Best Ousted Poems
(The news of the death of dear and near ones reaching us on a daily basis has left me thinking of the transitoriness of life and hence this poem)
Is not our life a wave of energy coursing through ether
Just like flickering flames or fleeting gleams that fly
Which when stopped, like a weed scorched by the sun
Or a tree felled down by a merciless axe, we will die
Is not our life a theatrical performance,
Where we don the roles we are assigned
Some, playing the roles of tyrants or kings
While some act as meek minions consigned
Is not our life a voyage through rough seas
Where we paddle on and on over billowing tide
Never asking where we are heading to
Nor knowing through what currents we ride
Is not our life the footprints left on sandy shores
Washed away instantly by the incoming wave
Not able to measure their length or width
Or be traced as they immediately cave
Is not our life as illusory as the mirage of the desert
Staying beyond our grasp and endlessly deluding
Soothing like an oasis among the dunes of sand
Sometimes like a nightmare awfully distressing
Is not our life a little space lying somewhere
Between our infant cradle and our grave
Where we have struggled to secure our slot
But soon ousted by others who for our place crave
Still we live on, never in despair but in hope
That beyond this mortal life and its tangled ties
Somewhere for us, eternity’s mighty portals await
To harbor our souls when from deep slumber we rise!
“death approaches but we have no regret ~
when God questions us, we will stand erect”
When Death resolutely comes
With his deadly summons
Tarry not like a galley slave
But like a courteous host behave.
Do not waver and do not droop
As if you are to be hung on a loop
Never dread lying under the dust
Within the narrow vault thrust.
When God questions us, let us stand erect
Our life should be worthy that we won’t have any regret
Obey God’s command and place Him above all
Love your neighbour with your heart and soul.
If so, when ousted out of terrestrial space
We will be enfolded into God’s embrace
Know, it is only when seeds rot
That fresh and florid lives sprout
When death comes and it’s time to go
Strut like an indomitable foe
With swinging hands and head held high
To be welcomed by angels of the sky.
There will be the music of clanging cymbals
And the rising rhythm of sounding bells
With all claim, into a kingdom, bright and cheerful
We shall enter, that is far radiant and blissful.
“With grandeur and beauty melded into rhyme, poetry is painting
that is felt than seen”
by Poet
From my window I lazily watch,
The phenomenal transition from dusk to night.
The evening’s brilliance giving way to twilight haze,
And the reddened sky turning sallow as a sick patient.
Darkness like downy feathers descending,
Wrapping the Earth in a gray woolen mantle.
Light and darkness embracing in a breathless kiss,
Like shocking colors blended on a wide canvas!
The night has now grown mysterious and enigmatic,
Putting the weary Nature into indolent repose.
Before my eyes, stretches a vast plane,
Whose boundaries have dimmed beyond all trace.
Here and there some monstrous shapes peek out.
I see the dark silhouettes of trees supine,
Brooding sage like, in the thickening gloom.
I watch the wide panorama lying still,
And the clear star-spangled sky above.
The moon has begun her stately round.
In flashing dress, she swaggers past the clouds,
As if patrolling to guard the sleeping Earth.
She has taken the place of the ousted king of the day.
A calming breeze caresses my face and ruffles my hair.
Though darkness envelops all around me,
I hear the whispered promise of a day that shall soon unfold.
As I hear this rhythm of Nature falling in my ears,
In every beat, I hear God’s kind of poetry recited.
Looking at this night, God’s artwork of sheer beauty,
I feel heaven has descended down to Earth.
Never is a moment more glorious than this,
When darkness has accentuated the heavenly lights!
Jan. 23. 2023
~ Placed Second~
Submitted forStrand Premiere. No.1196
. Poetry Contest
2022, Marathon Mile. 25. Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Mark Toney
Most restful sleep since... being in utero
Courtesy restless leg syndrome
spouse called me expletive rat fink
ousted me out the bed with plink
as lovely bones almost got extinct,
whence consoled self singing ditty
Skidamarink a-dink a-dink
makeshift burrow of pillows nsync
shuteye analogous to grateful dead,
Elysian Fields I did drink
yours truly fast asleep
found repose within eyeblink
awoke rested minus
knotted knobs entire body kink
metaphorical twisted human pretzel,
yours truly did not shrink
though disabled to walk,
hence mobility regressed
circumscribing me ambulatory
range to crawl and slink,
no matter paralyzed
(albeit temporarily), I think
above mentioned rectifies
Quandary whereat legs
shimmy and shake
keeping the missus awake
she requires daily at least
twenty four hours
of beauty rest to slake
lest she renders me into
chopped liver and/
or skewered beefcake
nuttin I divulge "fake,"
courtesy this corny flake,
who years gone by
a scoundrel and rake
straying against marital fidelity
triggering psychological earthquake
present crisis pits less at stake,
thus forgive wordplay
much more age
appropriate than pattycake,
perhaps slight hyperbole
thee only literary gambit
up figurative sleeve,
me ain't no magician,
nor gifted with holiness
able to walk across lake
thus harmlessly,
kiddingly, purposelessly...
cavort, frolick,
before darkness, when I
unduly forced to betake
self and disappear hoping the morrow
will find most bushy tailed wideawake.
