Best Garnered Poems
Thump, thump...thump, thump
Your heart beats with internal impediment
Making each breath a struggle.
I see your pain, I feel your anguish,
I dearly love your determination to endure.
I can only imagine how difficult it is to
relinquish days of youth when your strength
was the marvel of the men you worked with
side by side...celebrated as the Paul Bunyan
of the shipyard whose power knew no bounds.
Advancing years have garnered fears of
imminent shadows from the Grim Reaper
inching closer day by day until you can
feel his breath on the nape of your neck.
Past regrets loom before you of missed
opportunities, and so many things left
unaccomplished, unattended projects that
act as brutish reminders of failing health.
You think I don't understand the dilemmas
you face in just getting through another
hellish night of insomnia to sleepwalk
through another day plagued by doubts of
Time slipping away like a thief in the night.
I want to be here for you...with you.
Please let me be.
7-26-18
Left tall and dry, lies the pillared maize forsaken.
Barren fields of corn, stand row by row.
When yellow ears have long been gathered,
a dusty crop has paid it's garnered due.
The dry stalks bend and dangle stiff remains,
and autumn winds return to whip batons and play.
The quiet fields tune harps and violins,
making harmony from husks, with swaying stalk refrains.
Weeping Willow
The way your toes curl when you first wake up, yes I have been there to see this.
The way your nose wrinkles as you start to laugh, to this also I have been witness.
You twirl your hair and click your teeth when deep thoughts keep you guessing
And the way your eyes alight with flame when no longer the answers are vexing
Your lips pucker without thought of a kiss when something to you is amusing
About the crazy ideas that I might be having or a book you might be perusing.
I have seen you in the embers of a raging fire, and on the waves that crash upon the shore
I have heard you in the whisper of a windswept leaf as it dances upon the forest floor
I have felt you within a single drop of rain that nature brings to cleanse the earth
I have tasted no greater flavor than this, the nectar garnered from a true loves birth
I have smelled your beauty within the aroma of jasmine, honey, mint and Cinnamon
I have known you from the dawn of time, the cadence of two hearts abridged as one
And when you go to bed at night for some reason my shirts are more comfortable
Than the many things in the past I bought you that your lips told me were unaffordable.
And I have dried the tears that flowed from your eyes when agony came to break your heart
Your brows would furrow as sleep would take you, tomorrow would bring a brand new start
But regardless of this and nonetheless you snuggle in close and at night you shift your pillow
To the cooler side the place that brings solace on the opposite poll of the weeping willow
"Life offers divine moments that can only be shared with an angel."
~ by poet
Softly, she swaddled me within the warmth of welcoming wings
I shared my shadowed secrets, then she spoke in subdued voice
'Do not dwell in darkness and despair for your sweet soul sings
of sorrow for your sins. Repentance gives you reason to rejoice'
'From the courage of confessing comes clemency of concession
You have found favor with God and garnered His good graces
He has heard your heartfelt words, and my own in intercession
Our Father forgives you, and with empathy, eagerly embraces'
Tenderly, she touched me, tempering the torrent of my tears
Held me close, calmly confiding, 'Your bane of burdens I bear'
When her weeping wet my cheeks, faith freed me from fears
My adoring angel sighed, 'Persevere by praising God in prayer'
Then her golden gossamer wings fluttered their fragile feathers
Graciously given to me was a glorious gift. Solace cut the strings
that kept my suffering soul trussed in tenterhooks and tethers,
for I'd been safely swaddled within an angel's welcoming wings.
December 11, 2021
"A" Forms Contest sponsored by Constance La France
For a time,
I want to shed my earthly existence
Like the sloughed skin of a snake
To rise high and still higher like a bird
To sail beyond sunset, to fly far, far away
To soar into the seamless skies
To levitate in ether, to feel weightless
To float amid twinkling stars
To collide against constellations
To tour round on a magic carpet
And dive into the oceanic depths of space
There I would build a palace
Amid the clouds to dream in peace
With none to trouble or torment
No laws of gravity should pull me down
Let me rest awhile in that magic kingdom
Not for ever, but for a little while
To look down from that cosmic arena
And pity upon the poor earthlings
Who never realize how insignificant they are
Stuck in a blue luminous speck
Amid the vast enveloping cosmic dark
And keep sucking their habitation dry!
With all ignorance and misconceptions shed
With pearls of new knowledge garnered
With petty strife set aside, in greater humility
Finally to descend down as a better being!
May.31.2022
Poem Of the Day- June .1.2022
~Third Place Winner~
Resubmittecd for Marathon Mile.17. Poetry Contest
Sonsor- Mark Toney
Flight Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Chantelle Anne Cooke
Winter’s cold chill cuts through my chin.
Within its bleak and brazen embrace,
My brisk days are turned brief and barren.
They are lengthened into sordid sepulchral insomniac nights.
I slither and slip and am hurled into hibernation.
Once I stood with you immune to wanton winter’s wild whiplash.
You wrapped me warm from the wrath of winter’s whirlwind.
