Best Paeans Poems
The mellifluous musical tones of the village bells
Echoing chimes over the cold snowcapped mountains
Both finding their way to people in the valley below
Christmas songs — let your spirit sing freely and loudly
Welcoming the Birth of Our Savior and Baby King
Who so charms the Angels on High and God Himself
On this night, The Star was so beautiful, clear, and shiny
Crisp and so crystal-bright, centered above and beyond
Reflecting now the Lord God’s most divine and holy light
There is real magic in the night air as Heaven rejoices aloud
The child and the infant’s divine soul breathe life now intently
Fulfilling truly God’s very promise and His hope to Mankind
Keep this Christmas spirit — share it with others near and far
Grace filled with good tidings as we dance on wings of joy
We all now celebrate in great happiness, love, and kindness
Christmas is forever — and you must never ever close this door
Faith always enters, carrying His guiding torch high and proud
And encouraging Man every step of the way on his long journey
Even in a simple cradle where the Baby Jesus so innocently lay
Heaven doth bathe His cradle with the warmest rays of divine light
Bespeaking the heavenly beauty, joy, and wonder of Our Savior
Amazing peace makes a lovely gift, I wish for all of us to have
As new life blossoms, wrapped in petals of an immaculate heart
God’s holy blessing, love, and intention are clear for all to see
That Holy Night the Angels entire sang mirthfully on Christmas Eve
Praising Almighty Lord God in Heaven on the birth of His only son
The Angels’ paeans echoed in their divine beauty across the Universe
To bring peace now, glowing with your love, is His divine intention
Rejoicing in God’s Greatest Gift to Mankind who was born in a manger
Destined to become Our Most Holy and Divine Savior — Amen! Amen!
Anne-Lise Andresen, Liam McDaid, and Gary Bateman
A Collaborated Poem, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 1, 2015 (Unrhymed Tercet)
The amethyst paeans of hyacinth
crest with a gust of butterflies
on the scent of orange blossoms
cascading to earth like snow flakes.
Blood-red geraniums blazon Spring's birth
not with a pulsing blare,
but the soundless blush
of love's ardent swoon.
Placid jade fronds drape,
acquiescing to silent bees
emerging from blond snapdragons
as euphoria of being exudes
from the garden's breathless murmur.
The Language of Blue
Sinking into the lyrical language of blue
Prime layers of still solitude speak
With muted voices
In sapphire soprano rhapsodies,
Lines of bass blushes, electric flecks of neon fire.
Hear in dusky blue’s modal shafts of light,
The peaceful plaintive sotto voce
Set an indigo scene
In delft lingua for a pas de duex
With trebling hues lapis and arbot.
Blue chants a lexis, a cerulean chroma glow
Sung in tender tenor tones patois
To translate soft sky blue aqua idioms,
As minor phrases meditate on azure,
In prose text that wafts in periwinkle blooms.
Unhurried blue on blue in plain-chant paeans,
Whispers and bedazzles teal twilight librettos
Of cradle songs in soft celeste waves
Of cobalt midnight in the consoling,
And the mystic, language of blue.
