Best Halting Poems
we don’t appreciate
the sun until it r a i n s,
warmth of gentle rays
that subtly stroke
distressed skin
when time was f r o z e n
smiles were s t o l e n
and hope yet again
remains b r o k e n…
whilst I’m lying here
in the in-betweens of
procrastinated promises
along bitter breezes~
you use your poetic
words as a weapon,
oppressing the guardians
around my dreams,
oblivious to the
translucent truth
laced in trimmed nylon,
that you and me
we’re made of
the same s t o n e
we wear the same
crown of t h o r n s
sitting on the throne
of darkness, full of
stainless steel cages
and chain link fences,
turning
these emotions
into
cancerous tumors,
knocking on your
conscience, patronizing
the pigments of
my petal-like palette
by questioning
your own roots..
but now I’ve got feathers
in my bleeding heart,
and if these crimson wings
could fly, you’ll find me
soaring above seas
of solitude, that pushed
me down to an abyss
of n o t h i n g n e s s.
watch me unlock
the keys of jasmine doors
to seek serendipity surrender,
as my muse serenades
rainbow reveries,
amidst faded stars
and moonless nights
which
gaslit my
apologies and roses.
I have tried
to twirl through
ravenous ravens in a
carnival of carnivores
you’ve fed my mind
labelling me
as the serpent q u e e n
with twisted words,
whilst you whirl around
with
ghosts of p o e t r y
in your
cathartic h a z e..
your love
is a hand grenade
that shattered my aching
bones into scattered
s m o k e and f o g
they say
the biggest hearts
are the
biggest targets,
and the rifles you hold,
seems to have
my name engraved in
blood-soaked tears…
so, now that you’ve
pulled the trigger,
how would you stop
the ammo?
Will you remain forever
in your
unbending silence
a false humility
disguised
as k i n d n e s s
that flickers glitter,
to ascend brighter
as the bullet settles
upon my spine, halting
me from movement?
Or will you watch me
c r a w l back to the
spheres where I belong?
for I refuse to rot
as a victim of an
unwritten circumstance.
Categories:
halting, emotions,
Form:
Free verse
There was a time, when the sun was our guiding light,
amidst clouds of twilight that paint our skylines bright.
There were no misleading traffic signals,
halting our ride into the mysterious nights.
A shimmering candle was the spark of truth within-
reflecting intuitions that guide through confusions.
Life was then a simple highway with fewer obstacles,
yet in our ignorance we refuse to see—
we've long followed flawed stars dressed in glowing moonrise.
I ponder, when will rain wash away hazy riddles?
as my heart is hollow and I feel empty,
like a lost gypsy on the sidewalk of a nameless street,
wrapped in a blanket of hope,
longing for empathy over a cup of poetry.
Maybe there's still a secure path for the ones that wander,
to steer without looking sideways for toxic trespassers,
lurking in curved corners behind unsupervised stop signs,
flickering amidst double lies of deceptive lines.
Categories:
halting, angst, deep, emotions, life,
Form:
Free verse
This solemn shore of atrophy called grief,
would sail on, sail on from this moor of thief -
while yesterday I smiled, and did achieve
today am stricken to a nodding leave!
This buckling of intent, I do perceive
is more than time can counter or receive
do take more time with me and yet proceed
to bolster me - my actions so recede!
What fondness should attain in this bereave,
it is a mocking sign, its own conceive
is born anew, with someone's silenced knave
and never felt so sharply, now its slave!
has manifested to a halting save -
and captured those surrounding . . . . . true love's grave!
Categories:
halting, loss, me, time,
Form:
Rhyme
I dream of the old house, five thousand miles
away, across the sea, high on the hill,
the garden where the rhododendrons shade
the black and white tiled steps up to the door.
I enter, walk from room to room, and see
my mother on the balcony; she sits
beneath the tumbling vines and reads her book.
My dad is in his study playing chess.
The house smells like it always did. Each thing
still lives in its accustomed place. This is
a journey back in time: I am a child,
was gone a little while and now am home.
The light falls through the windows differently.
The trees have grown, obscure the view, and hide
The house from outside glance. Mom’s hair is white,
And father walks the stairs with halting steps.
I hope there will still be a few more years
For me to make this journey. Far away
Are home and childhood, and the church bells toll
The hours relentlessly.
7/11/2017
Categories:
halting, age, childhood, home,
Form:
Blank verse
They elude me now ...words
Drinking befits a drowning man possessed
Swimming off this broken page
Baton winning in a relay race
I breached the ribbon sliced with chest
Joy! I gasped
Grown tired of my own riddles
Those halting jagged lines
Conversely I committed
So disrespectful of my crimes
In dispatchment utter lunacy
Forgiveness once again!
