Best Hedging Poems
a bench with ornate arms and scrolling
bathed in shards of early light
inside four walls of climbing roses
grown entwined and trained to height.
within the silence of mid morning
perfumed heat that melts the hours
attracts the bees that prey and worship
on life's purple passion flowers.
the symmetry of formal hedging
leads the eye in one straight line
to where a sundial in the heat haze
casts its shadow marking time.
the joy and beauty of hibiscus
flowering bright where no one goes
down secret paths in secret corners
where the scented jasmine grows.
Categories:
hedging, garden, life, metaphor, spiritual,
Form:
Rhyme
"A Mackerel Sky"
shadows like sun
dance across
an ocean of tears
salt for the stinging
walking on clouds
with the Fisher King,
as if in school
in the swim of things
fishing nets for love
all in the eye
of the beholder
wisdom like pearls
sown,
an inevitable plant,
pregnant with possibility
full-bellied, grown,
then stitched up
embroided
sewn imperfect
the hem of it slipping
needs fast mending
cirrocumulus,
fleecing
altocumulus
blown away
an empty canvas
borne for painting
bluebirds sing
on the backs
of cloudy angels racing
Mares' tails
and mackerel scales
make lofty ships
to carry low sails;
red herrings
far from sure
bloody mind dripping
another colour
washes itself
in a pink mackerel sky -
the observing self
hedging bets and
reacquainting
do or die
(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
“According to lore (tradition), a mackerel sky means that the weather is going to change.”
“Mackerel are built for speed and, along with a highly forked tail, can streamline themselves by retracting their dorsal fin into a groove in their body when they swim. Actually, they are the fastest swimming fish, in UK waters, able to swim around 50 metres in 10 seconds. Mackerel, have to keep swimming to live, as if they stop moving forward they will drown.”
Meaning, Mackerel Sky - "a name given to a sky covered with those same puffy cirrocumulus and altocumulus clouds arranged in a pattern of waves, with blue sky peeking through so that it resembles the scales on the back of a mackerel."
It’s all rather fishy. Red Herrings, Mackerel Skies.
Categories:
hedging, journey, life, muse,
Form:
Narrative
The north wind started to blow
It matched the coldness that lived in my soul
The sidewalk was icy
I glanced off beside me
The old man sat there alone
.
I said sir are you cold
Have you someplace to go
Is there something that I can do
He just smiled and then nodded
Like he knew right where I lived
Said son may I have, just one word with you
.
And he sat there staring at me
His eyes saw right through me & somehow I feared what he'd seen
All alone in no hurry he had nowhere to be
He saw right through me as he sat there staring at me.
.
His face worn and weathered & his hands seemed like leather
His soft eyes told a secret that I knew I couldn't see
But his heart wasn't hardened
And I almost walked past him
The stranger asked, nothing from me
.
He said boy if you keep on running and hedging your bets
Your heart will be empty yet full of regret
I've never unlived a day I've wasted yet
The day that you waste
Is one less day that you get
His eyes pierced my soul
And that's something I'll never forget
.
I turned to try to walk on
And I looked back and he was gone
And it dawned on me I was alone
And the words that I'd heard
Echoed within my soul
And the life I'd created
Had left me alone and so cold
.
He said boy if you keep on running and hedging your bets
Your heart will be empty yet full of regret
I've never unlived a day I've wasted yet
The day that you waste
Is one less day that you get
His eyes pierced my soul
And that's something I'll never forget
And that's something I'll never forget
Categories:
hedging, anxiety, deep, depression, how
Form:
Lyric
Brainwaves, restless energy, lighting up the stadium. Munching
pistachio nuts, hedging my bets on the home team. Cold skin,
transmitting neural code back to ground zero, to be filed under
January. The smallest planet in my galaxy, cold, dark and lifeless.
The quiet circle of eyes, dried out eyes. Pushed and pulled,
a circumference of asteroids, charged by the kinetic
energy of their own protons, neutrons, electrons. Randomly
pairing off and splitting up in slow, January winter night cold motion.
