Best Parentheses Poems
Mindful
Startled out of nonchalant light,
Wakefulness stands at attention
Ignited flame from the eternal candle,
Energized vigil of the watchman
At the soul’s dawning daybreak
Tingling in the presence
Of every dappled infinite breath.
Rotating eye of illumination
Watchful, like a lighthouse beacon hovering,
Charts rocks and shoals through clear oceans insight,
Every nerve exposed in circumspection
Sometimes cringing in wary expose
Often basking in the light touch of satisfaction
As niggling prophecy finds confirmation in revelation
Throwing off the blinded penury of antonyms,
Embracing flashing synonyms of wisdom,
Tears of the heedful heart touch drab puzzles poverty
To polish with refinement’s shine burnished enthusiasm
For the incandescent dancing mindful
Then banish chary strobes of destitute indifference
Reaching beyond self-centered parentheses.
A lantern of thoughtfulness in floodlights
Of full harvest shared – no scattered crumbs of bread
Baked to stone in scathing flashes of the false
Eloquent vigilant splendor - never morning extinguished –
Torch to awaken lambent radiance of clarity’s joy,
Identity of the pilgrim heart, ejects sightless shades
Mindfulness blends the conscious scattered fragments
For Mosaics in clear lit portraits of charity's open hands
Throwing off the numb stalker branded carelessness
Born of intentional ignorance
Seeker’s actuated incentive to the attentive –
To hear! To see! To feel! To move in birth!
Action invigorated by accentuated humility of grace.
Date Written 6-10-21
Best #1 Poem - September 2021
1st place Trophy Win Poetry Contest - Mindful
Included in Poetry Soup Anthology - It's Still Poetry
Categories:
parentheses, blessing, life, light,
Form:
Free verse
These are two etherees that will be put together side by side to form ONE complete poem having 11 syllables per line, so I thought i would show how it is done. It's like fitting two puzzle pieces together to form the poem for the contest at the bottom!
(Etheree #1)
Two
cats now
occupy
a space that is
my home, their kingdom,
with beds to hide beneath,
and with closets, stairs and chairs
small pets like to explore and where
comfy, side by side, they doze. Two cats,
now a part of me, show me daily. . . love
(etheree #2)
Cute new friends, no longer foes, but sister
companions, share common spaces and
a place even more important:
the heart I give, along with
the place they frolic in,
with sofas they climb
and desktops where
they perch. Here
my joy
lives.
(I have put the lines of the top etheree in parentheses so you can see how neatly they fit together with the reverse etheree #2)
A Home with Two Cats
(Two) cute new friends, no longer foes, but sister
(cats now) companions, share common spaces and
(occupy) a place even more important:
(a space that is) the heart I give, along with
(my home, their kingdom), the place they frolic in,
(with beds to hide beneath), with sofas they climb
(and with closets, stairs and chairs) and desktops where
(small pets like to explore and where) they perch. Here
(comfy, side by side, they doze. Two cats,) my joy
(now a part of me, show me daily. . . love) lives.
Hope I explained it so it was understood how I did it!!
For the Pet Contest of Francine Roberts
Categories:
parentheses, baby, cat, , cute,
Form:
Etheree
Age gracefully…that’s what I’ll do
Going to ignore the lines, how about you?
Inner beauty is what really counts
I happen to love my drooping mounts
Absolutely no Botox or fillers for me
Another varicose vein, Yipee
I’ll learn to love myself, no matter what
I will forever have my untucked gut
Graceful and elegant, that’s what I am
I will tell those cosmetic companies to scram
Lip plumping or lipo…no darn way!
And as for my hair…I will let it go gray
Facelifts are for the weak, you know
I happen to adore the feet of the crow
I’ll snub my reflection, chuckling a little at me…
For shunning pricey moisturizers provides me with glee
I don’t need any convertible or flashy car
My beauty shines really brightly, from afar
Who cares about the rolls, seeming to multiply each day?
No staples for me, I don’t care what I weigh
Dark circles make my eyes look cute
And those saddlebags are really a hoot
Juvederm and Radiance ….what a waste
On this mug, parentheses DO have a place
Lasik-I sincerely think not
That bifocal look is certainly hot
A new boytoy-There will be none of that
Though I’m sure he’d dig my charming back fat
The bell, oh no, I don’t mean to be crass
I guess I dozed off in Algebra Class
I must have been close to 40 in that frightful dream
And I was just about to let off a really loud scream
Nevertheless, my dear friends, I do so solemnly vow
To go off and age gracefully…at least for now
That's right...no need for the third degree
I promise to not get my first brow lift…until I’m at least 23
Categories:
parentheses, passion, visionary, beauty, beauty,
Form:
Free verse
Do others think of you the way I do,
the embryo that grew beneath my heart?
