Best Recaptured Poems
It's the summer of my fourth year.
Dad is driving us to the seashore.
The sun follows us, a happy fellow,
beaming in the mid-morning’s azure sky.
In the back seat with my two sisters, I’m looking out the window
as I crunch on Mom’s homemade salty Chex Mix,
anticipating the warmth of salt spray
from the waves I’ll be jumping on this beautiful day -
Life is a beach not yet even in my vocabulary.
We are now at the shore, a large blanket laid out,
Mom with her bright red hair tied back with a brighter red check scarf,
and my dad, dark-haired and handsome, smiling.
So rare is this happy countenance he wears today!
For a while I sit as if entranced, watching the waves roll in.
But eventually, and predictably, my joy ebbs like the tide.
Dark clouds are gathering; gray begins to envelop the sky.
I look over to my dad; the gray has recaptured his face.
In the vanishing sunlight, familiar dark thoughts invade my mind -
Dad, can I see you be happy just once for a whole day?
Rain . . . always it rains when we go to the seashore.
Categories:
recaptured, emotions,
Form:
Free verse
Tanka, didn’t work for me you see.
Sorry for the wait, I’ve been as busy as a bee.
I see PD is getting a lot of praise
I’m confident, PD, it is not just a phase!
I had to wait to view some of your writes
I had little information, but I let you out of my sights
PD, I have recaptured my Soul today
Shoot me down if you want and have your say
I read your Haiku and it would be easy to hurt
But my friend, that time has gone, no more dirt.
I open my arms to embrace you true
Change of direction, writing about the colour blue
Blue is the colour of protection and the spirit
I give it to you, you can walk forever with it.
Poetry Destroyer IS the wrong name
Poetry Supporter is the correct term, but what a shame.
I wish you luck on you future hits
The day will come you will enter the grand old Ritz
So, the offer is there stands there my dear PD
Hit me hard, knock me out, send me to sea.
Is this the white flag, you tell me?
May be it is, lets wait and see.
Send me to the stocks or chain me up
Poetry police, long term i'll never give-up
Categories:
recaptured, hopeme, me,
Form:
Rhyme
She lay serenely on the cold slab
Elegantly dressed in white,
A secret smile embossed upon her lips
That even death could ne'er erase.
I looked at her for quite some time.
My memories dwelt for a time long
Of by-gone days when we were young,
Days fully lived and justly savoured,
Days of exciting, enticing emotions,
Revisited and recaptured mostly in my past.
Alas, she's gone forever now,
The finite sands of time ran out,
As spring and summer always do.
Life was spilled now and hope died,
Still no dreary dirge for me,
But rather squander time in living dreams
So I often indulge in my autumn days,
You will always be on my mind.
Categories:
recaptured, appreciation,
Form:
Free verse
The depth of my intensity is unfathomed and unknown
I mutter a million tongues in a million different tones
Unleashing my mind, I spew prolific poetry
Draw a wedge in your subconscious, like I’m parting the Red Sea.
I can speak into your mirror and distort your reflection
Rebuff the remnants of denial and rejection
I use dictionaries as pillows to absorb the definition
The creations of my mind fluently brought into fruition
Regurgitating rhythmical rhetorical reasoning
Metrically mingled in metaphorical meaning
I launch lyrics like missile’s launch rockets
Targeting your soundness i devour your logic
my thoughts slash deeper than even the third eye can see
Double edged sword, assured to bring you to your knees
Shake your composure like the clashing of clouds
Words once whispered, are now boisterous and loud
Ink embedded with Solomon’s wisdom, David anointed my pen
Possessed with spirits of the most high, stirring within.
I resurrected my resilience and recaptured my breath
These rhymes will live a thousand lives but never die a single death
Categories:
recaptured, slam,
Form:
Free verse
Barefoot in the sand I walk the seashore, carefree
taking mental snapshots of you and me;
Living in the sanctuary of your natural agility
I am a womb in you, both beautiful and free.
When you pour me out my soul refreshes,
some say you are water but I say you are life.
Recaptured, I regain my sanity and dignity
and for this, I thank you water;
The seashores are quenched by your ebb and flow
and your eternal movements, are my Saving Grace;
You are self sufficient and unanimously rhythmed
and in your cadence even the mermaids rejoice,
as they dip their tails and siren your decree.
Oh sea, you are just a kiss away from me,
when I'm in your presence nothing in this world
matters, anymore.
