Best Neumann Poems
Travel light, my dear; softly go
beyond the night’s each black shadow
to another plane. Out of sight
exists a realm of such delight
you may find relief from sorrow!
Lay your head on your pillow.
Sink into the Now. Tomorrow
comes soon enough, but for tonight
travel light!
Let the sweet magic start to flow -
angel wings sweeping over snow
it may seem, or a rainbow bright!
Close your eyes, Darling, and take flight!
In Dreamland you soon will be, so
travel light!
Written Jan. 15, 2017 for the Travel LIght Contest of Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, dream, Lullaby,
Form:
Rondeau
Behind a chair
Below a desk
with my bare feet on a wall, in my flannel pajama or a wet swimming suit,
With my hands on my peanut butter and jelly toast,
marmalade, not cherry or anything else
Next to an ocean, ignoring the smell,
Lying in a hammock or in the grass, even on a sandy gritty beach towel.
Listening to children’s giggles, being dripped on
by wet swimming suits running past
I can devour a pile of books.
History, science, animal facts, jokes, limericks, Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Coleridge, Poe.
When one grabs me and throttles me to pay attention I am lost….
I am no longer a mere mortal.
I am in a microscope, under a kitchen floorboard, in a tulip’s leaf,
I am a faery, a T-rex, a Stormtrooper, a police detective.
In a treehouse,
High above my neighbors, not hearing them at all,
Yet subconsciously hearing everything,
I learned to be a book worm, reading Agatha Christie first….
Written 3-08-19
Contest: The Bookworm Poetry Contest Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, books,
Form:
Free verse
In a mire brewed
betwixt puddles of hell and mute dissent
a martyr wades -
weighed down by chains of shame and disdain
alas the thirsting self-absorbed swamp
distills and swills her stewed silence
and swallows the last embers
from her goblet of dreamer’s fire
pursed breaths are pickpocketed by the shallows
in a breathless vertical twist
an escapist is lost in the swirl of a chambered nautilus
distanced and deserted in the dance of descent
stillness belies the waterline’s greed
as a heroine’s salvage is suffocated -
the slick of self-appointed apathy anoints the surface
and a disquieted wind rises to bend the will of reeds
their flutes airing plainsong in forced supplication
yet carelessly cast away like spindrift from broken crests
while storm clouds blindfold wide-eyed skies
stifling any play of sun on water
Susan Ashley
May 1, 2020
~ Third Place ~
Premiere Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 1
Sponsor: Mark Toney
~ Fourth Place ~
Premiere Contest: Spiral
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, angst, conflict, dark, depression,
Form:
Free verse
In emerald dreams of a romantic isle
Beholden to your signature smile
Kiss me tender in secrets of runes
Cuddled in arms of a sensuous moon
Attach a note to verses of love
Tell me once more--the song's forever
Align yourself in visions lavender
Surfing the winds on butterfly wings
Chasing blossoms of lilac flowers
Hugging the banks of a giggling river
Reject the confused subconscious vibes
That contort the truth dwelling in lies
Yearning to win your seal of acceptance
And, oh my dear, be forewarned
Of glittering metals--prone to corrosion
Imitating designs of genuine jewels
Befriended by unscrupulous people
Is it any surprise that the golden sun
Rises for you on the tangerine arc
And paints your hues in purple splendor
Inscribing there in colors of spectrum:
My love for you shall remain eternal
September 5, 2019
HM: Strand special 10 by Brian Strand
Ten word challenge 1 poetry contest
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
Required words in order presented:
signature, cuddled, attach, align, confused,
subconscious, contort, seal, corrosion, surprise
Categories:
neumann, love, romantic,
Form:
Verse
Mama says this is where
I was born on a stormy night
the benignant horn was where
she'd paused to breathe and reside
The bounteous hollow took her in
and echoed my cries and coos
spiralling down the springs
to protect me as if I were Zeus
I slide along the spirals
to quench my itching thirst
a joyous melody in the hollow
and palatable unceasing food
When it rains we glide to be dry
it shields us from the biting frost
when it snows and humans sing
of the ballads of festive days
At nights I crawl and climb
to the window of that horn
and watch the lavender starry sky
she recites stories of distant worlds
Sweet symphonies of chirping birds
wake me up on fragrant mornings
at times I step outside the door
to wander in some nearby forest
"Do you stay inside that cornucopia?"
