Best Laggard Poems
Bewitched again by autumn's laggard spell
Like alchemy, green leaves are turned to gold
Although the summer still has dreams to sell
I watch fall's silent sorcery unfold
Brisk morning breezes hint of coming cold
Forgotten are the yellow daffodils
The grass is brown where robins once patrolled
Who now, I'm sure, are sunning in Negril
And yet it seems leaves change almost at will
As fall performs his yearly slight of hand
Replacing summer heat with twilight chill
And leafy green to russet on demand
While autumn draws attention from my eyes
It tricks me not to notice how time flies
by Daniel Turner
Negril is a tourist destination in Jamaica
Categories:
laggard, autumn, fun, magic,
Form:
Sonnet
Rodents can be loquacious
That includes your average gerbil
They love to prattle, chat and blather
They really are quite verbal
Hamsters are talkative too
Just as garrulous as can be
With running mouth and wheel to match
They are a sight to see
But I am loath to squander words
Sparing usage is my way
I gather them like so many acorns
Against a rainy day
Yes, word collecting is the passion
Of this precocious squirrel
I garner adjectives, verbs and nouns
Be they singular or plural
The park is fecund land
There a plethora may be found
Vociferous, vehement and vex
I lately scooped up off the ground
The verb tree is prolific
Its discovery quite a boon
The other day it bestowed upon me
Flaunt, foster and festoon
All along the sidewalks
Concrete nouns lie strewn about
How blithely I did snatch up
A lummox, a laggard and a lout
To command a better view
I nimbly scampered up a pole
From this lofty perch I spotted
Wheedle, coax and cajole
Away in the distance
I spied a tempting pile
Heaped up for the taking were
Enticing, alluring and beguile
What do I with so much verbiage?
You would be fair to ask
Squirreling away so vast a lexicon
Must prove a mammoth task
The answer lies in my arboreal abode
Where these many words I stash
In alphabetical order they are arrayed
From zealous to abash
In a capricious mood one day
I grouped them by part of speech
Such a cacophony arose from clustering
Banter, badger and beseech
No matter how I sort them
The wasting of words I spurn
Reserved for rarest use I keep
Reticent, laconic and taciturn!
_________________________________
by Brian McClain - Feb 17, 2016
Originally posted Feb 17, 2016
Accidentally deleted Feb 22, 2016
Reposted Feb 22, 2016
Categories:
laggard, animal, children, education, kid,
Form:
Rhyme
The cooling evening breeze lifted and moved the laggard clouds
filtering the burnished moon through the sheer curtains on either side,
makes nature shiver.
Moon holds its gaze with longing over the Scottish Highlands
watching Nessie swim in the dark of the silver facets mirror lake.
She’s grandiose and magnificent in size,
with a towering neck and hump protruding from the shimmering water.
She belongs in the vast bottomless depths
of blue with her magic of immortality kept hidden.
She's welcomed to come to life to cast shadows upon the lake,
one to openness that stretch endlessly before her.
Mountains rise like giants beautiful and imposing
meeting the stark gray sky on the horizon.
Light flickers in the distant as the sky begins to darken.
Lighting erupts with rumbling growls.
Streaks zigzag and fork across the sky
in a majestic display shooting from seemingly out of nowhere
to hit the ground one after another impressive exhibition of power.
With not a soul in sight
she feeds while the moon shines.
Nature keeps an invisible secret.
12/17/2017
Poetry Contest: Loch Ness
Sponsored by: Thvia Shetley
Categories:
laggard, imagery, moon, nature,
Form:
Free verse
The sun shines again
for he smiles.
The indeterminable day no longer flees or hides
for its end is sought, as is its beginning
for he smiles.
Confusion though abiding
must wait the laggard servant
scolded by the Mistress Aphrodite
for he smiles.
Want must find a different dwelling
for the moment un-housed by sweetest joy
for he smiles.
The sun shines again.
Categories:
laggard, adventure, allegory, faith, forgiveness,
Form:
Free verse
I await your coming
for the flowers are blooming and the grass is high…
lilac branches still bare and shivering
in the laggard lion’s breath of March
they await your kiss, Monarch of summer.
purplish buds
sprout from gray lilac branches --
daffodils bloom
Though all the tulips are gone
having served as desert for gophers,
the worm and the grubs stir in the wet spring soil…
and the hyacinths have replaced the crocus’s blue
the paper narcissus now, scent the air.
red breasted robins
hop between hummocks of grass --
bird bathes fill with rain
From the within the green pupa, soon
you will stir ..the membrane will thin, sheer as a curtain
in a spring breeze adorned in polka dots
and wings like the crinolines of spindle legged
virgin daughters at first communion...
you will emerge with lash long antennae ready to fly.
leaves of cone flowers
push through the brown soil of spring --
anthills rise
I await your coming
for the flowers are blooming and the grass is high…
lilac branches still bare and shivering
in the laggard lion’s breath of March
they await your kiss, Monarch of summer
butterflies born.
Forms: Free Verse & haiku
Categories:
laggard, animals, devotion, inspirational, life,
Form:
Haibun
It was a long hike before they reached the campsite,
and sunlight was fading with the slight threat of rain.
Mandy was weary and Jeff's mood was quite dreary.
There was much yet to prepare before dark of night.
Tents needed raising, then fire and food to prepare.
Labors completed by the bright glow of moonlight.
Mandy gathered dry kindling while Jeff found water,
near a stand of cattails where dragonflies alight.
Gazing at the laggard walk of a red capped crane,
Jeff's mood was quite dreary, and Mandy was weary,
'til scared by trumpets of the sandhill crane in flight.
April 6, 2021
Abracadabra March Magic Contest
Sponsored by William Kekaula
Syllable count at 12 ~ checked with HMS. Rhyme with RZ
Categories:
laggard, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
The late morning light glazes the lake,
pierces, with stems and stalks of lily and reed.
