Best Raucous Poems
Brandishing the lightning lance, the sun arrives,
The mighty, majestic monarch of the day.
Kissing the mouldy mountain rows, he comes
Banishing mist and frost from night’s blotched brow.
In what rich ruby ring of radiance, he appears
Smearing and splotching liquid gold, he gracefully moves
With sparkling splashes, the world becomes bright
The prompt and punctual rooster raises his raucous revelry.
Birds and beasts wake up from their slumberous sleep.
The feathered folks tweet and twitter in harmonious notes.
The verdant vales below send up a welcoming sign.
The leaves stay bright tipped with dainty droplets of dew.
Morn, the bashful, mousy maiden with modest grace,
Peeps and peeks through half drawn curtains in the East.
Removing all trace of a tarnished yesterday,
The day arrives making me smile in burgeoning bliss.
Categories:
raucous, appreciation, nature, smile,
Form:
Alliteration
I dreamt of blue birds
and buzzing bumble bees.
I roamed with the bison herds,
prayed with mantis on our knees,
and butterflies in the breeze.
I greeted the cheery chickadees,
dragonflies, and snowy owls.
I marveled at graceful manatees.
raucous sounds of guinea fowls,
and warblers’ velvet vowels.
I raved at ravens
dancing on a fertile field.
Mice sought havens,
safe shelters that red ants build
in hopes from spiders to shield.
I spotted rain-drenched
autumn leaves in tapestries,
their beauty strangely entrenched.
Purple hues imbued in varying degrees,
of gladiolas and sweet peas.
So many perfect pleasures,
many another than these.
All of God’s treasures,
created with love to please,
arranged to calm my world with ease.
Categories:
raucous, animal, bird, dream, environment,
Form:
Rhyme
Earth element of wind, elusive to exploring eyes,
a gaseous, gusty ghost, she gyrates- gallops gallantly.
She bashes, bends, and bobs the branches of each bush and tree,
and chases, circles, curls dry fallen leaves so agilely.
We hear her bellow, bawl, and bluster when she's feeling fierce;
soft sounds of swishing, stirring- sighing when serene and tame.
With solid, staunch, and strapping strength, she soon can shift a house
within a raucous, raging, raving, reckless, hurricane.
She cools, controls, composes in the sultry summer heat,
forms wild and wheeling waves with whitecaps on the widespread sea;
a force that's fearless, frantic, sometimes, feeble- frail, she flies,
impermanent, intangible, she soars invisibly.
This ghastly glimmer of great ghostly gumption rushes by,
a force that is not sculpture, shadow, silhouette, or shape.
We feel and hear her apt and awesome atmospheric breath-
until she plans her fast, flirtatious, feathery escape.
March 18, 2016
~1st Place~
Contest: 2019 Poetry Marathon Qualifier's Final Placement
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Judged: 04/20/2019
~1st Place~
Contest: 2019 Poetry Marathon Mile 22
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Judged: 03/08/2019
~1st Place~
Contest: Elements Part 2: Wind
Sponsor: Brian Davey
Judged: 3/29/2016
*Alliteration, Rhyme, written in Iambic Heptameter,
14 Syllables, 7 feet per line
Categories:
raucous, appreciation, tribute, weather, wind,
Form:
Alliteration
I am a narcoleptic,
I sleep at any time,
no doubt I’ll drop off frequently
before I end this ………………………………rhyme.
It can be quite embarrassing,
between just me and you,
in the bank the other day
I dozed off in the queue.
As if that wasn’t bad enough
I let out quite a snore,
a real raucous rasper
that left my throat quite sore.
My constant napping problem
has somewhat skewed my fate;
destined to be a spinster,
I snooze on each first date.
There was one special fella
who took me out to dine,
my face was drawn into my plate
as I closed these eyes of mine.
He gave me money for the bill
and stifling a grin
he walked away and whispered
“You’ve something on your chin”
I think I’ll have to end now,
I’m sensing heavy blinks,
I cannot write another word
I need my forty ………..................... winks
** for Nikko's 'Your Snooze, You Choose' contest
Categories:
raucous, funnyme, me,
Form:
Rhyme
Sentimental rain creates puddles upon a lane of lost memories.
Gone are those malachite meadows, where we once ran free.
Clouds now reflect against intimidating soaring glass towers.
The scent of Silent fresh air, replaced by raucous toxic bustling cars.
In my childhood playground, rusty swings no longer blow in the wind,
as a medley of broken dreams and forgotten promises, haunt my mind.
I hardly recognise these taciturn faces running around like ants.
Every strangers face I see, reminds me this place was never meant for me.
As suppressed spirits slowly guide me to your final resting place,
I am finally content, knowing, you are in the company of angels.
Silent One
25 September 2018
Example for the 'lines of ten that remind you what it was like back then' contest.