Human being shell sleep no more,
Lubits has murdered our sleep forever
Right up we must get to the hard truth
and not blind out the fact
that our wisdom and common sense
should not have been overestimated more
in certain crucial circumstances
when we have got access even for instance
to the limitless power and possibilities,
as it happened in French Alpes,
when Lubits tempted deadly by the very thought and way
that he will might turn airbus to the crash
for instance filling the God legacy and omnipotence.
Entirely all deals and events
which demanded limitless power and responsibility,
limitless calculations,
limitless competence and preciseness
and limitless hard works and efforts
might be totally excluded
from our control and assessment,
we might got all this staff
to the autopilot guiding
of modern technologies, GPS and other computations
that works much more better
without any human intervention
for the very working processes.
Mr. Al Gore knew something about it
when he planned the Global system
of autopilot security services.
for the benefits and survive people
in the modern jungle of high tech.
You judge the Lubits atrocious action
which lead to murder of 150 passengers,
yes, you are right but also we must judge
the Sirian dictator and North Korean Kim Chen Yn
and national lieder of Russian Federation
and hundredth other persons
sticking up deadly to limitless power and rule,
we must judge also religions, traditions
which despised the freedom of person
and right of women and children
and entire world must switch on
to the Global safety infrosracture.
Human shall sleep no more,
Lubits has murdered our sleep.
If someone held limitless power
even for instance
close to us or at far distance,
its mean the world goes down to precipice.
God please help us
expelled out and ousted
the myriads our tirans and autocrats
in power and in preparation, in family
in our soul and in our mentality.
Human being shell sleep no more,
Lubits has murdered our sleep forever.
http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Eleanor-Rigby-II-Zamir-Osorov/9781482830385?
Some crows living in a banyan tree in a jungle
wanted to see themselves as peacocks.
They wished to dance like peacocks in the rain .
So , they wore the fallen feathers of the peacocks,
and if those were not available , their artificial feathers.
They claimed that their forefathers were peacocks ,
and named the banyan tree the " Peacock Tree ,"
discarding the earlier name given by their ancestors !
As the years rolled by, some nomadic peacocks
in various forums , both inside and outside the jungle
claimed the "Peacock Tree "and surrounding places
as their ancestral home.
They contended that , long ago ,
the crows started migrating there from other places
and identified themselves as descendants of peacocks.
As their population increased much more
than that of the peacocks over time
they ousted the peacocks from their home .
Some learned crows decried the tale presented
by the peacocks as fictitious ,stating that
the "Peacock Tree" was not the original name
of the tree they had been living under for so long.
They also refused the claim that the peacocks were
the forefathers of the crows,as had been asserted
long ago.
The claims and counterclaims were ongoing.
(First in the Poetry Contest, entitles "ALLEGORY (Fables and Parables)" sponsored by Crystol Woods.)
A dry peninsula without internal flowing waters
anointed with the ointment of incredible prosperity
massaged by the fat hands of uncommon wealth
and covered by tight-fitting over-alls,
made out of an expanding economic might.
One of its regions has been so globally popularized,
ousted the bench-marks of global prides time and time again
from its fleet of speeders dedicated to its agents of the law
to the breath-taking amusement park which is second to none.
Is it the driver-less and longest fully automated metro network?
Or the raised shoulders of the princess tower and the marina?
These are the starting point of a majestic economic run.
Does excellently well in showcasing its power and might,
commanding the hearts of men to its irresistible attraction.
The Burj Khalifa and manmade Islands;
J W Marriott Marquis and the world’s most inclined building,
are among others to cherish and to admire.
On the way coming among many others
are the masdar city and prestigious museums
with a tax free income, a cheap and accessible fuel
it’s not surprising internationals and expatriates
outnumber the actual citizens eleven to one.
Wealth from underground is its glory,
bordering the large waters is its fortune,
the display of its ability is its honour,
diversifying the sources of its coins is its wisdom.
Opening up to the world to lessen a conservative view
is its ultimate gain.
