Best Footholds Poems
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I am hurting up all over
Lying here undiscovered
Papparazzi cumulus are jostling in my street
God is taking photos of the remnants of His sheep
Climbing footholds and gripping on the rungs
Heaving and panting I'm a-aching in my lungs
Ascend this twisted ladder of my helix
I'm not the father of this mutant DNA
Help me Hiroshima,make it go away
Panties on the washline hip-hopping in the air
Headbanging jackets dancing with no hair
I tried to speak , stutter, spitting out the truth
Joy the dormant factor in my spittle and my sperm
Followed you through crooked mile
Tracked you through the non-return
Nowhere to go now, just following my feet
Like an unpaid hooker walking on her beat
Oh, my bedside lamp begs the question mark
I do not want to hear
Sprinkled in baptism
Ah! Salvation ...hanging in the air
-the petrichor of rain
Categories:
footholds, angst, baptism, pain,
Form:
Free verse
Before I first crawled from a mythical ocean
light years before history began to take itself seriously
I was told to spin new myths.
The dead-not-so-dead gave me buckets of myths.
“This is your mission,” they said, “carry these buckets
one by one to a place called, solid footholds."
The buckets had water in them
for myths need an aqueous environment.
Because they swam in the same bucket
the myths became mixed, some copulated
spawning more myths.
In a dream I was told that if the place called
solid footholds ever ran out of myths
it would blow away in a cloud of dust.
Until now the buckets have not run dry,
been spilled or wasted
but the place of solid footholds
is drying up for want of more mythical tales.
I am not the only myth carrier, there are many.
If you are one of those then carry buckets
to the place of solid footholds
before its footprints are gone forever.
Categories:
footholds, poetry,
Form:
Free verse
I am drizzled from thoughts that the heart footholds
With words of wisdom which are pure as gold
And as I form into an underlying phrase
Every sentence takes it’s own place
With rhymes of words dancing on the page
Every formation is imbedded to the base
With librettos of connotation revolutionising the trace
The vivacity of the ode slowly gets into shape
And once the ode is born with complete faith
The poem is made and that’s the face
- Sherwin Fernandes
Categories:
footholds, cool, crazy, creation,
Form:
Free verse
The dark, drenched forest
was tinkling with tuis and bellbirds,
blind to the ledger book,
the bill of lading,
the glint in the eye of the ax.
Pious settlers wired the land for religion
and switched on the lights.
The natives were dazzled,
but loved the portly man in the red suit
who gave them everything they wanted.
On the Historical Society outing,
we struggle for footholds
in whirlpools of organized ennui,
clutch at the slack rope
that cordons off irrelevant ancestries.
‘The end is not nigh,’
the Dom-Post tells its readers.
Doors are bolted against the wind,
the tick, tick of the electric fence
around eroded pastures.
First published in Southern Ocean Review
Categories:
footholds, earth, environment, nature, nostalgia,
Form:
Free verse
My Shield, My Sentinel
Savior Of My Soul
Guards My Path Well
… and My Footholds …
My Shield, My Sentinel
Lifting Up My Light
Even If I Fell
He Keeps Me In Sight
No Chicanery, No Treachery
Can Succeed In Stopping Me
Nor Can Lasting-Harm Me
Nor Forever Hunt Me
My Mortal-Soul’s Safety
Held In His Hands, Safely
Protector Of My Eternity
My Sentinel, My Shield Is Mighty
My Shield, My Sentinel
Sentry Against Spells
Warrior Against Hell
My Guardian Angel
Pushing Far Apart
The Shadowed Veils
Floating Towards My Heart
Like Shipwreck Sails …
… and as Wind and Water Wail
And Rings A Warning Bell
And Thunder Truth-To-Tell
I Saw The Shield … Of My Sentinel
Categories:
footholds, adventure, dedication, devotion, faith,
Form:
Light Verse
There's nothing to hold on to
When you begin to slide,
And the walls begin to crumble
And you have nowhere to hide.
