Best Mitigated Poems
His fragile limbs in a caged body
seeking proteins from ivy drips
vulnerable fears hushed by whirring darkness
paranoia draped in wavering existence of malady
sea of sick humans hanging like leaves from willow
mitigated by prayers of angels in white coats
yet lowered pulse rate in hopeful daylight
but his sumptuous mind holds the key to freedom
in deepest slumber his twisted cage breaks free
arising hopes float in ropes of subconscious mist
his smiling shadow traces whispers of memories
he sways his brittle fingers in ecstasy
shapes of smoke growing as titans in silence
his love is a ghost that the others can't see
exploding stars in topaz lit utopia paint
charcoal brush adorning sparkling bristles of love
colourful patterns on canvas of blank memory
flashing waves entrancing visions of kisses alight
blankets of amnesia in existence but he dances
on a hustling vintage platform emerging in fog
breeze in his red shirt chasing scarlet sunsets
he boards a crimson wagon longing for a journey
holding roses for Aphrodite in the land of swans
simmering in flashes of blooming glitters.
Rising dawn clicks the buttons in his mind
blank memories, ivy drips lock him away
in a caged body his fragile limbs rest
nobody knows he visits a soothing paradise
fog curls under his pillow in deep oceans
till slithering hazy sapphire nights arrive
July 20, 2020
Delirium Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
~Premiere Contest Winner: 1st Place
Categories:
mitigated, analogy, symbolism,
Form:
Free verse
(ALLITERATION)
Cows milked: mitigated mooing in the meadows then
Weaving on the warp, some workaholic women
Harvest of hapless halibuts on hooks
Bookish book-worms buried in books
A palomino and a pony patter on the paving
Hucksters and hawkers hawking every housing.
Ravers out on the razzle raising a raucous razz-ma-tazz
Beavers busy building beaver-dams but about it quite blasé.
Doves cooing in divine chorus
Frogs frisking out of focus
Horoscopes are hocus pocus.
Tidal waves of tsunami treacherously tread
Sea-anemones scattered upon the sea-bed.
Geraniums genuflecting in jungle-like gardens
Hunters wary of wandering wild-life wardens.
All this when I ventured about videotaping
Nature's much nicer even with no landscaping
These are direly different scenes from different parts of the globe
Perhaps like a space probe's kaleidoscopic poetic probe
( this poem has every letter of the alphabet except x)
Categories:
mitigated, imagery, poems, writing,
Form:
Alliteration
Sedoka... 5-7-7-5-7-7
morning marinate
merge in lost meditation
losing all irritation
absorb, marinate
line up on new principle
marinate in new precept
of morning session
evaluate marinate
accept life’s renewed menu
bind the old concept
leave concepts of strife behind
enter dawn of a new day
as in eagle’s flight
I have mitigated wings
unlimited potential
power essential
infinite infinity
I advance in destiny
===========
In Honor of Nette
And contest: In 24 hours
By John Moses Freeman
Categories:
mitigated, devotion,
Form:
Sedoka
In the strait of straight talk
Twain shall be able to walk
One twin of twain often mocks
Causes me, myself and I am talks
When human concepts flip
Love gives us worthwhile tips
Of new wine time to take a sip
Wisdom of Love is ocean’s dip
When old wine has become inept
`Tis time to remember where love is kept
Into the serpent the mind doth flip
a serpent logic stem, ill equipped
Evil was not of Love created
of human mind was meditated
ample proof is worldly integrated
~ Though tis of love mitigated
What has been said…
has already been read…
time and time again
add new message blend!
least consciousness suffer again!
