Best Pell Mell Poems
I attended a large gathering and took some time
to observe the great assortment of shoes stacked on the racks
I saw new shoes, pricey shoes, and shoes not worth a dime
and shoes that seemed to have crossed many paths and tracks.
I saw dainty sandals and flighty high heeled ones too
I saw sporty sneakers and rough and tough trainers
I saw both the laced and the leathery buckled shoe
Then I saw the humble yet hardy pair of slippers.
I saw pointy shoes, furry shoes and flatties as well
I saw flowery ones and those studded with trinket gems
Some stacked neatly in pairs, others thrown about pell mell
Some recently repaired, some coming off at the hems.
I saw long boots, rubber boots and
there were glittery Indian styled stilettoes
I spotted fragile glass sandals and metallic brass sandals
and soft comfy ones for comfort of feet 'n' toes.
And while I was thus lost and engrossed
in watching the great assortment of footwear
The old caretaker, to me, a cheap pair tossed
saying, ' here's an extra pair if you've lost your shoes.
She was too busy and distracted to be in my shoes of muse
So I'd to slip out thinking of some quick excuse
She didn't even notice I wasn't actually barefoot
So I had to take them elsewhere, both my muse and my boot!
Ah, and long ago when once we could afford only a 'shoestring' budget
I once hadn't enough bucks to replace a worn out pair of shoes
I was sad for not having even a good goody two shoes
Then God showed me a wayfarer's shoeless pair of barefeet
and then one hapless one with no feet at all!
So I could imagine life being in their missing shoes.
(Footnote*
Wonderin where I saw so many shoes off peoples feet? Well, in our religious gatherings say for prayers in the mosque hall or even the religious lecture hall, we've to enter barefooted and sit down crosslegged. So that's where you come across all kinds of shoes on racks provided in the cubicle.
Actually in the Disney movie, 'THE PRINCE OF EGYPT', i marked that even Moses took off his shoes before talking to God.)
'Tis clear
My dear
You are
By far
My girl
A pearl
I fell
Pell mell
For you
To woo
First kiss
Pure bliss
Asked thee
On knee
Be bride
My pride
Said yea
Great day
Next thing
A ring
Now wife
For life
Three kids
Grandkids
She died
I cried
Love ya
Vera
POTD 9 Sep 2020
Hand in hand two sprites on a magic flight
with wings of crystal glass and fairy light
they flew, inside an abstract sky of white
wing to wing, one was nimble one was bright
Wearing taffet gowns of silky swishes
they were often flourishing their wishes
blessing all with benign hugs and squishes
tiny pixies, no bigger than mom's dishes
They were sent to baby rooms and wee ones
they shone like light from fifty golden suns
but every now and then they goofed all thumbs
and landed in a cabbage patch, oh crumbs !
they flew like Peter Pan and Tinker Bell
with magic wands to cast a spell, pell-mell
they scurried this way that and then oh well
they crazed it up and then they cast a spell.
Feb 26, 2023
Sponsor Eve Roper
Contest Name Nursery Rhyme
The wind herds
the brown-paper bag leaves
pell-mell along the river of asphalt.
Gusts whip bare branches into a frenzy.
Mini cyclones scatter street rubble.
Flags whack poles with great abandon
and cloth lines bang rudderless into the clapboard.
Men with tear filled eyes rush toward shelter.
The sun still, and silent, lassoed by the herder
shines lemon ice upon the day.
Once upon a shiny polished day, the sun shone bright as golden ray
and in the park where the children played the puppies danced ballet
The kittens meowed from their outdoor yum cafe
and the birds chirped from the trees while they surveyed
the pretty ducklings waddling in the pond, hurray hurray !
Once upon a starlit night the moon smiled sweetly at the sea
and in the river all the loons echoed across the lake, woo wee
The owl gave a hoot and the foxes slept tee hee
while the rabbit stretched and caught a snack or three
Once upon a fairytale a little Pixie cast a spell
and all the sicklies of the forest were suddenly made well
each precious creature went pell-mell at the sound of a Fairy's Bell
while all the ogres, trolls and elves, tap danced on a chanterelle.
Sponsor BJ Legros Kelley
Contest Name Write a Sweet Fairytale For Children
I got arrested!... further developments await...
By gravity said law
linkedin with physics
stating that a body at rest
will remain thus unless otherwise
acted upon by an external force,
hence I cannot wrest motion
from inert human matter
regarding nearly lifeless entity
concerning how aye barely breathe
heavily weighed down
with lugubriousness easily crushing
this seventy two inch
rusty, cowardly, creaky...
complex corporeal edifice,
thus resigning myself
watching flight of bumblebee
hopscotching from one
clover plant to another
wondrous winged warrior
unphased by human "rat race"
higglety pigglety,
pell mell, helter skelter,
how grand living off the grid
venerating native flora and fauna
simply engrossed with daily tasks
solely attending
basic inalienable rights
life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
keeping stereotypical roles intact
males species pact schedule
hunting in tandem
with brotherly comrades
females tending hearth and home
tendering, safeguarding, nesting...
homeschooling offspring
supervising fledgling,
the latter gingerly venturing
tentatively into parts unknown
unfamiliar territory brimming
trained instincts detect danger,
nonetheless plod along
blueprinted genetically
inherent migratory paths
guides where uncertainty looms
within wide whirring web
invoking, feigning camouflage,
or mimicking ("FAKE")
simulating another organism.
