Best Kinships Poems
youth, where imperfections trip upon each other
and opportunistic peers joyfully celebrate the folly
- glass tree houses be damned...
and - a spun bottle breaks blood brotherhoods
where fragile crevices expose truths and
welcome untested kinships to fill the void.
the leftover baggage - will it be burden or buoyant?
like Scrooge's chains, worked upon - idyllic dreams
dragged into reality.
we're told to pull ourselves together -
while drowning in emotional incontinence
like this stumbling poem, trying to balance
reason ... and sanity
then - tossed to time's tumult,
life's bitter tempering, yet -
gold in our veins
a vessel that can hold
all that is ladled in...
Fall's colorful leaves are most appealing to me,
Gilding the hillsides with gold, touching every tree.
Hay rides on a wagon bed add to Halloween fun,
Impossible not to enjoy the painted setting sun.
Jack O' Lanterns carved from pumpkins collected.
Kinships are kindled by new friendships connected.
Leaves keep drifting down in a soft familiar way.
Memories flood back in sweet years of yesterday.
Neighbors sipping cider with the affection of friends
Offering to help each other before the season ends.
Prayers said together keep those tornadoes at bay
Quelling any fears that severe weather storms will stay.
Rain adds a heavenly petrichor refreshment to the fall
Sustaining earth to give rebirth, reviving one and all.
Trees greet autumn sun as they kiss leaves goodbye
Until cold north winds usher snowflakes from the sky.
Veils of frost begin to turn the landscape snowy white.
Winter waves her magic wand bringing dazzling delight.
© Connie Marcum Wong
9-5-16
Alphabet Soup Poetry Contest
Sponsor Kim Merryman
Virtues of reverent past no longer rhyme
With sense of now rushing through time
As troubled voice shudders in forlorn sigh
While remnants of yore earnestly decry
Vigor of life passing by, smiles gone awry,
Powerless to console tribulations of outcry.
Bankrupt of morality, of goodwill sublime,
Arresting freedoms, restricting path of life,
Streets and communities riddled in crime,
Echo bawl of grief, wailing indignance rife,
Imposed on tranquility perturbed in strife,
Since bells, benevolent, ceased to chime.
Sadness and anguish relentlessly bemoan
In solitude of feelings ~ impassive, all alone,
Dwelling in remorse, as memories replay
Friendships and kinships now gone astray;
Searching explanation, struggling to cope,
Saying a prayer, longing blessings of hope.
February 10, 2023
Placed 1st: Acquaintance and Neighborhood Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Soto Poet
Conjuring anxiety, obstructing path of hope,
A quivering hesitation, frightened to cope;
Fear is omnipresent causing anguished moan
Agitating aspirations in distress of unknown.
Fear is darkness, a trepidation upon norm,
Worrisome, trembling, turbulent as storm;
An obstacle threatening progress of life,
A messenger of panic, an architect of strife.
Treacherous to audacity, fear is a cheat,
A betrayal to victories, fretting of defeat;
Fear is melancholy, an expression of gloom,
Hampering courage, perturbing in doom.
Fear is a loathsome impediment to goals,
Dashing endeavors of endearing souls;
Averse to commitment as love goes awry,
A remorseful cry, where lost kinships sigh.
Unwelcome emotion imprisoning ambition
Unleashing inaction of paranoid inhibition,
Fear immobilizes, as if, bird trapped in cage;
Paranoid, valor-less, upon life’s center stage.
January 21, 2023
Placed 1st: Fear Is Liar Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Sotto Poet
Written: December 06, 2024
___________________________
We were born into tribes
cinctured by bonds and praxis
welded by ambits and dictums
an eyeless chasm.
But scope a sounder view
just under the shimmering surface
and the outcome will be luculent
our parallels often outshine our oddities.
Our blood is crimson
all of us slipshod weeps
all of us longing for love
all of us fail to face our fears.
Our zeal fashion fetching flow
our souls seek seraphic symbiosis
we all itch for a warm welcome
and achieve startling accolades.
But, we build walls,
and draw lines in the sand,
we judge hinged on appearance,
and ignore the outstretched hand.
But if we may just foresee,
beyond the color of our skin,
and the language we spree,
we may find kin.