Categories:
raucous, death, home, nostalgia,
Form:
Free verse
Peace slips lightly
Over my shoulders
Downy in its softness
Its netting of gossamer
Floats downward
As a willow's branches
Might brush fate
And touch the unknown
I stand with beauty
I hug airiness
Fire in distant trees
Burnished red and gold
Drop their leaves
One by one by one
Spaces fill knowingly
Like a precise jigsaw
Designed by eternity
Its pieces culled from heaven
To create nature's quilt
Trembling, I embrace the birthing
I am one with change
A cacaphony of sounds -
Caw Caw Caw
Raucous, disturbing, quickening
Tear my thoughts like glass shards
Skyrocketing colors
Shake my newfound presence
I am reminded that
Equanimity's gift is fleeting
As a cardinal's trill
Or the flash of a jay's blueness
I yield to what is
Categories:
raucous, autumn, beauty, change, peace,
Form:
Free verse
As the reaper approached, I lie waiting for death,
whispering sad goodbyes while gasping for breath.
In a blurry haze of awareness, I drift towards sleep,
as visions of childhood days in my mind slowly creep.
I hear muffled sobs of loved ones as they weep.
There's a shadowy presence flying high overhead,
those scavengers of death, those that I most dread.
Their beady black eyes intent on watching my face,
circling around and around. It's a feast they chase,
ebon wing feathers falling as they hasten their pace.
I've need of sanity, so I close my eyes and pretend
I'm walking on a summer day with my best friend.
We're chasing tadpoles and sloshing in streams,
laughing as our skin turns bronze from sunbeams,
then I wake to realize that these were but dreams.
My memories are fading, and my lips feel numb.
To eternity's slumber, I will soon succumb.
I asked someone near me to chase them away...
She bent close and whispered, "What did you say?"
"The vultures circling me. Please keep them at bay."
Clusters of tenebrous clouds obscured the sunlight.
I heard raucous calls of the damned vultures in flight.
Oh, how I begged for their tormenting caws to cease,
for only then would I live my last moments in peace.
I heralded silence then welcomed life's release.
July 10, 2022
Pick-A-Title, Vol 31 Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh
Theme: Vultures Circling
Categories:
raucous, death, fear,
Form:
Rhyme
I hear voices
high in the trees,
trilling from the shrubs
and on the breeze.
I hear voices
high in the sky,
that grow and fade
and finally die.
A non-conducted chorus,
yet oh so sweet,
from a raucous warbling,
to a static tweet.
There’s a whistling pitch,
or a cackling cry -
I hear these voices
as I stroll on by.
I hear voices
that defeat my stress,
help me understand,
what matters less.
I hear voices,
that are sweet to hear,
with natures melodies,
pleasing to my ear.
Not a truck or a car;
not a bustling bar.
There’s no smog hidden star,
and no concrete or tar.
This here is their paradise;
no one hustles; no one lies,
for one to live, one often dies,
and all around me flies.
Where I hear voices
high in the trees,
trilling from the shrubs
and on the breeze.
I’m their audience,
with a host of choices,
when I amble by,
and I hear their voices.
Categories:
raucous, nature,
Form:
Prose
Of parrots and parakeets, no one knows
now numbering in the thousands
no longer Mexico's bucolic birds
new urbanized citizens migrated
to the suburbs.
If you travel to Los Angeles and county
where hobo avians flock to Pepperdine
hoping to matriculate to paradise..
Pasadenans know the raucous calls from palms
festooned in bright feathers and pheromones.
Should you wish to elicit a response
from a Red-crowned Amazon..
just ask any witch cat which hungers
with an acute accessory olfactory
rife in feline grin and purpose
eye'n the skies cheerfully.
And somewhere Marianne Faithfull warbles
'this little bird who lives on the wind,
this little bird that somebody sends.'
they're listening too, with a coo and squawk
o'er the skies of Silverlake
and Eagle Rock.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Little Bird sung by Marianne Faithfull - Lyrics by J.D. Loudermilk 1965
Categories:
raucous, bird, journey, paradise,
Form:
Verse
jampacked city streets
that jangled and banged
in the raucous jarring day
shifted
from business to boogaloo
squeezing into moonlight
party lights
gin and lime-kissed
gimlet sequined dress
strutted
in studded six-inch heels
riveting flair
provoking jive and jazzy nights
to tame this lion of New York
The bed swallowed the evening
sucked-up in slumbered
sobering snooze
exhaling the drunkard’s stench
while the warmth of whiskey
and you next to me
laid dreamy still
popped up and propped up
restless and ragged
realizing the changing view
through the dirt-stained window
a pool of placid sunrise
igniting
colorless clustered towers
bulwarks and girders
scraping the sky
out of the easterly clouds
a creeping golden palette
arose
touching every crevice
defining each silhouette
your body stirs deliberate and slow
rainbow hued eyes
slenderly slitted catching
the new-found light
opening, tenderly revealing
the landscape of your smile
disclosing
a cozy contentment
waking with hello
as I fall into your dream
and a new day
Categories:
raucous, city, culture, day, new
Form:
Free verse
She sits alone
Shunned by those that rhyme
With sublime
Ridiculed by the raucous
And bellicose
For of all the words
It is said
She is the only one
That doesn’t rhyme
With anything.