===================
Ousted by None but the Night
Arabic Poem by: Adnan Abu Andalus*
Translated by:
Inaam Al-Hashimi (Gold_n_silk)
===============
The dusty street is bare
Darkness there and the horizon
As if, the night was sprinkling fear
Nothing there
But a policeman followed like a ghost
A street cat
A wailing ambulance
All where time is open for running
Endlessly
Who would stroll in the range of bullets?
To come back in the morrow like a spinning top
Without a head?
Who would walk alone?
And fly off with the meekness of the past
In Baghdad’s night?
Who would believe that AlZawraa held her lungs
And ousted the breath of her patrons?
And that “Abu Nawas” replaced
His last glass of wine
With a cup of black coffee?
Shahriar uttered it
To protest shampoo ads!
Scheherazade wore the veil
Bad boys of the night
Shunned flirting with girls
In the Girls Street.
______
Translated December, 2012
By: Em. Prof. Inam Al-Hashimi
USA
* Adnan Abu Andalus is a poet from Iraq
from his poetry collection “The Smell of Doomsday”
________________________________________
1 Knowing some of the history of ancient Baghdad may be helpful in facilitating better understanding of the poem. Baghdad was famous as the center place of the “Arabian nights” or the "Thousand and One Nights Tales" where Scheherazade, night after night, told the king Shahryar a different tale of romance and adventure to keep him from killing her in the morning.. Ancient Baghdad, nicknamed "AlZawra’a", was known for receiving, with open arms. night-patrons in joy and without fear. The poem refers to the glamorous past of Baghdad in comparison with the grim and gloomy nights of modern Baghdad after the war. In doing so, the poem mentions some symbols of the past and historical figures from old Baghdad and the Golden Age of the caliph Haroun al-Rashid (died 809 AD), and presents them in images contrary to their characters. Such figures include the licentious poet “Abu Nuwas" who wouldn’t recite poetry without being drunk. And the afore mentioned Scheherazade and Shahryar.
___________________________________
I read the title as
U - nite- as
three syllables - hard I
And I marveled that a female poet would
write of U Johnny
and looked hurriedly down the page
hoping to read
Of your years leading the Colts
(who were in Baltimore then)
on gimpy knees and guts
when a player
who had it
had balls
not a multi-million $dollar$ contract,
a side deal with a shoe company and....
and of the anger as you
were pushed from the color commentary
by younger has-beens
and sank into muddle-aged oblivion
However, I misread the title
uni - tas
two syllables - soft I
An homage to Aiende and Chile
a democratically elected socialist government
ousted by a CIA-backed military coup
to maintain control over strategic copper
but those days are over
and today the country
produces wonderful, cheap wine
and farmed fish
So I wrote this poem
for U
Written sometime in 1977-1978 on reading Dorthy Livesay's poem from Ice Age - which can be found here
http://envoifound.com/envoi-poetry-festival/poets-dead-or-alive/dorothy-livesay-october-12-1909-december-29-1996/
The most sorrowful and gruesome story ever told
begins with the man who crossed the waters and heights
carrying thirty and some unquenchable suns on his head,
the man who walked in the rain and wind with thirty and more moons on his shoulders.
For he looked like a slim and tender early spring shoot
that is rooted out from a rough and dry soil, and, therefore,
having no beauty to attract others, he was rejected;
having no majesty worth honoring or respect, he was despised;
and because he was acquainted with no comfort but suffering
he was ousted to the hill named Skull at last under pouring lashes with a cross on his back.
Although the stories of his own that he told to the mountains were sad and painful, and written on the waters were sorrowful and lamentable, he enabled to hold himself by the faith he held
in his friends who were always close by and shared a day’s burden with him. Although the cup he took at Gethsemane was bitter and stringent, it enabled him to take it through friendship
he was reassured through a broken piece of bread and a cup of wine he shared with them, surrounding the last banquet table
that is beautifully shaded in red from the color of setting sun.
It seemed impossible though,
under a most disgraced humiliation,
he gave out himself to the pain that was unbearable,
he upheld a wooden pillar high in air with the spike pierced hands and feet at the hill called Skull. And it was possible only because he held warm memories in his heart, the remembrance
of a loaf of bread he broke and dipped a piece in the reddened evening sun and drank it from the one same cup with his beloved friends.
After a man of such tragic life has gone,
after a man who lived through such distasteful life had left,
the most sorrowful and gruesome story ever told ended as a tale that year after year,
since then, the man returns as a dew-landed lonely lily
in an early April morning on the other side of the footmarks
he left behind, smeared with a drop of blood darker than
the sunset ray.
