Best Rehearsed Poems
I watched a weeping willow
Dancing with a summer breeze
A timeless dance of lovers
They'd rehearsed for centuries
The zephyr would excite her
With his warm southwesterlies
She'd gently sway both to and fro
So playfully she'd tease
Her intermittent whispers
And a rustle of her leaves
Oft times would leave him breathless
Their intensity would ease
I felt my heartbeat quicken
As I rose from on my knees
Then quietly, just like I came
Slipped back into the trees.
Be gone..
Do not look me in the eyes
We were not belongers
But,Intruders
who happened to trespass
into each other's lives
We were no Romeo and Juliette
But, Pretenders
Like moon rocks believing they are the ones
who light up the infinite sky
Be Gone..
Do not look me in the eyes
Let not my lips go there
to that young and serene night
When we danced barefoot on the sand
with arms against the sadness of lost time
Your decision has been made
The last petal of an untouched margarita
withered in dust and rain
And you never asked Why
Be Gone..
Do not look me in the eyes
Do not remember me
Do not think of me
Forget my foreign whisper
like I 'll forget the wrinkle in your smile
There was never a better place
Nor will there be another time
The empty pages have been filled
Our unfinished book - Not anymore
I am a nobody ~ an echo in your hourglass fading in the sand
an empty barrel without the sweetened wine
Do not miss me - Do not think of me - Do not need me
Who am I
I' m just your rehearsed dream . a metaphoric lie
Be Gone
Do not look me in the eyes and say goodbye
I was never yours You were never mine.
I was You were
Were you ? Was I ?
This poem isn't about me or my life, but inspired
by someone else's life.
The Festival of Lights, Chanukah has arrived
a hopeful time of praise each year revived.
The Menorah lit, each home becomes a church.
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe.
Our sister Miriam lights the shamash taper first
a maiden fair and scholarly her prayers rehearsed
to bring together all that's beautiful, diverse.
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe.
Eight nights we praise the L-rd for gifting us with Light
and pass around small things which bring delight.
We rejoice. In brotherhood we are immersed.
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe.
May G-d in his greatness light all your days
May family, friends, and foes mend their ways
for all have needs, let kindness tame their thirsts
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe.
*Bo-ruch A-toh Ado-noi E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ho-olom A-sher Ki-de-sho-nu Be-mitz-vo-sov Ve-tzi-vo-nu Le-had-lik Ner Shel Cha-nu-kah.
* Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by His commandments, and has commanded us to kindle the lights of Chanukah.
I’ve distanced myself
I didn’t mean to
Didn’t set out to do it
An unconscious act of the mind
For self preservation
My visits went to once a week
Sunday dinners that once lasted for hours
Became shorter and shorter
Until now its get in
Get it cooked
Clean it up
Visit
And we’re out
Occasionally circumstances would
Happen and one would be missed
Oh well I’ll go during the week
Sometimes I did
Sometimes I didn’t
Today my heart cried to be near you
I entered the home and immediately
Settled my mood into the atmosphere
Funeral home-esque for lack of a better description
I speak in hushed tones
Slow my movements
And quiet my spirit
You want something
Oh thank you give me a job
What do you need???? Anything
I’ll gladly do anything
So many things hurt you now
You who were so tough reduced to such pain
Questions, answers, questions, answers
Over and over and over
This is the part I know
I’ve practiced this so many times before
You speak and in mid sentence you cry
Have I seen my sister,,you can’t remember
Ever seeing my sister, have you seen her
Yes mom remember mom
My answers are calm
Almost rehearsed
Repeated
Sterile
You look searching in my eyes
Yours, sunken, confused,
Pained, with a depth of sadness
I haven’t seen before
I look away.
