Best Italicized Poems
Thank you
“And if the sun refused to shine”
Music finds my sleep and calls
from a bedside table,
slits of light through the slatted blinds
create mini horizons on the wall
Time has caught me once again
as Led Zeppelin reminds me
“I would still be loving you”
For the morning throws me back to reality,
the longing in my heart which faded
beneath the moon has returned
to view this bed of only one figure,
reaching out for what was
“When mountains crumble to the sea”
Finding the rocky coastline depicts the feeling
in my heart, as I stumble
Tear filled eyes a constant,
empty arms waving freely in the air
to the haunting rhythm
of a plastic clock radio
“There will still be you and me”
If only music were truth, and truth was a melody,
easily sung regardless of tempo or flow
Key changes finding a bridge
of lonely footprints that take me to your memory,
remembering the good, remembering the days,
and forcing a smile, for each day I whisper
“Thank you”
The italicized lines are from the Led Zeppelin song “Thank You” which inspired this piece
11/14/16
For “The Poet’s Ear” poetry contest
Sponsored by: Greg Barden
Oh that’s you and me
“You and me were always with each other,
before we knew the other was ever there”
Destiny carves its path through lives,
filling needs unknown until it happens
Bridging gaps of empty terrain
where love belongs eventually
as our hearts wait for that one we feel
on the journey
“You and me we belong together,
just like a breath needs the air”
So many comparisons play,
moving pieces to spaces, uncovered
Sliding down chutes, climbing ladders,
sensing that something waits, something good
Inspired to keep going, following the lines
drawn in tingles on skin
“I told you if you called I would come runnin’,
across the highs the lows and the in betweens”
You’ve taken my hand and showed me
things are not always as they seem
Until you find them in your shadow,
lifting you when you fall,
caressing your soul in unexplained notions,
safety and comfort with merely a touch
“You and me we’ve got two minds that think as one
and our hearts march to the same beat”
Your eyes, my eyes, we see similar patterns
curving about skylines of melodic tempos
As we walk together, one step after the other,
but two steps always for the other
in whatever direction they choose,
syncopated movements hand in hand
”They say everything it happens for a reason,
you can be flawed enough but perfect for a person”
These scars of past seasons, cold winds blow
across arid deserts of details and misgivings
Cloaked in love’s blanket, accepted beyond yesterdays
Put away in box with a lock, no key is available
and neither would want it anyway
”Someone who will be there for you when you fall apart,
guiding your direction when you’re riding through the dark”
This light that leads, from your smile, your understanding,
your acceptance that I reflect back as a mirror
Enhancing the beam of this forever feeling,
Strolling down avenues of pleasure for
happiness is always a two way street
”Oh that’s you and me…”
4/4/17
The italicized lines are lyrics from one of my favorite songs, “You and Me” by Pink and Dallas Green off the Rose Ave album.
https://youtu.be/TUYleIXgceQ
For the “Your Favorite Song” poetry contest
Sponsored by: Alexis Y.
We may not have the ability to find words
that match the intensity of being in love ~
the overwhelming happiness and emotion
that most of us long for, and dream of.
Sage poets of old wrote in their lines divine ~
Where love burns desire is love's pure flame.
Drink me with thine eyes, I'll pledge with mine,
a passion so unbridled, nothing will ever tame.
Love should forever be an adventurous journey
bridged with magical moments in exotic places
sharing intimate whispers of our desire and lust
and adoring looks of joy upon our sated faces.
Your look opens me like blooming petals of a rose
as tenderly you hold me beneath a moonlit sky.
It's then we meld, soul meets soul on lover's lips
and each caress leaves us breathless with a sigh.
You made my heart abandon its dwelling place
and nevermore will it be capable of returning.
It echoes in the beating chambers of yours,
a flame that you kindled and will keep burning.
I love you because the Earth turns round the sun
so if things on earth may be to heaven resembled,
then it must be a paradise on earth we've found.
We're bound in love, both joined and assembled.
Let not the gleam of moonlight, nor of sunlight dim
without words of love spoken in adoring synonym.
As Earth spins in harmony around the flaming sun,
we rise and fall together; two hearts joined as one.
