Best Guileless Poems
A coloratura rises
from the suede-edged shape
as the gnarled grande dame
comes to light.. a vision
draped in sweeping evergreen
and a pale cape of kidskin haze -
a beguiling soprano in soft-
focus fools the guileless sunrise
with a diva’s deception --
for in the vaporous golden hour
she can still be breathtaking
the age of change
is beclouded - softened
in gray’s cashmere atmosphere
where blending and bending of
over-ripened perceptions
are smoothed with a dewy smudge..
roughened boughs
and litter-fall is obscured --
unless, you get up close
harsh lines become artfully coy
in the bosom of the pearl mist;
a bedimmed dreamy blur of
Impressionism masks her reality
with the sleight of hand and a mockingbird’s aria
Susan Ashley
March 8, 2020
~ Third Place ~
Premiere Contest: Brian Strand Contest No 1183
Sponsor: Brian Strand
N/A
Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 6
Sponsor: Mark Toney
*coloratura: runs, trills, and other florid decorations in vocal music.
A lyric soprano of high range who specializes in such music*
*aria: an elaborate melody sung solo*
Categories:
guileless, age, autumn, life, nature,
Form:
Free verse
3/2/03
I saw no way- The heavens were stitched
I felt the columns close
The earth reversed her hemispheres
I touched the Universe
378: Emily Dickenson
The Shape of Death
Because I could see through all the eyes of men,
Pandora's sin,the sum of every joy and sorrow crowded in
I felt the paucity of greed.
The simple mood of life enriched by guileless generosity
I asked, "Are good and evil mixed?"
I saw no way - the heavens were stitched.
And stitched perhaps until the hour of death
Because I could see through all the eyes of men,
I knew of life's inevitable end
that closure, that omega rose
that brings eternal sweet repose.
That stealth of life in increments
the broken bond of flesh to death
Within its marble tenements
I felt the columns close
The columns closed, my mother passed,
Because I could see through all the eyes of men,
my solace weighed in beauty that we gathered,
in all my childhood hours
In sunsets, birdsong, clouds, and dew
in measured memory of her face
I turned myself away from our lost years
The earth reveresed her hemispheres
Reversed - that algebraic leap,
Because I could see through all the eyes of men
All wisdom spilled to unity of life,
Death un-veiled - benign as the blank page before birth
returning that Divine immortal leaf
like the shape of space that waves traverse,
when split, between a particle
And I can say with nothing to coerce
Perhaps....I touched the Universe.
Categories:
guileless, death, meaningful, mother, mystery,
Form:
Verse
My life spirals ever downward...
The grave taunts me with its laugh.
Death's bony fingers are affixed my throat
As the jester of my unmerited epitaph.
My angst at my ever-flounder appears
Well-earned and justly placed
Where the rabid minions of an avenging God
Will no doubt make bold of my disgrace.
Have I lived too long a life so plain
Where my soul was too confined
And any realistic hope of eternal bliss
Seems mere folly at this time?
To live too long is an old Man's curse
And bound to evoke some industry
Where best intentions are set adrift...
To partake sweet ecstasy.
These stains that commemorate my Earthly Sins
Are laid denuded for all to see.
I drag them unceremoniously into an afterlife
That may not wish to bolster me.
But who among us hasn't stumbled
With Death's foot ajar the door
With temptations strewn like pearled oysters
On life's repugnant shores?
The righteous path is straight and narrow
And a vehicle for all those bold and brave
But only appeared crucial and strategic as
I stand with one foot in the grave.
How happier were those days gone by
When I was young and free from vice.
If I had only maintained such vernal guileless
To insure a place in paradise.
But I have come to this conclusion
As Death's whisper slakes my soul with dread.
Too much time has been my nemesis and any
Last minute burbling is better left unsaid.
So at this hour... this late late hour...
I now confront an awful truth.
I might have had a better chance at Heaven...
Had I perished in my youth.
The End
Ever-flounder: A bad situation of one's own making.
*I wrote this poem from the perspective of someone who fears their sins are
too heavy for God to bear.
*Follow my cartoon at Webtoon Bob's Your uncle.
Categories:
guileless, angst, confusion, death,
Form:
Rhyme
As we worship, bring the silence
in gracious peace ring down the day.
Stay the light that's stained with violence,
deliver calm, pass ill storms away.
Send to us your guileless servant,
pure of faith and stainless heart.
Confer to him a truce so verdant
with joyous love and hope impart.
Stand guard against faults that rage
and spare less fortune from the cold.
Lift these hearts, fallen, fled with age
and never loose us from your hold.
Share with us your saving Grace
with harmony that men embrace.