I meet all the needs you’ve asked of me
I pat you, hug you, pray with you
I look at my brother, the saint
He’s tired, worn, sad
I leave, I’m OUT
I drive
How’d I get here
How long have I been driving
The sky so desperately gray
Muted tones of nothingness
The air feels so heavy
Like a shroud encompassing me
Choking me
The river runs beside me
It rages from the wind
There’s no stopping its power
It’s dark and gloomy and brown
And suits my mood
I try to pray
HOW DO I PRAY
Do I pray for healing,
Health, life, death
Joy, maybe peace
I cry out to you
I DON’T KNOW HOW TO PRAY
I look to the sky and see
The smallest spot of the most beautiful sapphire blue
In a sea of nothing
And I cry
A wordless song drifts from your eyes
with rhyme disguised in poems lost
from heavens smile your heart replies
assuming risk, no fear the cost
You dare not weep to dampen dreams
but pledge to take this hand of chance
no less from love this passion streams
in turn of fate not circumstance
Left breathless from a lovers kiss
this treasure found its place in time
a pleasure true, no more than this
not once rehearsed in pantomime
Within each heart pure beauty lives
When fancies flight is there to give
04/04/2017
The clinical sentence was pronounced,
perfumed with the devil’s royal scent ~
a relapse that smells
like an ethereal remedy
as every restless leaf abandons
its luscious green to the grave,
where her heartbeat
still sighs amidst the sleepless sunrise
beneath the loam,
where gloaming once, upon a blood moon,
homed the valiant vibratos
of her laughter,
yet if the only way to remember
is to remain unhealed,
as russet strings
of a violin ring through,
carrying sweet nightmares ~
held within the dusk
like beloved nightingales,
letting my inner calendar
return to circling the date
when she last breathed my name ~
O divine darkness,
let me fade until the face
of September’s stars wane
and phase the sorrow
into soundless torrents of
rehearsed requiems
until hurt sounds like a hypnotic hymn.
I swallowed, O Griefversary,
my penance through turning time,
the italicised letters
chronicling the chronic memoirs
while the tongue of trauma
prescribes crippling anxiety
into my thoughts,
I have long bottled
blurred hope
and summer sonatas,
with every memory crushed
like an autopsy listed as an accessory,
weaving words
borrowed from archived affections
as I leave line after line,
no longer aching
for the dark to understand that
my faith developed a stutter,
my pulse filed pleas for Prozac,
my ink confessed unseen panic,
my skin carried fingerprints
of midnight fears ~
and I still walk through
the black rose maze of memories,
around the season of
her irrevocable demise ~
September, the soulful wraith
of ghosts I love beyond death…
A series of choices is what shapes a
life.
Some lead to joy, others to strife.
They come in all sizes, both big and
small.
Some lift us up and some make us
fall.
Our choices affect us, but so often
others
Strangers and friends, family and
lovers.
Take care that your choices are
honest and pure.
In every choice, try to be sure.
Choices revealed in actions and
deeds.
They're nestled in wants, desires
and needs.
What we say, what we don't.
What we will, what we won't.
We are judged by our choices, for
good or for bad.
Living with memories, happy and
sad.
Choices are rarely ever rehearsed.
Once they are made, seldom
reversed.
Who we are at the core can be
shown by a choice.
I hope that in yours, you'll always
rejoice
Fighting mid the strong and bold,
His eye and blade were keen;
Marching like a thund'ring storm
On foes of Faith, his queen.
Now returned in victory
Upon his mighty bay,
Set he off to Langley Tow'r
Her summons to obey.
"John the Squire," the footman called,
And held the oaken door;
Faith, it seemed, had gleaming eyes
Like never once before.
"John! 'tis good to see thee hale,"
The queen exclaimed, and rose:
Tales have sped to Langley's gates
Of many broken bows."
"God has saved me whole and well,
By prayers, I ween, of thee;
Tell me please, my lady Queen
What service I may be."
Saying thus, the squire bowed
And doffed his burnished helm;
Struck in awe by Faith, his love,
The queen of Arthur's realm.
"Gilbert saith," rehearsed the queen,
"That deeds of thee are done
Greater yet than those of Wat
Or even Henry's son."
Tears bedecked her youthful face,
And glistened in the light;
John the Squire, as she had hoped,
Had done her favour right.
"Nay!" the humble squire cried,
"This word is not so true!
How could I, the meanest squire,
Perform the deeds they do?"
"Hush!" It was a firm command;
"I'll hear these lies no more;
Kneel before me, Squire John,
A knight shall leave the door."
Down before the queen he knelt,
He pledged his knighthood true;
Swore her ev'ry small command
With cheerful heart to do.
From his side she drew his sword,
She struck the accolade;
"Thus the greatest knight," she said,
"Is from a squire made."
From her hand the sword did fall,
It clashed upon a stone:
"John, if battle claimed thy life,
How could I be alone?"
"God has prospered all my ways;
My Queen, I praythee, cease!
Soon these wars shall claim our foes,
And Britain be in peace."
Faith remained there by her throne,
With light upon her hair;
Not one maid of Camelot
Was even half so fair.
"God be with thee evermore,"
She bravely said at last;
"Guard and keep thee from the foe
Until the very last."
John the Knight farewell did bid,
And swiftly rode away:
When the wars were hammered out,
He'd be a king in May.
For the Famous Art contest. Inspired by the painting "The Accolade" -1901 by Edmund Blair Leighton.