I look to find the child in me,
That stranger to anxiety,
But the footholds of my history
Are blurred footprints in the
sand.
I try to hold on to the bars of a
song
But the music isn't playing, the
metre is all wrong.
The stars in the sky are
darkened,
My anchors have all gone.
Like driftwood borne upon the
flow
Of some almighty undertow
I am washed up on the shore,
Cracked and broken like before.
I am under no delusion
This will come to some
conclusion
I'm rattling the gates of
Bethlehem
But I won't be allowed in there
again
So I'll settle for the sanctuary
of sleep
And let oblivion wash this pain
into the deep.
Categories:
footholds, depression
Form:
Rhyme
The rock that to the climber reaches out with
jagged arms
And to the sore foot of a traveler turns a tough
rough back
Holds within its harshness
The promise of swift marches
To they who aspire towards its summit.
And to each of them it someday proves
That in the roughness of the way lies the
smoothness of the journey—
For only amid coarseness can footholds form
And only to jagged rock can a grip bond fast.
It‘s the same with the affairs of men:
They who walk us on oiled paths,
Who smooth the way to soothe our soles,
Soon see their care turn to a scare
When upon its glossy form no crack is revealed
where seeds of hope may lodge
Nor any gaping holes seen through which golden
beams may slip and light the darkness ahead.
For fortune draws her breath through cracks
That make coarse the route
That to success leads—
Cracks that soothe our soles with spiced pains,
The pains that herald victory
Which barren comforts bear not.
Categories:
footholds, inspiration, success, uplifting,
Form:
Free verse
Fabulous friction,
Your magic transforms
The steep rock into footholds.
In delicate balance
We dance on invisible
Stairs to the summit.
Categories:
footholds, mountains,
Form:
Blank verse
I try to establish strong mental footholds
In resemblance to fort knox physical strongholds
Through repentance I lost the spiritual blindfold
So every sentence I mock material billfolds
I seek an understanding of answers beyond the proven
Discreet but demanding how choices response woven
Steep iceberg floating trying to go past frozen
Deep dreamer mind roaming wake to visions unspoken
I walk a new direction to relieve my transgressions
I look toward heaven to receive a better connection
My poetic expressions are close to schools lessons
Not prophetic but blessings do follow these sessions
I choose my own path and I fold up my coattails
So whether tears or laugh others stand behind guardrails
If life is simple math I want some calculus from Yale
No test I cannot pass its like the answers are wholesale
Categories:
footholds, faith, inspirational,
Form:
Free verse
Take hold the valley
For in its depths are footholds
Made fast by victors
Categories:
footholds, dedication, encouraging,
Form:
Haiku
*Image of Original Gerber baby, Ann Turner Cook by KTVU.
R.I.P. Ann Leslie Cook, nee Turner
Ann Cook
Her look
Not name
Became
Households
Footholds
Aspects
Effects
Neighbor's
Favors
Charcoaled
Turned gold
Adored
Reward
Threshold
Behold
Quest and
Destined
Become
A mom
Four kids
Amids
Teacher
Writer
Thank you
Trueblue
My face
By grace
Glass jars
All-stars
Trademarks
Remarks
Sublime
Lifetime
Apprise
Demise
Gerbers
Furthers
Bless you
Adieu
Godsend
Ascend
*R.I.P. Ann Leslie Cook, nee Turner*
At five months old, she posed for their family's neighbor, Dorothy Hope Smith, who drew a charcoal sketch of her for a Gerber's baby-food contest. That charcoaled sketch became Gerber's iconic label when they opened and produced their products in 1928. For nearly ninety-four years of her lifetime, she has been in American homes, as well as, abroad. She died in her St. Petersburg, FL., home, (11/20/1926-06/03/2022) at 95.
