Best Observed Poems
The sky shone gaunt gold
on the lip of the storm
before the anvil shaped clouds advanced
upon the burning margins of the world
Like a dream
the thunder rolled away
leaving cotton candy swirls
before a spreading dawn
Gentle white horse clouds appeared
pulling pastel chariots
bearing angels -
rainbows, tinted on their snowy wings
Down they plunged
gilt-edged, into a pit of pure white
popcorn clouds
Feeling God-like before
the breakfast service
I watched delicate washes of pale lavender
mist into daylight.
Dedicated to Connie Marcum Wong who worked as a flight attendant for many years.
LATE JULY 2018 STANDARD,ANY FORM OR NONE,ANY THEME,UPTO A MAX OF 20 lines
Contest Judged: 7/23/2018 10:59:00 AM
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
First Place
Cecil the Magician knew a heap of tricks,
But, alas, couldn't get himself out of this fix!
Carl was laid to rest for his eternal snooze,
Brought about by guzzling too much booze!
Pete was a rock-hard liberal Democrat.
Lord, be merciful and forgive him for that!
'Twas well-known that Cletus was such a crooked politician,
That he had to be screwed in the ground by the mortician!
Buster was shot while fencing his plunder.
Now he lies a-moldering six feet under!
Clarice was an avid tea party conservative Republican.
Democrats need her vote - Lord, convert her if you can!
Fred met his doom when his plane malfunctioned.
To make matters worse his parachute disfunctioned!
Here reposes the mortal shell of Marty McCall,
Who met his doom in a barroom brawl!
Bob sank without a trace and things looked grim.
He tried to tell them that he couldn't swim!
At last he found peace when he suddenly died,
But now his shrewish wife dwells by his side!
The doc warned him about all that cholesterol.
Too much meat and taters brought about his fall!
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
(c) 2015 All Rights Reserved
It was Friday night in small town, USA. The convenience store clerk was outside in the parking lot, arguing with her boyfriend. Instant recognition, one person is both clingy and aggressive, perhaps slightly inebriated, and jealous or insecure or having some sort of emotional semi-crisis. The other one has responsibilities and places to be, yet still wants to calm the first person down easy, get free for the moment while not burning the bridge just yet. I felt like telling her to drop that loser, but who knows?
Inside the store, three people are talking in a back corner, laughing and leaning against a freezer and the store walls. The now-returned clerk greets the first person in the check-out line, a grizzled older man, wizened, almost, leathery skin over an impression of inner strength still, despite many hard years gone past. An 18-pack of beer and a carton of cigarettes and he's out the door, happy as a clam. Next is an urgent young woman, who just asks, "Where's your restroom?" The clerk points to the back corner where the three people are laughing up a storm. Off the young woman goes, with all possible speed.
Then, a kicking and a pounding, doorknob rattling. "Hey, hey - there's somebody in there!" The three people are trying to set the young woman straight, but she's on a mission, and kicks the door again. From inside the room, another young woman's voice, not too pleased from the sound of it. She appears in a minute or so. Must be a party somewhere nearby - she's got plastic devil horns and a cat face painted on. With Miss Urgency, she exchanges epithets and imprecations, and then she too is out the door.
There is no bar in this town.
From age's vantage post
Romantic love found
Life's journey bound
A duet without a sound
Waves crashing on the coast
Eyes glancing, breath by breath
Without any thought of death
From one generation to another
We merge to discover
A moment of perfect symmetry
A Winter’s night observed by: Steven Hudson
Tranquility mounts in the silence of the moment,
Snow glistens from the branches of a full moonlight
Contrasting darkness’s shadowy backdrop,
A gentle calm breeze permeates the air,
Stillness, listening, as this wonderland envelops you
For a season an instant another land transports you
Apparent breath exhaled, a machine fearfully and wonderfully made
In wilderness, frozen and wild that is fearfully and wonderfully made
Green boughs heavy in blankets of snowy white
Black branches barren and void, form lines, into the starry night
Crystals flutter, sparkle and swirl on lumined plains spread out beneath,
On A winter’s night observed, a winter’s night of peace.
