Best Harpooned Poems
"The Green Bruise of Daylight"
A person can die for love
one sees red
the other sees blue
purple bruises
one sees red
alarm lights siren
purple bruises
detach into the grey
alarm lights siren
there is no more singing
detaches into the grey
courts fuelled by pocketsful of lies
rocks and gavels
for the weighting
ocean deep confetti
bottomless drowning
the other sees blue
detaches into the grey
purple bruises
fade away
purple bruises
wrapped in
white paper sentences
stain the mind
words black peppered
crushed mulberry memories
flock like seagulls
their call haunting
hungry scavengers feeding
messages clipped
around their ankles
carrier pigeons in steel cages
jail birds wait the day anticipating
windows watch
windows the colour
of deep forests turn and
walk away
murders of crows
wings rise and fall
towards the green
bruise of daylight
stain the mind mottled
lights along a road
flood the dark spots
driven the long way home
behind straight lines
boundaries marked
contained within fences
broken prisons min min jackets
keys thrown far away
golden chords harpooned
in the heart
of a lost cherub
in safe harbour
another calling see
waves wash the
grave dirt away
windows watch windows
the colour of deep forests turning
towards dark night, the missing
archangel walks away
spilling blood
like poetry
(LadyLabyrinth / 2022)
A Halloween Story
hints of pantoum
photographic art, Max Dupain/Australian.
Music. "High Above a Green Grey Sea", Colin Stetson.
Categories:
harpooned, dark, halloween, symbolism,
Form:
Free verse
Along a pier, on a bench,
An old man sits all day.
Passers by not lending time,
To what he has to say.
They'll never know the loves he had,
Or ocean blues he sailed.
If they had just a moment,
Oh the tales that he could tell.
A gent with fishing rod in tow,
The "big one" but a dream.
The old man pleads with aching hands,
Would you come sit with me?
A flashing glance, a fleeting wave,
No time for you old man.
Then you'll not know my secrets,
How sure giant ones to land.
Not sailfish fought for hours on end,
Bursting through the sky.
Nor great whites conquered, whales harpooned,
Nor where the mermaids hide.
A lass sashaying, book in hand,
Of romance she does read.
His crooked finger motions her,
Would you come listen please?
With rolling eyes, a turned up nose,
His answer once again.
Then you'll miss the most daring ventures,
Ever known to man.
Expanding near a century,
Ore exotic lands and seas.
My passions, loves and tragedies,
Would bring Shakespeare to his knees.
So when you see an old man,
Sitting there alone.
Most all desires that you have dreamed,
He has lived and known.
He can fill you with adventures,
A knew world to you unveil.
If you'll just take a moment,
Oh the tales that he could tell.
Categories:
harpooned, age, irony, lonely, nostalgia,
Form:
Rhyme
What evil lurks in the hearts of men, “Only The Shadow Knows”
An introduction to an old radio thriller, scared me down to my toes
But had to stay tuned
The bad guys harpooned
Three cheers for justice, one of the great radio shows
© Jack Ellison 2016
Categories:
harpooned, memory,
Form:
Limerick
Putin rides Russia’s pride
Cheers ring nation wide
Swept along by the tide
No matter, Putin’s stride
Putin derides all global calls
Jeering at the soft flung balls
High on the home-pep of it all
Playing pride before he falls
Before today Putin was creaking
Students raised aside his speaking
Syrian brokering coated his ceiling
Olympic grandeur won a believing
The party swings high on the pep
Unseeing past the next high step
Boozed out to the dawning inept
Recessions pill awaits there, swept
Putin cynically prides pop calls
Crimean homing serving the all
But the gain will pain, come the fall
Come the reality of Putin’s new wall
It’s swallowing will cost his people
Harpooned by his Bolshevik needle
Freedoms put-on by the Putin spiteful
And recession bites like a razer-ball
Putin’s pride, his hoodwinking call
Subterfuge designed for his win all
Knowing oppression awaits cat calls
When pride bites deep... before the fall
Categories:
harpooned, political,
Form:
Rhyme
What splendid creatures God has formed.
I think of whales who swim above the silt,
giants of the sea that are cruelly harmed,
harpooned from life by men without guilt.
An industrious creature God has made
in the miniscule form of the worker ant,
hustlers gathering, never rest in the shade
while lazy people complain in angry rant.
What grievances men perpetually bemoan
with their fingers ever stretched for a handout.
In line for freebies while holding a new cell phone,
taking what they can; that's what they're about.
No notion or thought that giving is the better way.
