Best Consummated Poems
your labored breathing
called out to me
and in my soul I knew
what needed to be done
I reached for the drum
to summon the spirits
called out to ancestors
and anyone who’d listen
gently tapping to the rhythm
of our beating hearts
united as one in a prayer
released to the universe
filled the silence of
your labored breathing
drumming for hours
till the pleading was done
everything had been said
the prayer consummated
left in the hands
of the universe to respond
then it did in no uncertain terms
in an exorcism of sorts
draining the passages
to free your breathing
and so it was
in tune with the universe
the healing power
of the drum
Read on air by invitation ~ February 11, 2021 'LATE NIGHT POETS'
Read on KPBX called Poetry Moment by Kara Bowman 2022 [karabowman.com and griefpoetry.com]
AP: 2nd place 2022, 2nd place 2021, 3rd place 2022, Honorable Mention 2022, Honorable Mention 2022, Honorable Mention 2021, Honorable Mention 2021, Honorable Mention 2021, Honorable Mention 2021, Honorable Mention 2021
Submitted on June 13, 2025 for contest YOUR BEST AUDIO POEM sponsored by TOM WOODY - RANKED 2ND
and on May 28, 2021 for contest ALL YOURS (MAY 29) sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 1ST
Categories:
consummated, inspirational, native american, prayer,
Form:
Free verse
How Does a Soul Enter Heaven?
How does a soul enter Heaven?
Suddenly. Often quietly. Whole and Complete.
Stepping through the flimsy membrane of time
On scented leaves of healing for the nations
Born from earth’s womb into once blinding glory
Lead along in a mysterious path of crossroads
Detours and mystical coincidence
A struggling bud bursting into full bloom
Beholding for the first time the Anointed face
No longer veiled in holy incense from eye bound eyes.
How does the soul enter Eternity?
Knowing its need for God in finality’s answer
All deliriums answered
In a charismatic kiss
Prodigal rags of empty pits,
Valleys of compassion left homeless
And piercing arrows of shattered words
Fall away
No Eden’s shame for the unclothed soul
Shining alabaster in luminescent pearls.
How does a soul enter Paradise?
Turmoil – forgotten; Temptation – overcome;
Rejection – forgiven;
Psalms of sweet arias sing reveries
Of prayers prayed, cloaks shared –
A simple cup of water –
The way made straight in a pledged troth
The bridegroom’s betrothal consummated
Eternal sigh beneath trees by the crystal fountain
In the open arms of pure grace.
How does a soul enter Heaven?
To words of welcome – good and faithful servant.
2-4-23
Categories:
consummated, heaven, spiritual,
Form:
Free verse
(A combination of Sijo, tanka and haiku)
When beige and snow-white clouds collide and coalesce in the sky.
When wild geese high in the air make V formations and fly away
My imagination beckons me to pen down my thoughts.
sweet music fills me.
unable to contain it,
it spills forth in verse.
into paper, flows my whims,
cloaked in lovely rhyme and rhythm.
consummated thoughts,
the rapture of soul in art~
poetree yields sweet fruits!
Categories:
consummated, appreciation, art, poetry,
Form:
Verse
Consummated under sheets of inspiration,
Conceived in cryptic dreams,
Created from cloudy concentrations,
The words flowed onto a wrinkled sheet of paper.
I concealed the verse under my pillow,
Entombed beneath my peaceful slumber,
Safe from grating barbarians.
For I do not reside in a steel fortress.
But the poem demanded breath,
And I obliged with wary trepidation.
Exposing naked insights of thought,
To public opinions and consumption.
I was misunderstood in some quarters.
My uneven stanzas documented in dorm rooms,
Lack of rhythm noted in offices,
And style criticized in coffee shops.
But my work was greeted warmly from African savannas,
Treasured in Scotland,
Saluted in London,
And praised from India’s sacred rivers.
In the heartland, school girls knew my name.
Southern belles toasted my talents.
I was pondered over breakfast in Florida,
Embraced in backwoods hamlets.
When I look within,
Searching for the brilliant author,
I question his existence.
The trance, that special state of mind, has passed.
In conscious lucidity I ask the stunning question,
“Who wrote this poem?”
