Best Flameless Poems
To kiss your eyes with mine, my eyelids lift
And find emotions rise, in flickering trace
Warm and flameless fires smolder with their gift
To capture heartfelt needs from their embrace
We will sigh as our lover's eyes unite
To drift away in a silent tether
Hands held tenderly, as our hearts hold tight
So our dreams and wishes dance together
We'll cross unmeasured distance in-between
And drink from lover's orbs amorous wine
To share a kiss so deep in time serene
Our flame fed souls burn as the eyes entwine
The only sacred space where love concedes
When it melts the eyes with its flaming needs
7/7/17 contest The Eyes have it
Alas, there lingers deep within
a war that neither side can win
while the vanquished ran and hid
those triumphant forgot they did
and history, that lying vamp
would seat an angel with a tramp
so lives within the soul of men
an urge to fight the war again
for age and “wisdom” oft conspire
to reignite a flameless fire
a dream of victory’s charade
flag draped coffins on parade
John G. Lawless
©4/16/2022
Beware the Fireworks of Joy
It’s 9:30am
It’s Saturday
The winds of time have changed
Smoke is obscuring the future
Of a nation of dreamers.
Nightfall is lost.
In a darkness of righteous rhetoric
Toothless dragons spewing flameless fire
Exhale the remains of previous failures
In noxious nuances of hope’s lunacy.
Daybreak is muted in the gray pall
Of hatred’s hangover
Coating the pond in anger’s angst
Banning the flight of migratory species
Coating the lily pads in distant dust.
Time is meaningless to those
Who speak of “when”
For past and present are
And are not. And yet
They must be joined
By the now, in the now,
Or they will be condemned
To a never changing present.
Science has proved
And disproved itself
Erred in its “infallible” wisdom
Swept the detritus of its denial
Into the graveyards and landfills
While claiming innocence and immunity.
Beware the fireworks of joy
For they may ignite
The spark of a rebellion.
John G. Lawless
©5/1/2021
The Scent of Water
The air is dry, bone-dust dry,
carrying the odor of despair,
shimmering in its pseudo sky
dreams of what was never there.
Eyes, dry-crusted, cannot discern,
delusion seems the kinder fate
when all is lost in flameless burn
the scent of water come too late.
Tongues in mime-like motion seek
brief sustenance of drying dew
none are strong, none are weak,
none too many, none too few.
Waiting on that unfelt touch
amid the false – and true
nature’s subtle stroke of brush
the scent of water - overdue.
For Faye Gibson contest
“The Scent of Water”
7/6/2014
I tell myself I do it for the birds.
They gather together
around flameless fires
feeding on warmth’s memory,
chattering amid the blowing leaves,
feathers puffed against the cold.
Their beauty undimmed by the
stark dark and light of barrenness
their songs no less beautiful
in the echoless emptiness,
their presence – undiminished.
Quietly, I leave a gift,
mixed seed to welcome all
sustenance to those who share
a loneliness in winter,
a scarcity of caring
the fading heat of flameless fires.
I tell myself I do it for the birds.
10/18/2015
submitted to – For the Birds – poetry contest
sponsor – Anthony Slausen
Kiss the sun, fly with the wind,
to live is a fire raging within.
Be not some featherless bird
or to a fallen angel akin.
For all creation stands in awe
of a lovers gaze
when the onlookers around them
deftly
fade
away.
Slightest brush, skin to skin
It begins...
Unleashed fury of gale force winds
to satiate the hunger within
Sit not upon the rivers edge
where past living waters run
to ponder what cannot be changed
Again I say, kiss the sun...
The glory of life and love unrestrained
breathe beyond all mortal bounds
the cure for every remaining dream
for this even the fallen angels bow
the sorrows of awe-less scenes.
Or would you dare this passion reprove
by scorn and maddening pride?
As if the risk of impossible kiss
bore lesser profit
than the living of a lie.
Spiritless souls breed rainbows of grey,
A flameless campfire,
or pirouette on broken legs.
So dull is life unknowing
the awe of envies sigh
to know you hold the priceless grace
for such passion another would die.
What comfort warm
or excess steep
would you cast like a snowflake
on the sea... Lost in love and unredeemed
in hopes that someday it was said...
My God,
This was written of me
For I have kissed the Sun!
Drifting away...
Ageless
Careless
Weightless
Worriless
Hopeful
Colorful
Playful
Dreamful
Just drifting away...
No secrets
No fears
No tears
No pain
Drifting away...
Just a seed
In the air
In rainbows
Flying with hummingbirds
To our secret place
No human knows
Kites are lonely too
Strings do break loose
From shoreless blue
To drift away...
Rain that never comes
Souls that never show up
Pennies that drop in unexpected places
Flameless candles
Drifting away...
