Best Reinforcing Poems
Tag words: advertising, bebop, bird, bottle, Charlie
Parker, Coca-Cola, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie,
door, flag, heart, jazz, light bulb, Louis Armstrong,
Miles Davis, palette, Pepsi Cola, pluralism – found
object, retablo painting, sculpture
Arbitrary or subconscious, Saunders picked six.
Man created on the sixth day from darkness;
we came into the light, of knowing, of naming.
Satan, sin held within, black of skin. Oh,
Africa chopped up bleeding, the third world’s
doors shown black, nailed shut. With the skin
of drums, the heel of hand, he pounds the nails
on the trail of the carpenter.
Kept in place, biblical wives of Lot turned to salt,
white-line the globe. White powder, white power,
sugars the unpalpable, addicting, coca leafs and
caffeine, doping the public, the poor for dimes.
Reinforcing the lure of the bottle; the cola bottle
that fell unbroken to earth from the sky in The
God’s Must Be Crazy. Some have always used their
addictions to create. Like a found objects, we too
fall calling to Mother Mary.
After: The Gift of Presence Raymond Saunders 1993
First Published by Ekphrastic Art:writing and art on art and writing
*Lot the nephew of Abraham, husband of Edith
who was turned to salt.
Categories:
reinforcing, art,
Form:
Ekphrasis
A sigh escapes still, immune to overt silence, unabashed...justified
Another teardrop enters the infinite pool of resilience, uplifting...reinforcing
Another hand empathizes--
touching, impulsively putting one's heart unto wounds, alleviating pain
enfolding memories into paper, ostensibly vigilant
Unborn dreams awaiting fruition.
empty streets, impacted pieces: occupied lives, unwavering spirits
Arighting the entropy--
"Not Impossible!" Heaves Obstacled Nation -- Untiring, Persevering!
A lone emboldened seed is planted, objectifying hope,
ushering life amidst rubble,
engaging tenacity inherently within overburdened, yet undauntable voices
Ardently surging, emerging from insidious waves of chaos,
ultimately touching azure
Time effortlessly moves, insensitive to ordeals
nonetheless, undoubtedly healing...
As wings echo distantly, irradiated winds oscillate
blush unfurling light...
Arise, Sun! Embrace the illuminated blossom. Orbit Love's universe.
0330040203042013
11th March 2011
**It has been two years since Japan encountered
such a devastating triple tragedy
of the earthquake in Tohoku, tsunami and
the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster...
They are still slowly picking up the pieces,
so much needs to be done,
so many are still displaced, uncertain of their futures, of their lives...
hopefully they are not forgotten.
It may take long, long years,
but I honestly believe Japan can rise over this, I honestly hope so.
****Thank you David for this enjoyable challenge.
It has pushed me to approach this topic in a way that
I would have never thought of on my own....
Categories:
reinforcing, dedication, hope, tribute, universe,
Form:
Free verse
In Monolithic monuments are the bringers of the derelict dawn
I see many idolatrous idols, forged in ancient bibliothecal Babylon
Within worshipful winds, that carry words of parasitical praise
And indulging in illusions that comfort their camouflaging craze
I am the god of Lust beware my tempestuous heinous hunger
My appetite for decadent desire keeps me forever younger
I am the god of Gluttony beware my excessive consumption
The more I ferociously feed, the more for my euphoric eruption
I am the god of Greed beware my matriarchal material possessions
I want what I want and not what I need, to satisfy my aggressions
I am the god of Sloth beware my lazy inhabitations and failure to act
In my dormant dwellings, savoring sanctuaries where I safely retract
I am the god of Pride beware my self-indulging pompous portray
I talk to merciful mirrors that reflect reinforcing rumors my way
I am the god of Envy beware my desire to obtain what you possess
I want to experience everything, the secret to my seductive success
I am the god of Wrath beware my feelings of anger and habitual hates
Waging worthless wars as I open up the homogeneous hellion gates
The gods have spoken, their words eternal spread throughout eternity
In the efficacious end, Love will conquer all, so I say to you... ‘Let It Be’
Aug.02.2017
Let It Be
Sponsored by: Catie Lindsey
Categories:
reinforcing, abuse, desire, sin,
Form:
Rhyme
Morning coffee, read the paper, brush your teeth and make the bed
Start the car up, drive to work with endless chatter in your head.