A giant cub questioned me one day
I looked at Mama with my little black eyes
and wished to know the same
"Honey, this is our humble dwelling
that nurtures us, protects us, loves us
as if this was the great destiny
of a humble horn of spirals
This is our door to a beautiful heaven
with aromatic clouds and winged doors
this will be the blissful abode of tiny beetles
who lived happily in a divine cornucopia"
9th May 2020
For Cornucopia Poetry Contest
Sponsored By: Kai Michael Neumann
Premiere Contest Winner: First Place
BRIAN'S CHOICE 10,any form,any theme Contest
Winner: Honorable Mention
Categories:
neumann, home,
Form:
Free verse
silvery grey moon
kisses the shimmering lake
romance fills the air
Moon Spoon Contest
Sponsored by Kai Michael Neumann
12~18~16
Categories:
neumann, moon, romantic,
Form:
Haiku
(one-act play)
The patient
They call it a sickness, a psychosis, an insanity, but I know: this is the leverage
by means of which I can set the wheels of the universe in motion. All I need is to find the last fragment they hide from me in the thorazine haze, and the bevel gears of this rickety old, long derelict mechanism will work again.
The medical board resolution:
“…schizophrenic… unruly… incurable, liable for drowning in the hospital’s sinkhole”.
1st psychiatrist
(looking at the sky)
Don't you think the Sun slowly moves across the sky today?
2nd psychiatrist;
It’s an illusion, my friend. It’s an illusion.
01.06.2019
Eight Word Challenge Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, world,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Elysian ellipses of poetry's pride...
a literary litany that draws from
sunlit and moonlit
eloquent emanations ensuing
silent shadows that follow
mystical movement,
integrating intrigue.
Passion and beauty
fuel fecund imaginations
expressed from a Bard's bucolic
and loquacious,
luscious machinations,
sharing a gem of their soul.
Wrap me in your
timeless treasures and
leave me to bask breathless
in poetry's pride!
4-26-20
Cornucopia Poetry Contest ~Second Place~Premiere contest
Sponsored by: Kai Michael Neumann
April is Poetry Month. Celebrate Poetry!
Categories:
neumann, poetry,
Form:
Alliteration
Whenever I walk inside I feel at home;
enraptured, from shelf to shelf I roam
till a book catches my eye
as I flitter by
smell sends me
high
rapidly
while senses comply
inner needs to satisfy,
like a bee that sips a honeycomb...
whenever I walk inside I feel at home.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Contest by Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, books,
Form:
Rhyme
Italian restaurant; pasta and wine - red, like the eyes of a bat,
Screeching from a cave, dark as the eyes of a snowman,
Coal plucked from a bucket, the mop was deposed -
By the broom, new sovereign of all instruments
Resound with the trumpet on Everest’s peak
High as a clown doused with vodka,
Watery eyes drip deep to the void.
Abyss without meaning that threatens to consume all life -
In an Italian restaurant.
Makeup: lonely face and painted smile
Dark hole: crying into nothing
Hell exists after all. It claws towards me,
Dragging me down and holding me tight.
Then I am lifted, eyes flashing.
It is my turn at the abyss….
Another stares down to me as I reach up with spindly hands.
Seaweed turtle abyss
Smoke, Poodles! Mystic Weed.
Touching on my friends tweed.
Baloomp he goes as his red nose falls off.
Falling to the ground forever like a knife at my throat.
Help me the glassy shine remains, slicing through the endless vacuum of time.
Below may be aliens, enemies, frenemies, or even God? But all I know is the megladown stops me from reaching thee in the black hole below and above- an abyss of loss an abyss of soul an abyss of time has made me its fool. Baloomp he says to me. Awakened I see nothing. Nothing. Nothing and me.
28 February 2020
Written for "Clown at the Abyss" contest, sponsored by Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, allegory, conflict, confusion, corruption,
Form:
Free verse
A helical "Slinky" type coil
Compresses or springs without toil,
It’s spiral at times,
Or stretched to the nines...
Like worms that are happy in soil!
Beneath or on top of the ground,
They stretch, but so often lie wound,
Their tunnels air earth
To make healthy dirt
And seedlings are glad they’re around!
