Best Phantasmagoria Poems
Assaulting me! The darkness comes to be
in devil’s guise. Phantom haunts my mind;
in sleep paralysis I cannot flee -
insanity bleeding through ruined rind.
I’m humbled now and at your merciless
whims and words afflicting by your whipping
cruelty I’d endured and what of this -
stranglehold of fear that is so gripping.
The trauma it inflicts does overwhelm
in present as it did in madness past,
as Hypnos slips me blackened nightmare’s realm
my sanity becomes a lone outcast.
Stalking specter and there’s no protections,
I’m the victim with my mind in confines,
house of mirrors broken your reflections;
antagonistic mania still shines.
My life with you; you’re still inside my head,
though self-destruction chose as your fare-well.
Subconsciously you infiltrate with dread
as incubus revenge becomes my Hell.
Susan Ashley
September 23, 2018
*Hypnos: the ancient Greek god of sleep*
Categories:
phantasmagoria, abuse, dark, dream, evil,
Form:
Rhyme
As amber eve paints ochre skies
Her lips I kissed, turn ruby rose
And dreams of heart my passion vies
As amber eve paints ochre skies
When romance gleams in lovers’ eyes
It’s me she picks the moon well knows
As amber eve paints ochre skies
Her lips I kissed, turn ruby rose
October 29, 2020
Placed 1st: Pick-A-Title, Vol 24- Triolet - Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title chosen: Phantasmagoria
Eight syllables per line (howmanysyllables.com)
Categories:
phantasmagoria, feelings, imagery, love,
Form:
Triolet
Dark shadows cast by trees at night-
as wind gives life to limbs that scare,
so oft can stir such inner fright.
Dark shadows cast by trees at night
morph images- let thoughts incite
unwanted feelings of despair;
dark shadows cast by trees at night-
as wind gives life to limbs that scare.
The mind plays games and creates fear,
as tree-limb shadows writhe around
like eerie snakes, entwined, austere.
The mind plays games and creates fear,
while courage fades- truths disappear.
As steady moonbeams sweep the ground,
the mind plays games and creates fear-
as tree-limb shadows writhe around.
October 24, 2020
~1st Place~
Contest: Pick-A-Title, Vol 24 - Triolet- ABaAabAB
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Judged: 11/12/2020
Phantasmagoria (a shifting series of phantasms,
illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a
dream or as created by the imagination).
dictionary.com
Categories:
phantasmagoria, confusion, imagination,
Form:
Triolet
In dreamscape teeming with mirage
this soul an unwilling captive,
afloat with black moon's entourage
In dreamscape teeming with mirage
through a strangely bizarre collage--
wake me O real hours active
In dreamscape teeming with mirage...
this soul an unwilling captive!
))
Pick-A-Title, Vol 24- Triolet-Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh 11/02/2020
Categories:
phantasmagoria, dream, surreal,
Form:
Triolet
Cynthia moves for me in veiled slopes,
silver drops dance on her tender petals.
Memories bloom from tesseract in ropes,
Cynthia moves for me in veiled slopes.
Oh Luna! I long to kiss starry hopes
on scarlet waves before Aurora settles.
Cynthia moves for me in veiled slopes,
silver drops dance on her tender petals.
November 5, 2020
Pick-A-Title, Vol 24 - Triolet - Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title Chosen: Phantasmagoria
Categories:
phantasmagoria, analogy, dream, memory,
Form:
Triolet
PHANTASMAGORIA
If you don't like where you are..take a trip in your mind
Look in your brain's dark corners and see what you find
There are places a groaning board tempts with an epicurean delight
But the populace heads for the worst comestibles in sight
When choosing Burma or Myanmar as it's now called
Or Manila where kittens are drinking sewage in a yard
Who knows? they might think kittens are viands too
But if this gastronomic delight does not appeal to you
Try a whole pig on a spit, cleaved open to reveal
Viscera and liver, cooked and ready to peel
You could try a lunch of grilled belly lining
If not, its pigs' snouts and tongues for fine dining
Egg on your face takes on a whole new meaning
When it's smeared on a face --slimy and gleaming*
Don't forget the venues where entrails drip over a fire
Or octopus tentacles tasting like a rubber tire
Remember...wandering is possible but not leaving your niche
Thinking how the other half lives might cure a travel itch
So start up the mind's motor and go anywhere you wish
Without having to eat even one revolting dish
*A sunblock
Categories:
phantasmagoria, adventure, allusion, animal, culture,
Form:
Couplet
I searched in vain for inspiration.
