Best Drafts Poems
Torrential rain, blinding wind howling,
Dark heavy clouds ominously scowling,
Brilliant radiant light of electric flashes,
Following the lightning, defiant crashes,
Loudest blasts make brave men cower,
Thunder so deafening it exudes power,
I was born of a powerful thunderstorm.
Still attached to its base, I will spawn.
Nature’s most violent, I am called TORNADO,
300 miles per hour, my winds will blow.
A rotating column of air touching the ground,
Violently spinning with a horrendous sound.
I will cause fatalities at a devastating rate,
Buildings, and whole towns, I will annihilate,
People panic seeing my deadly approach,
Over fields and farms and cities I encroach.
Lifting up animals, houses and cars in my wake,
My tempest is unending, with fury, victims I take,
Finally cold down drafts signal my final gust.
I slowly cease rotating and turn to dust.
Hospitals are designed
(a) to make you appreciate your bed at home
(b) to prompt many unanswerable questions
(c) to facilitate smooth patient care
(d) to never complain about your wife’s cooking again
Referrals to a psychiatrist are made when
(a) you become catatonic after having no sleep for a week
(b) after complaining about a noisy roommate you start convulsing with frustration
(c) you ask the nurse for a sleeping aid and she brings
warm milk
(d) You are all set for discharge but the Dr is delayed in surgery all day
Reflecting on a hospital stay makes you
(a) wonder how you survived the long nights
(b) vow never to eat chicken broth again
(c) appreciate there are no drafts behind when you get up for a walk
(d) note how quiet the house really is
Paradise Psalms
Island drums midst strewn drafts, echoes,
Involved labyrinths summon by themes,
Some rhapsody erupts, purging rocks,
Every village, swelling amid chants,
Empty huts, crowds around fires,
Swayed hips, held lips sparks,
Duality exposed in harmony,
Illuminates isles inherent,
Entertaining charisma,
Captivating trusting,
Vessels in passing,
Amongst alluring,
Souls escorted,
To a dreamt,
Paradise.
ship swells midst idled
labyrinths heed gifted calls
answers anchored hearts
2020 June 25
Watching the empty streets
As a heavy rain wash the dirty town.
Deep darkness drape the drives
That lead to dead ends.
Drafts of wind dash hanging pots,
Ruin is the reign of the time.
She barely breathed a farewell.
No whisper weaving a soft adieu
Not even a hug or a parting kiss.
My heart echoes a hollow hum.
It beats like the harsh wind outside.
Life is so hollow, so non-descript.
And sleep has fled. I’ll find no rest.
Sorrow does not sleep. Shadows fill my room.
No moonlight penetrates the heavy drizzling clouds.
Suddenly I leave my forlorn house
And wander right into the rain. Wet and cold,
I feel cleansed and I return, the past washed away.
That night I slept deeply.
a dizain
Admire her casting, lines of silky floss;
survey as artist drafts her masterpiece.
Enclosing space invisibly across,
then single-handedly, she will increase
the center parts to form unseen valise.
A purse of unsuspected, vicious taint -
its straps in hand, she naps - a wily feint.
Artistic beauty flows, but will soon ebb,
when tender insects clutter her restraint.
Artiste awakes to wealth within her web.
Nov. 17, 2010
Usher me by, the power of the tidal wave, for beneath
You’ve crushed my heart and soul, washed away is resistance.
I’m a vanquished current, swept within your riptide.
A hurricane survivor dashed against your coral reef,
Rough, ridged left bleeding into the flowing surface channel.
A liquid fluid stream eloping drowning, swallowed whole by
The raw elemental essence that is your sweet loving.
Usher me by, the winds breeze that stirs the pines in the
Mountains highest, oh how tenderly does it whisper mine name,
Echoing against the Alps divides, cascading down drafts collide
As a rock land slide, into your embracing earthquake.
Tumbling, boulders clashing, slashing our sharpened edges,
Bumping, destroying the valleys smooth textures beneath
Love’s lush evergreen sheets of beauty.
Usher me by, the banishment's of the star creation above,
Wipe the heavens clean, undo every collision before the
Existence of mankind let us write our own timelines legacy,
For life began, when you moved my inner soul by speaking
My name in poetic verse.
Usher me by, whatever thy spirit commends me,
For I am yours eternally, abandonment's servant a slave
Giving myself willingly unto bondagement’s indentured
Servitude.
Usher me by, passion’s flame for I burn as kindling fire,
A living spiritual spark, given fuel by my lover’s desire,
Vanquished underneath his torrents storm, and merging
As a whirlwinds flash of lightening striking against the vows
Of the everlasting vaults of heaven themselves, for our love is
Eternal.
BY: CHERYL ANNA DUNN
dwindling drafts
flutter blank pages--
a pen rolls
A QUEST TOUCHED BY HEAVEN
Treading towards an immortal search
a mortal soul stood begins the quest.
Crossing deep sea and burning desert sand
down the wild and civilized land,
soul driven by zest will so grand.
Right and left battle: a door to growth and anguish
Life still wriggles for habitable breath hiss
Shuddering fears may impregnate decline
staggering, falling, hurting but LIVING!
Teardrops shed a lance or rose to the heart.
Prayers a rumble to steps roaring zeal
rave gaits thud though imperfect
Your lit of melodious merciful grace
presages treasure drafts of redemption.