August 21, 2022
The Meaning of Love Contest
Sponsor: Anoucheka Gangabissoon
*In order, italicized lines are based on quotes from:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ben Johnson,
E.E. Cummings, Percy Bysshe Shelly, John Clare,
Nikki Giovanni, and Aphra Behn
~
“Shadows grow so long before my eyes”
In silhouettes of dreams past and present
Deep within my desperate heart,
as I yearn for your love, reaching for my pen,
digging through postage stamps and paperclips
“And they’re moving, across the page”
Producing odd shapes on striped paper,
outlines of shaded emotions and verses
Calling out your name in bold ink
and rhyming stanzas of affection
“Suddenly the day turns into night”
Twilight steps over the horizon
as tree top edges touch newly glowing stars
Peering through curtains of cosmic lace
and flickering candlelight with soft breezes
“Far away, from the city”
Miles counted by minutes can be
a daunting task if I hesitate, yet footsteps in the dark
follow paths illumined by your eyes,
as my need grows for your love…I just can’t wait
“Baby, I love your ways”
~
Written with a little help from Peter Frampton
Italicized lines from the song “Baby, I love your ways”
Residue
Wrapped in cellophane and ribbon
mocking burned down evergreens
Screaming at the shadowed walls
as nightmares spurn your toxic dreams
Lurking near the bottles filled with
endless empty molten fears
Dampening the diapers as a
mother cries her countless tears
Broken weave of tattered sleeve behind the darkness to believe
That midnight forms what we conceive in moments cast to only grieve
We’ll go dancing nightly
in the attic
while the moon is rising
in the sky
If I’m too drunk tell me,
I’m so scared your little
head will come off
in my hands
What the heck did you expect for just a speck, a tiny fleck
Now hit the deck you wretched wreck as long ago we did suspect
Counting money residue on
blackened smoldered fingernails
As billion dollar babies sing
in toothless whining rancid wails
Toddlers of the devil’s creed wear
shiny plastic floating eyes
Now staring at you while you sleep
these monsters gather in disguise
This poem was inspired by one of my favorite songs,
Alice Cooper’s “Billion Dollar Babies”
The italicized lines are lyrics from that song. Here is a link to the song: https://youtu.be/6sD8sO0B97I
And in case you didn’t know, the other voice you’ll hear singing on the song is Donovan (Mellow Yellow)
Lying here between the folds of an uncaring sheet
A thunderous blustery evening calls me from sleep
Tracing shadows on dark walls through desperate eyes
Counting minutes on a clock’s reflective markings
Rain drips from altered eaves steadily, slowly falling
In syncopated patterns on damp grass clippings
Teasing my mind in the endless possibilities
Of what my desires, even at this hour plead
Your image finds me, still and silent
Questions come in long sentences
Breaking down dreams of distance church bells
Wondering if we truly could be, together
Will you ever find love again, could you
In the arms of one who imagines your beauty
Tastes your lips in midnight thoughts
Feels your skin on chilly twilight sighs
Of this I write, not because it is who I am
But because it is what I was meant to be
Poetically entwined, metaphorically wrapped
Draped upon your heart in phrases of collected verse
Read aloud as a smiling sun approaches
Whispering your name over the horizon’s wonder
Echoing of this affection that drains my soul
And longs to breathe you for the very first time
From my pen flows lonely ink
In lace-like frilly fonts of an italicized nature
Curling around these words penned in the dark
Hoping you see, hoping you read, hoping…………
Fly Away
“Seagull, you fly across the horizon”
Parallel dreams and sifted thoughts
on an amber thread, thin as the beliefs
once found as hope, now falling
beneath sorrowed wings, gliding
“Into the misty morning sun”
Through hazy eyes and broken hearts,
tarnished memories flow within this dawn
as you fade off in the distance,
soaring ever higher, disappearing into the east
“Nobody asks you where you are going”
Silence fills the maze that is your mind, leaving you
staring at dead ends and fractured turns,
as the realization that you didn’t matter
forms on clouds of whispering truths…no one cares
“Nobody knows where you're from”
And in the end, you are not sure yourself
from where you once came, a blotted image
on empty shorelines of tangled debris
which you easily have forgotten, as you as well will be
“And you fly away…”
Written with the help of lyrics (italicized lines)from Bad Company's song “Seagull” One of my faves.
