's a rare native Australian plant
first found along the Margaret River.
A clumping evergreen, it loves the sun
however, it’s content to stay quite small.
And unlike the larger Kangaroo Paw
it’s a perennial that don’t grow tall.
It bristles with copious strap-shaped leaves
flaunting flowers with downy-soft pink hairs.
And its subtle scent attracts butterflies
sipping on the nectar each blossom shares.
Its velvet blooms form small kangaroo paws
each a delightful down under treasure.
And displayed in their natural setting
they bring the observer so much pleasure.
(Quatrain)
Categories:
clumping, 8th grade, beautiful, butterfly,
Form:
Quatrain
Space the universal medium, in which everything grows
Where it comes from, is postulation, nobody really knows
Bursting with cosmic energy, has no interaction with light
A fabric interwoven with time, where stars shine so bright
One thing we can be sure of, within space we live our life
Which in turn compels me to deduce, the void came alive
I’m not saying it’s god, too big of a step, not ready to take
Yet I cannot stop musing, sometimes keep myself awake
Creation starts at the infinitesimal, tiny mysterious quarks
Which in turn make up neutrons, giving atoms their sparks
Clumping together to become molecules, gases and solids
Forming shapes in the ether, coalesced nebulae remodels
We’re made of stardust, supernova remnants, I do believe
Making us part of a cosmic balance, perhaps reality’s seeds
Our roots forged in space, allegedly made of nothing at all
An invisible garden is replenished, when ultimately we fall.
But enough of the science, we only scratch about the surface
This poem is about space, trying to explain its very purpose
Well I do have my own theory, about everything on the whole
I believe space is a living entity, holding portals to our souls
We where not given any choice, just simply born, it had to be
Part of an eternal extant life form, some call god or holy trinity
This universe has come to life, through sentience from sparks
And looking skyward I ponder, is it us, underpinning the quarks.
Musings on space Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Unseeking Seeker
11/01/2021
Categories:
clumping, allegory, life, universe,
Form:
Rhyme
i can feel it happening inside of me again. the coldness that slowly chokes the love out of my heart. it's clumping in my throat and i can barely breathe without remembering every fault. every fragment of my memory turns to you, and i can see you walking away. i want to follow, but the ice is so thin on this path that i fear i won't make it past. i try imagining a life without you and i'm brought to a world of gray. i just want you to understand. i want you to reach for my hand- not just when im torn on your rug, but when i'm happy. i want you to make me feel important- not just when i'm crying into your chest, but when we're laughing in the dark. i've put you on a pedestal so high in my mind; i wish my heart was big enough to reach you. i wish my words were beautiful enough to any hold value. i have always been the first to cry and swallow my words. i dont have the strength to tell you how much i need you and how i need you to love me.
oh, i need you to love me.
i need you to love me.
i need you to love me.
Categories:
clumping, anxiety, dream, growth, how
Form:
Prose Poetry
Shocking ... really shocking!
That's my blood
splatter on the floor!
My vital-life-juice,
spilling over my eyelid,
clumping my long lashes
tracing my sad cheek
into the side crack
of my lips prompting
my tongue to stick out
to investigate, tasting
sweet zincky blood
about to drip off
my quivering chin.
So unbelievable,
in your hand, a
shiny shard of glass
ready to strike like
a vicious viper again.
Woman,
why did you hurt me...
split my skin open,
gouge me with glass.
Are you compos mentis?
Clearly not!
Just a spiteful, bitter
evil woman
ravaged with hate
so blinded by the fact,
I'm just an innocent kid.
Categories:
clumping, abuse, childhood, evil, woman,
Form:
Prose
A selfish liar for hire
Setting fire
To more than rain
The pain
Succumb to numb,
Become someone
Dying
Flying higher
Than our crying
I’m supplying
Something dark and
Dangerous
It’s been fun for us
Guess I’ll see
What we’ll be
Once the feeling leaves
Reach the sea
Wait
I paint
The sighs
Of my delights
Across the skies
Only know why
I wanna die
Not why I’m still alive
You’ll hear
My fear
Blood clumping
I’m jumping
We’ll find each other
On the other side
Categories:
clumping, depression, friendship,
Form:
Free verse
Within a wave-particle duality, I create my own immortality,
My heart exists in a centrality where love conquers finality…
In a vinculum vortex viewing lines of symmetry are renewing,
Of light-emitting particles spewing clumping matter is gluing.