Ive come to claim my lost respect
My place so quick forgotten was
So Zeroed out of ten
Twelve steps from cursed enslavement
Danced to music uncontained
Toi-toi in lone detachment
Side stepping their allure
And tangoed with enticement
And cha-cha'd with no cure
Then dropping over hurdles
Burning through those barricades
All over all these obstacles
So help me God I try to change
No longer need prescription
Still sometimes do I crave
Unshackled is your prisoner
Dispossession freed this slave
There is something about that -ism
A mystery by name
Other than recovery
Benign this deathly game
Be it known that happy healing
Doubles, behind the curtains of shame
Categories:
halting, addiction, appreciation, day, drug,
Form:
Free verse
Sing me that song of compelling phrase,
Make me long to dance to your croon
With halting rhythms of a distant place.
I shall look longingly into your face,
Lost in the music, we shall commune
Sing me that song of compelling phrase.
I miss the warmth of your embrace,
Your body swaying ‘neath the moon
With halting rhythms of a distant place.
Those special times I’ll remember always
Though, it seems, you left me too soon,
Sing me that song of compelling phrase.
Love like ours filled with sensual grace
Has kept me anticipating your swoon,
With halting rhythms of a distant place.
I know it is not merely a passing craze
A dreamlike fantasy or a foolish tune,
Sing me that song of compelling phrase
With halting rhythms of a distant place.
FIRST PLACE TROPHY WINNER
Written July 22, 2022
Submitted to "Anything Goes" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Mystic Rose Rose
Categories:
halting, lost love, love, memory,
Form:
Villanelle
From my self made
Prison walls
I look outside
And see the sun
The ocean breeze
Reaches me
I see the seagulls
Flying free
These hard and cold
Stone cell walls
Close around me
Cut my thoughts
This debilitating
Fear a feel
It's like a prison
Halting my dreams
I wanna fly
High in the sky
Like those seagulls
Without a fright
To reach beyond
This self made walls
To expand and become
More than my thoughts
I'll take a leap
Based on faith
I'll break those chains
And fly away
***
December 18, 2016
Categories:
halting, flying, freedom, inspiration, inspirational,
Form:
Free verse
This is a perfect winter night to tandem thyself with my sizzling nerves
Candle light stuns thy hips moving in wine-red skirt, penning killer curves
O’ watch our bed rose’s flame in moonlight, instating a scene of heaven
Bewitch all my hormones with your fervent lips, sipping glimpses of Champaign
Not the dressing but only the undressing would unveil the unanimous pleasure
Writing a simile is impossible to explicate the true sense of rubbing thou bare
Gripping my hands to thy hips, pinning thy legs, should it get thee so helpless?
Slow like a tide while I move in thee, thou woo me with thy yearning murmurs
Wine in your eyes sets the blaze in my rise, what else on earth is wise than this libido
Dun no why, while I race my insane moves unto thy pulses, thou ever gave a “Go”!
Cruising my fingers down across thy necklace, should it get thee so restless?
Like a roll of wheels, I keep banging with no pauses hoping something clueless
Is this a mission of flooding bliss unto the myriad nerves, in an act of gleeful fission?
I fall on thou with a feel of ousting a “Niagara”; thou hugged me with none between
O’ what a wonder, I am alive though, after halting my heart & glancing the heaven
Beheld I am mesmerized between your pleasing eyes sinking in the ocean of ******
Categories:
halting, girlfriend-boyfriend, loveme,
Form:
Heroic Couplet
I was punctured by punctuations
The words you wielded with such disdain
A ravenous revolutionary
Pitilessly piercing deep into my vein
I pretended such positivity
Holding happy forward as my shield
Your attack so precise and persistent
cold and calculated you would not yield
You left little to the imagination
Expressive expletives flowed from your lips
The harmonization of my horror
I was firmly nestled within its grips
Attacked by your callous conversations
Skillfully white washing every event
They were but measly misunderstandings
Never the nouns that I thought you had meant
The truth is that I perceived your pleasure
Within that capacity of your cruel
Heading towards a cliff like a lemming
Dancing dangerously close like a fool
So I sought out new triumphant treasures
Better lines lead to a more complete me
No more would I dangle dangerously
Halting hearing you speak helped me to see!
Categories:
halting, abuse,
Form:
Alliteration
The swordsman who draws his blade
Heart racing at the keening of steel on scabbard
Tension coiled, poised for the unleashing
Held back by muscles tight with glee.
I am as the soldier, held in stance,
The lioness crouched beneath the concealing grass
As it sways back and forth, as insects sing along the day
Her every breath is halted, her veins do not pulse,
And just as the swordsman stands
They are statues in this moment,
Statues of derision,
Mocking, with their stillness, the very charged tension within.
And I am as the lioness frozen before her pounce
Coiled with motivation and purpose,
And I am as the tongue held with words clinging off its’ edge
Ready to lash out and strike with direction
But I am as the frozen purpose, held tight
Waiting, for a warrior to stand before me
For a reason to uncoil, to lash out with words and pounce.