We have our routine to perfection
Our way of saying I love you and
Wouldn’t want to live without you
We’re a strong solid team you and I
We are going to make it through this
Home is when I’m with you
The incessant flow of aches and pains
All those appointments and treatments
We don’t blow things out of proportion
Or make a fuss about how things used to be
We’ve moved on taking it one day at a time
Home is when I’m with you
Now when my arms wrap around you
Softly resting your head on the pillow
We simultaneously raise your legs
Gentle as a ballet that’s well rehearsed
Swiveling you comfortably in bed to rest
Home is when I’m with you
I bundle you in warm cozy blankets
Cuddle up with whispers well into the night
Pressed one against the other
Caressing the nook of your neck
Spooning you till one of us falls asleep
Home is when I’m with you
Published in my 24-page photo/anthology ~CAN'T IMAGINE~ 2020
AP: 3rd place 2025
Submitted on April 18, 2019 for contest VERSES OF METAPHORS 3 sponsored by LU LOO - RANKED 1ST
The joyous scent of living
That leaps from life's perfume
Spring murmurs its beginning
From hope and dreams in bloom
The choir of color sings of thee
With hues in rich new verse
As if this song was meant to be
From rhymes all well rehearsed
As petals graced with morning dew
Rise softly towards the sun
So in Spring hope doth renew
Its perfect Love for life begun.
I'll hold this place for her loving faintly-
fragile, and tepid outer layer veils so thinly
a gorgeous core shining bright and quietly
Her eyes say more
than lips betraying her thoughts
as they swirl to intriguing depth.
I dive, plunge deeply-secretly
wading in thought's waters
loving the expanded borders
hidden beyond your rippled surface.
As birds singing, primp their rehearsed tune,
your diamond shines reluctant
from realities igneous tomb
I wan't to know the words she's trapped in blue
fluttering chests locked tightly when nervous
posture tells of something more.
Hushed often before, and muted now conditioned
to repress your heart...it's hard to breathe
as you selfconsciously hold your breath
Move those lips to mine
and whisper each trapped caption
your mind froze but never lost,
open the soul to feeling once more
like blood reddening air exposure
freeing the absence of feeling
...replaced with this tuned in euphoria
blaring melodies warm and familiar to our ears
*Inspired by Nathan's "Diamond in the Rough" contest
When your fledgling heart is breaking
and tears silently start to fall,
mothers hear.
When you whisper of secret loves
suppressing muffled cries of joy,
mothers hear.
When lies are rehearsed in your mind
and before you utter a word,
mothers hear.
When you struggle to stifle screams
entombed in a cone of silence,
mothers hear.
When you learn to laugh at yourself
and take life less seriously,
mothers hear.
When you mumble, I love you, Mom,
and the words come straight from your heart,
mothers hear.
We have our differences in the shadows,
yet, act so different in the light.
Crimson shadows dance
within our dull routines.
With the moon beneath my wings,
I drink softly from the bottle.
I rehearsed this kiss a thousand times,
as archaic bridges emerge from the fog.
Come softly, butterfly...
Land upon my crooked finger.
The ebb and flow of I don't know
refills my unsure mind.
The aurora illusion,
novels of my life slowly written with light
as green and blue balloons float
away to the moon.
Remember
that fresh smell
of coffee
mixing with
the salt of
the sea?
A table for two
on the beach,
a starlit sky,
the distant whale cry.
Holding hands, a sip and a sigh.
Burning bonds and bridges,
is just another thought to dole.
I should have told you that I loved you,
instead, I've these tattooed regrets on my soul.
I walk upon the earth with my pup
No one is in sight they are all closed up
Tight within their homes with flight and fear
From the Covid 19 we battle here
It seems on line the only safe place to go
But in my heart I reach for the Savior I know.
Peace He brings, His love is near. He speaks
His word and makes it clear, "I will be with
you, no matter the course, you know by heart
a special verse, would you share what you have
rehearsed? Yes my Lord I will.
The Lord is my Shepard I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me beside the still waters He restoreth my soul
He leadeth me upon the paths of righteousness for his namesake
Yea tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil for thou art with me,
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies
Thou annointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
Of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen.
(The 23rd Psalm)
-------------------------------------- ~*note: done in fun and aimed at no one~
try and seed my name you'll concede to shame
no use in calling names to lose the game
yir' ill will is just plain disastrous
asinine avatars deserve an asterisk
as for being fact-less, your slaps don't diss
every lick you spit simply tends to miss
harmless words that curse, rehearsed childishness
gets your face erased and they'll say who's next
as defilement arrives inside your text
that's when shame wheels you back, right to the nest.
~10 syllables in each of 10 rhyming lines~