The music plays again, a familiar battle hymn. Like a stoked fire,
the asteroids perk up under orders from ground zero. Dancing,
shouting into space, an aching proxy for the human race. Degrading
sound waves and a return to the numbing stasis of cold faces.
The spectacle finally grinds to an end, the stadium lights power down,
the frozen galaxy deflates in another unpaid tribute to the home team.
Categories:
hedging, loss, sports, winter, home,
Form:
Sonnet
Old Spencer, smelling of grippe, drugs, and death,
he couldn’t bend over to pick up chalk, magazines,
and failed acknowledgements of stupidity.
He certainly reveled in my foolishness.
“Modern science would still like to know what the secret ingredients were
that the Egyptians used when they wrapped up dead people.”
Funny, how people snub any disregard for my self-worth,
I could always smell a phony.
As if picking his nose allowed Spencer to hold his head high,
my presence was only preceded by three other competent institutions.
Success will overlook a booger.
Failure hones selective pride.
I felt it was important to know where park ducks went in winter.
Mayhap they occupied a posh New York hotel.
I left Elkton Hills for selfless reasons.
Attitudes make me cold.
There must be something grander than academia,
like being a good parent or having a large vocabulary.
It is easy to find reasons for disliking people.
They could be old and repetitive.
They could shake the wrong person’s hand.
They could be sarcastic,
exercising their passive aggressive skills after similar provocation.
It seems living can be a circle of depression.
Growing up is difficult if you’re not in the game.
Hot shots always make the rules.
They have an inside track on linear success,
always elated,
blubbering on about how good life is.
They lounge around in their warm homes dressed in bathrobes,
reading The Atlantic Monthly, drinking their hot chocolate.
You can hear them at the edge of your senses, concerned about your destiny,
hedging their own reputations and possible futures,
shouting in barely comprehensible tones from behind closed doors,
“Good Luck!”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are intrigued by this work read and review G. D. Master’s book, “Interpretations,” free in PDF format on SmashWords.com. Simply enter “gd master” or “interpretations” in the search bar of SmashWords to find it.
Categories:
hedging, angst, education, growing up,
Form:
Free verse
Mother, you are God’s good and great gift to me indeed
Opening and offering to my personhood … realities’ essence which I need
Teaching and training me well through your word and deed
Hoisting up my mind with truth; hedging my heart with love, devoid of greed
Enabling and empowering me by your motherhood roles along Scripture-creed
Raising and rearing up my spirituality to grow in the faith from the Gospel seed!
Dear Mother*, I praise the Lord for you and your grace-anchored sacrifices
Expert are you in exposing me to God’s wonders by your awesome experiences
Ardent truly in prodding me to do my best against mediocrity-forces
Radiant always in cheering me up midst frustration distresses
Earnest constantly in admonishing me while enclosing me with prayer embraces
Steadfast in your devotion to God as seen in your worship’s praises!
Thank you, so much, Mom; I love you. Your presence---my heart surely misses.
* Proverbs 31:28-31 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.
May 12, 2018
(Acrostic and Rhyme Forms)
Honorable Mention, "YOUR CHOICE TRIBUTE VERSE..." Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand; judged on 6/26/2019.
Categories:
hedging, appreciation, blessing, encouraging, faith,
Form:
Acrostic
L.A ‘62. English professor George (Colin Firth) is mourning the loss of his gay partner. He's
spent the day reliving memories, but that night meets his student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult),
who secretly admires him, in a bar. The two end up at George’s house after a spontaneous
ocean swim. Kenny has just emerged from the shower,wrapped in a towel. George is making
a fire. When Kenny goes to get a beer, he discovers a nude photo of George’s dead lover in
a drawer. His suspicions about his teacher are confirmed. A beautiful score of stringed
music, nostalgic and tender draws me in to every nuance of Colin's performance.