Because in the recesses of our souls
within our deep cores
all of us are noxious
rhapsodic around finding fulfillment.
So let's slip away,
from the chains of tribalism,
and gasp our kinships,
with love and hope.
For only then,
can we for real unite,
and transcend our differences,
Into a world of light.
The debate between free will and fate has taken a hard right
turn to neuroscience, Brodmann area 4 the primary motor
cortex of the brain located in the posterior frontal lobe
(the one cut out of the one who once flew over the cuckoo's nest).
This area of the cortex has the pattern of an homunculus!
a little man, a troll, the all-wise, mandragon, the golem of Jewish folklore.
This little man has a that, when fully engorged, is
equal in size to his entire body. However, diseases
such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Lou Gehrig's and
Creutzfeldt-Jakob
are gunning for him. His basal ganglia are garbled
and he ends up giving poor advice and making bad decisions.
Who can say what happens to his soul or cells or if all will be given or
well?
I was listening to the famous astronomer on public radio
who expressed the certainty there is no death, your soul
is immortal, it exists outside of time (but not space?). That's because
time exists only in the human mind (as does the universe
including the professional baseball season which is canceled when
you're dead).
By Spring, my problems will be solved or ignored, either way is good.
Groundhog holds the knowledge of death without dying
for man needs help from every creature born.
Will the holocaust wipe the smile off the face of our romantic comedy
or will laughter outlast the outburst?
About the dark times will there be singing?
Yes, there will be singing and some of the songs will be sidesplitting.
Solving the murder reveals the city. Nature of kinships and economic
sustenance,
who loves whom and why, when things happened and how they lost
and found themselves
in what happened. Because a meter-making argument cannot appear
from nothingness, purposelessness, just cold.
He does not go where he was supposed to go. He is in the desert,
Sonoran desert, counting cactus buds and ocotillo blooms.
This is the afterlife for which he has always longed.
Row row row your boat gently down the stream
Merrily merrily merrily merrily life Is but a dream... soaring beyond the skies the hue shadowed glows blue mist with green fields loving the stars above spring time love encased the sparkles and specks of destiny with no regrets knowing you did your best on repeat knowing yourself value complete.
Many drinks of water would not dare to collide riding rowing ships glory
kissing waves of possibilities the ears and nose knows the throats pain!
Every strand of hair is numbered We toast from the heart hope this is understood? Come in and sit with the crest of good better and best
upon the heart rest. Ships roll in turbulent seas
A vehement heat..
Walking red red mist tones golden bell rings for joy to greet the inner child
Up ahead rolling waves hurricane no one can tame in the land
Than Love enters into the game singing a new song and planned
The gates of hell can not prevail the keys have turned the lock
Waters of envious sickness shallow diseases not!
Many drinks of water cannot quench love no neither can the floods drown it
Upon all become stronger resting on the shoulders of kindness
Row row row your boat gently down the water tears fumes
Merrily merrily merrily merrily sing another tune.
Get a new theme Remember
Just at the time love takes a journey coast
To thrill to chill the heated flesh to salutes the taste a little more and one toast
quenching toast of rest. Caress the mind from loves journey behind the hurting test Stress These ships roll in turbulent seas
into the sea of death a vehement fire rolling waves
like a hurricane, jealousy no one can tame right into the
waters of cruel seas damp cold as the Grave
Terrible craftmanship Fellowships and nonsense
Battleships friendships kinships Relationships
Hardships sail upon Companionship true friendship will stand up as a team
For some of us, life is not what it seems
What is oration --? To the speechless
As poet the pallet's still whet,
a quill in hand, her word reaches,
surely the rebel is not dead.
Some thought -- lost was the speechless
tongue,
And must now beseech her pardon ...
The Artist, lent voice through their eyes
As silent oration un-guised
Traveling in painted words for them,
Reaching the core, feeding it;
Her pages spoke in volumes heard,
Another mind opens and turned
The canto is quite atractive,
in comparison's blended prose
Within hearts, as kinships now rose...
Deprived of a relationship,
When i just so needed one,
A social worker relationship,
Holding no bar, mind or gun.
Having nobody to talk to,
Is not very nice, not right,
When people matter to you,
And god is their height.
