Best Restraint Poems
A LILY bit me -- how could I pluck it?
Wide-eyed and nerves clenching,
I await the vacancy that fills the page
As eraser smudges and blackened lead
Sear through stanzas left for dead
Leering on the verge of lines,
I hear the symphony come to a halt
Captive sounds unravel the thread
Burst at the seams like words unread
Jaw-slacked and brows upturned,
I fathom the launch of syllables
Drifting from my tongue to label
Sights and sounds recounted as tale
Calm despite gut-wrenching,
I watch the drumming of my fingertips
Fall into silence on the kitchen table
Like wounded soldiers, weapons disabled
I learned from a dreamer to imagine…
To put myself in places I would never fathom…
Where one can share and not be judged…
As mistakes are forgotten and so to the grudge…
Placing my reflections in front of many eyes…
Uncovering my soul from the restraint of its cries…
Like a tender breeze across a wide spread storm…
Where I can never be lost only reborn…
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
I've painted Autumn with burnt umber strokes
and russet leaves as they fell to the ground.
From barren branches of maples and oaks,
an impellent wind blew them all around.
My canvas filled with purple mountain peaks,
gold snow crests shimmering in dawn's first light.
Winter's chill freezes valley streams and creeks,
covering landscapes with quilts, frosted white.
Across green valleys, nature's beauty reigned
as Spring flowers bloomed in colorful hues.
I captured with brush before sunlight waned,
petals of pink, lavender and chartreuse.
Summer days were spent on a sandy shore,
'neath umbrella shade with easel and paint.
Titanium white seagulls, clouds and more.
Nature gifts her splendor without restraint.
July 16, 2022
It's All About Three Q's Contest
Sponsored by Constance La France
Theme: Nature
Syllables checked with HMS
Dust motes spiral round,
Filling attic sunlight's rays
Try not to disturb
Sitting in a reserved preoccupation,
Counting down the hours until the bus pulls into the station.
Consumed with an agonizing anticipation,
To once again be flooded with green fields of consumption.
The smell of a scent that is intoxicating,
The taste of sweet cream that is exhilarating.
The sight of flesh that is an art of perfection,
The sound of a voice that has lustful articulation.
Getting harder to think of nothing more,
Than seeing you come through the door.
To see you in your lingerie,
The way you move; the way you sway.
All the senses are restrained no more as my body flinches,
Gripped in your soft caressing clinches.
To have waited for that which was temporarily postponed,
Exhaustively releasing a moan.
@ Tunisia Torres
4/17/2009
Tell me your stories.
How fickle they are.
Bring me your troubles.
As I bandage defined scars.
Ruthless friend,care only for self.
Put my feelings upon your shelf.
What more can one give?
Impossible trait.
Deal yourself your own maniacal fate.
though the two
held in their extreme
horniness, there was
no hiding that look in
their eyes---that one
where the want to tear
off the clothes of
said hot body was
one which brought
them carnally back to
the roll in the hay of
their ancestors &
for a minute, there
was no doubt between
the both of them that
the historical reenactment
of just such a climactic
event,
was only around the bend,
as the night progressed &
the passions built
inside---
but the both of them,
having had more
relationships than they
would care to remember
(all of them failed, hence
the reason for the current
state of affairs),
felt the need to prolong
the initial orgasmic
rampage, in order to
establish a deeper
connection, in hopes that
the subsequent bond between
the both of them might
lead to something more
substantial, than the typical
fleeting summer romance,
which the both of them knew
all too well.
problem is,
the body often gets what the
body wants,
regardless of the consequences &
so while these two were trying
to work out a deeper
connection, one of them
varied off the path on the off-hours
to indulge in the arms of
another,
taking with them the passion
that had been about to burst
when in the presence of the
deeper-relationship-member-to-be
&
so,
old habits showed up
like they always do,
leaving one lonely person left
sexually frustrated &
neutralized,
sent whining & crying into the
friend zone,
never to be heard of again.
