Best Lowland Poems
Clans, Ilks and Tartans
Woven into threads of red and black,
Girded by grids of white,
Distant plaintive bagpipe memories
Of sunset over Kilmaurs –
A crest that bears a unicorn
Touches royal roots
As a poet’s tribute to a patron lost
Watches neighbors Campbell and Montgomerie
Then looks out on the seas from tidal lands
Of Ayrshire in flings and reels with swirling kilts
When explorer’s feet recall on new world shores
The mew of seagulls soaring –
Politicians, engineers and entrepreneurs -
Over Fork Over – Cunningham, a clan of auld.
Blocks of green and wine
Stripped with blue
Look back into the heather
Covering highland hills of country dances
Where spring wanders in hunting kilts
Beneath clear cerulean heavens,
Boldly enduring;
A crest that bears a coronet
Of storied noble and knight
Whose melancholy legend
Whispers in glens and gloaming
Of standard bearers for a king
Watched by Ogilvy and Stewart
Lindsay, a clan of auld.
Like sunlight bouncing off of autumn leaves
In crimson, golden amber, umber greening hues -
A sword dance of squares and lines in twirling kilts -
Near the sparkling waters of Loch Lomond;
Clan neighbor Graham and cousins MacCammon
See the crest adorned by a coronet
Prize of battle;
The wind remembers
Tiny windswept island Clarinch -
A battle cry of Clar Innes -
Campaigns of kings and exiled queens –
Chieftain’s seat sees a president and prospector -
Hence the brighter honor – Buchanan, a clan of auld.
Cousins of the same ilk
Bear the names of families -
Of highland lands
And lowland memories -
Seaside and mountain territories -
Kilts wearing colors interwoven patterns
Born of clans with
Tartans telling legends and the stone of destiny,
Plaids dancing at the piper’s hand,
Ancient names, though maybe hidden, still live –
Cunnyngham, Lindsey and MacCammon
Of Buchanan –
In Celtic refrains like iridescent whispers
Woven through clans of auld.
This is the story of my Scottish heritage through the mottos, the tartans, the history and geographic references to the clan homes.
Categories:
lowland, dance, family, history,
Form:
Free verse
Harambe, living in captivity-
mock forest of the Cincinnati Zoo,
within our human world, well as can be,
beneath those peering eyes, that visit you.
And what bad fate for you when suddenly,
no fault of yours, a child falls in your space.
At first, you seemed to act quite caringly;
you held his hand and looked into his face.
But then the shrieks of humans made you wild
and frantic, as you soon became afraid.
You dragged him to and fro, that little child-
and chaos then ensued, decisions made.
If only they had found a simple way;
removed the crowd to hush upsetting screams,
perhaps your primate nature would then play
into a more protective stance, it seems.
Or maybe darted you to bring you down
and not forever, just a little while,
to rescue the small boy and take the crown
for saving both and ending with a smile.
Harambe, poor gorilla, your sad day,
to have them end your life for their neglect
of building an enclosure that some way
allowed a tiny child to fall direct.
Within your borrowed space of humankind,
where you knew not of freedom, nature's way,
you had to face your end, your days maligned
as a dark beast to pay the price that day.
Harambe, living in captivity,
mock forest of the Cincinnati Zoo,
not many of you left on Earth to see;
so sorry that this fate has come to you.
May 31, 2016
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harambe, the Gorilla: A three-year-old boy, with no one watching, was able to enter a Cincinnati Zoo gorilla's enclosure on May 28, 2016. After a 10-minute encounter, Cincinnati Zoo officials shot and killed the beloved 17-year old male western lowland silverback gorilla. At first, the gorilla, named Harambe, seemed like he was trying to help the boy, be more of a gentle giant, and protecting the child. But the screams and commotion of the crowd frightened him and he started dragging the little boy away from the sound of the crowd. There has been a lot of anger over the quick decision to kill him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Harambe
Categories:
lowland, animal, death, sad, tribute,
Form:
Iambic Pentameter
I'm nestled in daydreams, safely tucked in a halcyon haven
away from the stress that greedily feasts on me like a raven
My Utopian realm offers a peaceful kingdom; a sanctuary
where there is no arguing with any acrimonious adversary
I take flight to a lowland vale, with gardens in full bloom
safe from life's burdens, as if I'm still inside my natal womb
Fields of wildflowers and carpets of moss are my landscape
Orchard of grape vines and a citrus grove is where I escape
Showers and sunshine are nuanced in my Eden of tranquility
I live harmoniously with forest animals in absolute affability
Blue skies brighten every day, darkening to indigo each night
Wrapped in my lover's arms, beneath stars and soft moonlight
l live in a multi-level tree house, sprawled in a stand of pine
My neighbors are feral mustangs; a roaming herd of equine
I built a porch that overlooks the view of my pastoral land
watching eagles as they hunt and soar with feathers fanned
I watch each stained glass sunrise as it surfaces from the sea
and each sunset, when dusk paints pastels with grand esprit
No fence surrounds my oasis, no flashing lights or blaring horns
and I've hybridized my roses, so no longer do they have thorns
There's some sanctity to be found in a divine place like this
One of spiritual symbiosis and a bounty of benevolent bliss
There's no known place on Earth where everyone gets along
but in my sanctum, no one ever tells me I'm too headstrong
I long for a refuge where I can take ample time to just relax
where I'll not be faced with the entity of fear, called parallax
When fire storms of frustration blaze much too high to douse
I'll be daydreaming while climbing the stairs to my tree house
August 18th, 2020
Sanctuary Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Silent On
Categories:
lowland, peace, perspective,
Form:
Couplet
TIME AND PLACE
Spring is found in the Lowland valleys with gowan-filled braes of Scotland
When the early-reaching flowers bloom in cool freshness, and
The air is bracing and always new-washed-glass clean -
With the Ochils in the background green,
Willing us, begging us -- Come to the heather hills, please !