George, feeling foolish and seeming a bit flushed with anticipation (yet restraining himself
from improper conduct), sits on a chair across from the young man when the boy returns to
the living room. A conversation ensues in which George asks Kenny questions, trying to
discern the young man’s reasons for being there that night. The boy, too, is trying to learn
things about George, but keeps hedging with his responses to George‘s questions, and
nothing completely “telling” is ever said. Meanwhile, their eyes linger on each other. The
young man’s eyes are an enchanting almost gleaming blue; I find it hard myself to look away
from his sweet face. My eyes are also riveted every second to George’s face and to its many
subtle changes of expression.. Finally, the boy asks George something and at that moment,
George’s face blurs. My curiosity is very aroused when suddenly the scene has switched to
George awaking at about 3 a.m. from his bed.. The young man, however, is not in the bed
(as I had hoped he would not be). He is asleep on the sofa, and he clutches in his hands the
gun which George had planned to shoot himself with. Had George revealed his plan to end
his life that day to his student? Was that what happened in those missing hours? Had the
boyish Kenny (while George was sleeping off his drunkenness) found the gun in the same
way he had discovered the picture of George’s partner and now was holding it to prevent
George from carrying out his suicide? I know I am soon going to learn George’s fate. . .
Categories:
hedging, life, lossday,
Form:
Narrative
CECE YA FAMILIA, HONOR, LIKE TWINS
She is looking at mi with love.
in her eyes and a look..
concerned about her bro...
i try to second guess her
today she inst playing ball
she stares back determined..
hedging me between a rock
and a hard place.. i know
she knows my secret and
she knows.....i know
i do know she wants me to
confess... am tongue tied
she implores for the last time
its like my tongue is immobilized..
i mumble an incoherent sorry..
what did you say..she asks
i try to talk ...end up choking
how can i tell her what am
sworn never to reveal..
my word is my honor..
but the secret is killing me...
and i cant share with her thou..
I love her so much.. thou i know
she already knows.. for we are like twins
second guessing each others thots...
cece..like twins
where is the family honor..
she walks out on me..
leaving my cheap lunch untouched..
i wander ....if it was in a five star hotel
by the beach would she av done the
same.. plus she kept looking at her phone
and i realized there was no winning her...
she had sold her heart to another
whose tongue was very fluent.
using french with words like.. amour
amour tata tinauma..amour..
word i dont know how they mean
tata tinauma.. could be the name of a god..
for all i care...
amour tata tinauma.. my stomach pains
and she was off.. nearly being hit by the bus
she didn't see me looking out of the
balcony as she fell into the hands of her
beloved... amour tata tinauma
and cece my sista ran into the hands of
her lover.. am yet to give him
a piece of my mind for he broke her heart
amour tata tinauma ...cece left her food
and rushed in the hands of her beloved...
who ended insulting our beloved mama..
she left my cheap lunch uneaten,
amour tata tinauma..and cece forgot..
like twins we are- where is the family honor
....ya familiaa honour eku sista..
am practising the lingo
for i know, sisy like twins
where is the family honour,
ya familia cece.. you will be back
like twins..ya familia honor
cece the one true love..familia..
for my sista love will always be there..
And honor for am full of it..cece
lewis nyaga
Categories:
hedging, brother, culture, emotions, family,
Form:
Free verse
Can your calluses callus enough that God’s touch
will not touch a nerve ending (to reach you) if God
wants to kiss you (wants contact?) Yes, there! I’d guess not!
But that does leave unanswered if God would allow
you to ‘unfeel’ that feeling, to unring His knock
up your virginal doors? An unfruitful advent-
ure, a dalliance nipped in the bud, that’s your fame?
But delays to ‘what rhymes,’ might that mean you have crutch
or a leg left to stand on if Judgment’s not odd.
Is God’s Grace hope you’ve ace-in-the-hole (it’s a thought
though you hate to admit it?) You’re drawn to Macau?