Categories:
recaptured, appreciation, sea,
Form:
Free verse
It is okay to mourn
the rapid speed by which this treacherous virus
caught us off guard
Now we cope, we survive, some better than others
And for so many, too many
the dignity of dying has been denied
After a life long-lived, you were left to meet the great beyond alone
cut off from those who were in your precious circle
We grieve for you
We grieve for lost moments and time that cannot be recaptured
Crowded malls, movie theater lines, standing sweaty shoulder to shoulder
in packed concert halls and bars
nodding simultaneously to familiar tunes
We grieve the mundane, predictability of our former world
Crammed in trains with intoxicated hockey fans en route to the big game
We mourn the cold we braved together
the obnoxious fans of the other team
the homeless percussionist banging out beats for bread
on their white, plastic bucket snare drum
The fairs and festivals
The planes and anticipation of travel and adventures to come
I miss you deeply
my flawed, beautiful human society of the pre-virus days
I am sickened by what this virus has done to us
You made us divided and filled our heads with wild conspiracies
You kept us trapped in our echo chambers
You drove us apart when we most needed to stick together
You wore out our battle wearied soldiers of the front line
risking it all to keep us well
to be a last connection to the human world before fading into eternity
We can never forget what you have meant for us all
It is okay to grieve my beautiful people
We will
one day
be given back some version of our former world
it will look and feel different
We will have lost great people along the way
there are more days to fight
God speed.
Categories:
recaptured, hope, strength,
Form:
Free verse
you …
came to me today
(from anon)
wholly untold to your concerns
but real enough …
I was plodding the beach, tending wounds
when you tossed your smile at
me from a shrouded sun
off whitecaps, bursting into dazzle -
echoes, alit
each a memory, recaptured
brief as a blink …
but I was transfixed, as always
immersed in your burnt ochre irises
gold flecks like shiny confetti, fluttering
they hadn’t held me since …
forever, really
and as then, the brilliance within
was unsettling -
a piercingly perceptive acumen that
probed, unchallenged
though your countenance always
smoothed the edges -
a bubbly exuberance and gravity
an eager affability -
thawed everything around you
and … everyONE
effecting the grandest of illusions
that whatever you aimed your attentions at
was your dearest concern
and your one TRULY careful involvement …
when in all actuality
we -
the matter and matters about you -
were just a multitude of
merry moths …
to your flame.
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, June 8, 2023
Categories:
recaptured, analogy, imagery, lost love,
Form:
Free verse
Cry not for love
Fore love
Is the greatest
Of all things’
Be not of despair
For the Heart withers’
Not ...
Less it be incomplete
With all the completeness
Of an empty Heart
-----
Fear not its’ memory
For whatever is lost
In thought ...
Can only be recaptured
Through the imagination
What-ever is of the
Mind and Heart
Shall never be forgotten
By time
But, shaped by circumstance
GF
Categories:
recaptured, death of a friend,
Form:
Ode
State of Mind
I am uninhibited and long in years
but still here to praise the day
and my present mien amid the strife
that I endured I can see a light
as if reflected on a watery path
that glistens and shows the way
to another day that I choose
to accept and come what may
I will not age , I will evolve
To demolish dementia with my thoughts
I have recaptured youth
With the tools I have wrought
To trot in the world with a steady gait
as a child, I am uninhibited
still here to praise the day
Introspective the deep…Contest
Sponsored by Lewis Raynes
May 14, 2017
Categories:
recaptured, introspection,
Form:
Free verse
Over the years
some were carefully carried
tied up in tiny bundles
held tight against the heart
While the other
more awkward ones
were pulled behind in a cart
like so many precious parcels
taken along for the ride
But a few fell
and rolled astray
off by the wayside
along the way
Some were missed
right away
with heartaches and tears
While others were
eventually missed
after some years
And some not noticed at all
I see people now and then
rummaging around
by the wayside
for what they've lost-
Some with long, sharp sticks
poking, prodding absentmindedly
collecting debris
Some on hands and knees
with brush and trowel
excavating so carefully... but-
Most of the time
the wayside is no place
for happy reunions
Often what was lost
if it was, indeed, of value at all
will not still be there
after some years
but snatched up and carried away
with care, by another who
saw its worth
Or degraded past
the point of repair
until what was lost
can never be recaptured
or replaced
Or sometimes what was 'lost'
simply wasn't worth keeping
in the first place
but purposefully discarded
cast off like old garments
too uncomfortable to wear
Relationships too heavy to bear
tainted by disrespect
dishonesty, neglect
subtle streams of unkindness
ever-so-slightly visible envy
marking their faces
like red flags
But the idea of
something having been lost
is powerful, and nags
at our hearts 'til we forget-
these things and their cost
yes, we forget-
Most of the time
the wayside is no place
for happy reunions
Categories:
recaptured, friendship, memory, people, perspective,
Form:
Free verse
Slumber comes,
Lips pressed gently,
Against center forehead.
