Best Fretting Poems
Six feet tall, feisty and tipping the scales
Aunt Eva approached life so playfully
Living in the moment, not fretting details
Even at 80 no harsh wrinkles had she
Just a few laugh lines from a life filled with joy
She couldn’t budget, her spending was free
Her brother (my father) was a CPA
It seemed he was forever bailing her out
When living expenses she couldn’t pay
Her gifts to others were funny as well
A used Bruce Springsteen shirt she bought for me
It was stained, too small and had a strange smell
This aging widow had young men calling
She was their dance queen and rocked all night long
Some may have found her youthful dance dates appalling
Last time I saw her, she stood in the street
Grinning and waving, as we drove away
I watched her fade from view from the car’s back seat
My family is everywhere like wild seeds sown
On the whim and bluster of a wind
Some left for Cuba before the revolution
Bring green stalks of sweet grass to sugar
And are still there, root sunken in the earth
Grafted branches without memory now
Or recognition of ancestral home,
Separated by language and new history
Thick as the depth of our watery boundaries.
Some in Panama built the canal, but no bridge
For home when their meagre cents were spent
Too soon. I met a few with little knowledge
But no anxiety for early morning mist of blue
Over the mountain, looking still to see them
Coming home like birds when summer is done.
Some went to Venezuela to see the oil
They said was black as Africa in the new world
Brazil: there football is more than economy
Gladiators: bloodless troubadors of the new army
And many drifted into the squalor of Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, Ecuador, searching for light
Amidst old civilizations brought to ruins
By Conquistadores majesty and Roman might.
The only one who report are those from Canada
Is it because of the language, because they proper
As they do in America. Is there nothing in them
That longs for home, to leave the Mexico to her Aztecs
Her cactus lace with golden strands of sun.
When I was in Germany, Austria, France, far away
As Holland, Rhine and Danube linking invisble
Heritage, I met them, distancing the old decay
"We are thinking to move to Taiwan or Japan"
They told me, poverty does make a barren land
So I understand the boat people, not lying
Like Columbus, they seek the same treasure
And yet for their truth reap some displeasure.
I could package it for them to sell, but cannot agree
When the wind rattle the wattle of desolation.
My family is everywhere scattered like wild seeds
In fresh forests fretting with the burden of the wind.
Fretting
Over his lies
Trust not
Trusting
Never again
Now wise
Wisdom
Comes with life
I learned
Learning
To share my heart
Cautious
Caution
on longest days
yields peace
Peaceful
Flowing waters
Bring hope
Hopeful
Fretting no more
Heart's strong
Strength builds
Tower of faith
Rising
Sunrise
Brightens dark days
Light shines
Shining
My stride returns
With love
Loving
Not enabling
Trust earned
For Richard's Mussetle Train Contest, 12/1/14
Oh how sad, oh how glum,
Goodness gracious prater comes.
Writing winsome words of woe,
Endlessly stopping, never to go.
Whiling away the endless hours;
Scribbling sigils, clawing, I cower.
Oh how sad, oh how glum,
Goodness gracious prater comes.
Envy those not thus engaged.
Envy the prattle on the page;
Stroked, petted, tilled and hoed;
Fields ‘pon fields, rows ‘pon row.
Oh how sad, oh how glum,
Frantic fretting, fear comes.
Wading through the endless nights;
Waiting, waiting for the light.
Writing, writing, scratch and scribble;
All this soulless, mindless, drivel.
Writing, writing, writing on;
‘Till the coming of the dawn.
All these insipid poems of Love
Love Lost….
Love Found….
What is this emotion that makes UP? Down?
All this frantic fretting
nail biting and bed-wetting.
What is this profound poetic notion?
What is the source of this commotion??
All these romantic, rabid, ramblings, of Love
Love Lost..
Love Found…
What is this emotion that makes UP? Down?
Palms pale and sweat,
brows furrow and frown.
All these horrid, hormonal, tizzies,
do little more than make one dizzy.
Love Lost…
Love Found…
Abandon this morose emotion
right this curse, set in motion.
And, if I may, let me suggest,
the route Narcissus took was best.
Love revealed…
Love found.