2022 June 11
*6th Place*
A BRIAN STRAND PREMIERE CHOICE
~~Brian Strand: Judged 2022 June 12
Categories:
footholds, baby, character, farewell, woman,
Form:
Footle
When Socretes, Plato and Aristotle teamed,
the line between the will to learn married the will to teach.
When Raphael, Leonardo, and Michael lived at Belvedere,
Art would see her form take shape and pave the way for years.
When Beethoven met Mozart on one Vienna spring,
the voice of God was heard through horizontally laid strings.
When Newton, Halley and Hooke looked through the glass and sky,
the universe shed her secrets to be more then meets the eye.
When Thomas, John and Ben picked up the pen to write,
an eagle spread its wings and from an olive branch took flight.
When Samuel Langhorne Clemens met Harriet Beecher Stowe,
the times of change were laid in names from characters' footholds.
When Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill assumed command,
fear and hatred would not be sated on another land.
When Lindbergh and Goddard pushed to see their common goal,
man was ready here and now to soar towards heaven's soul.
Categories:
footholds, education, history, hope, imagination,
Form:
Carpe Diem
The stones slipped through the great fingertips of God
Each ligure staked its existence on the four corners of the universe
The quadrivial region began to spin and pull into a sphere
And pathways revealed their footholds
The fourth ligure bravely landed in the midst of history
So that one day the future settlement of the second
Would be moved by the last—by the past
Suffering much it stayed
Manifesting in incandescent words
Thrusting evanescence upon the weak
Selfless, it's sorrow would move the merriest
Would move the unmovable
The third lies in the profound valley of mystical guardians
Star-recruited, they are the very light above the canvas of gray
They embrace the stone—are inspired by the stone
The very reflection of their creator was evident
Upon their unremitting glimmers
Unafraid to stare the others down
Motivated and construed by the glower of death
Eyes move fixedly beyond the simple vast
The second ligure rested upon the shoulders of invisible martyrs
The hopeful power it planted on the sufferers was unbelievable
For spectators used their disbelief to cover their ever-placed envy
They never were part of the battle—they merely watched
Always seeing truth
But they never quite absorbed
Like a rock hitting the water
The inevitable fate was to fly and sink
The first of the ligures settled in the very reservoir of Satan himself
Even the very heart of the devil is marked
Though rebellion embarked
The cold stone landed upon his naked bosom
He despaired not to the pericopal truth the gods had bestowed upon him
He merely despised it
But wished not to lose it
For such a stone to fall upon that dark corner—he felt pride for the gracious wound
In truth, there are twelve ligures of stone
And four were dispersed, dropped into the universe
The last eight the great Eternal wears upon his breastplate
And only He can re-move these ligures
-July 20, 2013-
-For Shadow Himilton's Any Subject Contest-
-Thanks for the inspiration-
Categories:
footholds, adventure, analogy, angel, anger,
Form:
Epic
In you I trust. You symbolize a promise.
If self-reliance fails and footholds crumble
You’ll keep us safe from harm. You will protect us
If handholds break, if we lose grip, or stumble.
With you in reach I dare release the tension.
Your solid metal roundness will inspire
New confidence and faith. I can exhale now
The bated breath and, with relief, climb higher.
Categories:
footholds, humor,
Form:
Quatrain
I Hereby Salute!
Those were the days........
Uncle loomed in many ways............
More joy at home ..........
With the cards well played...........
Life has become lonely.........
Yet he takes it very cooly.............
Sits tall in his chair............
Undying spirit is his flair.........
In a house emptily........
Adulated by kin many.............
Some shy to express.............
His impartial heart not digress..............
Fathered hand.........
When shelter was anon..............
His door they knocked............
Their life was so blank.......
Knowing he was in there..............
Footholds found everywhere..........
Revered by those ..........
Whose hearts silently rose........
To a Man of integrity........
I hereby salute!
September 12, 2015
Contest: Stand By Your Man
Sponsor: Silent One
Categories:
footholds, character, cool, devotion, father,
Form:
Ode