08/06/2018
Rhyming Poem On Angels Contest
Sponsored by Emile Pinet
Categories:
guileless, angel, prayer, spiritual,
Form:
Sonnet
The rosa blanda embroidering your face
will become the veins in my tongue reaching to clog my throat
go past the tonsils and vocal chords and windpipe
down and down still, burrowing into the esophagus
relentless in its pursuit, just, just, just to lay seeds in my chest
tumor a pea, peanut, grape, walnut, lime, matilija, peach, grapefruit
straining muscle surprising itself with the ability to withstand the stretch
craving asphyxiation, those lungs may covet paroxysm
but grieve not the fulfillment of a destiny
this ache, this devastation was meant to be
no, they won’t be careful of what they wish for
you’ll become the air I swallow, and the organ that inhales and exhales it both
viciously lush beauty anywhere and everywhere
so when you see the body that used to be mine,
you’ll gasp in horror or awe or both: which one? I’ll never know
the garden you planted nurses no speech, nor soil, nor hope of infertility
just a promise of bloom and perpetual harvest
a pretty letter from dainty lips, viscous honey quenching its thirst
a giddy blush warming embryos out of stout cases
a brush of apple-sun cheeks dawning moonlight-budding leaves
just a gaze and my heart will melt,
sand that brazenly melds into laminated glass
gifted to strong hands smothered in peppermint lotion
who will keep it safe in their loops, whorls, and arches
brindle cedar irises roots to this infatuation
their existence cruel to a poet who only knows
words mere facets unworthy of describing
fields of cosmoses a cosmos itself
choking on fantasies and tears of scarlet drupes,
I retch out garlands born in guileless meadows
and as the last petal falls,
the sweetest rose hip takes branch
its only sin a love too big
Categories:
guileless, beauty, love, surreal,
Form:
Free verse
She curled her tail around her toes,
Covering whiskers, chin and nose.
An ear twitch here, another there;
She claimed as hers the easy chair.
Tormentor of both mole and mouse,
She spent the summer out of house.
Plundered, pillaged, night and day,
No mercy for dim witted prey.
Summer passed and then the fall,
As bitter cold left wintery pall.
The feline wanted none of that;
Once more she posed as family cat.
She lay about each day and night:
Purred when stroked and feigned delight.
Her bowl, her chair and toilet place,
Were all she claimed as sovereign space.
The season wore on long and cold.
Outside most life seemed put on hold.
The feline lay there still as dead,
Entombed within her winter bed.
Come now the spring with days of fair;
The old cat stretched within her chair.
A well placed nose near open sill;
She felt the much diminished chill.
Then rushed to door that still was closed.
Cries from her pleading throat arose.
Weaving through her mistress legs;
"Let me out," brash feline begged.
As chipmunk fed in hemlock crotch,
Unfettered cat dashed off the porch.
With one quick scramble up the tree;
A winter cat she ceased to be.
Do we not marvel at her grace,
Ere all those months confined in place?
The cat resumes with guileless ease,
Her summer reign of fields and trees.
Categories:
guileless, animal, cat, nature, pets,
Form:
Narrative
It must have felt like love at first,
The clinging of the ivy vines,
Until his rich red heart had burst.
Her tendrils slaked an ancient thirst,
The tender touch for which he pined.
It must have felt like love at first.
Too guileless to suspect the worst,
She speared him with her soft green tines.
Until his rich red heart had burst.
Her coils so patiently she pursed,
He never guessed at her design.
It must have felt like love at first.
Crazed with cracks, its strength dispersed,
From end to end the wall declines
Until his rich red heart had burst.
So new to love, so poorly versed
In joy, so baffled by her signs,
It must have felt like love at first.
Until his rich red heart had burst.
Categories:
guileless, allegory, heart, red, heart,
Form:
Villanelle
He assembled in darkness the corroded horn
by familiarity and sense of touch.
Then cast as thunder into the empty night
long tones void of musical melody.
Sustained tones, fierce and woeful
in succession paraded the street.
Each note precisely chosen, unfurled
and carried aloft in chilly air.
The flickering street lamp understood
as long shadows on a cobbled walk
slow danced in the warming glow.
But the music was not for them tonight.
The musician’s voice transformed
and angry staccato flares broke.
Chop, chop and chop on the mighty tree!
He watched it fall dead against unfeeling brick.
Snapping of limbs and morality
but the tree was just a thug anyway.
Indignant “Quiet downs!”
rained from high-rise windows
mingling in the blood of the fallen;
and tears…so few tears.
Still, the music wasn’t for them tonight.
Yet they could not escape the song,
that guileless voice in the darkness,
which once again transformed.
Weeping heaves bellowed through aged-brass
amplifying every tremble of the lip.
Pitiful notes, harsh on either end
and broken by uneven vibrato,
yet piercing in their rawness,
turned away the wrathful storm.
Tremulous begging it seemed,
accompanied a hopeful plea for dawn,
which lulled to sleep the very stars above.