11-3-21
Contest: Blue
Sponsor Mystic Rose Rose
Trebling = triple
Arbot is a shade of blue
Chroma means glow
They whisper their sonnets and surrender their thrones gracefully
Consuming tunes sweetly echoing and crowning a heart with love
Your gentle words, your tender touch, so much divine beauty as
Our two stars sparkle as one soul with one golden smile of eternity
When the sun rises in the east and the sun sets in the west we know
While looking upon a dream holding the deepest vision awestruck
The new sun across the sky passes so the soul can reach its destiny
And you vanquished all doubts of me burning as one flame on fire
Knowing the winds in Heaven mix forever in a powerful divine glory
With one angel standing before our eyes as destiny sparks its promise
That in God’s way it must be the message of love we feel so strongly
Embracing forever the alchemy of two stars blazing hot with emotion
Dreams and fantasies merge with this wonderful bliss ever so gently
As faraway rising is your sunshine holding hands warmly as a regal gift
And a truth filled with blessing, deeply peaceful and complete as we pray
Under a bridge of hope with colors kissing the heart and soul of a dream
Love and devotion pervade our eternal desire of oneness with the Lord God
As His heavenly guard ushers our souls together with purpose before Him
And as a choir of angels sing their majestic paeans honoring this moment
We see now our dreams melding as one as our two stars sparkle as one soul
Anne-Lise Andresen, Liam McDaid, and Gary Bateman – A Collaborated
Poem, Copyright © All Rights Reserved – June 11, 2015 (Unrhymed Quatrain)
Peace, Love, and God’s Greatest Gift
The mellifluous musical tones of the village bells
Echoing chimes over the cold snowcapped mountains
Both finding their way to people in the valley below
Christmas songs—let your spirit sing freely and loudly
Welcoming the Birth of Our Savior and Baby King
Who so charms the Angels on High and God Himself
On this night, The Star was so beautiful, clear, and shiny
Crisp and so crystal-bright, centered above and beyond
Reflecting now the Lord God’s most divine and holy light
There is real magic in the night air as Heaven rejoices aloud
The child and the infant’s divine soul breathe life now intently
Fulfilling truly God’s very promise and His hope to Mankind
Keep this Christmas spirit—share it with others near and far
Grace filled with good tidings as we dance on wings of joy
We all now celebrate in great happiness, love, and kindness
Christmas is forever—and you must never ever close this door
Faith always enters, carrying His guiding torch high and proud
And encouraging Man every step of the way on his long journey
Even in a simple cradle where the Baby Jesus so innocently lay
Heaven doth bathe His cradle with the warmest rays of divine light
Bespeaking the heavenly beauty, joy, and wonder of Our Savior
Amazing peace makes a lovely gift, I wish for all of us to have
As new life blossoms, wrapped in petals of an immaculate heart
God’s holy blessing, love, and intention are clear for all to see
That Holy Night the Angels entire sang mirthfully on Christmas Eve
Praising Almighty Lord God in Heaven on the birth of His only son
The Angels’ paeans echoed in their divine beauty across the Universe
To bring peace now, glowing with your love, is His divine intention
Rejoicing in God’s Greatest Gift to Mankind who was born in a manger
Destined to become Our Most Holy and Divine Savior—Amen! Amen!
Anne-Lise Andresen, Liam McDaid, and Gary Bateman
A Collaborated Poem, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 1, 2015 (Unrhymed Tercet)
Lost in a wistful arbor, where malaise blooms,
Mists flower in hypnotic bleak violet dusks
Shades of brooding melancholy
Bruise my treasured bouquets of dreams
And plod through ponderous mists
In metamorphic doldrums
Cold inertia spirals into lamentations,
Midnights drugged with stupor
Lean heavy on my homeless hermit heart
In withering labyrinths of tangled voices,
Atonal buds of plaintive paeans,
When pensive lethargy pierces dawn.
My rose, in apathy, sees no reason to bloom
As shades of gloom birth shadow seasons
And pale fretting’s unbroken gaze dulls dawn’s hues
Clouds of sighs ravish new shoots
Born in sweet trances of possibility -
Each breath a tedious indecision wrapped in enigma.
Dullness shrouds each new growth in greyness
A slow march into inertia’s bower of cathexis.
They whisper their sonnets and surrender their thrones gracefully
Consuming tunes sweetly echoing and crowning a heart with love
Your gentle words, your tender touch, so much divine beauty as
Our two stars sparkle as one soul with one golden smile of eternity
When the sun rises in the east and the sun sets in the west we know
While looking upon a dream holding the deepest vision awestruck
The new sun across the sky passes so the soul can reach its destiny
And you vanquished all doubts of me burning as one flame on fire
Knowing the winds in Heaven mix forever in a powerful divine glory
With one angel standing before our eyes as destiny sparks its promise
That in God’s way it must be the message of love we feel so strongly
Embracing forever the alchemy of two stars blazing hot with emotion
Dreams and fantasies merge with this wonderful bliss ever so gently
As faraway rising is your sunshine holding hands warmly as a regal gift
And a truth filled with blessing, deeply peaceful and complete as we pray
Under a bridge of hope with colors kissing the heart and soul of a dream
Love and devotion pervade our eternal desire of oneness with the Lord God
As His heavenly guard ushers our souls together with purpose before Him
And as a choir of angels sing their majestic paeans honoring this moment
We see now our dreams melding as one as our two stars sparkle as one soul
Anne-Lise Andresen, Liam McDaid, and Gary Bateman – A Collaborated
Poem, Copyright © All Rights Reserved – June 11, 2015 (Unrhymed Quatrain)
Deep in Our Hearts
Deep in our hearts, there’s a never-ending desire,
That seeks to filleth our souls now precious pure.
