Best Fizzles Poems
WISH UPON A STAR
eyes drawn upward —
like a candle on a cake
first birthday or too old
the lottery is billions upon billions
tickets bought
blowing dandelion seeds for surety
tremor of seedlings like flesh
burning your palm
wanting your death
one star stands out amidst the myriads
richer than all kings
waiting for the poor in spirit
to rejoice with open arms
while money strangles the sea
crushed and fluid plastic —
even the wisest heart pinched
the saint patiently waits
for the sweetest answer
placed in folded hands
and worn out knees
a Father smiles and grants
eternity and all the treasury
the inheritance overflows
a luckless star fizzles
the blessed one glows
10/20/2018
Songs unsung will disappear,
as breathless as a stone, the fear
of Armageddon fills the air
and gathers strength against a prayer
that withers, fizzles into nought,
despite the lessons we were taught,
to love our neighbours as we would
be loved by them, the greater good.
Or take His name in vain, the strain
of blending with another's pain,
the art of empathy forsaken,
errant paths so quickly taken;
thoughts are squandered, so are souls
who glorify malicious goals
and chase false dreams to sand consigned,
the facts misjudged and misaligned.
Cause and effect, the laws of nature,
whom to kill and whom to nurture,
whom to crucify or kiss?
the measures of our helplessness.
There is no try, there's only do,
and I expect the same of you,
to strip away dishonesty,
the trademark of our misery.
To live in love and purity
and nullify our enmity,
we join together, hand in hand,
no hurtful lies, no contraband.
The answer lies amongst the stars
unnumbered in the universe,
a child's first breath, the blushing rose,
where hatred cannot interpose.
To handle dreadful time, to cherish it
although I have no gall for such-
past the ennui of night’s workload,
this jive which I embrace relentlessly
fizzles like soapsuds in my nails;
a voice quelled with the dirt of blue mood…
How lethargy chokes me, its tar roasting
my senses humid as air, more apt for birds,
that I cruise along an alley where piano tunes
with acoustic strings invite a certain madness--
the scent of rhythm and blues perks
ached limbs, gradually tapping a free
movement pleading abandon…cheeks lighten,
enthralled by an opulence of notes;
till I scream, yes, time, though you're a dreadful bane,
I will hold you wildly, once again.
1/6/2018
For Craig Cornish: Blue Contest
Put away your bathing suit the dips in the pool are done
get the rake out of the garage, jumping in the leaves is fun.
The Halloween decorations include the ginormous spider;
exchange the ice-cold lemonade for hot apple cider.
The summers end raced tirelessly to the full autumn stop,
and the rain chills more with each pounding drop.
The heat of the sun fizzles out with each windy howl,
and the moon glared its face with an ice cold scowl.
Early fall boast trees with the most fiery bright hue
but time marches on colors become brown and gray stew.
Around the campfire people gather around and sing
as a church group leader strums his six strings.
Autumnal is the transition from summer to winter
Its weather patters are nestled in the center.
My heart fizzles on feeling your presence
My body like a howitzer that fires love shortly to where you are
Trust me I'll handle your heart carefully, it too nice to be broken
My love for you floats on mediocrity and sinks on brilliant romance
I'm an ocker to any other girl that comes along
So let me rest in the haven of your arms
Don't worry about the other girl she was my mentee
Desert all the niggle of doubts you carry with you
You're the air that I breath, leaving will leave me dead
On seeing you my heart twirls from left to right
I hope you concede my proposal 'days to come'
My love for others was a bogus type, to you is a genuine one
And maybe the stars could fall on having you tonight
Accept me and consider having the moon to yourself
A 'YES' gives us an island of your choice
I'm sorry if it sounds like lies, I'm being 'true' to you
standing on one leg
the crane trusts in good fortune ---
fate of fish fizzles
Every day we live might be
A day that we’ll remember,
Burning brightly just before
It fizzles to an ember.
How are we to know at first
Which memories will stick?
The choices aren’t ours to make –
The brain will search and pick.
An ordinary moment
Sometimes stands out from the rest.
Only time determines if
That flash will pass the test.
In our later years, perhaps,
We’ll look back at this day,
Remembering some magic tug
That held us in its sway.
Thunder rattles windowpanes
as rain strikes against the glass.
But the lightning soon fizzles,
and the downpours quickly pass.
You envy the storm's freedom,
stuck in your web of despair.
If it wasn't for paying rent,
no one would know you were there.
You feel like you've had enough,
and you've felt like that for weeks.
And as your dreams disappear,
hot tears trickle down your cheeks.
You watch old soap-operas
as you shelter from the rain.
And alone, left to yourself,
there's no one to feel your pain.
You sit in silent anguish,
an actor without a part.
And as loneliness pervades,
it's like a hole in your heart.
You dream of finding true love,
feeling special and wanted.
But you're doubtful that'll happen,
which leaves you feeling daunted.
(Quatrain)
1/18/2015
Dragon Giggles
To make a dragon giggle
you must wiggle both your ears
stand upon one foot
scream and shout and hope he hears.
If he falls down on the ground
and his fire fizzles out
you have found his funny bone
and he'll laugh and roll about.
But do not be presumptuous
and think this dragon's tame
for fire breathing dragons
are quite famous for their flame!