Tied me down one night
Like I belonged to you
It turned you on when I told you
I'm Nobody's fool
Tied me up in your room
On a rainy day
We had both been drinking
You said you wanted to play
I couldn't hear a thing
Couldn't feel, couldn't see
When you were Deep inside of me
So I called you names
And you called me you're girl
So strange together
In our own little world
11/20/13
Words rest on my tongue,
sharp and heavy,
like shattered glass,
aching to spill.
But as they press against my lips,
ready to slice their way out,
a voice pulls me back:
They are not worthy of your fire.
And I pause.
I ask myself—
what’s stronger?
The urge to make them bleed,
or the strength to walk away
and let their silence swallow them whole?
Used to keep certain things to ourselves
Restraint
We kept the dirty laundry on the shelf
Knew when to button our lip
Restraint
We didn't let dark secrets slip
Rightfully condemned the tale-bearer
Restraint
Pitied the heart-on-his-sleeve wearer
With 'restraint' now a curiosity of the past
However long can friendships last?
The eating of pie before dinner,
It isn’t on point to get thinner.
It’s best to let go
That tin pan of woe,
And be a calorical winner.
I’m going to each of my suitemates' rooms. One at a time, methodically. I pause, for dramatic purpose, until I have their full attention. Once I have it, I rushingly, excitedly, breathlessly say, “I’M getting pizza later, for the GAME!” Like a seven year old child.
Now, my roommates KNOW we're ordering pizzas later. They’re all “on board,” everyone’s submitted their order and venmo’d their money to Sunny who will actually place the order for delivery at 5:30 pm. But I’m excited. I LOVE pizza (and American, NFL football) and I love being childish.
My roommates, like my brother, sister and parents before them, know this and love my manic, overactive way of excising tedium. Besides, I won’t do this more than once or twice - ok, maybe three times today before the pizza comes.
Since you’ve read this far - allow me to opine, for a moment, about “self restraint.”
Have you read about how they’re using familial DNA to solve old cold-case murders? I think they should use familial DNA to track down whomever it was that invented self restraint.
It was probably some old Protestant. I mean, Catholics only have sin - it’s yes or no - binary. So without researching it (at all), I think we’re dealing with someone born after the protestant reformation of 1555 - but I’m flexible.
Anyway, they should track that person down, dig them up, beat them with a stick, and then rebury them, in unhallowed ground.
I hate self restraint. It’s so.. restraining. #restraintsux
*I said my roomies “love” my mania but truthfully, I’ve done no hard research
Free from the cages
Which trapped so many
for such long ages
Run now
Freedom
Is such a glorious thing
No longer oppressed
or enslaved to another's will
The world is yours now
Fly to the ends of this world
Swim in the depths
Limitless and free
You cannot be stopped by anyone
With your new found strength
You gain self pride
Reasons to fight for life
Pushing on through never ending strife
You'll know pure happiness
When it all comes to an end
So for you there is not much to say
After you live this way
You see the barriers that were created
Laying in rubble all around you
You're escape has arrived
It did not come from the sky
You hold the lock and key
Turn the switch and be free
See the brilliance of yourself
That you are everything that was
You are all that will be
None hold sway over your mind
The time of end is nigh
You've said all good-byes
Slowly consumed by it
You'll live on in spirit
To endure yet another journey
Continue on
My ever vigilant friends
Take all in life
and change it for yourself
You are the one true thing
In this whole domain
Never forget you are divine
The vortex path into my soul, mirrored in projection
On the outside looking in, a window of reflection
Disabled by an art of choice, a blinding writ emotion
Reading the essence of your voice, then hearing your devotion
The canyoned crevice of our minds, grow deep with indecision
Bridging gaps most far and wide, channeling our vision
This TV case, a shell that traps and shields me from so much
And dampened soul when monitors fog up each time I touch