This desire brings our fiery passions to conspire,
As our emotions and heartbeats merge now one.
Our love shineth now ever-bright in Heaven’s light,
As God’s angels sing paeans to our passions’ delight.
The true love we mortals find is by God’s very design,
As we seek its meaning in the deep pool of our souls.
The enchanted beauty of this true love we have as two,
Brings our hearts to the moment when they beat as one.
This true love transcends the mortal limits of this Earth,
Whilst gently coaxing our souls to their heavenly destiny.
Deep in our hearts, our souls make this final sacred journey,
As angels accompany us into Almighty God’s eternal light.
Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
August 1, 2017 (Couplet)
Thank You for the Music
Companions on my journey
Surround me in anthems -
When the dawn rises up,
In afternoons of reflection,
In slumber’s reveries -
Melodies
Always embracing me
Asking only breath
In canticles and choruses –
Paeans and in psalms –
Rhythms and in rhymes -
Written on the staff of life
Remembering remorse
In slowly marching meter
Uplifting shame
In the verses of vocal symphonies
Healing regret
In ballads of blues
Shouting celebration
In cadence of joyful jubilees;
A wondrous gift – a blessing evolving -
A marvelous thing –no toy -
That gathers together
Wandering questions
Shouted into Heaven’s ears
When the spinning world would
Crawl all over itself
Losing its pitch
Or bounce off walls
In atonal discord;
Welcoming back hearts
To beat as one in time;
My theme song never stilled
When vocal nodes
Stilled my song to a whisper;
Gratitude, my refrain,
For music,
Life giving as caressing rains,
To chant, once more, in harmony
With the vital flame of melody again.
In gratitude to Abba for their song - Thank You for the Music – My theme song that carried me through two vocal node surgeries when I thought I might never sing again.
Elegy – 7-17-24
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elegy for Old Growth
Through measures of metered melancholy
The tattered winds sing a rent elegy,
A pensive wail for pristine old growth,
A drifting chant in pure pitch of final farewell –
The mute tongue howls in eulogy
For virgins of a thousand turns around the sun
For helpless giants surrendered in atonal sacrifice.
Gentle titans with feathery boughs lifted their faces
To embrace misted melodies of summer and winter snows
Forest zephyrs sang lullabies for sparrows
Nesting in their rustling wombs
Then shared the secret lyrics of their song
With robins sheltered in their lofty grace of red bark
In evensongs, matins and spring symphonies.
The myrrh of burial mixes with their lingering fragrance
In desolation and in their exposed flesh,
Nude hillsides of purple rage
Scream in final dirges of farewell
Modulated into anthems sung to saplings in circles of renewal
Little ones, like half steps, change elegies to odes
The threadbare zephyr now chants paeans to remember.
"A collaboration poem"
Oh, to be a poet like me
To be a muse, inspire, kindle someone's pen
To be the one they come to for help and encouragement
To be connected always by heart, soul and spirit
Oh, artist paint me beautiful
To be a sublime exquisite dream
To be that divine creation that inspires your path
Oh, could you write of me writer
To be the one to embolden words
To let words of me bleed from your pen on white
These wild thoughts are but my fantasy
Why would a poet or writer need me?
Why would a glorious artist need me?
But, I yearn for love of poet, artist and writer
To be lover and friend, and source of joyfulness
I would always exist in poems and in art !
I would be that forever eternal!
I'm the sparkle they love.
And now the world has a crush on me!