She has ceased defending
Her presence
In the molten shades
Of breaking dawns
Her streaming brush stroked
Sunsets
She often sits alone
Amid the seasonal splendor
Of a New England Autumn
Shuffling through the rustling
Shades and shadows of her self.
She knows who she is
And that she does rhyme
For to rhyme
Is to blend easily
Seamlessly take center stage
Without seeking applause.
She seeks no curtain call
Only the crest of sunrise
Act one, Scene one
Categories:
raucous, life, poetry, words,
Form:
Free verse
Written: December 05, 2023
__________________________________________
Earth's mysteries—swirling in the sky.
Heaven is comely with lemon meringue.
Vaporizing clouds are dulcet and colored.
Cinnamon light was shed on my shoulders.
Peering onto the horizon of a waning sun.
Beethoven and Mozart split into the ether.
Ruby tangos fuchsia in an outburst of ecstasy.
Fetching hues of elixir flash and flare.
Obsidian clouds yield a rumble of thunder.
Cumulus clouds coal-colored clusters.
In erratic black seas, akin to rogue boats.
Thunderclaps imbue a shiny sheen.
A cyan-blue sky casts her limbs outward.
Soaring saffron butterflies and kites.
A cloud of endorphins shrouds the world.
Amid raucous mirth and glamor lullabies.
The sky's evocative color palette.
sparked by the effervescent moonlight.
delightful days laced with zeal and zest
amid a kaleidoscope hallucination.
Categories:
raucous, analogy, appreciation, color, sky,
Form:
Free verse
Written: August 06, 2025
*********
The traffic roars as wounded gulls.
metal beats skated over the asphalt waves,
each honk a fractured prayer,
fleeing the city, restless breath.
I sit beneath a twisted jacaranda tree.
Its lavender flowers unfurl as the sun dips low
Parrots squabble in the canopy—
boisterous, unrepentant, and singing,
stirring the dawn with their raucous cries,
a beauty entwined with longing.
Their melody exists beyond,
concrete and clocks,
I sip coffee—malnourished warmth—
Its bitter essence wedged between my ribs,
where comfort once thrived.
The chipped cup, a reflection of lost trust.
Each face that passes me
is a silent question,
I have forgotten how to answer.
Once I skated these streets
hungry for names,
for the echo of someone to cram my void,
But identity remains a fog
caught between chain-link fences
and fragrant jasmine vines.
Yet still,
I listen for that singular voice
amid the clamorous parrots,
the one that might beckon me back
into the wholeness of myself.
Categories:
raucous, bird,
Form:
Free verse
Is Beethoven's ensemble fairer than nature's psalms?
Amidst a crowning sun: ears and eyes are drugged,
drenched with tender notes, orchestrated by greens,
inhale deep, the aromatic blossoms from the vine
with their lilting swell, brushed shades of fine wine.
Listen, listen to the sudden leap, the vibrato of bird song
or the raucous winds rubbing against house-corners
and the blithering brook carrying tales of who?
As you walk attuned to the crunch of the brown foliage.
When the cobalt skies turn to ash - gray mode,
hear heaven's vault lament, drizzling sobs to loud weeps
when day's face in angst pout or blush beside the beloved.
Feel your feet push or pull deluged by the liquid fingers
of the sea; in whites, they murmur ripples. They tremble
and stir, savor the flavor, a brief interlude:
Nature's power: tones, sharps, curls, pants. It slants
aiming to reach a rest upon blues of sky at its zenith,
The darting patterns curves, verves are diapered
wanting to delight, to wonder, to shock, to soothe.
Categories:
raucous, beautiful, bird, drug, imagery,
Form:
Ekphrasis
Tussled hair, bruised knees, toothless, lop-sided grin;
Ma is so thankful her dear little imp wasn't born a twin!
She likes things running smoothly, like a finely-tuned violin,
But her little boy marches to his own drum, much to her chagrin!
To begin the day he feeds his breakfast oatmeal to the dog.
Opening a drawer, Ma lets out a screech, finding a slimy frog!
He encourages a fight between Rusty the dog and Simba the cat,
And 'round and 'round they go, in raucous heated combat!
The preacher made his periodic call and settled in his seat.
A whoopee cushion made a lewd noise, startling him to his feet!
He mumbled a hasty good-by, and headed for the door,
As the little imp, choking with laughter, rolled upon the floor!
Ma made treats for her bridge club, saying they were not his fare,
But on bridge day, lo and behold, she found the cupboard bare!
He pestered his little sister unmercifully with never any slack!
"Mommy", she screamed, "he put a slimy worm down my back!"
Tho' he drives his long-suffering mother up the wall,
She wouldn't trade him for any other little boy at all.
After his prayers at bedtime and seeing his sweet, angelic smile,
Ma plops in her chair seeking repose from another daily trial!
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired (© All Rights Reserved)
Categories:
raucous, childhood, little sister,
Form:
Rhyme