Categories:
mitigated, love, time, love, time,
Form:
Rhyme
From an early age she yearned for something great
What it was she did not know, but she really couldn’t wait
For many interests she had, both large and small
Her love of animals and great friendships, she grew with them all
An insecure father who controlled all around
Was mitigated by mom until she was ground down
All added to the general confusion we experience early in life
But our values and strength of character help us with strife
That we continuously face over our time on this earth
Which produces some grit and grime that impedes our search
For that pinnacle of happiness, whatever it is
The finding for some is like taking a quiz
On subjects we don’t quite understand
With no guarantee to reach that promised of lands
Of joy, contentment, bliss, all words that describe
Whatever we believe is that ultimate ride
Her journey is similar to many of us
It’s good times and bad that cause a great fuss
Her strengths are vision and commitment to move towards a goal
Not letting “reality”, pain, or confusion take too great a toll
Understanding that it isn’t just reaching the end
But enjoying the journey and making sure you ascend
To that place of places we all want to be
Our true heart’s yearning, I think you’ll agree
For her specifically, that is to say for my wife
She’s given me all that I wanted in life
A great family including kids, dogs, cats, horses, and then some
And encouragement to go after a calling that was right under my thumb
She’s a great friend, and remarkably so
That I want her to have that additional glow
That comes from achieving her ultimate heart’s yearning
Making something out of nothing, using passion and life’s learning.
Categories:
mitigated, life, on work and
Form:
Couplet
This feedlot of ancestral glitter
how tiresome, now a rummaged litter
a mitigated financed quitter
the addict, driven to mass rid stir!
As nature's boundaries pray beauty
the homeward bound, lost soul's forced duty
is to give in, give up, take booty
as dignity's rebuff thrives loosely!
Monopolizing wealth's consider
the numbers game, let live on bitter
your choice is here, from us, don't quiver
but take the drug, that made you sicker!
The addicts prayer is but a flicker
of hope to ride out, faith's endeavor,
as saying NO, still presses lever
insidious pressures force is ever!
The pushers living off receivers
to modify their conscious efforts
then vandalize the paycheck's rather
and hypnotize feeling together!
Categories:
mitigated, addiction, drug,
Form:
Monorhyme
A broken shell, a living hell, and all I'm left with now is my regret.
Better days ahead were a pipedream after our relationship crumbled. Countless arguments. Disagreements. Every day! For my life, I can't believe we stayed together as long as we did. God knows I didn't want her to leave me. How much longer must I wrestle with these painful memories?
I just feel regret, unspoken, I just feel the pain; since she left, my life has been a broken shell, a living hell — I can't believe I let her go; it was foolish pride before the fall the day she left when I lost all — I should have held her closer, I should have made her see the feelings I have for her, what she means to me; I didn't say I love her or beg her to stay, instead, I stood in silence and watched her walk away, and all I'm left with now is my regret.
Justification is an exercise in futility. Knowing what I could have and should have done leaves an inextricable switchblade in my soul. Love's lessons learned too late — love's loss too great.
Misting eyes beseech as memories replay in my head, but they're too painful, and I feel dead. No joy to be found. Oh well, my self-imposed hell. Painful memories open like an oubliette under my feet, plunging me lost and languishing in isolation's labyrinth. Questions left unanswered, decaying in the debris fields of "what if.”
Reflection can be a catharsis for the soul, but it can also rip a hole in it, and soon reality roars from guilt's bottomless pit to devour all hope. Sometimes despair is mitigated by occasional reminders of us. Thoughts lingering on happier times, blessed moments mine to treasure. Until the damnable loop of regret dominates to decimate any respite of joy. Vanishing expectations. Weeping willow's silent wail. Xerox memories fade with time.
Years have passed, and my thoughts continue to haunt me over what we could have had. Zero-sum game — all I'm left with now is my regret.
Categories:
mitigated, emotions, lost love, memory,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Yesterday is hell sifted away
tomorrow is heaven
a myth...
no bye, no aloha
complex married
misunderstood
unable to communicate
hate
a retaliating stranger who never saw first blood
eyes red
puddled with break down
habits grab for stimuli
the pill, the Beretta for the take down
longing to read, when ability limits him to simply write
this sophomoric curse
pain receptors dulled via sleep
yet the light pink demons creep
reminding blind self
nothing's mitigated
if only he could speak
Brahms whistles from the desk
supplementing a place in life
the creative act
a hard fought solitude
terrible and tremendous
weeks ago
jaws of life pried his body from a car full of lies
lucky to be alive
today
he's stuck in a room of no truths
where enemies pretend to be friends
and blood stains, like cries
never dry...