Categories:
consummated, on writing and words
Form:
Free verse
Acquiesced amongst gypsy stardust,
dance of aroused blissfulness
knees went weak mid a zealously flirtatious
sunset, as skies intensity was enraptured
mid fierce moonbeam's caressing zeal,
fulfilling a wickedly wild aching surrender
within ardor's aroused captivation,
enthralling enchantingly obscure sunrise
sensations of endmost satiated fervency,
shorelines met heavens verve
breathless in exhalations' celestial passion,
chanted to the gods 'tween fiery escapism
risen above darkly inclined constellations,
'til consummated resplendence of night
burst forth in explosive exaltation
dreamt of ink's splendiferous poetry
Categories:
consummated, allegory, dance, dream, passion,
Form:
Imagism
for Hidipo Hamutenya
1939-2016
At the end of this hard road
Spider webs adorn the graveyards
Of all those who reach freedom
By intellectual decree.
The tears of the fallen
Are not anywhere to be found,
In the eyes of the surviving.
You lay in the casket displayed on thorns
With the nation's cosmetics painted on,
And exile sounds and exile thoughts
Were banished from you by the undertaker
Words of the tongue of one we knew
The rehearsal of moments,
In our struggle, the stillness in bits
And the sorrowful noise of monkeys
The world wasn't yours.
It belonged to the big people.
But you--
You left us in tatters, without care and hope,
You gave us a daydream of our freedom
Dreaming, dreaming, in the middle of the day
Faceless, invisible...
Ready for a change
An ecstasy of revolution
The thing you lived for:
The nation and not the story of the nation
The thing itself and not the Party
Your story flows in more than one direction
Consummated.
Categories:
consummated, africa,
Form:
Blank verse
Easter
Anointed Eternity
Rises up above the paschal dawn
Heaven’s wounded Prince returns to outshine glory
As the sun blushes – witness to His splendor –
Waters from His wounded side christen crystal springs
With flowing purity
And bloodstained rocks harmonize
With angelic “Alleluia!”
Sung at the top of their lungs like an angelic whisper
Next to the return of his voice.
Light explodes the unclean corpse of darkness
Remembering the lyrics to “Gloria!”
Floral trumpets blare sweet incense
Only a wispy scent in the aromatic frankincense
Of Resurrection’s perfume
As skeletons of the impotent offspring
Hatched by the insomniac serpent
Leave lifeless trails of petrified tears in wastelands
Blooming now from shattered halos.
Emmanuel and mortality
Savor manna’s wriggling ecstasy -
The wine of risen victory -
More abundant than nascent radiance
Life consummated through covenants perfected
In pierced sacrifice,
Echoing like whispers of bridal rejoicing,
Earth’s revelry but a shadow in His footsteps
Of triumphal glee –
Glee only a sigh next to His touch
Felt again,
Embraced as heralds open
Eden’s gates and Heaven’s portals
In forever without time.
Categories:
consummated, easter, jesus, joy, life,
Form:
Free verse
if I could only hold that sublime moment
consummated in flowing joy and completeness
the world an oyster of unlimited passion
sweet champagne flutes chanting
salty caviar a la carte
the earth is moving
waves come in crescendo
the top of the peak wonderfully near
as the moon pulls me in and out of reality
life giving force fluid and innocent
almost immaculate
the duvet quivers
a pillow retreats
and satin shirts
rub naked skin
just before release
while the candle of life flickers
in intimate approval and consent
the moment pro ante
glows in heated emotion
and time stands still for a while
Categories:
consummated, best friend,
Form:
Free verse
Come on Jiggles, let’s go for our walk, and remember, walk with pride
That’s my girl, my beautiful standard poodle, with your sexy stride
Jiggles short tail pounded from side to side,
Her excitement she could never pretend to hide
And her longing to get out was surely not feigned
Jiggles was a flirt, her desire for a handsome dog had never waned!
I put the leash on Jiggles, within 5 minutes, she had spotted Plato
A bold young handsome powerful dog, a Labrador, I let her go
She lowered her eyes demurely, as Plato sidled her way, so slow
They sniffed each other and walked towards a bush, both had to know
They disappeared from sight, their love consummated, Jiggles wore a flush,
And Plato, this aristocratic dog, I could see a definite exited blush!