I even climbed the sacred Parnassus
Where all the muses reside.
I danced with them
Engaged in endless discourse.
All in vain.
Then I resigned to my fate.
Oh Pythagoras? How I refused
Ever to believe in your metempsychosis?
Alas that meritocracy should be reborn
Reborn to write again,
Reborn from darkness and void
Reborn to mock myself again.
With a splash of painted words,
Disjointed, without sense.
A sickly morbid earthling
Fed on the slums and dregs of earth,
Pampered on deadly drugs.,
Only to be haunted by a thousand empty dreams.
Now I solely scribble:
A mass of oddly disjointed lines,
Words upon words, a phantasmagoria of nonsense,
While ashes fall upon the yellow pages
Scented with nicotine of stale cigars.
Categories:
phantasmagoria, addiction, writing,
Form:
Free verse
Projected on to a large screen
The gruesome shape of evil’s face
A haunting form from Halloween.
Projected on to a large screen
A lantern cheats – don’t intervene
To stop the nightly ghoul’s forays
Projected on to a large screen
The gruesome shape of evil’s face.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Pick-A-Title, Vol 24 – Triolet Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh
Chose: Title 2. Phantasmagoria
Placed 1st
© 20th October 2020
Categories:
phantasmagoria, allusion, horror, image,
Form:
Triolet
As my doleful gaze upon thy form hath fallen,
Garbed in the fashion of sadness or mourning,
Nightly tresses thy sombre tone adorning,
Decadent and beauteous, as a Seraph fallen.
A woebegone faerie with wings lost and broken,
Enshrouded in blackness, a sepulchral lady,
With thy pallid skin and thy heart so shady,
Thou art a graveyard angel who seldom has spoken.
Categories:
phantasmagoria, angel, beauty, body, dark,
Form:
Tetractys
I
You stare silently squinting
through your stained glass panes
Pulling aside sapphire drapes
of somber samite and organdy
Lo, gazing mesmerized
a quixotic moon--
blithely blows kisses,
wryly winks
and coyly smiles--
Yea, a light seesaw of a day
of ecstasy and spritely delight--
now wanes to a quiet evening tune.
II
Transfixed
musing through a haze of
window panes
and now the past pains
enter your mind amidst
a Rorschach flowing panorama
of fluid specters--
a pentimento painting
of myriad weaving days
metamorphosing
into myriad mellowing nights.
Now mirthful,
the moon merrily
mills reticent
clouds--a star
clustered plight.
The meeting with Morpheus
--wondering of his mood--
cheery and cherry,
one hopes.
III
In the soft security
of your pliant bed--
your cheek cradled
in thoughts of the
day's blithe tread--
a voice and vision from the past--
"night night
nighty nite
sleep tight".
IV
Dreaming..
in a dream
Floating in the night skyscape
. . a phantasmagoria
of sensual sights and sounds. .
riding in a catamaran of gilded silk. .
over the still quiet town.
There's the tailor's shop,
the market place,
and the gurgling fountains of the park.
On to other lands afar. .
the Taj Mahal. .
the Great Wall of China
the winged maneuvers of a lark
V
Dreaming . . .
reeling red and yellow
sea horses
roaring
over tree tops . . .
mermaids samba agog
with cheshire cats to the
music of Sergei Rachmaninoff .
shooting stars
of blue purple catching
bolts of lightening
VI
Dearest one
awake now
and stir . . .
To scents of frankincense
and myrrh . .
long linger in your cozy warm bed . .
with thoughts
tantalizing thy graceful head . .