My heart scans
for a familiar face
through throngs
of strangers
as they scatter
pell mell
around me
eager shoppers
casing brightly lit
sale stuffed store fronts
while seduced
by the siren song of fresh coffee
coupled with
sticky sweet cinnamon buns
suddenly
the bitter fact
swallows me
whole again
you no longer reside
anywhere
outside
of my dreams
Her name was Nola
From Hispaniola
She liked to get her fix
On Coca-Cola
She liked to coochy-coo
With everyone she knew
But when she blew her nose
Then all her friends withdrew
At Corona
Corona virus
It's the hottest spot
North of your sinus
At Corona
We fell pell-mell
Ah ah ah
Don't feel so well
Ah ah ah, ah ah
His name was Lu Gan
He came from Wuhan
He liked to dance all night
As much as you, man
He liked to socialize
With all the girls and guys
But since he caught the bug
His mouth is catching flies
At Corona
Corona virus...
Her name was Betty
She was a free spouse
She liked to play all day
In someone's tree house
But she could not survive
When you turn sixty-five
You run a higher risk
That you won't leave alive
At Corona
Corona virus...
Her name was Miley
A human virus
I guess that's why she clogs
The human sinus
But when she caught the flu
She spread her germs on you
A way to make you sick
And make you angry too
At Corona
Corona virus
It's the hottest spot
North of your sinus
At Corona
We fell pell-mell
Ah ah ah
Don't feel so well
Ah ah ah
BUT YOU CAN'T TELL
Ah ah ah, Ah ah!
Slowly falling away...losing life's game
Say you love me, but it's not the same
I miss you so much and you know so well
I miss your touch and you can clearly tell
Under your spell in this darksome cell
I fell into your rabbithole and going pell-mell
Is this a heaven, disguised as living hell?
These hardships got a hold of me and I hide in my solitary shell
Slowly falling away...my vibrant voice fails me again
Say you care about me as I dwell in my moonlit den
I miss you tremendously and God knows and you know
I've tried to win your heart of serenity - my efforts will show
The pros and cons of life will make me stronger
I must fight back with might and not be a forlorner
Conjure confidence and cheerfulness in my joyous and woeful lifetime a little longer
Dance to the music of my mesmerizing, meandering mindset and it will be your cure
Remarkable how time flies these eccentrically reckless, dark days
Say you'll be staying with me forevermore, the one I simply adore
Kiss me soft and slow, but sure in many make-believe ways
Turn me on and pretend to fulfill me with satisfaction galore
I feel swell without your doubting spirit of scorching, kindling uncertainty
I fell into the blackhole of your soul of serene sincerity and fearless honesty
You are seven times a seven in my heart's beautiful, compassionate tune
These tribulations have given me difficult tests to conquer, so embrace me real soon
Overcome the waves of emotion and collide with me, outlandish ocean, creating erosion
Numb the grief-stricken and be my darling devotion of elegant, empathetic efflorescence
Drastic dreariness damages my cranium of rainbow emotion and creative commotion
Some individuals dream dreams of burning bridges, brewing brazen benevolence
You can truly tell that I miss you so, but you got to reap what you sow
I love the way you make me feel though...let the plants of peace grow
Say you adore who I'm becoming right now - a man of beloved bravery
Fly me to successful heights, for I want to rise above my negativity
LOVERS LEAPb>
How long the days of lovers cleft
The brittle feel of nights bereft
Where restless wind through cedar claws
The rasping void of canyon jaws.
The close up call of raptor hoot
Distant tolls to our melancholic mood
Cobalt darkness gulfs o’er world's unseen
And conjures voids where we'd lonely been.
Can this be fair we soft beseech
Our love away and out of reach
And more like us there surely is
A crowded rim ‘round bleak abyss.
We try for slumber the soothing balm
A haven sought, a merciful calm
A place of refuge where torments laid
To rest, if only, if only our thoughts allayed.
But sleep won't come our cherished goal
Instead accelerates this mindless roll
Whirligigged mind but of pleasure void
We ride again this tormenting toy.
Is this the way of minds unhinged
Sleep deprived and nerves well singed
Of thoughts ensnared beyond release
More woven now than bovine fleece.
Dawn creeps in, an early siren wails
Our hollow eyes are pits or gaols
But sounds there are, a creeping swell
To rescue minds near lost pell-mell.