Night of Dread
“Halloween” night – “descending” “gloom” –
Lost in a forest of “living” “silhouettes”
Tangled branches obscure the skies
In veils of opaque ebony blackness
As phantoms of thick “dread”
Rise
From “open” crypts of “darkness”
Where “walking” echoes chant elegies of doom
And set a pounding heartbeat’s panic
As “creepy” creeping ghostly fingers
Graze the naked neck
To claw at crushed leaves
That snap like brittle bones
Under panicked feet
Looking –
Frantic searching -
For escape from this twisted labyrinth
Of screaming angst,
Where prowling wraiths with cold lips of frenzy
And souls lost to the daylight
Breathe from exile, musty breaths
In fogs on vanishing paths of vertigo
And torpid lethargy
Until ascendent midnight
Lifts up this vale of fainting frights with moonlight,
Shadows glinting through bare boughs,
For All Hallows Night.
10-25-22
Contest: Halloween 14-30 Lines - 27 Lines
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
Use ten words as written: creepy, descending, silhouettes, gloom, darkness, living, open, walking, Halloween, dread.
Chosen words italicized.
So no more shall his traitors hate;
For death's veils have made it late
To slight any soul time has called
To dine and wine in the city of gold.
And his tombstone does eerily stand
Above the grass on the watered land;
Where passers-by might donate a tear
To lament the passing of a jewel dear.
And wayfaring aliens of kindlier blood
May cast a tearful eye above the mud,
To read that fading nineteen-thirty-nine;
His twain names inked in italicized line.
And perhaps see therebelow two-zero-zero-nine,
Saddest hour the grape was thieved from the vine;
And maybe briefly stand still and belatedly mourn,
And sadly concede all must die that erst was born.
His only friends - merry butterflies during the day,
And the crickets who with mournful chirping pray;
Shall some keen vigil keep over his placid bones,
Throughout his rest beneath those tireless stones.
Copyright © Hannington Mumo | Year Posted 2021.
So no more shall his haters hate
For the veil of death has made it late
To hate a soul that time has called
To dine and wine in the city of gold.
And his tombstone will eerily stand
Above the grass on the watered land
Where passers-by will donate a tear
To mourn the passing of a jewel dear.
And wayfaring aliens of kindlier blood
Will cast their eyes above the mud
To read the bold nineteen-thirty-nine
And his two names in an italicized line.
They will see there below two-zero-zero-nine,
The time the grape was plucked from the vine.
They will briefly standstill and belatedly mourn
And recall that all must die that before was born.
His only friends – the butterflies during the day
And the crickets who with constant chirping pray,
Will keep faithful watch over his desiccated bones
Throughout his rest beneath the tireless stones.
big Yawn Productions presents
the daytime drama Living Therapeutically
as others live randomly or habitually
you'll need a supply of 3-D glasses
and I know just the guy
a trailer park Samuel Becket
cheeks rosy like Mr. Stalin
sitting atop the dustbin of history
a loafer researching activity
with plenty of typos under his airbrush
did we mention the amnesia
mind like a document shredder
but as the italicized print will indicate
Big Yawn will take you back to a time when
we used fact to be stupid with
we were trained and armed to the arm pits
for the great battle between
the grunting instincts of ownership
and the suicidal embrace of empaths
cadavers of man and animal everywhere
though the limbless victims of the empaths
were more carefully arranged in rows
we had to take sides to survive
galley slaves of the world unite
oh yeah you're already united
chained to your oars and all
well then don't let the trolley
to the asylum leave without you
the inmates are management again
I banged my cage door for an eternity
Tex Lester the cowboy yodeler
came to my rescue somewhat
Tex once played 8 ball with the Devil
had to let the Devil win of course
swear to God for what it's worth
municipal records will prove my case
they have been weaving the world together
for over a thousand murky generations
starting from the premise
that life is an unbridled miracle
yes logic is anti-coercive
or is it vice versa where are my bifocals
one tends to go in the direction he's looking
intention being a common denominator
of some influence
Samuel's DOA toe tag read
tried to die with a smile on his lips
left only a cartoon grimace
had it most of his life
so it was hard to tell
if he was actually dead
From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Artist Portfolio: http://walteralter.byethost32.com/
“Well she's walking through the clouds”
Little wings keep her upright
as she strolls through the sunrise
now brightly glowing within my heart,
blind to my feelings
“With a circus mind that's running wild”
Beneath azure tents of atmosphere,
smiling at another perfect day in her world
While tame white tigers
roar on cue
“Butterflies and zebras”
Watercolor happiness fills her eyes
as she chases the beauty that is her nature,
caressing all that she touches
with the wonder that is her essence
“And moonbeams and fairy tales”
Moonbeam, something I have not called her
and once upon a times, when poppies and dandelions sing
the saddest of songs for my desires
flood in a downpour of dreams not realized
“That's all she ever thinks about”
While frolicking childlike atop cotton candy visions
never once looking my way,
finding this love I hold so gently,
only for her
“Riding with the wind”
On whispered zephyrs she disappears
as day drinks of twilight
and weary eyes find star light harsh…I sleep,
waiting for the new day, waiting for her…once again
The italicized lines are lyric’s from the Jimi Hendrix song “Little Wing” but I prefer the version by Sting just a bit more.