February 21, 2015
Premiere Contest: Spiral
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, earth, growth, spring,
Form:
Limerick
between pages
of biology book
prankster presses worm
AP: 3rd place 2020
Submitted on March 9, 2019 for contest THE BOOK WORM sponsored by KAI MICHAEL NEUMANN - RANKED 1ST
Categories:
neumann, books, humor, word play,
Form:
Senryu
And why? We often ask and wonder- why
does this small Earth revolve in time and space-
a microscopic speck- diminished by
the boundless vastness of the universe,
unending and unknown? Why are we here?
We go from birth to death upon a sphere
we customized to fit our needs; caught up
in galaxies of mini-worlds we made-
of bustling cities, growing industries,
complexities of homes and families,
of governments, religions, schools, and those-
of our own selves. We ask- what lies beyond
the realm of joys and comforts, or the woes
these bring; beyond our cloudy atmospheres
of love and peace, of war, disease, and crime?
And what, we ask, what mammoth plan could this-
this tiny particle of cosmic dust
encrusted with the scale of human strife
be part of? Matter not the what or why-
the unsolved heavens or eternal scheme!
Enough- enough, for now, to deal with life
and death- and all those worlds that lie between-
in this, our tiny universe named Earth-
a strange, complex dimension all its own.
October 6, 2014
~2nd Place~
Contest: Out Of The Box
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
Judged:01/09/2017
~2nd Place~
Contest: Structured Forms - Iambic Verse
Sponsor: Giorgio A. V.
Judged: November 6, 2014
Categories:
neumann, earth, life, philosophy, universe,
Form:
Blank verse
Just when twilight and dawn finally mesh
in the quiet passage of breaths released...
there in that moment, I witness
a thousand wishes dancing
through the shadows of my mind,
each and every one in the form of chiaroscuro
marked by restless eclipses black to white.
The yearning streaks of a journey
creating long and endless days
as season's rhythms cross the border
etched on zodiac whirls : a pathway dictated
by calibrated blows of a horn trilling spaces
in moments caught in the web of hours, to seize
glimpses held by ticks of banged pendulums.
I find myself wrapped tightly in spaces
that I can hardly breathe or pause--
when a traffic of former, present chapters
slices the glide offered by life
as chain-link of minutes quickly grinds
collecting people and milestones
along railways, while I desperately try
to escape the rising and falling by moon-sun,
endlessly bartering for more grace...
dear swinging time, you rob my " now"
through your eternal, impertinent ride.
Pendulum Of Time and Space Contest
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
Re-Posted 5/24/2017
Categories:
neumann, introspection, time,
Form:
Lyric
Don’t pack your shoes, clothing, or any jewelry.
In fact, leave your wallet and your keys.
Even leave your laptop and your cell phones
with all their data that you’ve stored on them.
Bring no coat or sweater. I don’t know how the weather
will be where you are going,
but I imagine it will be fantastic!
Everyone alive upon this planet
will take the trip you will be embarking on.
Multitudes have gone ahead of you.
The rich man and the poor man too -
nobody ever will get left behind.
No passport is required where you’ll soon be going,
and I say “soon” because even if you live a hundred years,
that century is less than a mere second compared to an eternity of time!
When it’s your time to go, I hope it will be painless.
Some souls, I know, endure great suffering before they leave.
But for many others, it’s a bittersweet release from Earth’s disease.
No man can say with certainty where you will be going.
Perhaps you will return to this planet or maybe to another
with valuable lessons yet to be learned.
Perhaps where you are going you’ll be welcomed
by loved ones who have gone on ahead of you.
Perhaps you’ll suffer anguish for a time
for some past sins, but in the end, I truly do believe
something big and beautiful awaits us all.
The intracacies of creation; the wonder of worlds we’ve yet to see -
these things let me know there’s purpose in it all!
When your body is dead weight,
you’ll abandon it for this final journey,
for one day, the essence that is you
will flee the mortal shell that now confines it.
Though weightless, the powers of your soul are limitless.
When my own soul releases,
I’m hoping to enjoy that ride most mysterious
into the great beyond. . .
For sure, I’ll be travelling light!
Sept. 27, 2017 for the Travelling Light Poetry Contest of Kai Michael Neumann
Categories:
neumann, destiny,
Form:
Free verse