Distortions in time advance upon magnetic resonance expanse,
Molecular quantities enhance displaying their galactic dance…
With ambient anomalies abound subatomic atoms surround,
Where echoes of love compound incarnate desires rebound.
Frolicking through time and space of the occupants will displace,
The dawning of the human race competitors in the celestial chase…
Amidst hydrogen atoms colliding where the God particle is hiding,
Where we coexist upon coinciding amongst the divinities dividing.
Inspired by and in dedication to...my dear friend Maria Williams
In reference to her lastest post..."The Time Traveler"
Aug.06.2019
Winged Warrior
Not for any contest
Music by
Inner Space Journey -
Best Dreamy Dean Evenson
Relaxation Music
With female virtual voice
Categories:
clumping, creation, space, time,
Form:
Rhyme
He stamps the ice beneath his feet
Fallen leaves, gifted from the trees clinging to his soles
Softening the thud of clumping boots
Patterns shimmer in the fading light
As he trudges up the path
A reveller hoots
Somebody laughs
A drunk is haloed in the street lamp’s torpid glow
Echoes of himself; of seasons long ago
Surely the decorations were much brighter
Surely the streets were full of singing
Red robins; church bells gaily ringing
Fragrant pine and holly
Those were the seasons to be jolly
Couples kissing ‘neath the mistletoe
Santa bellowing: “Yo ho ho,”
Of course there was proper snow
Not damp and mist
And rain
It’s plain
They’d got Christmas all wrong
Again!
His feet begin to glide
On frost mimicking snow
On his face a grin
He sails through his gate
Never too late to recapture
The rapture......
Of an illicit skate
Categories:
clumping, nostalgia,
Form:
Free verse
Rough hands upon her,
not near, there, or where,
nor the seashell tip of a fingering care
or other
lack-lustering lapping's
but the groundless clubfooted grasping
of long incoherent passions.
A clinker of desire hammered anew
by the forceful hands
of mist shrouded Nibelungen;
a dross now forged bright
into red-eyed gleams of flame.
She who bears the weight
of such a slobber-lipped changeling
covers his paws
with a tracery of spidery entanglements
the softest spell-binding webs
that break his knuckles;
refining hot bones
into phantom kisses.
For her satisfaction (and hers alone),
she captures that clumping stray
caging him deep,
and he left with no hands but hers.
Categories:
clumping, poetry,
Form:
Free verse
An un-fairie queene
from an unchivalrous tale
lumping and clumping
off beaten tracks
down beaten ones
so beaten
that they click and crack
criss-crossed with crabgrass
so tall that it looks
like some fiendish crag
it crassly sticks to soles
and copiously
feasts on clothes
not only that
there are the pools
mighty, classy and cool
clamouring loud and clear
to be given their due
for they are
the sole claim to fame
of those grumpy roads
they welcome cars
with their clip-clop
and lure them to splosh
to splash the passers-by
Then comes that tired
un-fairie queene
holding a ray of hope
clinging to it
lest it slip and fall
and though dim it is
she still believes
it can bring some light
and touch some souls
That’s what she has
her feet of clay
but come what may
she will forever
have faith
in her fairy ray.
Categories:
clumping, hope,
Form:
Free verse
It's out there somewhere,
that marginal place where the elastic nature
of truth, reality,
the measure and fit of coffins,
baby cribs,
the doable dimensions of a a plasma screen
according to its scope, sufficiency, and relationship
to a plausible accommodation of any available space.
It’s the weight of a cut glass bowl of wine
on a rolling rowboat; anything that exceeds
an imprecise self-limiting amplitude
yet also be full or nearly so
to a hard to determine fill-line
of an existential brim or limit.
it is that overly deceptive inch, tittle, or quota,
a displacement that's great enough
to create its own capacity of
less or more.
We will know it
when the shrimp cocktail spills over
onto our dress shirt,
or when the cat starts to turn over the non-clumping clay
and silicone particles of its particular litter box
looking for where the bottom
is deep enough to cover the top.
Categories:
clumping, poetry,
Form:
Free verse