.
It rages from within itself,
feeding on its own inner fire,
ablaze with the vilest of ire.
With spiteful, toxic vengeance
'neath the gloss of civility,
it smolders silently smokeless.
With mean, murderous intent,
'neath the mask of cordiality,
it burns so flawlessly flameless.
With insatiable, hellish wrath,
'neath the charm of sincerity,
it boils up then explodes noiseless.
It's a cold, seething ember
in a smile deeply embedded,
your vindictive, white-hot hatred!
.
Toxic State
Endless endeavors embryonic embrace
Finite forever’s in a platonic place
Silently searching with afflicted affections
Of love’s misguided daunted deflections
You can not penetrate this superman soul
Love can pour out but not fill the hungry hole
Isolated illusions dismantled desires
Terminal toxins within flameless fires.
Dec.03.2016
Toxic State - Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: FJ Thomas
On my front deck, he comes at night.
It kills me to watch homeless, shivering cats.
What do they eat, whence do they drink?
When rough winds blow, where do they sleep?
My cat looks at him with her tender green eyes.
The flameless Christmas candle in the window,
flickers as they softly communicate...
Watches them as they stare with love for each other...
He just comes to visit and departs.
Both act like long, lost friends.
It's almost like a scene from a magic theatre.
A scene, I am blessed to be part of!
This life is a silhouette of dancing flames,
A jelly of a million billion shapes, a fathomless illusion, a plotless sequel.
There is more to see for the blind and less to say for the wise.
This life is a carpet freckled with splinters,
A sofa of countless stingings, a flameless subway;
There is a floorless due for every seen sun,
A tear rolling with every dawn and a smile ebbing with every dusk;
But these bonfire eyes see the world for what it could be.
This life is a soulless sea of mindless malice,
A banjo of a broken taut, a loveless disco;
There is no blue in the skies of reason
But pangs native to the heart, and a haplessness relative to the soul;
But this bubble-gum heart holds no resentment.
Every tongue is a needle living in a scabbard of flesh and bone
And these staggering legs walk the sass of nameless faces,
For my elephant ears choose what to hear
And the fount of this mouth speaks only what the heart feels.
Every turn of this screw, every moment of this gear
Every shade of this my buoyant life is written in crayon.
03/12/16
Will you be my knight
Riding with your sword raised high
Will you be the key
To unlock the chains that bound
Will you be the moon
In the dark and cloudless sky
Will you be the stitches
That mends this broken heart
Will you be the glue
That holds the pieces together
Will you be the hammer
To tear down the wall I built
Will you be the hand
That wipes the tears away
Will you be the arms
To carry me further when I can’t
Will you be my shovel
To dig up what’s been buried
Will you be my match
To light the flameless pilot
Will you be my umbrella
In the pouring rain
Will you be my shelter
In the midst of a hurricane
Will you be my lighthouse
To help guide me home
Will you be my compass
If I ever start to lose myself
Will you be my life line
When I’m drowning in the sea
Will you be my air
When I can’t catch my breath
Will you be my rock
If the waves start crashing in
Will you be my ship
To rescue me from this island
Will you be my moon
To glisten on the black waters
Will you be my fire
To warm me on the beach at night
Will you be my sun
Rising in the dawn of a new day
Like endless words
emotionally meant
Like tideless memories
erratically spent
Like dreams that weave
a few days content
Like flameless smoke
love lies dormant
i'm talking world war three blues
and how the baubles resemble the planet neptune
one kid has trashed the grotto
flameless LED tea light candles on the mantlepiece
another exclaims, 'can we stop talking and just take
the photo?'
a girl says she wants a telescope
a boy says he wants a crane
another says a fraggle stick car
helicopter parent and coo coo bonko
my daughter doesn't recognise me
tears of a clown stuff
a kid claims the beard is fake and i say, 'look...',
i tell a family from germany
we can take a hundred photos, i don't mind,
i will get the son that red double-decker bus
you're wonderful people
they leave
the boss pokes his head round the door and says,
'brilliant, boy.'
For a patch of happiness
you rushed into the arms
of clouds. Only to fall back with tears.
The glazing authority of moon
hangs on the poverty of spiked wisdom.
Betrayal is the norm of celestial thinking;
how can you accept a drop of death?
What is your motive
in watching the pain ?
A path, a tunnel,
a precipice. The collage of purity
has the innocence of sorrow.
And truth, sails like a phoenix.
There is complete silence.
The flameless fire collapses
lapping up the anger.
Pouring out all the heart beats,
emptying the mind
darkness lowers the wheels
between muscles and bones.
Your body is eaten half by dusty thoughts.
Claustrophobia chokes the little stanzas
you are afraid, some one cares for you.