Rhythm’s just a decoy, really, structure faked for social poise
Must pretend, must feign an interest. Wouldn’t want to lose the toys.
Just ignore the yearning, silly, only fools have dreams these days.
Shoulder to the grindstone, Buster, don’t you know what really pays?
Over obligate yourself then hurry to the next event.
Don’t take time for introspection, musings never paid the rent.
Reinforcing concrete walls with rebar to protect from storms.
Cyclones of emotion dashed to bits before reaction forms.
Hold her steady, make the grade, ignore distractions, toe the line
Numbness is a good sign, keep it up and soon you’ll be just fine.
Can’t afford admission to tonight’s seductive shadow play.
Vulnerability and nakedness too high a price to pay.
Courage is for sissies, only children should be reckoned tears.
Safest bet’s to keep pretending that you’ve conquered all your fears.
Categories:
reinforcing, business, life, on work
Form:
Rhyme
Stilled again across the canals broadening
Girth;
Mesh cages of rock-filled Gabions
Reinforcing patches of exposed and arid earth,
Reflecting the glints that gleefully
Twist and dance in the hot glare of the sun...
Provoking images and stirring indefinable feelings
That begin to irrevocably up and run;
Pictures and voices crowding into my mind:
Immersing me in the flooding moments
To which i am briefly resigned.
Now momentarily staid by the shimmering
Instance
In which i find myself inextricably caught,
Perplexed by something rather intangible,
Seeming almost to tease and laugh
Whilst confounding upon my evasive and
Fleeting thoughts;
As glancing across at the opposite bank
Where drawn up a line of densely packed trees..
I swore...I heard the reel of a high squealing
Fiddle -
Playing ever so briefly alongside a tricky little
Breeze.
For stood there I, wondering,
On a grey painted swing-bridge:
Of brightly painted Steamers, dirty Trampers
And of double masted white canvassed Brigs.
Oh! The everlasting glory of a New World order
Redefined:
Entrusted to those instructed in her Majesties
Construction of sprawling Victorian sublimes!
The men who heroically dug, picked, blasted and
Strove:
To securely fasten an Iron cast girdle around
An ever diminishing blue globe.
Dreaming of long ago, dutiful, Golden-Age days
Rigorously pursued down, what are now,
Weed strewn, abandoned byways.
Faustian clothing and a Velveteens cap;
The thick buckled leather gaiters held about
By the strap.
Many the word spoken in a soft southern brogue:
All hail the glorious navigators -
The navvies of old!
Staunch and desperate men forced to resign
Their native Gaelic shores
And burden unto themselves with
Mattocks, shovels and garishly painted-up whores.
Under the high flaming beacons
And over the obscure little brow -
They carved out the new waterways
To float the laden down prow.
Yes! Men of the Emerald Isles
I salute you and your kinsfolk
From lands cast westwards afar:
The magnificent "Paddies" from the verdant island -
Of Erin-Go-Bragh!
Categories:
reinforcing, history, travel,
Form:
Rhyme
Self doubt is my destroyer,
Puts obstacles in my way,
It is my enemy, my poison,
Killing my talents and abilities.
The negative babble
Chatters loudly in my head,
Reinforcing the self criticism.
It gets under my skin,
Haunting my self esteem.
I feel it travelling around my body,
Like bacteria flooding my blood.
It makes me confused, unsure,
Bringing me down to the dark side.
I'm stricken with feelings of unconfidence.
I've got to fight these demons,
Obliterate the bacteria,
Execute the lies,
Bring in the light so I can shine,
Embrace faith and believe in myself.
I have to take control,
Reward myself with peace.