Dreams escaped,
Now recaptured with new luster,
Peaceful rest falls.
Categories:
recaptured,
Form:
“How long has he been here?” said the other voice which Dumpty could see now that the dawn light started to grow, belonged to a largish Owl perched on a tree branch, near the sleeping cat. “Oh, I dragged him in just the other day” replied Dumpty, “the poor thing he was holding onto that large green flagon over there, could hardly get a word out of him he just nodded most times, and he has a glazed look in his eyes, I would say he has been deeply traumatized.” “How is he normally?” “‘Oh he is a most cheerful soul, full of energy, helpful to others and so
on; and he can be quite brave, I can remember when the clog-dancing Dutch mouse, fell down the stair.. she had to have bed rest for 2 weeks, well he volunteered to look after her kids and he did! As it so happens Siegfried and Roy were touring, well one of their panthers got into the backyard of the mouse family’s home and he was there pegging out some washing you know one of those young mice came down the back steps and the panther headed toward it... well this guy here he sorta made every hair on his body stand out stiff he looked over twice his size, and then quick as a wink he jumped on that bad ole panther, he jumped on his head and got his claws up its nose, he hung on like glue while I flew off to raise the alarm, poor old puss here took some punishment but he saved that young mouse alright, and that old panther looked really the worse for wear when he was recaptured” well I can see he does not like bullies observed Dumpty with a note of admiration in his voice, I do so hope he gets well I
would like to get to know him..!
©JOE MAVERICK 1-3-2014
Categories:
recaptured, anti bullying,
Form:
Narrative
Nautdah
Nautdah, they called you,
In your real life they named you,
When you knew yourself,
When you lived out on the unforgiving plains.
As Nautdah, Comanche captive,
You Became Comanche;
Leaving behind the girl
Who was Cynthia Parker
Sloughed off like an ill-fitted skin.
You gave birth
To their greatest leader, Quanah
In a field of wildflowers on the Texas plain;
Forsook your language and embraced
That century of blood and pain
For the sake of a people who's way was dying
Even as you butchered bison on the endless sea of grass.
They recaptured you and made you a monument to what their wildness
Had made of you:
A woman of the Elements, a woman who would not be cowed
By the conventions of her time;
A woman who would never cease
Trying to return to the people to whom she really belonged,
To the people who belonged to the Sky, the Earth, the Wild Horses.
Before Quanah died, having lived with his feet in both Worlds,
He arranged to have your bones interred near his,
Where the two of you could lie together
To dream of wildflowers, and Freedom.
Categories:
recaptured, history, identity, loss, memory,
Form:
Free verse
I bent down and sat on a elfridge log
While a crying frog came out of a bog
I set my precious best friend, Anya, on the ground
I distantly listened to the goblin and giants thundering sound
I put a hand up and petted my white-tiger guardian
He nestled my hand and sat down loyal
We had to go to the king Russo who was so royal
White-tiger guardian, Koda, told me what was up
And how the giants and goblins kidnapped his pup
At that point, from my own eyes, tears began to fall
I felt responsible, I had to report this call
I stood up quick and formatted a plan
Until someone cut in and screamed, “we’re under attack!” and everyone ran
The goblins and gnomes found out I was back
They begin to attack all dressed in jet-black
I chanted out spells, curses, and such
I knew I knew them, I’d practiced so much
“Curse you for trying to destroy my world
Wither now and become unfurled
Don’t look back you awful demons
For this is not your world and you have no reasons
You shall not be here, you aren’t the boss
This world belongs to me from the trees to the moss
From the animals and friends that I have made
Curse you all and go to shame”
The words rolled their eyes to the back of their brains
Ten-thousand bodies sounded like trains
They fell over dead with groans
While they died gently with thousand of moans
I saved my world with a certain curse
Because of a spell I had to constantly rehearse
My world was saved and everything in it
I was crowned queen and I left a permanent dent
I went to King Russo and recaptured Koda’s pup
I regained everything back that was stolen --- all the stuff
King Russo was happy too that I was home
Now my sun shines and no one’s alone
Categories:
recaptured, fantasy, world, me,
Form:
Tail-rhyme
< once there was a girl locked in closet
dear old dad said well thats what you get
little did he come know
let out by little bro
but recaptured by moms fishing net
Entry For Leighann Anderson's
Sea Of Words Contest
G.L. All
Categories:
recaptured, adventure, caregiving, childhood, depression,
Form:
Limerick