Yesterday is hell sifted away
tomorrow is heaven
a myth...
no bye, no aloha
Categories:
mitigated, abuse, addiction, angst, anti
Form:
Epic
I'm a strip of rainbow segregated
my profound uniqueness mitigated.
With self esteem
exalted to the extreme
I dare not speak of another's shade
for my color is not supreme.
"We are all different and all the same."
the bleeding hearts so bravely claim.
Those who possess
my exact train of thought
I, alone, tolerate.
So let us stay in true company
with clones only of ourselves
lest we discriminate.
Categories:
mitigated, anger, conflict, culture, rights,
Form:
Grook
Fields where the bondman’s toil
No more shall trench the soil,
Seem now to bask in a serener day;
The meadow-birds sing sweeter, and the airs
Of heaven with more caressing softness play,
Welcoming man to liberty like theirs.
A glory clothes the land from sea to sea,
For the great land and all its coasts are free.
From “The Death of Slavery” - Poem by William Cullen Bryant
On this August day unclouded and drenched by sun,
Millions gaze back down history’s road of red dirt
For a testimony in memory strong enough to assert
The four-century path of great wrong they had to run.
All men are created equal…that famous creed…
Spoke by the founders in bigotry and greed
To buy them a selfish liberty and us a silent grave,
To make narrow-minds reign and tolerance die,
And to raise their banner over the head of the slave,
Adding their mark of racism to God’s clear blue sky.
In our heart our souls await the Lord’s avenging day
And for the winds of heaven to waft and play.
Thank God for legs able to march four hundred years
And for arms strong enough to make the enemy flee.
We now plead by the Psalms of David to be free,
With words so grave as to not be eluded by ears.
No longer bewildered by the curse of Cain,
Undaunted we march with God’s justice to gain.
Our steps have caused the infringed land to quake,
As we roll on dreaming of our liberty to seize
A treasure that generations assayed to take,
Knowing deeply that nothing less will appease.
This four-century trek has mitigated our dread,
Preparing us to raise our banner over their head.
Though our wisdom can enable us to vilify injustice,
We must depend on God to defeat its monstrous sins--
For it is by His wisdom that the arc of justice bends,
And continue to show our faith for Him to trust us.
Four centuries we have called on God to break the chain
And return to us our strength and passion once again.
The day has come for us to stand and face the sunrise,
With a new spirit and a shout of joy for the new day.
We must now escape this virtual yoke of lies
And standfast in the liberty for which Christ did pay.
A hymn of thanks we sing for a long-awaited deliverance
And for the glorious liberty of the children of Providence.
Categories:
mitigated, anniversary, celebration, history, racism,
Form:
Rhyme
it ain't the gush of hot blood
or a madman’s teeth ripping open
a bag of chips and a microbrew
it is a clenched heart squeezed
by the age of steam
then left at the century's doorstep
following the great migration
of Cimmerians to Penemunde
said the monkey to the parrot
we’ll cut away from our intro now
just didn't want the intergalactic
Mind Police Black Dog Terror Squad
to think I had forgotten their food dish
hence the esophageal spasm
it's all a gateway to paradise
where Lake Placid can only erupt
I assure you posthumously volcanically
presumed dead perhaps alive
possibly a victim of hypochondria
needing humanitarian relief
hell what do I know
you got your deductive
you got your inductive
one leads to vacillation
the other to megalomania
I watched the best minds of my generation
lobotomize themselves with ideology
and lop their nuts off with paper cutters
less out of vengeance than mitigated tranquility
journalists were the first to go
many ifs in the Thesaurus of Legends
you see the words
you spectate pleasantly
inconsequential and obsolete
separated from the five senses
by the five in-between senses
sense of irony sense of outrage
sense of monotony sense of wonder
sense of mediocrity
and a great list of impermissibles
as long as your extended elbow
with curiosity the test of courage
discovering that the path of least aversion
was sweet to gaze upon
in a universe of distortions
this is a level 5 commando alert
follow me men he drunkenly commanded
and stumbled out into the darkness
cursing and singing
From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Artist Portfolio: http://walteralter.byethost32.com/
Categories:
mitigated, how i feel,
Form:
Free verse
Inch past spiteful inch I crawl my way out of this hole.