Birds twitter
and herald yon
day's new light . . .
a new morn sun yields
cascading
delight
Categories:
phantasmagoria, life, light, light, sensual,
Form:
Blank verse
My words of love are just flowing out
An unending stream of passion
You've reentered my life of ups and downs
My joy is no longer rationed
A most fortunate soul to say the least
So many have felt this euphoria
Almost too much for my poor heart to take
It's literally phantasmagoria
Before I pass on if there's any love justice
I'll caress you one more time
And feel the warmth of your tender soul
To know that feeling divine
At the risk of repeating it too many times
I'll love you to the ends of the earth
This feeling inside to the depth of my soul
Can't describe how much it's worth
Categories:
phantasmagoria, humorous,
Form:
Rhyme
Translucent droplets descending aimlessly
Thudding to the earth, exploding into fluidity
Transcending in sync with any exterior element
Condensing intensity with each thunderous blow
Caressing the atmosphere with friction intensifying heat
All the while, lubricating the possibilities of limitless evolution
Plush carpet of primitive sod
Seducing the blades of foliage budding with comers
Embrace the earth in a manner of plow and grace
Let Briar patches catch the droplets of reflective charges
Let us flush our cheeks in the breeze of calm
As we knead our nails into agil land
We perspire in the moistness of the dew of creation
The earth is its own composition
And we as entities must coincide
Because Vitality exist only within the rawness of us all
Categories:
phantasmagoria, angel, dream, environment, growth,
Form:
Free verse
Clear garish winds’ ascent grew plumbs renowned
Enunciating deftly to my heart:
If yon soot night inebriates the crowned,
No Lawyer can persuade a fire part.
Mere pigeons love blood in God’s tapestry,
Demure lungs and wrong idea atriums
Absolvent till Noon, their brewed majesty
Thwarts Edelweiss e’en to Chrysanthemums.
Dim cores all fight the luring sword of grace
Devout as Time sunk in an ink-tipped quill.
Touché, relaxing, elegant Lovelace:
Gore Kinderheim, by Night caress the ill.
The madness sways croon lig’ments by the shore,
For dances do all mired hearts censure.
Categories:
phantasmagoria, conflict, lost,
Form:
Sonnet
Dark black is the pigment of the night
Sans the moon and stars, a gloomy sight
When what is there cannot be gleamed
Dense clouds blocking light streams
Detached stares probing the unseen
Vaguely tracing for colors in the dim
Long stares rendered the sky askew
Empty eyes saw spectrum of hues
Phantasmagoria, an optical illusion
For a lost soul in state of disillusion
A strange dream, a rainbow at night
Tinges of hope when none in sight
Red ignites sparkle of passion
Orange evokes positive emotions
Yellow induces clarity of thoughts
Green implies balance and growth
Blue relaxes and calms the spirit
Indigo opens doors for the infinite
Purple sparks creative inspiration
Positive aura of color connections
In the skylight, morning or evening
A mirage of color prism lies therein
Our eyes reflect what the mind can see
Challenging how positive one can be.
Categories:
phantasmagoria, faith, hope, imagination, inspirational,
Form:
Rhyme
P-lenipotentiary plumes of idyllic and quixotic art,
H-e, In Land of Cockaigne, enchants a fairy’s heart.
A-nd a gift, Glimpses of my village with “rosy dawns,”
N-ay to hear “rooster calls,” “ruby skies,” to fawn.
T-o a Flamingo, pink gentilities and regal, I revere
A- lovely poet, full of grandeur — gentleman in the mirror.
S-imulacrum, frowning face of frippery - no doubt
M-ere pastiche, Vijay will not embrace; calls it out.
A- Summer Rain, he will turn into a rowdy dance,
G-lee of a family gathered, pets hide from nature’s lance.
O-h how I miss you mourns through peace and quiet,
R-aring to hear dogspeak in a dream; be not disquiet.
I-n a Winter storm, he touches my heart with a haiku...
A-nd after all, Vijay outshines many, a man of many hues.
1/5/2021
Contest: Capture The Essence
Sponsor: Margarita Lillico
Vijay’s poetry titles:
1.Phantasmagoria
2.Glimpses of my village
rosy dawns, rooster calls, ruby skies
3. To a flamingo:
pink gentilities, regal
4. Simulacrum:
frowning face of frippery, pastiche
5. Summer Rain:
rowdy dance, indirect reference to family & pets
6. Oh how I miss you
7. In a Winter Storm
Categories:
phantasmagoria, tribute,
Form:
Acrostic