Those that went before him
Were promised an orphan
By the brutality of the elements
The pestilence of society
They were the pleaders of history
The wounded veterans
Of internecine strife
Victims of little prejudices
Whose faith in the probable
Had been shattered
By those profound revelations
Woe the iron-bound skeptics
When he- a dreamy scholar
Intellectual in times before
It was fashionable to be a freethinker
Bulldozed the great rock
Against those false morals
And put up a philosophical defence
To release the human mind
From the shackles of centuries
Of directional misguidance
They- with inspired confidence
And (one might say)
Controlled reflex
Drew a smile as from a catalogue
Oh there was life in that smile
And leaning on the years
Found intellectual companionship
In makeshift ingenuity
He battled selfishly
Against those callous endearments
And sentimental mountebank sporting
Not on musical instruments
But on people’s obnoxious egotism…
You might think
This anonymous sage
Earned a medal:
There were demonstrations of affection
Tempered with epileptic passion
And resistant impulse
But his social corpse
Could not be sustained by precedent
And was soon ousted
By those immortal phrases
About humane civilization
His roving energetic mind
Pregnant with unexpressed thought
All those volumes of memory
Delineated by consternation-
Withdrew from mother’s apprenticeship
Into mazy fairylands
To spend eternity.
Yes ,my essence turned into lit passion,
as I tenderly brushed my doubts at night
to hold unto truth and slay my dragons;
a gang war between bold cliques, so contrite.
When I rejected the Junior league’s pleading
my batch-mates scorned, hissed at me with disgrace;
alone, they ousted me from our circle’s ring
that losing dear friends tore my peaceful space.
Yet, in conscience, self’s boundaries I kept
Till smiles pealed to rise above youth’s trial,
And the old pack beckoned, gaining its respect
To learn that fury was one bitter gall.
...........................
~ Teens involved in gang activity is higher
than 772,500.If your teenager is involved with a gang,
chances are that he or she is also involved in violence. From teenhelp.com
........................
Shadow Hamilton's I Did It My Way Contest
6/18/2014
You strolled into view, then
Paused facing spot of solitude, of
Therapy and grace i always knew
I was only watching Sabbath's simmering sun, when
You stared intently, then climbed the mound I sat upon
Simmering before the Hudson River.
My bike and I had had our fill
Daylight warmth and Summer views had me lingering still, with
Books, snack, courteous breeze ...
Summer after Summer I'd known such tease
Was it "My Tribute" song you heard?
Spring rain does bring blossoming treats
You appeared stating this:
"I just thought I'd come to see why you look so happy."
You had no clue the New Year was yet new, when
I stood and watched not far from where I sat,
Red heart, blue star, yellow smile on helium balloons
Traversing wings of breeze with prayer I penned, and
In zenith of Summer, your presence I saw, like
Metamorphosis. You lingered and spoke as though you cared.
Soon, with ease you fulfilled promises, then the engagement.
I love the way you floated inside my mind
You ousted the Ex who had been unking
You showed me love spelled forever, and
Held me in splendor of your warmth that December
You made my coziness cozier,
You showed me true meaning of together
Now you're my Gulf breeze, strumming my chimes.
*
IT MATTERS NOT
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS
It matters not the price , I shall not cut and run
I will muster up the strength til the battle done
Unsheathe my sword, toil; til the conflict won
Should I perish before the victory is reached
I pray others will rise and fill in the breach
Crown your laurels there are acmes to reach
Challenge all corruption til the victory is won
Imposing evil ever ignored, ousted put on the run
All injustices challenged so truth can carry on
Evils unimpeded strengthen n continue to grow
Rise up and face them, administer the fatal blow
Lesson to all tyrannies to reap the sins they sow
I am a beautiful freshwater pearl
An oyster wasn’t my mum
I was developed by a special mussel*
With a name as long as your arm
My home was in a Scottish river
Fast flowing with salmon aboard
In the River Tay fishes hither and dither
I am displayed now and much admired
I am Abernathy Pearl** you see
Spherical shape I am perfection
No other pearl matches up to me
Desired without exception.
My nickname is The Little Willie Pearl
Named after the man who found me
Bill Abernathy is his name a pearl diver
His fame will go down in history
There is a new rule now in Scotland
Pearl fishing is no longer allowed
So my perfection will never be ousted
For this I make Scotland proud.
• Unionoidae mussel species Margaritifera margaritifera
** Nicknamed "The Little Willie Pearl", this freshwater pearl was found in the River Tay in 1967 and is considered the most perfect pearl ever discovered in Scotland. It was discovered by a professional pearl diver named Bill Abernathy, who gave the pearl both it official name and nickname. It rested in a jewellery store in Carincross for nearly thirty years until it was sold in 1992.
02/03/2013