I looked at Plato’s owner and he at me, what were we to do,
These two would not be separated, this was truer than true,
So owners and dogs visited regularly, and the due date
Now close, mummy Jiggles came into labor, Hugh and I tended to Plato’s mate
Three beautiful Labradoodles, fluffy and cute, to meet Jiggles was Plato’s fate, Hugh and I fell i love, because of two dogs and an affair on their first date!
Entry Contest: List With A Twist
Sponsored By Charles Messina
28/02/2021
Categories:
consummated, cute,
Form:
List
I’m not clever and you’re naïve.
Choices weighed, decisions made,
You can’t fix things if you leave.
It was real but will never again be.
Promises told, futures sold,
You lost your right to call me.
Years of stories and coffee dates
Lattes wasted, love tasted,
Sharing in the demon’s fates.
You picked a side and drew your line.
Lost salvation, no revelation,
Eternally chained to her shrine.
I hope you find what you're looking for.
Categories:
consummated, lost love, sad,
Form:
Rhyme
Awaking from Stupor 1-16-24
It's not desire per say but the clinging
That stifles soul and stops heart from singing
Enlivening silence sets our souls free
Vibrant in the now, joyful and carefree.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Awaking from Stupor
Winter haze beats upon the door,
Drunken dreams cling to bitter cherries of midnight,
Before night sashays into white flurries of dawn
When dull eyes wrestle out of binding yesterdays,
And pink-purple pussywillow hallucinations,
Provoked
Awakened to dream
Throwing off phantoms of eiderdown illusions,
Dawning redeemed from the clutch of midnight shrouds,
Nascent emerges sipping sweet soul sunrises
Coaxed from aromas of grace,
From holographic hollow mazes,
While pale sleepwalking staggers into real
Returning with a rosy heartbeat flush
To leave in shadows lethargy of ragged pastels
Numb shades to retreat like useless ghosts
And cower in new auroras of primed breathless light,
Neon insights flash electric incentive,
Sparks ignite fertile tinder stored in silence,
Sentient eyes step into the womb reserved
For every new second purified
In percolation of harmonic animas –
Conscious and unconscious
Awake emergent -
Bliss consummated!
Categories:
consummated, dream, feelings, life, sleep,
Form:
Free verse
Amadeus - Amade
Where! Where to honor you, Amadeus –
In the city of the waltz –
In palaces gilded with golden light
In cathedral dust, forgotten,
In mountain havens
Or their ascending heights?
What place –
What faceless stone -
Bids your spirit rest – what marker
Bids auf wierdersehen Amadeus?
The city where the river blue
Still flows –
Eternal life and inspiration -
Forgets where it’s adopted
Mountain child lies –
Nor did it care when last
You gave your soul in soaring melody
Opening for a tone deaf world
The gates of Heaven’s song –
Eternal symphony of God and man.
No master’s requiem wept upon
The winter day
When winter stilled
The life within your flowing harmony –
The waltzing world
Quickly spun away
From genius haunted by night music –
To see the dust of history cast anonymity
Upon a pauper’s place beneath a tiny star
Where jealous mediocrity hides you.
Among the graves of common man
Envy hides your mortal bones
Unmarked, unknown, unsung –
Momentary crushed -
Until the light of purest sound escapes –
The soul of music you set free - in fantasies -
In plaintive prologues - flutes of magic spells -
Slowly swirls above haunted dreams
Shattering shrouds of soundless bonds
To echo forever in perfect notes.
Where! Where to honor you Amadeus?
Not within a city of rococo gates –
Nor shouted from ancient mountain walls –
Your serenades released to the shepherd King,
Born from inspiration’s boneless soul,
Spin in arias through layers of earthbound airs,
Rise slowly beyond portals of mortality;
Your melodies – crescendos in ecstasy
Flowing from the eternal child resolved -
Consummated - liberated – set free!