A love who’ll never let you down.
A love without product or prodigy
To fill the world with more dichotomy.
Constantly fretting
lost in deep fog of caring
worrying hides faith
I bet you didn’t know about the fairies
assigned to all the infants that are born.
At night beside her precious charge each tarries
while softly crooning lullabies till morn.
An extra special fairy will be sent
to first-time mothers of a girl or boy,
for when the harried fretting mom is spent,
she only has to look upon her joy.
As magic dust releases from above,
the mother sighs and holds her baby near.
Then particles illuminate the love
of one who coos while cradling her dear.
As fairies go, there simply is no other
as blessed as she who serves the child and mother.
Have you heard about a certain fairy,
the one assigned to infants newly born?
Unseen, beside her precious charge she’ll tarry
softly crooning lullabies till morn.
She is the special fairy that is sent
to first-time mothers of a girl or boy,
for when that harried fretting mom is spent,
and as the mother looks down at her joy,
the fairy sprinkles dust down from above.
The mother sighs and holds her baby near.
Those particles illuminate the love
expressed by mother cooing to her dear.
As fairies go, there simply is no other
as blessed as she who serves the child and mother.
The weatherman is trying hard to find
Another way to say rain is forecast.
He knows we hate him when he must remind
That we should be prepared for rain to last.
Two weeks ago we thought spring had arrived
And stored our bulky sweaters all away,
So eager were we to welcome in spring.
Enchantment was short lived.
I’ll find a happy way to spend my day,
Into my house the sunshine I shall bring.
This day is mine to do with as I please.
I’ll not fill these hours with idle fretting.
My cozy house envelops me with ease,
Time a gem within a simple setting,
To be used entirely for my pleasure.
Without guilt I raise up the thermostat
To the degree that meets my comfort zone.
And for extra measure
Treat myself to cup of hot chocolate,
Preparing for a pleasant day alone.
I mute the phone that no one shall intrude
Upon these precious moments, once unknown.
It has been many years since my young brood,
Took so much time, I had none of my own.
I pluck an unread book from off the shelf
And settle down to plan a magic hour
I revel in the novel feeling of
A relaxed, unrushed self.
Behind my ear I place a perfect flower
And pour a second cup of drink I love.
Let me keep day dreaming
for I do my best thinking
when I'm not blinking
Like a child's toy my thoughts are spinning
I float amongst the Stars
Big Dipper drinking
even when it feels like I'm sinking
Other worlds are my dominion
I'm not tethered to ego or opinion
I let a single star lead me to a billion
Some might think I'm nuts
Perhaps I'm Brazilian
I think about never
Until it bleeds into forever
Small things are my biggest treasure
I know and feel Gods pleasure
Traveling distances too far to measure
Although I work hard I'm a man of leisure
I can be and talk to anyone
today tomorrow or whenever
be rich poor or a pensioner
I can sing like an angel
Or boom like a Tenor
That's right
there's benefits to being a pretender
top of the heap bottom ender
I'll receive the signals
You be the sender
in fantasy lands I'm a dweller
Watch as my pupils increase in size
You see I carry my thoughts in my eyes
absorbing silly until I locate the wise
I detect the truth in people's lies
Within the shouts I hear whispers
I recognize when someone tries
Who cares if they're not one of the girls or guys
Traveling alone won't prevent them from reaching new highs
Happily ever afters don't end with goodbyes
Forget fretting the music never stops
no one truly ever dies
Watch how a bird flys
On an unseen current each spirit will rise
no logic applies
Be the me in "Me oh my"
not afraid to ask why
hear the music in a sigh
Join me in a day dream
There's room in my sky
Stretch your arms into wings
after all you too were made to fly
Conjuring anxiety, obstructing path of hope,
A quivering hesitation, frightened to cope;
Fear is omnipresent causing anguished moan
Agitating aspirations in distress of unknown.
Fear is darkness, a trepidation upon norm,
Worrisome, trembling, turbulent as storm;
An obstacle threatening progress of life,
A messenger of panic, an architect of strife.
Treacherous to audacity, fear is a cheat,
A betrayal to victories, fretting of defeat;
Fear is melancholy, an expression of gloom,
Hampering courage, perturbing in doom.