But I am now as the pen halting before the purest of paper
White and supple, in askance for the lightest touch
A slash of the tip, drawing lines in ink
Lines like a hunter’s bowstring, taut with intent,
As the pen lies frozen above its prey, the falcon petrified aloft still winds
I am the need coiled tight like a wound jack in the box
But alas, there is no victim to frighten,
No pray to pounce upon, no sword or bared neck to slash against
And I am here, with pen frozen, ink ready to be drawn taut
And I have nothing to draw in the ink, no prey or purpose to evoke
I am coiled tight with energy, but it is release that so eludes me,
I am coiled tight with purpose, but it is direction that so denies me.
And here I am, pouncing at ground before me,
Slicing away at the air around me
Scratching away with a dry pen, on paper still white in askance
I write about…
I write about the coil within, and the lack without
And alone I wonder,
Is it enough, is it enough to go on, a wound up box
Waiting for the slightest touch, the weakest parry, to live.
Categories:
halting, angst, art, confusion, dedication,
Form:
Free verse
“Hi Sexy”, I said to
The giant beaked black emu;
The next thing I recall,
Big yellow beak heading
At me, full speed ahead
And I quickly stepped back.
Stalled claws gripped the ground;
Halting bird staring;
Obsidian eyes
Screamed in confusion;
Rejected big bird emu;
Approached slowly.
I held out seeds,
His feelings hurt;
Still, he ate them.
We remained
Friendly and
A few more
Seeds he
Partook;
Dined.
Categories:
halting, animal, bird, funny, nature,
Form:
Diminished Hexaverse
Hundreds of people passing hallways each day,
but how many times do we stop, smile, and show them the right way.
No matter the color of their skin, or the color of their hair
why can't we just all act like we care.
Why can't we all be friends, stop with the cliche
what would you say to that girl if it was her last day?
Treat everyone equally, and help those in need
not stare, or laugh but do a good deed.
Come together, make a change
help each other with our problems, don't look at someone like they are strange.
Comfort, joy, and success it is all we are striving for
so why don't we do it together and stop with the civil war.
We are all the same, we all make mistakes
so why can't we just learn from it and stop halting life with those hydraulic brakes.
Let's all be friends, and works things out
and everything will come together without a doubt.
Categories:
halting, friendship, happiness, inspirational, life,
Form:
Rhyme
Titillating drops of pleasure fall,
Showering down, halting tension's thrall.
Soothing warmth massages, eases pain,
Dispatching stressful remnants down the drain.
Caressed by warm pulsating stream,
I surrender myself to lazy dreams.
Imagining I'm in a far off place,
Wrapped in serenity's sweet embrace.
Floral fragrance with mist pirouettes,
Arousing senses, reviving zest.
Scrubbing away all dirt and stress,
I emerge relaxed, at peace, refreshed.
9/28/2011
Entered in Debbie Guzzi's Your own Favorite Poem contest.
Categories:
halting, imagination, life,
Form:
Couplet
Let me tell you a story of my night journey;
After a hazardous trip from a far off state
With drooping spirits and waning energy
I alighted at the station to catch the night train
My heart besieged by memories of my home, left behind
Like a drop in the ocean
I quickly merged with the buzzing crowd
In the blinking light of platform lamps
I saw a huge crowd- the young and the old
With baggage heaped on baggage, patiently on wait
Time slouched on at snail’s pace….
At last hearing a long drawn whistle from far
I looked out and saw the train coming, snorting noisily
And halting with a screeching sound
The real ordeal begins as one lifts his suitcase
And pushes his way along with all strength,
Between bags and boxes and people,
And the porters running after you to carry the cargo
Finally I got into the train and occupied my seat among strangers
My mind plagued with fears of thieves and molesters
It was my first journey alone at night
I don’t know when I fell into a deep slumber
It was with the sound of * ‘chai…chai’ that I woke up
The inviting aroma of brewed tea entered my nostrils
At last I have reached my native soil!
I am heading home, every step and every inch
Drawing me closer and closer to my sweet haven
My heart began to pump quicker
I felt like a marooned mariner
Suddenly cast ashore by a rescue boat!
__________________________________
*‘Chai’is a local term in our language for tea !
April. 19. 2022
Form N- Narrative New Poetryy Contest
Sponsor- Constance La France
Topic- Journey
Categories:
halting, anxiety, dark, fear, night,
Form:
Narrative
Of late, nature moans inside a scraped womb
As her lush environ FLOUNDERS breaks out…
Played like a trusting NEOPHYTE from woods to rivers
She endures the BOMBAST of dirt through man’s crimes:
Awaiting kindness …amends remain undone
While LECHEROUS deeds persist without guilt, why, why?
More wrongs ravage innocent fish and flora
Infecting her very marrow, to drain away.
Loot, SMOLDER, rip a body ! Time runs out.
Mother Earth answers through bloodied jolts…
By will of PROVIDENCE, she whips a storm without INHIBITION
Halting indifference, her fire scalds air’s layers,
A battle citizens might grow DOLOROUS over--
Until her soul is nourished back, till she moans no more.
-----------
Eight Word Free Verse Challenge
For John Hamilton’s Contest 6/13/2019
Categories:
halting, abuse, environment,
Form:
Free verse