Categories:
reinforcing, anxiety, how i feel,
Form:
Free verse
If I were to be a fly on a ''wall'' I would like to be 500ft long and around 100 high,
it would be good to keep my poetic consciousness, and I would surely try!
try the highest altitude, and my top speed through the sky,
OH! then to scan the seas and oceans, and find the deepest pit!
I would gaze down on all creation, and make a moonlight flit,
I would seek a demolition site, and there come in to land,
upon a wall around my match yes, that would suit my plans!
then with my grip unmatchable & a tug from my humming wings,
I would tear off a chunk to take away with its reinforcing bands!
I’d use my super sensitive hearing to find that dratted man,
or there may be many in different places l the entire world around
OH! be it Beijing, London or N. Y. City,
When the fly on his flying wall is finished they won't be looking pretty!
and when my slammin's over and I’ve really made a hit!
I’ll gather any I missed first time round, now where was that ocean pit?…
© Joe Maverick 24-1-2011
Categories:
reinforcing, funny
Form:
Rhyme
SAVAGERY
Bound tight by blinding shock,
Captured stiff by coaled astonishment,
Enslaved hard by utter incredulity,
In sight to four tortured sacrifices -
Humiliated human bonfires to appease the dark lords.
It was a bad dream; a demented nightmare!
And I was being sucked in. I had to wake up, fast!
I awoke - and it stared at me defiantly in the face;
Obdurately reinforcing its reality; I wilted - as I
Stared at the fanatical apostles of nihilism.
We've all become feral animals - maniacal brutes!
Innocent or guilty - it matters not!
Indeed, madness reigns supreme in our midst;
The spirit of unbridled brutality has run amok!
Sick, sick, heads, journeying all over; what barbarism!
A finger pointing; four others looking back.
Tell me, who is innocent? None!
Tell me, who breathes without sin? None!
But, what do we see in the land?
Unhinged lunacy - a morbid display on a polluted earth.
Our shepherds continually play deaf
To the collective desires of their sheep.
The doors of frustration has long blown wide open -
Rapidly ushering out diverse evils, without measure.
The land is swollen with generational blood;
While truth and equity remains constant illusions.
Remember, wrongly wielding the sword,
Paves straight to perishing by it;
Comeuppance to the vile executioners!
For the painfully departed, right words, I have none.
Ergo, Nigeria, our Nigeria, I plead; for mercy I plead,
On you, on me, on us; for divine fortitude for
All connected with lives, young and not, already lost.
(c) Ikenna.C.Igwe, 2012
Categories:
reinforcing, death,
Form:
Blank verse
Woman Is Insulted,
By Challenging His Manhood;
Getting His Buddies To Rape,
Was His Way Of Reinforcing.
He, Not a Man,
Force Himself On a Feminist.
Give a Valid Reason While Rape.
Feminist Tempt Masculine
By Their Proactive Dressing.
Insubordination To Human Nature.
Could It Be That
Masculine Is Weak?
By The Sight Of Bear Breast?
Victims Feel Ashamed And Unclean.
FEMA Seventeen Events Took Place.
Recurring In Nightmare First Man Exploded Inside Her.
It Was Her First Encounter.
Screaming She Was,
Thought Masculine Was Urinating On Her.
Bath I Must Have Said For Years.
Dirty She Felt And Wasn’t Enough Water To Cleanse Her Body.
Rapist Defilement And Innocence Body.
Fellow, Who Should Be Ashamed?
And Feel Unclean And Unfit For Civilized Society?