Our life moved in homogeneous harmony.
With one glaring glance from you, my heart hummed halcyon tunes.
I danced blissfully in tandem to your sweet soulful songs.
Your luminous, lambent light shone brightly,
Blazing the dark and desolate caves and crevices within me.
Now I stand and stay rooted like the trunk of a leafless tree,
Giving no shelter or shade to anyone.
With despondent dread and disappointment,
I watch the sap and serum in me going dry,
And the feathers on my wings wilt and wither like dead leaves.
With the flaming fire put out, winter has brashly barged into my life.
My lips once so eloquent now have fallen still and silent.
All the words I have carefully gleaned and garnered,
Have slipped and slid into a bottomless abyss, never to be heard again.
My lulling lyrics are replaced with the reverberating refrains of a lament.
An icy crystallization is speedily spreading,
Through my sentient soul like an ache, I have never known.
Grey cumulus clouds of pain have rolled into steal,
All light, luster and luminosity from my bright sky.
Now my world has cracked and crumbled into a bleak void of grey.
I twitch and tremble in cold as you have withdrawn your warmth.
A late realization has now daringly dawned outside my door.
I am not to perish and putrefy in this cold,
But be dauntless and dashing to fight, thaw and tread my way,
Battle the intense cold in flaming, flaring fires.
After every frosty and freezing winter, other seasons will arrive .
Summer is an inviolable and unassailable power within,
And in its warmth I can vanquish the chilling cold.
I shall wake up with a syrupy sweet song in my lips
And find myself in the luminous light of a dawning day!
Jokes he delivers us on Fun Monoku Mondays.
”October Skies,” he wrote just when starting college -
His gift to loving grandparents which garnered him much praise.
Noble is John’s soul, and his mind is filled with knowledge.
With Knock-Knock jokes – don’t reply “John Who?”
Ask instead “John What?”
To which the answer sounds the same as his name: “John Watt?”
Thanks too to John’s short name, with this poem I now am through!
Jan 9, 2021
For Margarita Lillico's Capture The Essence Poetry Contest
Under the broad sweep of endless sky,
In that rare and hallowed moment
When the moon, in audacious stealth,
Edges before the sun,
A quietude descends, profound and deep.
The air, thick with anticipation,
Holds its breath;
The earth, in its tireless orbit,
Pauses—in reverence
To the grandeur to which we all belong.
This spectacle, this dance of light and shadow,
Where the day is night and the sun is dark,
Unveils the universe’s unfathomable mystery,
A reminder of our fleeting passage
In the boundless march of time.
As the corona flares,
A crown of light, ethereal and untouchable,
Encircles the shadowed moon—
A garnered glimpse into the sun’s hidden majesty.
In this moment, we are but specks,
Yet infinitely connected to the cosmic ballet.
This eclipse, eagerly awaited, a miracle witnessed,
Serves not just as a meeting of celestial bodies,
But as a bridge across the void,
Linking heart to heart, soul to soul,
To the very essence of existence itself.
In awe, we stand,
Observers of the universe’s embrace,
Witnesses to the endless dance
Of light and shadow,
Of time and space,
And the quiet, enduring marvel
That is life, in its myriad forms and fleeting beauty.
The ancient brave weeping willows
that line the gentle river banks
cry not, one single drop hovers.
It is wisdom that drips from it.
This wisdom garnered through ages
of watching antics and follies
of mankind repeating same mistakes.
So they drip their wisdom in hope.
Hope is inspired by these trees
as majestically they stand.
Lines marching along river bank
they are sentinels of wisdom.
Ah, Divine influence, it has come to many, so they say,
as to their nameless or named God’s they do pray.
The light came to Carroll, he said he could see,
for raised by a Vicar at Christ church was he.
Dodgson was his surname an apt moniker
for he veers of from his father, made math his liqueur
Lewis was Charles tongue in cheek, he wore hats
and from his birth place, he transformed Cheshire cats.
Lewis Carroll wrote “Alice” sure, he was also Charles Dodgson
but who wrote the marrow, now that’s where the God comes!
Now, many men wrote the Bible or so we surmise
and the pages they garnered came in random sizes.
Yes they picked, they plucked, these men were right scary
and what do you know, left out the Book of Mary!
Now you modern readers just might take a note
the resemblance twixt Alice and Mary's no anecdote.
Dogdson, yes Carroll, knew Mary so it seems
yet, Alice sweet Alice is who came in his dreams.
Carroll clothed Alice and it's no surprise
that in Chapter 3:21, her dress he seeks dried!
For Alice, dear Alice, did not wish to die!
“She would catch a bad cold if she could not get dry.”
Carroll being the kind creator, he would
had the mouse read to Alice the driest of books.
Again and again, his benevolence is shown
when he sends Alice a rabbit to soon lead her home.
So, we are lead on in most delightful detail
to Chapter 4:15 where her flight is curtailed.
As Cain slew Abel, so the Queen beheaded prates.
Yet, she’d no power at all, over bodiless cats!