There’s a bargaining chip? You have something to hock?
(You think hedging one’s bets is an option?) You’ve hint
there’s an exit (non-death) that’s not God’s to proclaim?
Life has binary options, it’s on, or it’s off.
We can’t choose to be ‘good,’ but we can ‘like’ God’s Grace?
If God’s real, ‘God’s’ not Fraud, but God still could be Fraud,
which might mean grace is fraud too and ‘life’s’ what all get.
Yes, we’re here then we’re not, yet death might be unreal
like some say God’s not there (if He is or He’s not!)
It’s confusing to me, and some think that I’m smart.
Are your calluses assets? I don’t mean to scoff,
but it looks more to me like that’s spiting your face
(you want calluses there?) Feet, hands, fingers seem odd
when feet shoed, and hands gloved still can bless life a bit.
Don’t confuse souls with soles (that would not be genteel!)
There’s no knowledge that lasts, and all feelings will rot
if no God is Creator (whose Love’s breath is Art!)
Brian Johnston
15th of August in 2020
Categories:
hedging, art, faith, love,
Form:
Rhyme
Mama dearest, by virtue of being my biological Eve
You are forever a part of me with the virtues you instilled…
Mother, God’s precious gift you are to me
Offering what’s best to nurture my personhood
Teaching and training me through gracious example
Hoisting up my mind with truth; hedging my heart with love
Enabling me by your woman*-propped empowerment
Raising and rearing up my spirituality to grow in the faith.
Dear Mother, I praise the Lord for you
Exposing me to life’s wonders midst awful realities
Ardently prodding utmost against mediocrity
Ready to cheer, hushing my frustration wails
Earnest in admonishing while enclosing me with prayer
So in time I can be like you: building lives with care…
Thank you, so much, Mom; I love you; see you in heaven.
*"Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised." Proverbs 31:30 of the King James Bible
November 1, 2020
edited on March 29, 2021
3rd place, "Mother" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Constance La France; judged on 3/30/2021.
1st place, "ALL YOURS (Jan 24)" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand; judged on 1/25/2021.
Categories:
hedging, blessing, christian, faith, god,
Form:
Acrostic
My bed felt like a zareba, hedging me in as I dreamt.
I had no mirror in which to peek, but I feared I was unkempt.
I watched the dream unfolding through my transparent lids.
I perceived myself as admirable, serving food to mate and kids.
Our residence seemed to be a cave, some of you would call a hovel.
The only tools that were in sight, was a prehistoric shovel.
The distant monolith I recognized as an Egyptian pyramid.
The leaders did not build them, their enslaved prisoners did.
They had not yet been invaded, all their bounty was intact.
I don't know how I knew this but I knew it was a fact.
My dream had started fading, though I wanted it to stay.
My lost ones were still with me on that prehistoric day.
I wanted so to hold them, my precious husband and my son.
I prayed the dream would be returning when another day was done.
2/26/14
Categories:
hedging, dream,
Form:
Couplet
A chilly mist hung in the air that Sunday morning in April when I pulled up in front of Harpers Grove Community Church. The gravel parking lot was rapidly filling up, and folks, nodding cordially to each other, were threading their way through neat rows of parked cars. Several young men, lingering over a last cigarette, checked out the strange car with the out-of-state license plate. When the last one ground out his smoke beneath new wingtips and disappeared into the vestibule, I stepped out of my car to get a better look at the churchyard.
It was much as I remembered it. The giant oak still towered precariously over the narthex. The mulberry bushes and hedging were sprouting seasonally, and faded daffodils clung to overgrown stalks. An atmosphere of unkemptness pervaded the place, but I couldn't quite determine what made it seem so. The sloped slate roof obviously needed attention.
The old whitewashed privies had disappeared, and, in some previous year, an educational wing had been tacked onto the rear of the frame building, brick and businesslike. Essentially, however, it was the same church house I had come to from the day I was born until our family moved away during my first year in high school.