There is so little proof you lived . . .
a metal marker on a grave,
a lighter, a wallet
that they gave . . .
two certificates, official,
like parentheses -
beginning,
end.
I sometimes see your friends . . .
on those days,
you seem alive in little ways.
Do others think of you the way I do,
the boy who grew into a man,
unspoken dreams, unfinished plans.
There is so little proof you lived . . .
some childhood books
and art, and yet . . .
how deeply marked
your living carved my heart.
© March 5, 2014, Faye Lanham Gibson
Categories:
parentheses, bereavement, death, son,
Form:
Elegy
Tozer, deep - thoughts
well explored with-
in the realm of man
Thankfulness, for what man
cannot touch -
deep mysteries of an eternal God
our speech, no matter
how profound cannot reach
the depths, God’s eternal
storehouse
A few things stored:
his love, grace, mercy
What’s left to explore:
(between the parentheses
of eternity)
Categories:
parentheses, god,
Form:
Free verse
So many more. Just a sampling of favorites, per contest instructions.
For each poet I have included a sampling of titles in parentheses.
THREE OF MY FAVORITES
Gershon Wolf
Gershon lands me in stitches.
In his wise and funny hands,
I can’t help but smile or laugh.
A grin happens, belly twitches.
(Sex Sells, War is Hell; Tingles, Twitches, Creaks;
Scant Solace in the Solstice, Old Bessie)
Caron Krutsinger
Caron carries me to Wonderland.
Her muse and faeries’ mischievous.
Earthbound - school, kids and pets.
Her quaint stories, written offhand.
(Sleeping Elfin Baby, Santa Puppy Begs for Bones,
Unicorn with the Rainbow Tail, Fluffy Fat Robin)
Evelyn Judy Buehler
Evelyn’s poems’ immersed in hues.
An imagistic touch of stirring magic.
God will gift her with eternal colors -
Not one of them, she will refuse.
(Clashing Colors, Scarlet Noon, Green Door, Moonlight Blue)
12/30/2022
Who is your best PS poet or poetess Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Sotto Poet
Categories:
parentheses, poets,
Form:
Rhyme
Psycho Cat - IT
"In my sabbatical dreams after quarantine"
Visions of life run again at full steam
A little stiff, a bit arthritic, like
"The eerie board walk creaks near the beach of white sand"
Shifting on trails in forests of shadows
Moaning an elegy – enflamed eulogy -
"When they told me of psycho cat’s demise"
A sad voice of aching news, realized
Not really a psycho, just catnip crazed,
Leaping in stagger – last of her nine lives -
While "the label, I hide, on the wine bottle"
Too many reminders of the passing
Of psycho cats in quarantine - alive
In my sabbatical dreams quarantined.
Contest: Collaborate With Me
Sponsor: Kim Rodrigues
9-30-20
I couldn't get the bold function to work so I put your lines in parentheses.
Categories:
parentheses, cat, dream, life, memory,
Form:
Verse
You are my life's apostrophe
The part that has always been missing in me
You're right where the hyphen used to be-
You are my life's apostrophe
Once a question mark was all I had?
And commas dominated my soul,
Semicolons; separated my dreams
And the ellipse was firmly in control...
Then you placed your brackets around my [heart]
Your braces around my {soul}
Your parentheses surround my (dreams)
You're the exclamation mark in my life so droll!
Categories:
parentheses, love,
Form:
Free verse
You are the poem,
you dwell inside the letters.
Apostrophes like freckles,
smile lines like parentheses.
It may be me that scribes the poem,
that finds the words and braids
them together, it may be me
that pens the poem,
but you, you my love, are one
Categories:
parentheses, love, may,
Form:
Free verse
Besides the hallowed covenant of The Way
There is only one other univocal tenet I obey
The human spirit is insuperable and indomitable
Though it can wield an evil that is so abominable
Our essence is both distilled and defined
By what I would collectively call "humankind"
Despite war, disaster, catastrophe and disease
We have a resplendent life hidden in the parentheses
With ethnic cleansing, racial profiling, and hate
We have solidarity and unbridled hope to syncopate
Though the warts on the face of this cold, cruel earth
Conspicuously present themselves amongst our glee and mirth
They can be overlooked to reveal a complexion
That represents the depth and breadth of our cross section
As cliché as it sounds, good defeats evil in the end
And we have infinite, exponential amounts of it to expend
So call me quaint, trite, or even naïve
Besides God, there is only one other thing I believe
I am convinced that man is intrinsically honorable
Despite also being innately intolerable
Categories:
parentheses, celebration, destiny, dream, forgiveness,
Form:
Rhyme
The landmark was given the name
"Exclamation Point," and indeed it became
the most exciting place I'd ever known!