Categories:
reinforcing, childhood, confusion, daughter, depression,
Form:
Epigram
In New York City at Ground Zero
The World Trade Centre Tower once stood
After its grim aftermath destruction
The illustrious tower is under construction
To minimize future structural failures and other catastrophes
The new tower is design and constructed
To be earthquake, fire and wind resistance
As wind pressure increase with height distance
There have been slight changes made to the original
It is reinforced to resist compression and tension
Engineer MacGray is so far thrilled
As they are a step closer seeing the mission fulfilled
A Christian is a structure under construction
We are under a divine construction of the Holy Spirit
God is at work in you to shape and to remove your imperfections
According to that Mighty Glorious Power of His resurrection
Your life may be of no rhyme or reason
The Master Engineer is at work to bring balance, symmetry and order
He is reinforcing His ideas for a spiritual transformation
The Holy Spirit is empowering His new creation
The structure is not built in a single day
Neither is His Divine Masterpiece
So as the Master Designer hammer and chisel your wall with affliction
Though painful, remain silence for you’re under a divine construction
For the House when under construction was built of stone prepared at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel [noise] was heard in the temple while it was being built [1kings6:7]; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure [Phil 2:13]
Categories:
reinforcing, adventure, character, christian, creation,
Form:
Quatrain
Fallen upon knees in ashes of pipe dreamer’s infatuation
chimera's collective stardust reigning through macrocosms,
world spins counterclockwise unrealistically bound hiatus
stained glass mirrors fracture in rhetorical opposition,
earthly beings condensed to mere commonplace residue
threadbare allegiances written on worn out constitutions,
idly spinning cogwheels from premier breath to closer exhale
angels hark intensely attempting to assuage inevitability
whilst calm winds yield to maelstroms' imitative gesticulations
forfeitures of human activity sacrificed in sins' germinal vices
banal platitudes reinforcing an elusively unoriginal existence,
dancing 'round the fire tween inquisitions' reluctant commendations
preparedness on conventional suspension of ill-advised reiterations,
awaiting surrender 'neath an incoherent vigil's unorthodox rite of
incarnate passages' disconnected resolve mid consequential rationale
thereupon...
timelessness is but a variable symbol
factored in mankind's hallucinatory prayers
Categories:
reinforcing, allegory, conflict, deep, hyperbole,
Form:
Burlesque
Yes indeed, their inhibitions have been freed;
they knew the public in this republic,
They knew them well and our bent towards hell,
They made up a bill while drinking their swill,
to destroy a nation by charm of oration.
They chose a man from a different land
with the power to persuade as if to aid.
Of course he’s part of a plan,
An intricate scam
to destroy a nation by power of oration.
There is no good in it, no logic, no sense,
And if you ask a supporter, he’ll say "na uh!
I heard it from a reporter!"
That’ s all he’s got. No facts or acts to the good;
Just “I like him so I’m voting for him, understood?!”
One can recognize evil's danger
because of its proneness to anger.
Never mind that what he and his cronies instill
Is not in the constitution’s will,
Or what they intend to strategically enforce
DOES NOT APLY TO THEMSELVES,.. OF COURSE.
You see, they know that “We the people”
have become blind and apathetic;
our morality and ethics at best pathetic.
We’ve been trained over a period of time,
that evil is good and good a crime.
So now there is nothing in their way,
left to persuade or sway.
For their election campaign they are employing
some of the pawns they have planned on destroying.
Talk about the great pride filled duped!
They get angry if you show them some facts,
as if the messenger is the one that’s looped.
We have to pray for those misguided persons,
before their involvement in it worsens.
And they end up suffering the guilt
of their children’s future being spilt.
So all is going according to an engineered plan,
The pawn is in place in the shape of a man,
With the power of oration,
And nothing left to do
But destroy the nation.
But what have all the commercials been saying?
Reinforcing American vanity by portraying,
You deserve it!
And ..I’m worth it!
Good luck with that.
Oops, I guess that one doesn’t rhyme.
But we’ll come to realize it ….in time.
Categories:
reinforcing, people, political, power,
Form:
Rhyme
THIRUK-KURAL on not offending the Great*: Periyaaraip Pilaiyaamai - Canto 90, K899 and K900
[* The "Great" here are indifferently the King or other learned and wise people whom the King ought to respect and fear. In this canto, Thiru-Valluvar repeats himself (though elegantly, cf. K899 & K900) - unless it were for the purpose of reinforcing the idea of the weak who dare pit themselves against the strong and powerful - and contrariwise the strong and cruel meet the same fate of ruin if they incurred the wrath of the noble and virtuous-minded. It is evident nothing anti-authoritarian was permitted or conceivable in his time. Yet, reflect on how Lenin outlived the Tsars; Solzhenytsin and Pasternak - Stalin and his successors, just as George Washington - the British Imperial Crown; Vietnam veterans - Nixon; Li Xiaobo - thanks to the Nobel Committee and other campaigners like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International who would shut an eye to wanton persecution within Western democracies - Xi of the Peoples Republic; the German Jews - Hitler; but NOT the one-man (Sri Lankan) opposition leader Jeyaretnam in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.]