If he doesn't think you're funny
lay down flat, pretend you're dead
and if you're lucky he won't scorch you
but will tickle you instead!
Fat is easy
Thin is hard
When sugar is in your favorite candy bar
Soda it fizzles so sweet
Cakes pies and cookies are such treats
Candy is dandy on your tongue
Deep fried and Southern crispy give me some
Doughnuts and coffee with sugar and cream
Whole milk and toppings on your ice cream
White bread and mayo
French fried potatoes
Heavy syrup in your fruit cup
Extra butter popcorn eat it right up
Lots of rich gravy
Room for seconds and thirds maybe
Maybe? Pour pour that gravy
Chips and creamy dips
Shudder if no butter
Barbecue meats and glazed honey ham
Toast loaded with extra jam
Bacon by the pound
By pound pound pound
You are what you eat and that's a fact
Fast food hamburgers pizza are snacks
If it aint greasy
Make it extra cheesy
Add it all up and you eat fat
Add it all up and you are fat
Drink a diet soda
When people say don’t use the F word, do they have any idea how formidable fellowship, flux, foxy, finite, and figure-head are freely and fervently formed?
The F word?
What F word?
This crazy admonishment has led me to
This F word poem.
A fantastical fabricated tale, formulated and foretold by
four flirtatious faeries who frankly, felt fractionalized, forever far-fetched, finely falsified, and furiously fantasized by formerly frozen phenoms.
You will find words like fervent, frilly, formidable, feathery, figurehead, and flicker, in this finery.
You will forget fizzles, falls, fits, feeling fervently and frivolously focused.
Foundationally, this formidable fleeting fable of a quadrant of feisty feminine femme fatales
Is fraught with falsehoods, fictions.
My assistant, Franchesa, who was one of these frivolous faeries, is in a frantic frenzy toward focusing her feminine fancies on a phenomenally fragile finish,
What? I have not even added my favorite f words yet.... Fun-filled, flesh-eating, form-fitting
freckled, frozen, fast track, fair-weathered forget-me-knots to name a few.
We are at the fidgety part of the flowery forest of fantasy now.
I appreciate your faithfulness in falling for my ferociously friendly, flowery, f-trap.
I find it funny that family, fellowship, famously, fleshy, formula, and feckless begin with the same F as fanciful, Felix, fanny and the word that shall not be named.
Formidable words forever feel forgiven in the forefront of the fanfare of the forest.
Philosophically, what about the furious finish, fortuitously finalized by my former free mason, Fritz?
Forgone conclusion, friends, the finale was fortuitously inspired, of course, by my favorite letter, F.
I walk barefoot on the beach
Where the water greets the land.
Waves with their wet fingers reach,
Then retreat from where I stand.
White foam fizzles on the sand.
I pick up some rocks and shells,
Watch the shorebirds dive and fly
As the ocean ebbs and swells,
Plovers skitter, seagulls cry,
Soundless pelicans glide by.
8/3/2017
I stand upon cold sands of lovers, past
surveying, bleak, the misty metaphors
a crimson blush of hope so setting fast
its wake left by a tempest on this shore
seems only yesterday I found this place
the grace of callow yearning, underfoot
a pulse of passion showing love its face
and leaving but an ash of rapture's soot
the shadow of my spirit grows enraged
this ocean, love, was all I longed to sail
yet now the season of my path is aged
as all my moonlite fizzles wan and pale
and so ...
I'll lay my joys upon these sands to stay
forgotten not 'til time has washed away.
~ 3rd Place ~ in the "Any Rhyming Poem In April" Poetry Contest, Laura Loo, Sponsor.
~ 5th Place ~ in the "Mid April 2018 Any Form" Poetry Contest, Brian Strand, Sponsor.
Songs unsung will disappear,
as breathless as a stone, the fear
of Armageddon fills the air
and gathers strength against a prayer
that withers, fizzles into nought,
despite the lessons we were taught,
to love our neighbours as we would
be loved by them, the greater good.
Or take His name in vain, the strain
of blending with another's pain,
the art of empathy forsaken,
errant paths so quickly taken;
thoughts are squandered, so are souls
who glorify malicious goals
and chase false dreams to sand consigned,
the facts misjudged and misaligned.
Cause and effect, the laws of nature,
whom to kill and whom to nurture,
whom to crucify or kiss?
the measures of our helplessness.
There is no try, there's only do,
and I expect the same of you,
to strip away dishonesty,
the trademark of our misery.
To live in love and purity
and nullify our enmity,
we join together, hand in hand,
no hurtful lies, no contraband.
The answer lies amongst the stars
unnumbered in the universe,
a child's first breath, the blushing rose,
where hatred cannot interpose.
That twinkling on the horizon ain’t no
star just another Russian fighter closing
to lay its clutch of cluster bombs
or a missile cruising in.
Winter’s solstice approaches, the rocket's
flare fizzles and only darkness remains.
Come morning, no flag will fly
in this city of ruins.
When you bomb rubble, you get only
smaller rubble, a few more dead
bodies and the unlucky ones
who ain’t dead.
More than five years caught between forces,
as leaders and faiths strike hollow truces
then bomb their own, leaving only
helpless rage and anger.
My only Christmas wish is to be
anywhere other than Aleppo.