The "parentheses" between us shone
of sun "dashes" splashing
on the "comma" aquamarine.
My fashion "square bracket" charms swayed
like my body stayed in Mark's trustworthy arms.
Our eyes simultaneously met
the first "asterisk" set in the sky, shining brightly.
"Make a wish," he whispered softly,
"and close your eyes tightly."
When I opened my eyes, he was down on one knee!
The "question Mark" asked next
was actually my silent request!
He pulled the "asterisk" from the sky,
and lovestruck eye to eye,
he gently slid it on my consenting finger.
Then suddenly swans graced the stage
like a princess rescue in a storybook page.
We agreed to continue our courtship that day
the "semicolon"ial biblical way.
How difficult it was that magical night,
amidst the "ellipsis" Little Dipper kite,
but we wanted to honor our great Creator.
A longing "period" of three months later,
down a driftwood isle along the same sand
our "carets" met "ampersand" hand-in-hand.
4/19/19
Categories:
parentheses, blessing, engagement, innocence, love,
Form:
Free verse
It was not easy,
to rewrite a dream poem
when you are bound and hurt.
*
A twiner
looms out, at my window.
Like a face, peeps in.
*
Do not want to tell,
about my sorrow,
before the dried up river.
Satish Verma
Categories:
parentheses, art,
Form:
ABC
At a rest stop on the highway,
In the women's room, a sign
Saying, "Please don't steal the toilet paper!"
(Exclamation, mine.)
Beneath it, in parentheses,
Was added ("Yes, folks do it")
Although what type of people would,
I couldn't quite intuit.
I guess the ones who litter,
Cut the lines or text and drive;
In other words, a huge percent
Of people now alive.
Categories:
parentheses, people,
Form:
Rhyme
There’s a forest bizarre neither nearby nor far,
full of sights somewhat scary to spook a soul wary.
The deep, darkened jungle, I think you’ll agree
is never a safe place for you or for me...
The vicious antihistamines attack unwary gabardines,
while hungry, snarling mezzanines will slither on the ground.
Meanwhile, some frenzied proselytes are hiding from the troglodytes,
who, angry from the zwieback bites, are swarming all around!
Inside this jungle, quarantines are known to suck on guillotines
until stampeding nazarenes charge in and scare them both.
The tetanus fights the diocese, as scallions snack on c’est la vies;
they all avoid isosceles, who hide in undergrowth.
The snarling tracheotomies stalk the nonsequitur
and scare defenseless equities that fly from Equador,
while swarms of green parentheses infest the feeble pinafore
for blood.
The buzzing twits and hypocrites gnaw on palaver bones
while fat, lethargic amulets are chased by chromosomes.
The sleepy, sluggish genuflects had best avoid the palindromes
in mud.
You may never have heard of a place so absurd,
you may opt to believe it a myth.
But if ever you visit and wonder, “what is it?”
just ask a nearby monolith.
Categories:
parentheses, silly,
Form:
Rhyme
Awakened by cops, I am frightened and confused. My parents arrested, I was removed. From house to house, I am placed with mannequins who “love” in parentheses. “Mommy, when will you come?” Her face plastered everywhere, yet she is nowhere. I was so young, then one day I turn eighteen. Return to thick, robust roots.
Knock on my old door,
Greeted by stranger blankly,
“How can I help you?”
My caseworker forgot to put life skills in my suitcase. A life sized adult body with a child inside on stilts. That night was the first one sleeping on hard surfaces. Aged out, and graduated from child protective services to homeless and forgotten on somebody's lunch break. They eat a cardboard club sandwich.
Middle aged mother
Inquiring about her child
“Sorry Ma’am, that files closed”.
I wrote this poem as a haibun, trying to keep it emotionless and rather concrete, inserting haiku that I hope adds new dimension to the prose. I am trying to hit home without actually hitting anything! This is my first haibun.
Categories:
parentheses, america, confusion, growing up,
Form:
Haibun