When the young woman awoke;
she knew she'd dreamed of the art gallery,
where she studied statues of marble or bronze,
viewed canvas after canvas of water colour or oil,
and her dream lured her back to the library,
with the books she loved to look at,
to read and absorb rhymes and paeans.
She longed for those places of culture and learning,
where her spirit always soared,
her heart and mind heady,
intoxicated, enchanted, enthralled
with the wondrous words she read,
and painted or sculpted shapes she saw.
Inspired, she reached for a pen and paper
to record the flood of beauty that filled her head:
Life is so cool
On seas and oceans
Best steamed, served over a pool
Sweet and sour delicacy of paeans
Throat where its brain rests
Engulfed head where stomach and kidney nests
Ripping teeth in stomach feasts
The mellifluous musical tones of the village bells
Echoing chimes over the cold snowcapped mountains
Both finding their way to people in the valley below
Christmas songs—let your spirit sing freely and loudly
Welcoming the Birth of Our Savior and Baby King
Who so charms the Angels on High and God Himself
On this night, The Star was so beautiful, clear, and shiny
Crisp and so crystal-bright, centered above and beyond
Reflecting now the Lord God’s most divine and holy light
There is real magic in the night air as Heaven rejoices aloud
The child and the infant’s divine soul breathe life now intently
Fulfilling truly God’s very promise and His hope to Mankind
Keep this Christmas spirit—share it with others near and far
Grace filled with good tidings as we dance on wings of joy
We all now celebrate in great happiness, love, and kindness
Christmas is forever—and you must never ever close this door
Faith always enters, carrying His guiding torch high and proud
And encouraging Man every step of the way on his long journey
Even in a simple cradle where the Baby Jesus so innocently lay
Heaven doth bathe His cradle with the warmest rays of divine light
Bespeaking the heavenly beauty, joy, and wonder of Our Savior
Amazing peace makes a lovely gift, I wish for all of us to have
As new life blossoms, wrapped in petals of an immaculate heart
God’s holy blessing, love, and intention are clear for all to see
That Holy Night the Angels entire sang mirthfully on Christmas Eve
Praising Almighty Lord God in Heaven on the birth of His only son
The Angels’ paeans echoed in their divine beauty across the Universe
To bring peace now, glowing with your love, is His divine intention
Rejoicing in God’s Greatest Gift to Mankind who was born in a manger
Destined to become Our Most Holy and Divine Savior—Amen! Amen!
Anne-Lise Andresen, Liam McDaid, and Gary Bateman
A Collaborated Poem, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 1, 2015 (Unrhymed Tercet)
Dreams Divine
Dreams are deepest images formed in one’s mind,
Showing us events past, present, and future in kind.
Subtle faces be they that reflect in the soul’s mirror,
Whilst pleading in hints the reason why—not clearer.
God gives us dreams of the divine to spark a fire,
And sustains us in our imperfect trials to so inspire.
God speaks to us in His spirit-dream code of passion,
Whilst Angels on high sing paeans to His divine action.
Dreams show us a mystic way to His love and light,
On trails of cosmic dust bathed bold-bright at night!
God wants us poets to set these dreams to rhyme,
So we all can dream deeply of His true love in kind!
Dreams harken enchantment beyond the everyday,
As we mortals seek God’s holy spirit in every way!
Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved,
January 1, 2017 (Canzone)
A special tribute to my dear friend Ardiana
I have been blessed to come across many inspiring women in my life. From the women in my family and friends to the women in my office and my students. And the women who are my colleagues, fellow writers, and artistes!
This poem of mine titled "You are Fire" is dedicated to all the Inspiring girls and women in our world:
"You are Fire!"
Don’t believe these mere mortals.
They want to put you on a pedestal
and sing paeans to you;
later they would burn you
in the altar of that same fire!
Stand away and stand alone!
You are limitless!
But these mortals can only limit your sky!
You are the Universe!
But they will only give you a little space!
Break free! It’s a trap!
They want to cage you!
Because, they are afraid of your real power!
You are a woman.
You are the fire!
You are all conquering.
You are all powerful!
You are Supreme!
You were not born to be a mere beauty queen!!
- Avijeet Das