Best Irretrievable Poems
I stroll a silvered landscape
where trees are silhouetted spears,
stabbing memories of days first walked with you . . .
ice traceries, firey strands of longing lace,
wrap the crumbling dream,
like brittle, curling tinsel from childhood holidays.
A burning stream of cold tumbles seaward,
dislodging jagged stones, desire and disgust;
wounding barren feet.
Backward . . .
I trace pink-tinged footprints
along the line of demarcation
where love once gamboled in innocence
before the moon capitulated
and collapsed into the sea.
Lovely she was, but she is no more.
Copyright August 3, 2018
"You will forget me, the love we once shared
Has vanished in the attempt at disguise
The dreams we once knew cannot be repaired
It's gone with the light that once lit your eyes"
Has vanished in the attempt at disguise.
Ah cruel love, how I still yearn for thee.
It's gone with the light that once lit your eyes,
Now I feel so blind, yet I grieve to see.
Ah cruel love, how I still yearn for thee.
Wretched days are no longer worth living.
Now I feel so blind, yet I grieve to see.
Can I try for once and be forgiving?
Wretched days are no longer worth living.
The dreams we once knew cannot be repaired.
Can I try for once and be forgiving?
You will forget me, the love we once shared.
27 April 2021
10 syllables per line checked by HMS.com
Form Pantoum
STANZA 5
Placed 1
Choose Your Form Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Joseph May
I preached to my flock, "you voted them in
"The knaves and fools who did freedom in.
"I know a new place to settle upon
The hills and the vales of Avalon."
"We'll take a stout fleet, built for you all
We'll leave our mistakes; we'll stand again tall
It's a magical place, where wishes come true
There's no other choice, no more we can do."
"You've took rights for granted, now you grieve
Come to the island, you won't want to leave
The stars will be silver, the moon will be gold
The veil will be lifted; the magic take hold."
We sailed out of Boston, and out of Maine
Took cover in the clouds, hid in the rain
Then we saw it, rising from the sea
A green pleasant land, where men still were free.
But a man rowed out in a hollowed kayak
He got close to my sailboat, shouted "turn back".
He spoke to me; his stern face made me shiver:
"Don't promise what you cannot deliver."
I said "we have nowhere to go, freedom fell
"If we must storm, we'll storm gates of hell
"We take our chances in your bay by the sea
"We've paid our dues; we want to be free."
Over the velvet land was a misty veil
We tried to move forward, but to no avail
A force pushed us back, from that life-raft land:
The wind had become an invisible hand.
Some of us made it back to a blood red dawn
We lost the dream of emerald Avalon
Almost made it, almost found a new start
So close, so far, the pain lasts in my heart.
I must have lost my friends,
I should not have clicked "send",
I meant to email you instead
My mind was half asleep,
I called them lazy sheep,
now they cut me dead.
I don’t know what it was,
Maybe just because
The mailing list starts with "A"
Now I'm so uptight
I stared at that screen all night
The screen that led me astray
(chorus)
There is no hack
That can take it back,
No magic “undo” key.
Friends may be sheep,
But the cost was steep,
When the truth-teller was me.
(bridge)
Next time I’ll pause and breathe,
Count to ten before bytes leave.
Read it twice before I click.
Because now I feel sick,
I jumped backwards off the crag,
The cats escaped out of the bag.
In social effigy I hang
No sense of humor in that gang
I've become a hermit living in caves
A wild eyed maniac who rants and raves
I still feel the hurt, still feel the pang.
When I hit that key, and the first phone rang.