Around Ben Lomond, they perfume the breeze
With memories of Bruce and Wallace
And feel young in our face.
Summer is a thousand-mile southbound road-trip heading
To Yellowstone through Montana and Wyoming,
With 104F degree air gushing in the vent,
And dinner in the Angel Inn, where we went
For a chicken smorgasbord snack
And a cool six pack.
Autumn is a Saskatchewan garden with leaves singing,
Tenacious against a hissing wind; and clinging
Above the grass, feeling the ice-chilled bite,
Anticipating a coming gown of white.
Winter is cold with lots of snow:
Moscow.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20 August 2014
Notes:
Gowan = small daisy-like flower
Brae = riverbank
Ochils = Ochil Hills, a lovely upland part of the Forth Valley
Bruce and Wallace = famous Scots heroes in history
Angel Inn is near Casper, WY
Moscow - capital of Russia
Categories:
lowland, places,
Form:
Shape
Dihing, adjoining borderline with Arunachal, on the foothills of mighty Patkai,
In the encircling mesas of terrestrial plains of high altitudes,
lies the Assam Valley's tropical wet evergreen forests,
Named after its thick density of trees and profuse diverse ecology,
the Amazon of the East, the Dehing- Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.
An abode to the myriad of endangered species, copious floras and faunas, a hotspot, the zone of world's richest biodiversity.
As amazing as Amazon's tropical forests, dark and dense:
The country's lungs like last lowland the evergreen rainforest.
Where the tallest of the tall trees with creepers are competing
for the sunlight forming greenish lavish canopies.
There, the animal kingdom awakens, whoops;
When the light falls, fathoming the density, filters in
The floras with the exotic species: orchids, lianas, epiphytes, are sparse and unique,
The faunas endless, the sole quirky reserve in the country with its' lush evergreen ecological system.
Nestled amidst the most picturesque valleys and hills,
Is reclining the lungs of the congenial climate for survival, of the region
A celestial abode on earth of the rarest IUCN red listed, on the verge of extinct species,
TheDehing Patkai, the richest part of the Sub-Himalayan region, a major carbon sink ecosystem.
.
The Amazon of the East, with its sacred biodiversity hotspot,
is apprehensive of it's extinction
As the relentless injudicious mining and digging,
Has taken away the pulses of the oxygen feeding lush terrain,
Imagine a world devoid of rainforests, where we need to carry oxygen tanks, the most unfortunate substitution!
It's sending signals after signals not to play with its' immensely diverse tropical bio- canopy region;
To save the last remaining unparalleled foliage, affluent lowland from excision!
As no amount of wealth will be enough to save us from the impending outcomes of destruction,
Pivotal to rescue and redeem the Amazon of the East;
the tropical evergreen Dehing -Patkai reserve, the richest rainforest of the region!
Categories:
lowland, earth, education, environment, nature,
Form:
Free verse
I am the monarch of the sky
can outdistance by the miles
every insect, every time
heavy rain or bright sunshine
like a fearless horse I run
in the heart of boisterous winds
like a skater coast and glide
in my effortless cruising style
beauty queen of butterflies
smooth and waxy my chrysalis
green and gold heavenly spun
into a diadem to behold
a green drop of dew my egg
like a flower on milkweed stem
birthing life in green and black
golden gilded for contrast
curious strong alone I fly
gliding vales fields
and mountains
from lowland Louisiana
to skyscrapers Colorado
though alone all summer long
in the fall I flock along
with a million more to fly
for two thousands airy miles
on two inches of wings fragile
tracing shapes of butterflies
fluttering satin color clouds
beating chords of air so softly
into an incredible audible sound
of few millions wings in concert
greeting morning in Chincua forest
Second Place: Brian Strand-All Yours-6/1/019
Categories:
lowland, butterfly,
Form:
Lyric
First person singular prohibited. In order
to be more crow.