Not understanding reason,
Sat within two metal bars,
Everything feeling like treason,
You’re left with only scars.
Contemplating memory,
If yours does to other people,
When you state your story,
About the faithful’s steeple.
Deciding you’re an atheist,
With evolution at your back,
Hoping there will be no theist,
In the school staff’s stack.
Disappointed by Assembly,
Hurt by daily implementation,
Annoyed by the physio bubbly,
Who offered religious direction.
Affected by the school kids,
Who’d accepted the basic god,
Given it by teachers’ bids,
Who were in no way odd.
Not wanting life anymore,
Attempting to, not succeeding,
Then deciding to come ashore,
With the school doctor, bleeding.
Happy from that moment on,
When I shared my heart with him;
He was not in any way gone,
When others proved terribly dim.
He was my friend at university,
My carers’ supervisor and my physio,
And still to this day in animosity,
My mum doesn’t know about him, foe.
What’s the point of that silence,
The slip of her mind every time,
Her forgetfulness about his presence,
When i refer to him as mine?
She thinks she’s on top of me,
Above all my formal relationships,
But the right the live, you see,
Rests with you and not kinships.
Privacy is privacy, and it means space,
And the doctor’s room is confidential;
You can make or brake by your face,
Your relationships by your prudential.
And so it begins
the endless montage of words amid hugs and kisses,
struggling to express untethered euphoric blisses,
the joy, the laughter, the fully embraced elation
in attendance at the family celebrations.
A reunion of bloodlines stretched
recalling memories old and blessed
for our ninety-six-year-old friend
knowing and accepting he is near life's end
gladdened familiar exhilaration visible on their aging faces.
The food was good, maybe just so-so
but the gathering was better than we could know
cousins, great-grandchildren nieces, nephews abound
distant loved ones from out of town
counting connecting kinships to astound.
In this twenty-first century of dispersed family
we reconnect remembering individual humanity
where bonds were once too easily broken
mother daughter, father-son, sister brother words misspoken
and for a moment fleeting as it might be
the healing possibilities exist
and so it begins.
for Line Gauthier's contest
And so it begins
2/12/19
(thank you All Poetry, Facebook, family
Poetry Soup,... et cetera global friends.)
A network of cherished kinships allied
forged, and linkedin analogous
to union of groom and bride
thru electronic bonds engender intrigue,
nonetheless unconditionally accept,
no matter I chide
self, and reference mine existence
as if...this mortal already died
now more appreciative than ever,
cuz younger days witnessed
peers that did elide
me accompanied with relentless
teasing, snubbing, roasting
akin tubby kindled over a fireside,
thus...solitude shadowed me as sole guide
peopled with books
to escape and hide
from so called "real"
webbed world, yet inside
this former grievous
lad through alienation,
emasculation, and isolation no joyride
valuing myself less than a pawn on
chessboard of life
envying extrovert as kingside
station depriving, insulating, and
ostracizing yours truly belied
to Matthew Scott Harris
marginally functioning, and denied
him camaraderie, dating, enjoying
female friendships due
to lack of confidence and pride
and at the cusp of
pubescence...a slow descending ride
into the hungry (anorexic)
maws of suicide,
which ideations hammer psyche,
now aghast how I tried
(without success) to disappear sundering
mine complex edifice
into the wide
abyss of nothingness, hence to treasure
those electronic connections,
perhaps...totally no more'n four score
(and seven years ago)
all told of unbeknown village people
comprising worthy chums,
sans human league roar
ring (okay pardon the hyperbole),
but letting this foo fighter explore
a greater range of interpersonal
(no matter virtual), but each
unnamed cyber buddy worth more
than simple rhyming galore
words express, some
or all those who sprung
from Earth, wind and fire,
viz cosmic toreador
this poet would their
physical presence adore,
who realizes genuine experienced love
second best option
communicated thru the Internet...bonjour,
hence please accept at the least
(even thee lovely cousins,
daughters, sister Shari por favor,
a hug emanating from within mine
integrated central processing unit core!
We have to believe in something completely intangible.
Something unseen, heard and only fathomed.
Greater than ourselves, more important than agendas.
The one true anomaly that heals.