Breakages had caused falls bending spirits
yet, these also caused cries of feverish hopes
frightened but with Your heavenly touch
Am a mortal but siren-like singing hymns of salvation.
In the ocean expanse of gloomy sky,
my heart -a white pigeon craving to fly high.
I strive to reach outstretch stars
Sprouting lovelier even when rain arrives.
Singing my lifesong with side-sways,
enjoying God's gift of life today.
(c)Olive Eloisa
1:41pm
September 18, 2014
Inspired by:
Psalm 147:11
the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love
Sponsor Justin Bordner
Contest Name Divine Intervention
2nd place.. :) to God be the glory..
Winds of Change
Capricious, wild zephyr – face changing ever
Pirouettes on toes with mischief clever
Breathes dawn’s glow – gusty gales of crystal snows –
Signals the seasons – the bloom of the rose.
A whiff of coming Spring – perfumed soft sighs -
Lifts up baby birds to touch new sky highs
In Summertime cools the dry sunburned land
Sweating dirt devils spin 'cross the beach sand.
A whirlwind of moods - mistrals laugh then brood -
Twirls pinwheel hues in Autumn's interlude
Cold drafts exhale in frigid Winter tales
Telltale breath bears meadow white hoarfrost frail.
Though changing winds beg to spin weathervanes
Each season’s persona remains unchanged.
11-24-20
Contest: Winds of Change
Sponsor: John Hamilton
Sick lungs whispering secrets untold
Bones reveal tempo with aches and moans
The clock precariously loses time
Pipe in teeth, pen writes the rhymes
Sounds of shadows haunt the halls
Strolling parapets on the walls
Impatiently waiting and growing tall
In darkening anger as night does fall
Tormenting noise of echoing drafts
Spirited shouts of children's laughs
This empty house my creepy craft
Teases the mind with visions of past
Cowering supine in pallet covered
Spare pillow cold smells of another
In loneliness sleep in distance hovers
Concealing dreams of a silhouette lover
A comforting cup drowns a pill
The shadows sleep as cuckoo stills
As mares of night gallop black hills
My aging body restlessly yields
An original poem by Daniel Turner
Empty Room On A Summer's Day
An empty room where forgotten shadows lay
Under white edged clouds in a bright cobalt sky.
Where Summer’s warm palette paints the sultry day,
Beyond wood framed windows, swooping Swallows fly,
As scented drafts drift under the closed oak door
Lifting long rested dust from the sun warmed floor.
There rays of silver light in the silence gleam,
Sunlit shafts shine in bright iridescent beams.
Floating, and skimming through the wind
I climb higher and higher to the clouds!
Diving and rising again, I rise above.
Silence! The wind my constant friend
Numbs my beak and whispers out loud
While I climb to that special place I love.
Hoovering, waiting for the rising drafts
I look down through white mountains
Mottled green like algaed ponds in snow
Appear below. Riding old familiar paths
Of current diving and rising like a fountain
I blast skyward, just a little more to go!
Just one final current to catch, I wait
Spiraling at Heaven's door it comes
And I ride effortlessly past His throne!
Tranquility engulfs me as the world abates
Clarity of mind ever present as I become
One with God!....I am Lark, and I'm home!
Timothy I. Brumley
*Image of Kaleidoscope In Blue by Giphy.
When The Blues Are Fun
You consume the whole of me constantly,
Fair drafts ensure flight of our loyal tryst,
Though all known plans bear out uncertainty,
Our center grants said goals to be unmissed.
A misty vineyard drips of subtle dew,
And swells our noble chalice soberly,
Till such, we seal all promises won true,
Our profuse veins sip fortuitously.
Heaven embraces what Earth put apart,
Relished values carried by moral wings,
Sound valor our cultures nobly impart,
Adopted rivalries temptation brings.
Glorious when the twain of us was one,
Our intrepid tales, nonetheless, homespun.
2019 November 28
*1st Place*
A BRIAN STRAND FORMAL
~~Brian Strand: Judged 2022 March 12
*3rd Place*
2019 best sonnet
~~John Hamilton: Judged 2019 December 16
*3rd Place*
Best Friend Sonnet
~~Regina McIntosh: Judged 2019 December 22
I never saw him but he said he could …
dive sixty feet
into three feet of drink ... i
saw him drown drafts
and distillers from glasses that clink …
I never saw him but he said he could …
ride bikes backwards
on bars with his butt … i
saw him
abuse and call her a **** …
I never saw him but he said he could …
whip any ten men
only for fun … i
saw him whip loved ones
and brag he had won …
I never saw him but he said he could …
ascend, sail in air ships … i
saw him soar
from s t a g g e r i n g summits
to heaps on the floor …
he never said he could but i saw him …
InciteinvisibleInvaders
CURSEshadow’sSilence
BR EAK bones
HURT hearts
TURN holidays toHELLDAYS
PUSH peaceTo Pandemonium
I SAW HIM!
When I lay in the mortuary,
Don’t cry, smile and appreciate my journey.
Throughout life, at times, I lived wary.
I carried hope, love and even the burdening worry.
When I lay in the mortuary,
Before I’m buried and forgotten in a cemetery,
About my death don’t ask questions,
Don’t whisper in my stiff, blue ears confessions.
Few would come to my funeral,
Fewer would weep.
Few would care,
Fewer would lose sleep.
When I lay in the mortuary,
Burn my drafts and books,
My life was dull and ordinary.