EIGHTH PLACE WINNER
September 21, 2022
Submitted to "Chapter 1 Poetry Contest"
Sponsored by Matt Caliri
Categories:
hedging, books, imagery, memory, places,
Form:
Narrative
February 14 Relationship to God Bible Meditations Based on Numbers 21-24
Key Verse– Numbers 21:3 And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.
LORD GOD, YOU ARE MY VICTORIOUS DELIVERER
Lord God, You are my victorious Deliverer along Your winning assurance
Thank You for fighting against my discouragement’s appearance
Also conquering my loathsome arrogance midst stubborn temperance
Surely smiting my carnality of vain endurance.
Lord God, You are my victorious Deliverer along Your perfect direction
Thank You for pulling me from the wilderness of worldly devastation
Also protecting me from sword of humanistic destruction
Surely saving me against captivity of fleshly consumption.
Lord God, You are my victorious Deliverer along Your set design
Thank You for rescuing me from distress that evil schemes assign
Also guarding me from curses to which my soul could resign
Surely upholding me against quitting You refuse to sign.
Lord God, You are my victorious Deliverer along Your gracious hand
Thank You for enclosing my heart with Your compassion so grand
Also sealing me around Your holiness of good works’ demand
Surely preventing me against not obeying Your command.
Lord God, You are my victorious Deliverer along Your honourable deed
Thank You for building me up upon Your strong foundation I need
Also strengthening my faith by Your Word indeed
Surely setting me toward Your standards I must heed.
Lord God, You are my victorious Deliverer along blessings You declare
Thank You for smashing my selfishness moved by personal welfare
Also teaching me generosity of loving care
Surely hedging me against enchantments of emptiness-flair.
Lord God, You are my victorious Deliverer along Your sovereign dominion
Thank You for instructing me to avoid deceitful opinion
Also preserving me from compromises’ union
Surely ushering me by Your truth to serve while looking toward Zion.
February 14, 2023
Categories:
hedging, blessing, christian, faith, god,
Form:
Rhyme
In My New Year’s Resolution I Vow
I solemnly declare under oats on the libel to walk
N aked with only a bellow with fellow utopians
M istletoe tattoos on my fingers criss-crossing in
Y onder to shepherd ‘blue sheep’ congregations
N oel novel nobility flying pigs dressed in purple
E merge from a smoke screen of incense sandal
W ood scandals on their quest to capture the moon
Y ou’ll have to bear with my golly batik on grizzly
E nchanted magic spills hailed comet drizzle and rain blows
A biding by enlightened dark chocolate scripture
R ock solid marsh mellows on twelve tables of sand
S unk quick in fluffy cuddles once dogma eats pie
R econfigured lolly popped pious conscription I resolve to
E nshrine on altar egos chapels custard apples
S weet sin of saviour and savages prophets and whiz
O n privets hedging bets on riveting cross bows in
L ucid delusions of light hearted senses’ scent
U surping snakes in the garden’s modest seduction in
T ransit transgression staking boundaries sake
I lluminated I will fly from chandeliers promise to
O bey only mocking jesters fooling the fools
N ever more will Nirvana shout at the Buddha
I n hearse verse and chapter closed by conscious
V irtue vilified by voracious villains vying for
O ms rosaries dumb bells from myriad towers
W hen my Weltschmerz and Zeitgeist tickle my treacle
22nd December 2016
Categories:
hedging, satire,
Form:
Acrostic
All around
birdies bicker
cats creep
doggies dig
every evening.
flowers flirting,
greening grass,
heather hedging
invading insects
juicy junipers.
keening kin
life lost,
mournful mending
nurture needed.
ominous omens,
praying penitent
quietly quaking
redemption rendered.
sweet scents
tease, tickle
unarm ugliness
vivacious violets
warmly witness
xeroxed xanthous.
yonder yawn
Zany zinnia!
Categories:
hedging, life, nature,
Form:
Alliteration