It is in this that we are comforted
Our, "It's ok", the cliches that are hurled
at our feelings faces amidst tongue lashings
of Loss for Words.
Oh, how words, when spoken alleviate nothing pertinent,
and stir up everything intertwined with grief.
Believing, NO, Knowing of the greater than thou
And placing such tragedies to rest is cumbersome.
Seems when we should be obtaining,
this "Blind Faith," in said times of turmoil,
...In these times we are the furthest from what
is instinctively engrained in our true DNA.
Nothing worth remembering is ever forgotten
It never leaves, They never leave
They are the wind, the rain, the flowers.
Everything around us is reincarnate.
How blessed they are to have ascended
regardless of age, reason, or circumstance.
The only thing that stands in the way is us.
We must let them leave, smiling with their Clean-Slates.
Celebrate lives, kinships, and memories.
Rever who they were, to us, and to themselves
Forget nothing of Times shared.
Keep them in the pockets of the mind.
Only to pull out and be looked upon
In rememberence of how Blessed
one feels to have known such a being,
and then put it back.
Smile, Cry, Relax
Everything has a purpose
As I and You
We are all but items in pockets.
Light leavens leaden doors.
Genealogies of genocide are lost
in long night rides through thistled trees,
dark reunions of distant blood.
Kinships are recounted, mantras murmured
of summer savory and sorrel flaxseed
like scars on wrists, a sparrow grass of needles.
We are immutable, terra cotta with wild glints
of sea-flecked eyes--
a mask of freedom, a final submission.
Origami moths mime legends in tallow lights,
stigmata their small dyings with rites of regeneration:
bleeding dim faiths, sealing silent sins
with the infection of sky.
We become insane shadows, cloistered cousins
of a dark, moist marrow
mythological as opaque men in pale pearled sheets,
chiaroscuro faces written in a white rage of worms.
Be kind to others
As you would have even your ecopolitical enemies
and win/lose ZeroSum competitors
be kind,
feel kinship,
speak kindly,
listen cooperatively,
take turns co-investing in win/win solidarity
with ecological empowering
enlightening interdependent Us.
Be not unkind to
or against Others
As you would not have even your Lose/Lose
non-ecological monoculturing,
out of control,
beyond healthy curiosity,
runaway wealthy StraightWhiteMale privileged,
RightWing negative Patriarchal Capitalists
become un-ecologically unkinned
against you
With the nearly unforgiveable audacity
to camouflage
patriotic nationalism
with anthrosupremacist rights of Earth ownership
to remain stubbornly win/lose
against healthy matriotic ecological views
of cooperative co-empathic integrity
As also Green CoPassionate wants and needs
roots and seeds
for polypathic communication
Refining win/win messages
healthy choices
wealthy voices
that regenerative democratic energy
is not necessarily not PatriarchalCapitalism degenerative
RightWing Yanged-out meanness energy
does not yet equal Yintegral Green LeftWing
exponentially spiraling synergy
As monotheistic Yang
equals not not ecological Yintegrity
exponentially squared
As EarthSpace that kindly matters
is also not not resilient Time
ecologically ex-potentially squared
in-formationally cubed
and kindly spiraling health dynamic
co-relational fractal wealth
Is not quite the same
as either proving
or disproving
that controlling PatriarchalCapitalism
reversed through principles
of both polyculturing and communal
healthy root systemic wealth
begets necessarily ecological kind co-relationships
Not bipolarizing out of control
not judging
disapproving
criminalizing
punishing
taking win/lose revenge
blaming with leftbrain verbal dominance,
overpowering by shaming right mindbody
neuro-sensory
co-passionate prime non-zero kind attachment
Zone of internal
polyentheistic nondenial of divisive secularizing turmoil
inviting WholeEarth Tribal co-investments
re-memeing
cooperative Green Indigenous EarthWomanist
kind memories of PolyCultural Communalists
Who really just don't have time
for all that nonsacred
monotheistic PatriarchalCapitalist sin
and mean ignorance.
Another burial....
... condolences,
deep emotional feelings
grieving hearts imbue jeweled kinships,
lasting memories,
needing obituaries
peace, quietude, rest
succumb to undertaker
vestiges withered
'xpired, yielded.
zeroed