Whilst this screech columned cylinder connected to
my soul sustains a silent scream, residing incandescent in
my chest. And fledgling veins support my effort for early release.
Flexible nails sit upon freshly formed fingers, each
numb with the ache of force and trying. And though I
have toiled an age, I am still beginning. I must remain
centric. Of one world and one importance. Singular.
Or this tomb will be my elegie. A damned soul offered
no act of contrition. This womb. This suffocating wet,
assails the skin about my strengthening heart. And
burned eyes with ripped sight guide my way passed the
asphyxiating roots of fear clawing at me. Restraining me.
Molasses to my conviction. Dismissed compassion gouging
and scratching at my clenched mouth. With only travails and
constant effort knowing I take this journey alone.
Nourished shafts of light, encircling the very darkness
that envelops me, stream toward my upturned crown.
Like blades of white hot stilettos carrying messages from
my future
And, my universe pushed before me, finally breaches
this foul hole. Releasing mitigated screams of outrage and
indignity at the defiled act carried out against me. I strived
for salvation but instead was born
Categories:
mitigated, birth, universe,
Form:
Free verse
WHEN HOPE TURNED TO DOPE
My memories of yesterday are hazy at best
Perhaps they’ve faded away at retribution’s request
Yet somehow I remember popcorn and pop-guns as a child
And then came seventeen when I discovered poppy plants grow wild
My adolescent days are difficult to recall
I hardly remember too many of them at all
But with great difficulty I found a way to cope
For then came seventeen when I discovered dope
I remember she and me holed up in a seedy hotel
It wasn’t but should have been dubbed “Hotel Hell’
Because that’s where the shadows of its hallways had finally led
While I was shooting up on the floor and she upon the bed
In the land of the rising sun is from where the powder came
And there was no one except she and I to blame
Somehow slanted eyes knew precisely what to do
And how to make heroin from the poppies they all grew
We’d checked into that hotel with empty luggage in tow
We left them behind so the clerk never knew when we’d go
We ran up a charge for room service to order up some food
But the dope we had injected mitigated hunger’s mood
Seventeen is now coming upon seventy too fast
And ever fades the remembrances of a very shady past
They are mostly visions my mind commands me not to save
However before I turned twenty I was visiting six very good friend’s grave
© 2011.…..free cee!
Categories:
mitigated, angstme,
Form:
Quintain (English)
Ah Vegas
You call me now
In ways no longer reserved
For asylum jingles or perverse tours of duty
Those missions have been won
Decorated in myth
Perpetuated by views and cues
As wartorn players revel
In memories
Gaunt from melted time
Quantum distance
And duty laden with mirth-like urgency
Oh Vegas
You're still my girl
Always fond of freedom's sweets
You lavishly pour my way
I still promenade with the throngs
The cousins you deliver upon arrival
All in tandem, synced in mood
Joy tendered from precious metals
Imported by the river's greedy decree
Flowing in by buckets
Trickling out by accidental drops
Leaked from diseased spittoons
I watch this
Through eyes singed by hemlock's past
Through windows sealed by labor's virtue
Balance, I conclude
Has been achieved
As past wickedness
Forced hands
Grips firmly in rhythm
The beat remains yet modulates
To soulful prancing and mitigated madness
Since these glowing tapestries
These ardent vats adorned
By Satan's grotto
No longer sting of zest and legend
Which endure through
Dust, illusion and amplified pride
Meant to inspire the next of kin
The bonus babies
Destined to sketch
The next chapters of glee gone awry.
(6/16/08)
Categories:
mitigated, celebration, crazy, desire, evil,
Form:
Free verse
Specious logic, serpentine manoeuvres, designed to disorient heart and mind, with a view to securing a psychological advantage are seen through by centred presence, which yet humorously indulges the play underway awhile, that the adversary’s eventual sense of triumph be not mitigated by discordant rejoinders proposed by lower mind, having recognised that ephemeral waves of the ocean rise and subside in time as ordained, melding with the vastness.
performing our role
as dreams within dreams unfold ~
let us smile awhile
01-December-2022
Categories:
mitigated, dream, humanity, uplifting,
Form:
Haibun