Categories:
consummated, farewell, life, music,
Form:
Free verse
light penetrated dark, sound birthed
the Word ~ p o e t r y
a superlative emitting that which changes
emerging when ripened as verse
speaking to people faraway
unlocking alphabets from minds
to glide, fast fly, jump or slowly crawl, landing
at destined places, swords or aces
I am Poetry ~ weep or whimper not for me
existentially dancing, enthralling, glancing at
blank paper to be embroidered in ink
ruby red, black or olive green
free flow I from fingers fragile, artistic or sturdy
regulate me only for joy or exploring expansion
perhaps for judicious judgement
I, P o e t r y ~ sequins of Love convoluted or rayed, in service
purifying emotive sentiments conditioned, romantic, missioned
Heart is my home where rest my letters, forms
cadences, couplets, epics
in non-bewildered intelligence visioning dreamscapes
divine, liberated from bandages, buckles, bondages
alive is my Supersoul breath giving voice to electrons
protons, neutrons which fleetingly capture
essenced life through observed elixirs
as Poetry, I witness action followed by pure
stillness ~ transcendental whirlpools in orbits
my limbs reach language lyrical or plain
burnished and wise
cherishing recitals in sacred spaces
I activate thoughts and visions remaining
supremely unattached attuning words
for Grace ~
undulate imagination in perfect waves
misty, clear or intricate, intriguing, unblemished
gratifying, swivelling, sizzling in my own
fire or ice
I, Poetry, consummated
voice the W o r d
Categories:
consummated, allegory, character, creation, deep,
Form:
Free verse
i read indulgence mid scripted words
breaking all the rules and then some,
what be greater than gutting & swallowing
uttermost concentration of language
critically consummated or otherwise,
communing within written ideologies
something profoundly reverent or
perhaps deliberate liberating nonsense,
nonetheless commonsensical compunction to
the discerning foresightedness of poets
& enduring escape artists 'tween psyche's
hallucinations & declarations
about analytically anomalous analgesics
and mellisonant melancholy metonymy,
rising above the fray of brutally alliterated
annotations fragmenting & fracturing dimensions,
steel blades sharpening anthologies' imperfect isms
inferring resoluteness 'tween deductive reasoning,
willing exposure imparting quintessential bollocks
literally grasping mercilessly melded metaphors
courageous enough to virtually be aptly bled,
plunged beneath swords' inky touchstones
Categories:
consummated, hyperbole, metaphor, muse, poems,
Form:
Alliteration
husband
didn’t pay attention when she started to change her look,
after all, she’d been saying how she wanted to for a while &
it seemed to make sense,
what with her going back to the gym full time,
after a period of time away
when they first had been married---
husband just went about his days
working more hours than he knew what to do with,
business was good &
with all the business around him seeming to fail,
he’d been putting away for the life he imagined in the future,
with or without
her---
but her time spent at the gym seemed to increase &
thought her body began to get trimmer, sexier, tighter, stronger &
she seemed to walk around the house with a new zest for life
(when he was there to see her),
he still didn’t notice that
the personal trainer had moved in---
she had said something to him,
but he was listening less & less
as he had more & more to worry about at work,
for it was all part of building his empire.
the personal trainer was a less successful man
by the standard that money can by,
but he listened to her
as he traced her curves with his fingers in the gym
with palms of his hand smoothly gliding over her muscles
making her body quiver &
it wasn’t long before in the car outside the gym
they consummated the professional relationship
again &
again &
again &
again.
as she began to show less interest in sex with her husband,
he wrote it off as a side-effect of marriage &
found himself a main squeeze on the side,
a 20 something who needed money to get her through college
with a perkiness that made him feel young again &
a body that wouldn’t quit---
as he grew more distant from the wife,
she grew closer to the personal trainer,
until the day when she brought him home to the house,
when she swore the husband would be gone.
husband found out the way a husband will
when husband had been no longer interested
until another shows his face, as it is only jealousy then
which kicks in, making husband suddenly care---
but personal trainer put husband on the ground
when husband came into his own bedroom
to find personal trainer banging away his bride
who now had no interest in husband---
husband sued the personal trainer for assault &
bride to be divorced husband, taking half of everything he had,
breaking his empire down to nothing
as he had been stupid enough to not require a prenup
at the beginning of it all.
Categories:
consummated, life, husband, body, husband,
Form:
Free verse