War! war! war! war! war!
Then there's that lowland wetland bird
around the stunted red pines crying
Birdy, birdy, birdy, birdy.
Hear the redwing blackbird chirring
Her, her, her... she
as one might expect, Spring.
Words for birds
since they're inaccessible. Aim
binoculars left, right, up, down, missing every time.
At the piano recital
Aaron made the penguins run, run, run, not waddle,
from a hungry polar bear!
Everything passes, even a massacre,
but birds outlast cars
and words like chemical and holocaust.
Woodpecker climbs oak,
Connecticut.
Not one neighbor heard the knocking.
The voice of a pewee
whose nest has fallen out of the tree.
Oh my! Oh me!
What did the wood thrush sing
that summer evening
teaching its young thrush meanings?
Categories:
lowland, bird, cry, holocaust, spring,
Form:
Verse
I saw a gorge, a remote vision from distant, far far away from the surface, how sharp, how precipitous, how deep!
A singular, unsurpassed, cavernous cleft;
a crevice among two gigantic hills, how intense and steep!
The rocky walls of the mountains though withering,
canopying the remote sight from the brink of the rugged cliffs.
The highland though barren, is pampering the rivulet flowing,
emerald- azure, though erosive from shrink!
Its ages disposition, the geologic uplift and abrasion,
elevates the surface to fabricate its tapestry inch by inch!
The diverse, vivacious habitats in its bosom, in seclusion, are dozing,
in remote lowland, far from the tainted world in miff!
The robust gorge, all of a sudden, for its persistent profoundity,
a rare attribute in mortals, became my cause of envy!
Was pondering " where is that Gorge like once perceived devotion, allegiance from human inclination has gone? "
Nowhere the professed deluded ones, stands near its awe-inspiring abiding supremacy, the Gorge, the mighty!
Alas! The demons have taken away humanity's infallible dedication for substantiality and profoundity,
only to be as hollow as floating cotton balls, with no eye, no reverence for sublimity!
The Gorge is the apostle of Almighty's emblem of constant flow of unfathomed steadfast solemnity, beyond earthly folly!
Aeons ago, God's supreme contour, silhouette against the brilliant encompassing sky,
The persistent Gorge, determines to flow distant, diligently, from the lavish absurdity, from the sheer mortals idiocy!
Human devotion, so fragile, so freckle, so self-centric,
wish have an inch depth of the perpetual, perennial Gorge, the mighty!
Neither, any earthly disposition, can comprehend,
nor approach the grand Gorge, in reflections, so fickle, so tiny;
as insignificant as their fleshly existence,
in the face of the abiding Gorge,
the exalted composition of the Almighty!
Categories:
lowland, absence, appreciation, deep, devotion,
Form:
Free verse
Wabi-Sabi
A stunning beauty seen with moles on the cheek from a distance
If be near, like spaceman, we find dry lowland area of dark rock,
Shadows in holes where meteors hit, left craters, the Sun can’t hit.
She relies on the Sun for light, the borrowed light throws on others
And patronizes God-punished murderer Cain, adorned with horns
Becoming more luring in getting the dark spots of Cain’s horns.
As all of us hold secrets, never telling it to others
She never ever shows her darker side to anyone of us
We the poets, lovers, get enchanted, mad by this lunar beauty
=========================================
** God put Carn for murdering his own brother adorning with horns on the Moon
as a punishment. Sometimes the dark spots on the moon looks like horns.
*, wabi-sabi is Japanese word meaning “to find beauty in imperfection
and profundity in nature*”
+++++
Date : 12-5-13
Dr. Ram Mehta
Contest: Seeing Beauty in Imperfection by nette onclaud
=============================================================
Categories:
lowland, beauty,
Form:
Sijo
In a dreary county castle,
a ghost from the past is seen to dwell.
It haunts the castle battlements,
and walks the halls at night.
It walks the halls and moans a sound
that sounds much like the wind.
A whitish form that sounds of wind,
and scares away all people from the castle.
It seems to hum a mournful sound
that speaks of things where spirits dwell.
Not seen by day but only at night,
its form then walks the battlements.
Above the moor the high battlements
reach the dark sky and are filled with wind.
On a moonless night
the eerie sound from the castle
filters through the lowland where no man will dwell.
Such a soul wrenching sound.
Creeping through the heather without sound,
two boys came near the battlements.
Past the cemetery where shades of night dwell,
their way was blowing cold with wind.
They crept close to the castle.
Truly a dark and cloud filled night.
An owl screeched the night,
a most haunting sound.
Boys haulted near walls of the castle,
beneath its sighing battlements.
Lonesome cries of a disturbing wind,
spoke of a ghost who dared there to dwell.
Upon that weird lament they didn't dwell,
for this was their night
to face that ghost or wind.