Fear is a loathsome impediment to goals,
Dashing endeavors of endearing souls;
Averse to commitment as love goes awry,
A remorseful cry, where lost kinships sigh.
Unwelcome emotion imprisoning ambition
Unleashing inaction of paranoid inhibition,
Fear immobilizes, as if, bird trapped in cage;
Paranoid, valor-less, upon life’s center stage.
January 21, 2023
Placed 1st: Fear Is Liar Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Sotto Poet
Wow—is the word!
You are something most surprising
I can feel you boiling in my blood
Waiting, trusting in that torrent
Of psychic union and revelation
You lock eyes with me—
They are blue, love-stricken, wild
I am pleasantly frightened
And comforted all at once!
Somewhere in your stare
You have managed to caress my soul
You have masterfully,
Grabbed hold…
Of all that is me—
This red force of obduration
This imprisoned fool I am…
Fretting at every given moment
In my vulnerability - how is it?
How is it that you know,
That you know our future is strong?
You just know,
This fiery….greed,
These flaws that shame me
Somehow you know this fear in me!
And everything you know,
You will see
You will acceptingly see
You first doused me with glittery lust
Steam and gleam in your keen pupils
In your gaping lips,
In your smooth-trodden truths,
I weaken in your words
You flow me out of my element,
As you pin me to the bed of dreams
You are an opulent ocean
Deep depths I know not!
I am merely a sliver of light
Becoming something solid in your grasp
Crystalline nerves melting in your knowing hands
Where is your surrender?
You ask me, in silence
I am your ball of glowing fervor
About to burst in your psychedelic waves
You are turning and turning
You are feeling me
You are feeling all my feelings!
That I try so desperately to conceal
Dissatisfaction and longing you recognize
In my volcanic hindrance
Your waters heave patience
You calm—you tear up
My fears hold me back,
And you want me to free them
This struggle is our beauty—
Is part of our art
And in you, in your rest
You salvage all the love we can muster
You remember all our moments
Fueling your empathic currents
Holding me close to your heaving tides
In a heartfelt flood of understanding
For the fifty frigid years I've spent forgetting your too friendly face,
For the fifteen forlorn times I lost my familiar faith,
Faint as those fallen, faceless, forever engraved memories are,
Fatal and faltering they make my fast-paced feigning heart beat by feelings so fake.
Follow me as phantoms from our fantasies' pasts free our paths forward.
I found the forest trail fastened in sight with fancy fairy blood.
Follow the sound of the fading falsetto from the fairest of God's favored Angels.
Hurry fast before frozen figures freeze your feet, stuck in mud.
For fifty long fervent, frantic years I've waited,
Fathoming, wondering, if it'd be feasible for you to be here.
Freaking out for a change so fair.
Fatigued, fretting, frozen in fear.
Failures, fallacies, false bearings...
For once in fifty frigid years, freedom from you is now forever for me.
Searching
pacing
fretting
losing
Freak out!
Breaking
crashing
burning
crushing
Time lost!
Up
down
left
right
Which way?
Lost
gone
forgotton
never
Finally found!
When I recall the tenebrous, gruesome shadows
Shrouding our lives conjuring deaths and sorrows,
In my vantage-point, I envision a massive bridge
Standing there resolutely over turbulent waters
Beckoning me avidly to cross over to tomorrow
Promising the other side is now within my reach
And travails of the yore will soon be behind me.
Yet, I feel fear gripped in jaws of deadly throes
And sense saddened tears fretting abyss of woes
So I summon courage, spurring resolve to cope,
Drawing assurances in embrace of my beloved
Entrusting-- in despair too-- grow seeds of hope
Believing in the promise of scientists, medicines,
And heroes who sacrifice in service of humanity.
Beyond that bridge are the pristine green prairies
Cheerfully inviting me to joy of winsome spring
Where glee of vibrant season burbles in streams
Washing away remnants of yesteryears’ misery
Frozen in gelid winters when lives were stilled,
As I continue trekking to dreams of my dawning
Aiming to arrive there clasping strength of family.
April 8, 2022