Now, Chapter 12 is truly my favorite, as you may surmise
Lewis Carroll has dreamed much of caterpillar size..
He dreamed a whole world full of goodness and villainy.
As anyone can see, men will see what they see,
and the Looking Glass has as much meaning to me
as the Bible may have to the Christians, let be.
You always bring a smile to my day,
expressing your love in every way.
And I bask in the warmth of that smile
every time you go the extra mile.
When wishes get cast onto moonbeams,
hope embellishes fanciful dreams.
And passion's internal flames begin
to ignite desires that burn within.
When I'm sad or subjected to pain,
I think of you, and I can't complain.
My love is founded on trust and truth,
garnered from the innocence of youth.
Gleaning happiness from times we've shared;
borrowing your courage, I'm less scared.
For swept off of my feet by its force,
indescribable love guides my course.
Fate's magical journey made sublime;
we shared a kiss, set adrift in time.
And we both knew that feeling would last;
like before, in lives and times long past.
Born into this earth one day quite unaware,
We grow with time and eventually age.
Pass through stages many and varied,
And in activities manifold, we busily engage.
We do not know what tomorrow unveils,
Or where the road we tread may lead.
But within us is a realm that will never change.
It is something that to vagaries, never shall yield.
Beneath all fluctuations, it stays static.
It is the light of consciousness that in us shines,
That has been slowly built in us through our breeding.
Through values garnered and what God in us aligns.
This screen of awareness is something so palpable,
But can never be seen yet stays securely intact.
It is the consciousness that God has planted in us.
Defeating all deceptions, it helps us choose the right act.
When we experience pain and heaviness of heart
On the screen of awareness may appear a shining star
It will sure pilot us through the dank and dark corridors of life.
Help us stay firm in fluidity, showing who we truly are.
Beliefs and concepts may evolve and change with time,
But as long as we are insulated within the protective screen
Of awareness, it will distinguish the genuine from the sham,
And our life will glitter in all radiance and heavenly sheen!
May.18.2023
~ Placed Fifth~
The Screen of Awareness Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Unseeking Seeker
Before the faint feathered light of dawn becomes airborne
and the world around me lies hushed in peaceful slumber
I often ruminate on the rose and its weaponry of a thorn
equating them to thoughts that both please and encumber
I delve deeply into my soul where passion has been worn
How resplendent the petals of a bloomed dew-kissed rose
Velvet to my finger's touch, in its long-stemmed splendor
Like tender blessings I receive as I reflect in quiet repose
the echoes pulsing within my heart, in grateful surrender
It's there I remember whispers of love and its tragic woes
Uninvited comes the sting of thorns; my cause for bleeding
Deep scratches that inflict mordant worry and sullen pains
but never have they breached my stoic faith by misleading
my heart to cast asperse shadows of scars and bloodstains
on the life of this servant who for God's mercy is pleading
I hear the love song of a wood thrush, calling to its mate
Through a window glows golden glimmers of morning sun
I'm imbued by a breath of warmth, garnered as I meditate
on the generous gift of a new day, sovereignly being spun
I humble myself through life's rivers that I must navigate
6/24/20
Reflection in Silence Poetry
Dedicated to my son, my heart, my Kyle
As infant, he was a smile and precious dimples
who had experienced no day or night simple.
He constantly battled while growing in the womb
in order to cease death's increasing threat of doom.
He battled inside the special care nursery
where I garnered my first Motherhood memory.
As toddler, he battled space to allow his place
because balance had not been granted by the fates.
So, too, he fought to finally stand up and walk.
He would fall, stand to retry, no matter who gawked.
He struggled to button, tie, open, close and zip
as fine motor skill challenges were a rough trip.
He will never, ever read, the teachers all said,
no matter that he piles books around him in bed.
Each night after dinner, he studied to the brim
with me who had learned how to teach reading to him.
Then seizures came and took what he had learned away.
School-bullies learned how to make him seizure each day.
Neurologist failed with this med and then tried that.
All had side effects that were hellish living facts.
Once in his bed, he was spinning, holding my hand
and my tears began to fall despite my command.
"Mama, all our days, Mother and Son love will stand
so, please don't cry, God has a perfect seizure plan.”
After a two year fight, the scary seizures stopped.
Since, his gross and fine motor skills have soared and popped.
His reading skills improved, increased and success locked.
Now, as adult, his dimples and smile remain hot.
My precious, brave son lives life with all he has got.
To me, my son’s steady courage has always rocked.
... CayCay Jennings
December 19, 2016
Proof is in the pudding
She's the best slice of the pie
God knew what he was doing
With this apple of his eye
She is the strength that matters
The glue that we cling to
Out loud gorgeous in her laughter
Large proportions of the truth
Morning's light that holds the daybreak
Steady in its place
The taste of morning glory
In the fragrance that she makes
Happy in the ever after
Mystery in the clue
The way when it is made clear
Brand in the spanking new
One highly to be honored
Above all that can be found
On her love has been garnered
In her, beauty does abound