The moon halted to listen as well,
before tucking itself in, cathartic,
as the pitiful busker concluded his song
of remorse for un-lived dreams
and unspoken things
The music wasn't for them tonight.
10/18/15
Categories:
guileless, introspection, music, night,
Form:
Free verse
Sleepy,
Weepy,
Sweetie,
Cutie,
Babe drools.
It crawls,
On floor,
On four.
Burbles,
Gabbles,
Wets bed,
Cute bud!
Guileless,
Artless,
Chuckles,
Giggles,
Grows up.
Sits up.
Child walks.
Child runs.
Climbs up.
Falls down.
Naughty,
Haughty,
Spoiled brat!
Moppet!
Mom’s joy!
Dad’s toy!
God’s gift
World’s light!
________________
August.2.2022
~ Placed Tenth~
Brian Strand Premiere Choice Poetry Contest
Categories:
guileless, child, cute love, father,
Form:
Footle
Colours bounce in euphoric ecstasy
and another day is birthed, in melody,
as the dawn brings forth emerald reflection,
the sun playing on the looms of nature's glee
with the nightingale's whistle in a harmony.
Dull on it's perch,
determined in his search
for a jewel in creation's crown,
a partner for his song to emerge,
he prepares to lurch.
He spots her on a lake,
a white rose, a snowflake,
drifting on crystal serene,
a beautiful image to make,
her beauty in its surroundings partake.
This fragile goddess
with his best song he tries to caress
and the brooding bud,
a stunning glory ageless,
unfolds to his tune, guileless.
Yet when she tries,
her voice defies,
and he knows she will not sing.
A sudden sorrow in her eyes,
she bows her head and sighs.
But song, his voice like a lyre,
her beauty, her eyes of sapphire
make for a perfect match:
all creation they admire
together compensating for flaws like ice and fire.
Categories:
guileless, animal, beautiful, bird, morning,
Form:
Quintain (English)
Waltzing ‘mongst the redwoods she now meanders
Shyly smiling, candid in guileless virtue
Feeling carefree, gleeful, of threats unwary...
Progress encroaches.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sapphic Stanza Contest
Sponsor: William Kekaula
© 21st January 2019
Categories:
guileless, innocence,
Form:
Sapphic stanza
Imbuing the hour with piquant fog
an intricate yet final sway of this arc rises:
How autumn’s skyline reels into weaves
as stars orbit in a basin of clouds naked
within a dome’s mantle glimmering glimmering:
My breath hushes while more dappled
leaves whirl through the blaze of maples, oaks,
that I in this panorama staged
for this exact moment remains a while;
if only to embrace this guileless pageant
which will never return the same way, like now.
For Anthony Slausen's Sky Contest
and Brian's Select H Contest
Categories:
guileless, sky,
Form:
Free verse
To Taste, Trenchant Flavor Of Her Soft Kiss
To taste, trenchant flavor of her soft kiss,
Under night skies' munificent moon rays,
Arcadian smile, touch I now so miss,
Her guileless wit, stirring soul to this day.
To touch yet again, lush lips so divine,
Feel her deep warmth that this soul still invades,
To remember waking, to dawns so fine,
Absent embarrassing human charades.
To hold her heart, as if sweet Life it gave,
Its beauty, her amatory appeals,
Gifts of Love's Truth, did this wayward soul save,
From sclerotic heart, that too oft Life kills.
To think ruminative thoughts and agree.
Such an angel was far too good for me.
Robert J. Lindley, 12-08-2019
Romanticism, ( A Blessing, Lost In Folly Of My Wayward Youth )
Categories:
guileless, art, beautiful, blessing, desire,
Form:
Romanticism
I really loved it when
I had that bubbly youthful nature
I’d wake up enthusiastic
Hopeful for what each day would bring
Years of disillusionment pecked away
And eroded that bright fragile shell
It’s most unfortunate because
It was so unequivocally uplifting
That smile on my face seemed permanent
As much as that fresh sense of joy and hope
Exuding from my guileless heart
To this day I wonder
Why being so positive and happy
Got on people’s nerves
It seemed they needed to knock
Me down a peg or two
How very sad that they so managed
To defeat my childlike awe
Now it seems almost an impossible task
To undo their vile malevolent undoing
But I am determined to keep trying
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
Categories:
guileless, bullying, confidence, happy, hope,
Form:
Free verse
How fresh you are; you are a summer breeze.
I am the leaves of trees.
You blow my way and make me want to dance.
You have me in a trance. . .
So guileless too, you do not even know
you emanate a glow.
You are my sun, and Darling, brilliantly,
I see you shine for me!
I know this for the heavens up above
are witness to your love.
*Look at the stars, look how they shine for you
and everything you do.” (last two lines from Cold Play -Yellow)
Feb. 16, 2020
For Silent One's Famous Poetic Lines 3 - Love Songs Poetry Contest
Categories:
guileless, romantic,
Form:
Rhyme