Fraternity deemed they sleep there sound
on top of old decaying battlements,
within the wretched castle.
Eerie wind where spirits dwell
this castle haunted great at night
make sounds high in the battlements.
Categories:
lowland, evil,
Form:
Sestina
The coolest zoo to view
With an all-around great crew
The children are running
Tiger Mountain is stunning
Hear the tigers chuffing
See the parents huffing
At Bird World, people are pouring
To see the birds soaring
Take a ride on the monorail
Around the Wild Asia Trail
In the Children’s Zoo, oh what fun
To visit the farmyard in the sun
The Indian Gharials are basking
While the children keep asking
Little penguins are splashing
The cameras are flashing
The lion pride roars
And the snow owl soars
Ring tailed lemurs leaping
While the Fossas are creeping
A Snow Leopard on the prowl
A Gelada Baboon with a smile
Western lowland gorillas interact
While the Okapi families attract
Sea lions are flipping and diving
Zoo babies are growing and thriving
Monkeys are climbing and swinging
While their little babies are clinging
Categories:
lowland, animal, family, new york,
Form:
Free verse
SEASONAL PLACES
Spring is found in the Lowland valleys with gowan-filled braes of Scotland
When the early-reaching flowers bloom in cool freshness, and
The air is bracing and always new-washed-glass clean -
With the Ochils in the background green,
Willing us, begging us -- Go to the heather hills, please !
Around Ben Lomond, they perfume the breeze
With memories of Bruce and Wallace
And feel young in our face.
Summer is a thousand-mile southbound road trip heading
To Yellowstone through Montana and Wyoming,
With 104F degree air gushing in the vent,
And dinner in the Angel Inn, where we went
For a chicken smorgasbord snack
And a cool six pack.
Autumn is a Saskatchewan garden with leaves singing,
Tenacious against a hissing wind; and clinging
Above the grass, feeling the snow-chilled bite,
Anticipating a coming gown of white.
Winter is everything dead:
Gateshead.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Notes
Gowan = small daisy-like flower
Brae = riverbank
Ochils = Ochil Hills, a lovely upland part of the Forth Valley
Bruce and Wallace = famous Scots heroes in history
Angel Inn is near Casper, WY
Gateshead = dreadful UK industrial town - do not visit it.
Categories:
lowland, adventure,
Form:
Couplet
Stings of weapons and jungle on fire
Attack lowland gorillas, wailing
Hemmoraging… with cubs on the run,
This massacre to kill nature’s tribe
Pray tell, who is man…who is the beast?
Contest: Skat's In 5 lines or less #1
9 syls per line
11/2/2015
Categories:
lowland, animal, death, men,
Form:
Dramatic Verse
In bridled hovel on denuded strand
Tanned damsel loiters on barter stand
Waiting for purloined fealty her title to brand
Festooned in ritual garb, decked with lavish garland
As noble peacock, her fecund colors are fanned
Waiting eligible suitors her utility, virility to scan
Her father a lofty price doth rightly command
To root out pilfering charlatan, worthless brigand
A reputable family with aspirations noble, grand
Bids for the honor of reticent, sheltered hand
Her elder for propriety doth initial offers withstand
Until the esteemed value of his ward family doth understand
A suitable piece of fertile lowland he indignantly demands
In order his tribal status and perpetuity to expand
With gratuitous stipend in token parlance panned
In customary deference, contrite bride accepts husband
Categories:
lowland, daughter, family, family,
Form:
Rhyme
Streams are running quickly and the snow’s still on the ground
When lightning strikes the mountains and there’s thunder all around.
It’s raining in the foothills and the water’s coming down.
It’s headed for the city, to the center of the town.
Bow rivers banks are swelling and the Elbows running high.
Them dark and heavy clouds just keep on hanging in the sky.
The waters coming fast now like a mighty rising tide.
There’s panic in High River and they flee at Sunnyside.
Farther on below where the Oldman meets the Bow
They’ll be rising up together building fury as they go
Into the South Saskatchewan just North of Grassy Lake.
The lowland folks are leaving with as much as they can take.
It’s pouring in the mountains and it’s pounding at the snow
Til there’s nothing left but water and there’s nowhere else to go.
Into the lakes and valleys and the rivers far below
In a rage of rushing rapids running wild into the Bow.
If you’re anywhere downstream by the river in the Hat
You’re gonna have to leave, there’s no quandary about that.
You can bag until you’re blue but that won’t help you in the end.
Mother Nature’s racing here, she’s just around the bend.
Thirteen wasn’t lucky for the lowlands in the south
The year the rains came raging, rivers foaming at the mouth.
When the big skies of Alberta open up both far and wide
You better take to running, you better find some place to hide.
http://mike-martin.net/Thirteen
Categories:
lowland, natural disasters, nature,
Form:
Ballad