We're the greediest animals this planet has ever seen.
Whales could easily crush the biggest ship in the bay,
and ants are busy keeping their home safe and clean.
Is there some lesson to be learned from ant and whale?
They lack free will and we can't hear what they speak.
Ants and whales commit no crimes sending them to jail.
Is it no wonder then, the future of mankind is so bleak?
Land is man's home, but we invade the depths of the sea
where whales swim and feed exactly where they should be.
What fear would mankind have if it had been God's decree
to let whales come ashore to roam among you and me?
What thought do we give for stepping upon little ants?
Even the red ones don't bother us until we annoy them.
If those insects took revenge and crawled up our pants,
would we have new respect and avoid living in mayhem?
You might think my words are ridiculous suppositions
but take a moment for some serious contemplations.
Whales don't hunt us; ants live in underground conditions.
Doesn't that make us a world of aggressive nations?
Categories:
harpooned, introspection,
Form:
Rhyme
NARWHAL
Nine noted naughty notorious Narwhals.
Active admirable acrobat anonymous aqua mammals.
Restless rowdy racers rolling on rocky shore.
Whimsical whinny women whales whistling wonderfully.
Haughty horny huge herculean was haply harpooned.
Alarming appearance of angry arctic animals.
Legendary Sea- Urchins leaped laughed loud.
10/13/15
HM
Contest on Narwhal
Second Place
Contest No. 620 with Alliteration Style' By Brian Strand
Categories:
harpooned, animal, cheer up, fantasy,
Form:
Acrostic
What is life without love?
And love without any life...
For I die a thousand times,
And enter a thousand hells...
Wasted wedding bells...
My heart pinned against your knife...
And scorned within the emptiness
Of it’s shattered shells.
“Lift thy dungeon dagger,
and be off with thee to the land of never...
for thou hast harpooned my very soul,
and as I slowly stagger,
my heart shall surely sever...
before I leave this hellish hole.
Come lift my spirit and sorrow...
perhaps our love was never meant to be,
for if I must beg and bitterly borrow...
for thy precious love and my sanity.
Off to yonder fields...Away to heavenly tides
Where my spirit yields...And my love hides...
Be it not the will of man to chase love...
To be seduced by its warmth and cunning...
To dance with masquerades...
To suckle on its honeydew...
Farewell, bittersweet love...
For your caress is like a lion, untamed and unfed.”
June.22.2017
SUMMER SOLSTICE STANDARD CONTEST
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Categories:
harpooned, anxiety, confusion, lost love,
Form:
Free verse
Lamenting love rest upon my humble heart,
May thy candle burn quickly before thy night…
Loves lament lies lingering from far apart,
For the slings and arrows deploy and depart,
Solitary stars sacrificed amidst dying light…
Lamenting love rest upon my humble heart,
A broken hearts graveyard a calamitous compart,
Release my soul this warmless winters white…
Loves lament lies lingering from far apart,
Your love has harpooned a distrustful dart,
Like a raging rioting roar with a bitter bite…
Lamenting love rest upon my humble heart,
Lost in love, arrested & abandoned by black art,
Your voiceless words are daggers that ignite…
Loves lament lies lingering from far apart,
For you, my love has become an infamous impart,
Where tedious tears testify tenderly in twilight…
Lamenting love rest upon my humble heart,
Loves lament lies lingering from far apart.
Jan.21.2020
Your Best 2019-2020 Villanelle
Sponsored by: William Kekaula
Placed 5'th...Thank You
Categories:
harpooned, longing, lost love, love
Form:
Villanelle
Already your letter crumbles
S’s and f’s and remnants of
Harpooned words
Eaten greedily by the goblin of
Squandered adoration
3/29/11
Received 1st place in "A Choice of Form" contest"
Categories:
harpooned, sad
Form:
Acrostic
What evil lurks in the hearts of men, “Only The Shadow Knows”
An introduction to an old radio thriller, scared me down to my toes
But had to stay tuned
The bad guys harpooned
Three cheers for justice, one of the great radio shows
Categories:
harpooned, memory,
Form:
Limerick
Upon my intransigence, I seek solitudes,
sovereign of their state…
Pertaining to my pensive pertinacity,
rigidity reigns supreme…
Idol inflexibilities sustain my endurance,
thus my punitive perseverance ponders still…
For love be the catalyst that displaces my fortitude,
my firmness, my patience, my stamina staggers…
My valorous veins victimized with a wounded will,
I lay to rot a mortified morsel a malignant mammoth...
