Best Footprint Poems
I did a show in this tiny town called Longyearbyen. We went snowmobiling around Svalbard and saw Arctic foxes, snow bunting, polar bear footprints and almost got lost in a blizzard.
Bill Bailey
Footprint
Nonchalantly, the broach of a bear’s footprint.
Not any bear…a polar bear; and blizzard…
a blizzard to cover one’s tracks. Indeed, lost -
bobbing along on a snowmobile venture.
The twist and turn of fact and myth dangles
at the edge of a bluff. Still, I can see it -
a wild fox in a white fur coat, with its bushy tail,
and a snow bunting, in flight, with black-tipped wings.
A footprint is a funny thing…I am there,
transported to a frozen oddity. My eyeballs
ogling the path, digging deep, down into the tundra.
What more will I discover on the polar beat?
Will the bear follow me as I retreat?
2/18/2023
Writing Challenge -F
Constance La France
Footstep
Across the gray and stillborn face
Earthlight beams in shafts of blue
To follow sunlight into plains
And ancient valleys in hide and see
Played upon this place,
A million years or more,
Then bends around horizon’s sloping line
To reach into the golden dawn
It ever seeks just beyond
The plane where light and dark
Never meet.
The hills and glens lie mute, still
As on the day they came to be,
Watching the ever shifting
Earthrise set against of sky of ebony
While not one particle
Moves from the place of its birth
In harmony with particles identical
In nature and in face and they,
Inertia’s handiwork, rest beneath the hands
Of light that run across this silent solitude
Without the help of winds
That gird their neighbor’s waist.
The eons look like eternity - nothing changes
In the rhythm of inertia’s
Ever watchful eye – no life force rising,
Stretching, reaching – the sea tranquility
Does not thunder with perpetuation's swell
And yet, it bears the eagle’s mark –
The first, now everlasting, footstep in a race
So quickly come then gone
And mirrors to empty space the challenge
That gave them flaming wings carrying them
Far beyond their fruitful home to leave a plaque
In the empty dust of eon’s signature.
Dedicate to Apollo 11 7-21-89
Eden’s Footprint
Eden leaves a dainty footprint
In the soul of morning’s garden -
Pensive song whispers in wind chimes.
Eden leaves a dainty footprint -
Dreams of perfect mystery rhymes
Perfection’s haunting perfume lingers
Eden leaves a dainty footprint
In the soul of morning’s gardens.
5-23-21
Contest: Triolet
Sponsor: Kim Merryman
Walk on the same road
It was the same approach
But lonely footprint
There is only my feet printed
Memory of You is float.
hide me, oh footprint
become my amusement park
you....i will follow....
Mum and dad were not happy -
What was the reason for all this fuss?
I toddled off into the garden to see them
They were looking very curious
The evidence was plain for all to see
Just one solitary little footprint on the new concrete path
Mum asked was it made by me
Oh no mum it wasn’t me…
but I know who did it …
It was pussy wearing daddy’s old boots
My parents both began to laugh
To this day that footprint remains on the path
(I have to hold up my hands and finally confess… is a true story)
Contest Tall tales in short form sponsored by Casarah Nance
05~05~16
"That's one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind!"
Neil Armstrong's immortal words will e'er be etched in our mind!
With that he left a footprint for all eternity that time will ne'er erase,
On our neighbor The Moon in humankind's conquest of space!
For a moment in time this brave astronaut held the world in awe;
All peoples were united in brotherhood at the wonderment they saw!
Neil and his fellow astronauts worked tirelessly to see the mission complete.
Brave pioneers who paved the way for future intergalactic challenges to meet!
Entry for Carolyn Devonshire's "Footprints" poetry contest
Note: Research indicates that "That's one small step for (a) man" was what Armstrong said and he insisted that is what he said, but NASA edited his statement slightly to eliminate the (a) and we generally have accepted the NASA version.
every step erased
incoming tide mystery -
the gordian knot
some leave
footprints
in sand
to wash
away
others leave
memories
to fade
away
some have talent for the world to revere
for some, expression that no one will hear
many renowned for their intellect
others, thought smart, slip through, I expect
remembered for deeds beneficial to all
how many in silence are no less tall
unmarked graves or headstones of gold
is value determined by what’s bought or sold
to leave no footprint, the fate of most
no importance diminished by nothing to boast
Footprint Eraser
Written By: D. Collins 10/5/14
America had better get onboard with the Dutch.
Our most abundant exhaust is what will save us.
We produce this compound in metric tons of waste.
We could recycle it even before it gets to space.
We could send craft to grab it in the atmosphere.
What we’ve put out there, could last the world for years.
Imagine if we could get India and China onboard.
Think of the amount of oxygen you could call yours.
Trees would grow taller than what they are right now.
But, the oil industry will not allow that to go down.
They will fight and scratch. Cut off oil to the craft.
Show Koch Brothers commercials of the industry’s past.
Before the luxury of commodes
Worn footpath heading out to the outhouse.
B-line tracks in fresh snow.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 3rd place 2026
With words that we utter we wind through the day
Mortal matter we mutter as mind mules decay
Exports of odd thoughts to extremes across seas
The relief of belief spreading memes like disease
By parchment, by paper or carved into stone
By improbable chance or by one glance alone
By smoke, sound or signal, or flashing like light
Streaking into the heavens and into the night
Speeding softly unsealed and scattered for years
Seeding stellar strewn fields of celestial spheres
Leaking into the fabric that permeates space
The one tiny echo of one human race
I am a faded footprint
dwelling in the abyss
of a long-forgotten masterpiece.
Sing me a lullaby
to wake me from slumber;
Lead me to the path
where only people in love go;
And I will waltz with you
Beneath the blue star.
Paint me an art of the unknown
of cosmic radiant hues,
And I will hang
a rainbow on your neck.
Write me a mystic poem
from your silent diary~
And I will transform,
from a faded footprint
to vibrant footprints
following yours.
4 July 2020
1ST PLACE
STRAND COMPLETELY NEW(4)any theme any form
Contest Judged: 7/4/2020 6:20:00 AM
Sponsored by: Brian Strand |
City lights making it as bright as day,
City lights hiding all but the brightest stars,
Ugly stores crowding the streets,
The ground paved with tar,
No birds can be heard singing above the noise of traffic,
Bigger,
Bigger we build,
Engineers and architects building,
Designing bigger,
Exhaust fumes make the air stink,
We want bigger,
Yes we have buildings that scrape the sky,
Housing developments where fields and forests once were,
We want this and that,
But we never stop and think about,
Our footprint on this earth,
What we are doing to the world,
The world we shall give to our children,
This is it,
This world is all we have,
We must open our eyes and mind,
We must learn to see the world in a new light,
We must see what we have done to this world on which we live because it is all we
have.