Shadows freeze like lashes upon the limpid surface
of still water fracturing the sky-blue to black.
Iris of earthen orb, brush back the unruly screen of vision,
rub the cinders from night's lingering trace,
awake from the mire of silted dream.
Let the wind, your laggard lover,
rise a frolicking and remove each lash
with the gentle touch of fingertip.
Categories:
laggard, allegory, imagination, love, nature
Form:
Free verse
"Move!" sounds command.
I stir, arise, lift a laggard hand.
Can movement mark with magic
All latent space?
Shall thoughtless motion,
Mere mindless flurry,
Confer importance
On the empty hour?
"Speak!" rings out.
Sing I, then, quavery syllables
Against the quiet as though
Sound could skirt the still
Or melody make right
The evils of the night.
Think: none judge me harshly
Save sour I, my mirthless self.
Song stops. So solitude
Into stony silence slips.
Categories:
laggard, angst, depression, introspection, life,
Form:
Free verse
Darkness steals the day’s fading sunlight
as the moon opens his bright eye above.
Stars begin to spray the ebony night
that grips the still earth like a glove.
Streetlight burns through curtained window
casting shadows along my painted wall.
Exhausted eyes commence to grow
but laggard body tends to stall.
Body at last yields to cool sheets
as exhausted mind transcends overhead.
Eventually vigor within depletes
feeling as though I’m living... dead.
Springs beneath start to creek and move
as strong weight engulfs a motionless stiff.
Core sinks deep into mattress groove
as eyes search for something to biff.
Time lapses; frozen body fights to free
resisting an opposing force unknown.
Managed to scream let me be, let me be
before drifting off to sleep on my own.
6/2/13
Copyright © 2013 By Caryl S. Muzzey
Categories:
laggard, dream, fear,
Form:
Quatrain
spears sing of spring
push past rag-tag laggard snow---
trumpet the sun
Categories:
laggard, happiness, inspirational, life, nature
Form:
Haiku
My brother watches over me as I lie sleeping
He cradles me close, afraid I will wake
And he assures me I am in his safe keeping.
I want to talk, tell him what my mind is seeping
But laggard thoughts are still opaque
My brother watches over me as I lie sleeping.
To hear his voice soothes my core from weeping
Freeing tears that could flood a lake
And he assures me I am in his safe keeping.
He thinks I am awake when eyes are peeping
A sudden movement would be a mistake
My brother watches over me as I lie sleeping.
From dawn to darkness my mind is creeping
Along with sounds my voice does make
And he assures me I am in his safe keeping.
As he holds me, my dark eyes are sweeping
Tightly he contains me nearer so not to break
My brother watches over me as I lie sleeping
And he assures me I am in his safe keeping.
Copyright © 2011 By Caryl S. Muzzey
Categories:
laggard, brother, me, voice,
Form:
Villanelle
It is a quite Sunday morning
It was a weird outing in the evening
We saw fuming ashes
We saw failed elephants
We heard the tales of fallen petals
We saw drifting continents of love and lust
It was a quite Sunday morning after a tepid Saturday night
I saw many men sulking under the weight of their own dreams
I heard many women lustfully languishing their tongue twisters
They were all eloquent
They were all spellbound
They were castrated
A Carnival in the oddest of the hours
A Caricature of my self and many other selves
Our pulses were travelling to Venus, Mars and Pluto
We were simmering in the heat of the market mongers
We were boiler plates to the typecasted experiments in human nature
Have you heard about Pavlov
Who embarked on an experiment to create machines in human mindset
Have you learned about Vygotsky
Who smiled at the smiling babies and loved their zones of evolution
Have you wept when Maykovsky shot dead himself
His poetry must have been boiling faster than his heart impulses
When I end up embracing the dichotomies of Mikhail Bakhtin
I know I have become a scoundrel, polyglot, a hedonist, pagan beast
When this hetroglossia unfolds and scarlet fevers engulf the nations
Fear of languages, life and all sort of glass house effects will prevail
Do you know the fissures in your palace
Do you know if it is made of marble, mosaic, or even a piece of pitch blend?
Now I know only about primordial stones and shadows
Who build pyramids and prisons in the middle of stone hinged and laggard society
Who are in multitudes, nameless, nation-less, necro-manic living echoes
I live their turquoise blue rings, silver palms, their mythical fear of tortoises
I dig a grave to heal their zest for anarchy, and to unwound their zeitgeist
Categories:
laggard, allegory, angst, beautiful, character,
Form:
Free verse
The hot, autumn sun
spills effulgent;
dark branches, roused,
glow lustrous as blue day.
Burgeoning trees
cling to verdant leaves
denying impending
vermillion days.
Summer's love abides,
warming laggard blooms
under the flowing fern.
Summer will stay for now;
Winter patiently waits
to renew the ripe world.
Categories:
laggard, nature, summer,
Form:
Lyric
Wake oh laggard sun and anoint a freed age.
Wake the guff and lose all allegiance primal.
Roar and rise angelic at man's evolving
endlessly joyful.
Categories:
laggard, faith,
Form:
Sapphic stanza
The laggard flow of fresh water
With scattered pads of green
Tall blades of sawgrass stretch around the bank
A lingering fog hovers
Sun is trying to sneak through with its warm rays
Lichen hanging from cypress tree branches
With a heron or two
A sea of ferns and thickets
Found everywhere
That offers a habitat to the
Seen and unseen
A path to follow as a deer strolls through
Savoring the spectacular scenery and
The smell of nature in the wetlands
Fern Garden By: Robert Butler
Sponsored By: Rhonda Johnson-Saunders
Contest Name Florida Nature
Categories:
laggard, nature,
Form:
Free verse