But yet I hold ground, entombed by the presence of love,
harpooned through the heart,
enslaved by its tentacles of tenacious tyranny…
For I am a man of vigorous valor,
violated by the view of Venus.
July.13.2019
Intransigence Poetry
Sponsored by: John Hamilton
Placed 1'st...Thank You
Categories:
harpooned, conflict, love, relationship,
Form:
Free verse
THE CHOICE
HE WAS asleep
Between space and time
The first light on the world
Floated idly
On him
He was just born.
His folded hands
Glowed a pale pink
To keep the fire of life
He wondered if he was really awake.
Is it the true world?
Is it the true village?
Is it the true nest?
He kept kicking
And cried like a scared owl.
God trod to the next village.
COUNTLESS
Oh said the voice
Let me kiss you
Let me go in the fairy way
Let me love you earth
Overly cautious she crouched
Over a street strewn with splinters
S o confusing for a fairy
She approached a dark alley
Full of vermin and dead
So confusing for her noble nose
We call it miscarriage in our land
She said and picked up intruder’s naked smell
Leftover of yesterday’s predation
She did not move
She was crippled in an unknown fear
The emotion alien to a fairy
I want to love you
But you will kill me
That she said and flew all the way
Across hellhole and slammed into a tree
Still young, bright, full of promises
Though clawed by vampire birds
She moved in sense of rekindling
I’m glad, I’m sure I’m glad,
I am in the fairy way
Because I came down to love
EVENING
Evening slipped out of the cave
Crossed the rock wall
And buried the city in soft kisses
Sun god‘s dripping soup
Gave her child a sunset glow
She went back to her cave
To sleep, to grow
HATES
Hates were slipping through my fingers
Little ones burning like midday sun
When they cooled made garnets for my sisters.
ANCIENT CAT GOD
An ancient cat god
Slammed down to my house
Went out with a sperm-whale
Harpooned by the mouse
A GRUFF FISH
Tara, I liked her so much
As a fish and as a friend
So in the Sunday night supper
She had made a double-end.
She was gruff fish after all
In night-supper it took its toll
Tara, I liked her so much
So I wrote this story on the bark of Birch
I gave a tabby cat one ounce of gold
That’s the way the story was told
Categories:
harpooned, birth, cat, child, fairy,
Form:
Prose Poetry
It has been far too long cold
at the dam of this great galloping river
where tonight I have
stolen the villagers’ dancer
and set her ablaze
to amuse distracted chill
while I latch to the trailing smoke
and slowly
fade
away
to be warmed by the stillness
of a red coral reef
of a blue burning starfish
of an ancient whale harpooned & worn
all awash on the beach
in an all too familiar flurry of snow
&
re(dis)appear
in the snow
&
Categories:
harpooned, death, emotions,
Form:
Free verse
aeolian mist of Bretagne
as the orange
sun cannonballs into the
ocean depths. shrillness
of sound on shepherd peaks,
trembles down on panic-grass.
sprites and sirens toss’d from their sleep.
the earth violates, the sea
surmounts.
trident stabbed whale —
hearty breakfast in
the fisherman’s bed.
11/22/2020
Make Me Laugh with Some Humor
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
Categories:
harpooned, humor, sea,
Form:
Light Verse
Who has bewitched thee, thou noble ones?
Chosen to be the head of thy race,
to fulfill thy creator’s will,
through siring, supporting, and securing a clan.
Prophet, priest, prince, and patriarch,
How did you lose your lofty perch?
What sinister spirits conspired
to undermine your primal purpose?
You are a victim of sin’s curse.
One social scientist suggested,
You may be a biological necessity,
but likely, a social accident.
Fathers are an endangered species,
Over-harvested by hookers,
Harpooned by harsh, pointed put-downs
and exploited by negative labels.
Their absence yields a baleful harvest.
Crowded jails, and drug infested streets,
busy brothels, and blighted precincts,
confused males and macho females.
Mothers’ role is elevated,
Fathers’ role is under-rated.
Mother’s Day is celebrated,
Father’s Day is lowly rated.
Great societies honor fathers,
Dying ones demean and degrade them.
How would fathers ever stand up,
when what they hear prompts them to stand down?
It is time to heed the research,
reap the rewards, and end the scourge.
When fathers fill their God-given role,
society preserves its soul.
Fathers are the family’s linchpin
Lynch them, and make society lame,
uplift them, and make society strong.
Make fathers the theme of society’s song.
Categories:
harpooned, dad, father, father daughter,
Form:
Free verse