K899: eenthiya kolkaiyaar siirin idaimurinththu
veenthanum veenthu kedum
When blazes forth the wrath of men of lofty fame,
Kings even fall from high estate and perish in the flame. (Transl. G.U. Pope)
If those of exalted vows burst in a rage, even (Indra) the king will suffer a sudden loss and be entirely ruined. (Transl. Drew & Lazarus)
Should the virtuous in lofty positions become angry, even the king (of kings) will fall from high heaven. (Transl. T. Wignesan)
K900: iranthuamaintha saarpudaiyar aayinum uyyaar
siranththuamaintha siiraar cherin
Though all-surpassing wealth of aid the boast,
If men in glorious virtue great are wrath, they're lost. (Transl. G.U. Pope)
Though in possession of numerous auxiliaries, they will perish who are exposed to the wrath of the noble whose penance is boundless. (Transl. Drew & Lazarus)
No way the powerful can avoid downfall should they offend and incur the wrath of the noble-minded greats. (Transl. T. Wignesan)
© T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017
Categories:
reinforcing, political, power, tamil, ,
Form:
Epigram
My heart's inspiration is mother dear...
Her nurturing love heals hurts of bruise pest
with grace-fragrance of radiant hope's best
that sweetly pervades in my veins with cheer.
Dad’s convincing truth abides in my heart
Reinforcing Mom’s dos and don’ts essence
Echoing parents’ marvelous presence
Securing me in God-propped home’s rampart*.
Throbbing in my heart is siblings’ blest care
Treasure so expensive I value well
Midst bliss exuding serenity smell
Oozing with love marked by kind give-and-share.
*Psalm 127:1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
March 29, 2023
2nd place, "Creative Writing Prompts" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Sotto Poet; judged on 9/1/2023
Categories:
reinforcing, blessing, faith, family, god,
Form:
Enclosed Rhyme
The deep and sonorous voice of
his defeatist self-talk was paternal,
and torturous,
reinforcing the force fed message,
"There is no happiness,
only gradients of misery,"
leaving him indifferent to the present,
careless of the future.
Reared in the shadows of perfection,
parental conflicts played out
as the "self-made men"
of a fathers' generation chased ambitions
beyond the cramped lives
of their own youth.
Affection and approval,
bestowed and withdrawn
by the performance scale;
he was a sundial
numbering only sunny hours,
with little of consequence to say,
a lucid, inquisitive and fertile mind.
His native endowment
a vivid sensibility for the beauty
of words.
He learned woman from
his quint-essential sisters
yet remained profoundly ignorant of women;
if love were happiness
it generated a loneliness
made all the more desperate
by the intimacy of severed connections.
Psychic numbness, and fauxbia,
yes, he feared being false,
had plunged him into darkness,
with his vision
of a minimum level of connectedness,
the raw ache of personal loss,
the empty feeling of helplessness.
Forced to live as that outsider
trapped inside a familys' feuds;
being bonded to survivors,
learning to live with the understanding
he would be jettisoned for others to survive:
emotional dishonesty became
necessary for survival.
Denial was the best defense
since he could change nothing
and repression had long since
ceased to offer relief;
he was too articulate
for that lie.
The tightly packed crowd
contained inside his head was
momentarily frozen by the question
"How to unlearn the lessons of his youth?"
To love and be loved, a necessary condition,
a prerequisite to a happiness
that could not exist?
Now, he works,
and writes,
and trusts in simple verities;
chaos, pacified by distance and routine,
serve to mitigate the sting
of realitys' reminder -
he'd found that so urgently sought,
only to have lost it in the finding.
Categories:
reinforcing, introspection, lost love, love,
Form:
Free verse