By your word
My Creator's thoughts
Mean a lot
Electric
Energetic
A colleague of mine
Said it's only a matter of time
Your book you write someday
You will have lots to say
Take this as my testimony
You are writing a love story
As said by my Father
The greatest storyteller
You have sight
I got this one right
What I thought was far gone
This man saw beyond
God's creation of arts
Led me back to the heart
Evil met its defeat
I searched deep
Jesus Christ conquered also honored
Wears his crown with valour
God held strong
Said my dear you saw beyond
Lord never leaves
The heart which believes
Our Lord gave from his drink
Regardless of what others may think
Grace from above
Honor of our love
Our Father's warm embrace
Found itself upon my face
Embraced our change
We were renamed
Growing around the melody of his birds
Whistle in love heard
Kept our Lord's truth
Knew within my youth
You micro manage our performance
Like germs under a microscope
Always watching probing controlling
We are never free but nor are you
All of us are observed from afar
Morn's great beauty
Each unique sunrise
Varied colors_ shades
Decorate sky
Evening's beauty
In setting sun
Artistry observed
Contest:Shanzi
Sponsor:Joann Grisetti
Form: Shanzi
as we become the observer
soul and spirit, one in prayer
our cognition becomes single
with all forms, our spirit mingles
seeing, as does the Creator
31-July-2021
I look around and what I see
A world built on war not peace
Conform, comply or be deceased
We will not fight, morale decreased
This is what I have come to observe
The commodity you choose is the god you serve
The power it possesses is beyond all words
A competitive game defining our worth
No argument I hear can ever justify
We watch people suffer, we watch them die
Victims of simply believing a lie
Those ignored, to whom we don't provide
Living in complete ignorant bliss
The majority of you will bypass this
Blinded by the sweet materialistic kiss
Can't be bothered by that which you've missed
A glacial breeze drifted off the headland of near death,
And she breathed a breath almost as though her last,
The rat tailed airwaves scrammed her moistened cheek
For she pin-wheeled and spun when the train thundered past.
That train, she closely observed, reeking of livestock filth,
And reams of dead-letters held in convict-sewn sacks,
Whistled and swerved on grinding silver rails, rattling steel,
As the smoking carriage windows hammered black as chimney stacks.
In the stink of diesel and the acrid reek of engine oil
Hovered vulture-like the lovers in her memories of before,
Floating on the slithered thermals as the heat bestowed them life,
To screech and goad with stabbing beak, rend and tear with jagged claw.
At the drizzling backdrop station, upon the platform slicked with ice,
Turning from the dizzy edge and sitting back upon the bench,
She sobbed into the solitude of earthquakes shifting by,
Gulping roasting flesh into her throat and heaving at the stench.
Then bemoaning all the chances that her craven will had missed,
To throw herself before it as a warrior on a sword,
The next one shuddered to a halt, in blasts of smoke and squealing,
Then the mocking speak your weight machine said coldly: “All aboard!”
Eyes observed you
Chandeliers like tears that will drop down to your very feet
Lighten what I've said and somehow made the conversation quite complete
Mirrored walls reflect the sun to bounce around to then be spun to what we really seek
Journey through elaborate halls with pictures grabbing to recall later while you're in bed asleep
A library full of books that ancestors before had taken years to look and wiser they must find themselves to have been
Ancient busts of learned men with high brow thoughts beyond outlooks that keep me looking for a mystical place I have not yet seen
Bedrooms grander and larger than needs for such and windows looking out to hook with rolling hills as pleasant as I have ever seen in dream
A ceiling so beautifully painted surprised me as I looked up as cherubim played loud trumpets and white billowy clouds surrounded them while doves would flock and to hear them sing whilst in slumber would surely wake you but while in deep sleep memories would surely pleasantly glean.
It is crazy
To be lazy
And lousy
To be mousy:
Of one naughty
Who chose to be haughty
And Snobbish
Who often mouths rubbish.
You can’t be chatty
And not hearty
Nor Natty
When you’re the fatty:
From almost every nit
Not a word of wit,
Everything mirroring a haze
For his longest gaze…
All these: What live observed
And should n’t want them reserved.
He wrote of his life when he was a boy
in a book he entitled, Surprised by Joy,
before he had met the Joy of his dreams.
Who was he? A jack of all faiths, it might seem.
This Jack, also known as C. S. Lewis,
chanced upon meeting - Joy Gresham, a Jewess.
He had regained his early faith in God
and she had rallied from a Marxist fraud.
When they wed, she had the dreaded “c” word;
for four years, a forest of pain flourished.
Jack’s mom had died of cancer when he was nine;
now fifty years hence, death’s new on his mind.
After Joy died, in his book, Grief Observed,
Jack wrote of what his wife Joy had preserved
namely, a deep search for God once again.
His faith was expanded by sharing her pain.
April 17, 2021
Sponsor Emile Pinet
Contest Name Imagism
Observed A Manifestation
Remember observing a mental manifestation,
That resulted from Trump's each frustration;
While we survive,
And remain alive;
He has been disturbed by a delicate situation.
Jim Horn
How did you like my interpretation
of Rodeheaver?