She boldly merges her tabs slowly to my left
I undo my last move but redo her last breath
Therefore, not an imitation, simply a re-creation
Her soul’s solidification of my interpretation
Which was copied and pasted to my interface
While creating a free space, instituting a page break
Forming a shortcut to the top of my desk
Graphically displaying degrees of her loveliness
Thus, the user is blessed
And must no longer stress about living in duress
Underlining life’s text
Italicizing its meaning, portraying its purpose
She aligns with the right
While her left is justified
AS HER FONT SHINES WITH PRIDE
All lines bold, underlined, and italicized,
All reviews and checks final, but only with my consent
For together our document is complete, I’m simply waiting for it to print
Somewhere far beyond this faux grin I wear
lies the fault…in all of its lined fashion
Emptiness lingering on a sifted thought,
reaching for anything that resembles what we had
It appears on a thin white stripe, as a banner
of frightening horizontal access…merely a tap required,
and I freeze…wide eyed, glaring amongst holding pattern tears,
scared to death while revealing what waits…
There was a time when this occurrence
was that of a beautiful sunrise, a fresh cup of coffee
and my heart would skip a beat…now it stops, flat line,
daring me to breathe
As I read your words, over and over…and over again,
like a jagged line in the vinyl, spinning slowly,
bouncing back to the beginning, my eyes search,
longing for a phrase, a chance slip in the ink
Dissecting each italicized letter, I find
fonts of beauty delivering curlicue pain while
draping my heart with paragraphs of brocade fabric dreams
shredded and left out to dry…fading in the sun
Even looking away it still remains, staring back,
spelling out the fault…I see it and I hate it, for
like my faint refection in this lighted screen…
I recognize it…and it is me
Nope!, this aint a
(non) commercial
Christmas plug for ye,
nonetheless, a greeting
of joie de
vivre buttressed with
(wreath) in this ole
foreign nicked saint wannabe
awash with spiritual
awakening unexpectedly
alighting boosting, and catapulting,
the mood of this
dog gone intro
spective atheistic he
then for merely "actively listening,"
sans texting to me,
(thine youngest daughter) hook
confided a circumstance,
that found her teary
eyed, whereat papa (meself)
galvanizing enervating,
and bold facing
(italicized optional),
a decades long glee
(son) doting dada, (me)
hood did earlier today
underwent spiritual reawakening
experience, where poignant see
movie ling ushered
emotional concessions prithee
lee transcending, and super see
ding ordinary ho-hum
(oh so yesterday...)
psychologically (or psychically)
escalating euphoria juiced being
a humble papa
yes sir re:
vicariously afflicted when,
Shana Aubrey (said
nineteen year old pro genie),
(who lives under
auspices of mine
kid sister in
Bend, Oregon – Voluntarily)
painfully shared her recent
(first) beaming, blooming,
and budding romance
rendered null and void
primarily duet who wah
bajillion geographical miles
from Colchester, Great
Britain, where she
(mine offspring) under
parental care of thee
guardian (angels) Shari Todd,
and George Andrew Dunning
supreme qual lit tee
aunt and uncle respective lee)
spent propitious year,
whence har mo' knee
me lass struck up,
and young lad o' a louver she
discovered without visa vis,
where, the young chap (Zak)
broke off (figuratively smote) long
distance elle la gee.
Gnome hatter at my helpless state
hive hilt that being privy at any rate
which parental aye deed eek quate
with darling daughter as a mature primate.