Pell-mell from you as from a blazing torch
Molten shards,
Aflame you know not if the fire heralds freedom.
Or will consume all you cherish
Will only ashes be left,
Hurled into the abyss from the tempest?
Or do the ashes hold the glory
Of a celestial diamond
The Dawn of everlasting triumph.
Cyprian Norwid
Translated by: Christopher Johnston
Blake’s world in a grain of sand
This plastic bottle in my hand
Welcome to the new Fantasy Island
Of plastic trash, a brave new land
This tropical island, it's perfect for me
Plastic parts and baggies floating on the sea
Maybe melt it down and build homes for the needy
or a giant vacation raft for the greedy
With helipads, private yacht docks
Big towering plastic wave blocks,
Rubber beach, water bottle boardwalk
Plastic vat-grown flesh of real livestock
The morality of the cancer cell
Substrate feeders, eating pell-mell
The world’s becoming a garbage pail
No thought to the inevitable
And climate change serves their agenda well
Because the human contribution’s debatable
While they discuss warming, the cartel’s
Strip malls and subdivisions continue to swell
Doomed is the animal that craps its nest
Any intelligent species should be distressed
A problem that’s not yet addressed
I’m not so sure we’ll pass the test
History will certainly not treat us kind
The obvious answer is easy to find
We have turned a greedy eye blind
To the inevitable impact of short-term design
Of wild spaces, said Edward Abbey
The world, and humankind’s necessity
Without wild spaces, wild humans can’t be
Which serves the moral absentees
However, it does seem to me
Abbey missed one fact that’s key
There will always be crazies like me
Who’d burn it down to set it free
4/9/16
2
Bourne loosely through the chill gusts,
Disordered fragments of summer's life go hurried by,
Harried to their last resting places
Into piles of brittle, browning drifts
Scattered on stiffening ground.
A cold sun, coursing ever more briefly
Across these hard, blue-white skies,
Presides above a sleeping landscape steeped in dying hues,
The last fanfare of the greens of life
Draining now into starkness
As nature sheds her flesh and slows
To pose in cold stillness between her cycles
Of life and death,
Waiting, now Winter's uncertain, barren bride.
In the house where the anger rang against the walls
Red thoughts of their minds have burnt away
To leave behind that sour feeling
That sinks to sorrow
Now pride has stepped in to break the bridges
Of charity they might have built back to one another.
Between them those virtues which bind us all together,
The formalities and incidents
The long parade of small things that make up a shared life,
Go on together as always, in smooth procession day to day
The image of harmony exists,
Though not its substance.
They know from this the weight of awkward silences
Falling between them now and again
Dropping like stones into the deepening pools
Of unspoken discontents forming in their hearts;
Ripples of sadness climbing in widening rings
To skim the surfaces of their speech
As breezes blown down through the sapphire sky
Tear the detritus of summer's corpse from its enfeebled moorings;
Fling the bits of yesterday's blazing beauty
Into pell-mell drifts against foundations, sills,
As spark-scattered frosts gather more thickly
With every lengthening night.
Limerick: Once an-Other Anchor-Woman at Sea Anne-Anne
Once an’ Anchor-Woman at Sea Anne-Anne
Slipped tongue into a Black Hole’s butt end
She came out Parallel
In multi-Verse pell-mell
Now she reads sweN at aeS (Ace) ennA-N*.
• For the general knowledge of readers of this limerick, humble clarifications are offered here. The capital letters: A, H, I, M, N, O, T, U, V, W, X, and Y are used without any visible change in the alphabet of our own Parallel Universe where – as everybody knows – Time regresses from Future to Past, i.e., e.g. say, from being “well-satiated” to being “hungry” and back forth. Here, even though “N” is written as “N”, the pronunciation is unwaveringly: “nE”. For more detailed explanations regarding the rules of prosody in our Parallel Uni-Verse, s’il vous plait, address your queries to Yours Truly at his address in Multi-Verse.
Merci Beaucoup!
© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2013
As I watched,
like a lion with its prey
the wave growled and snarled
while crouching, preparing to pounce.
Rushing up the sloping shingle beach,
it reached out and dragged pebbles
down into its lair.
I heard
the rasping raking of the beach tumbling
pell-mell and headlong into the sea
and saw
stones spewed out as leftovers
in the next cold wave of grey water,
breaking in trails of white foam
along the coastline.
I watched
the wind-blown spray
and the black clouds over grey water
threatening and evil;
a wave rose, a hooded cobra
striking the rocks of the breakwater
before devouring them.
I listened
to the plaintive cries of
a young herring gull high above the sea,
blown sideways by the gale.
But
full twenty feet from the shore
the black-clad cormorant sat securely smug
on a post, the predator’s perch.
A swift, triumphant swoop filled his beak with supper
and I watched as he flew away.