Best Retraces Poems
She longs to take possession of her heart, but she quickly forgets.
He used his flattering power to gleam the pages and feast.
Like the wind tossing the spider holding tight on a single web.
She retraces the steps in her mind, her soul dares not sleep
to be shattered by silence. She wonders if it will work,
are they destined to reach for spring sunshine, a bouquet of wondrous
beauty and sweetness. Like an eagle caged, she stumbles
and thought about the man in her heart. Her spirit calms a heavenly trust.
6/26/2018
Poetry Contest: Strand Special 10,Any Form ,Any Theme
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Categories:
retraces, emotions, fate,
Form:
Prose Poetry
As a byway ahead grows quite dim
late evening ‘s radiance slowly pales away ---
This fiery yet compassionate woman brushes luster
into her hair and retraces the gleam
of Mother Mary's pledge so she could face
her courage to raise consciousness from unknown whispers;
praying that daybreak would find a clearer path
back home to empowerment... a reminder
that though one’s world is vast and diverse,
she is connected to every female through ' gender balance':
And through a need for equality, an inner light-wave
cuddles her in the soft of a one-universe's halo,
anointed by the gods, the earth, and of freedom itself.
-------------
March Poems, Old Or New For Prizes Part 3 Of Easter Series
For Carolyn Devonshire's Contest
-------
'Gender Balance' is one of the themes
for International Women's Day
Categories:
retraces, freedom, rights, women,
Form:
Verse
How long will this road grow
Gliding down these asphalt ribbons
Content I drift with no urgency
My mind wandering where it will
My feet zigzag as the wind caresses my skin
I cruise safely as I watch the clouds moving thin
As I eat up pavements at a steady pace
A smile on this vagabonds meandering face
My today’s follow my yesterday’s
Each day the shadow of the last
I burn a trail without any traces
My spirit laments but seldom retraces
I deny my fickle conscience
To dictate my destiny in silent dreams
Where meandering is my only goal
The aspirations of an enigmatic soul
1.9.2021
Contest: VAGABOND DREAMS. ( FIRST PLACE)
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Categories:
retraces, dream, travel,
Form:
Free verse
_______________
(PoetrySoup Format)
_______________
the possibilities now,
feel a million times m o r e
- yes
than ever before.
while the world
reacts and retraces
every word
and everything in between -
until the column is clean.
~ ~ you’ll find me content
in the heart of poetry ~ ~
______________
* such a beautiful place to be *
( simply sharing moments )
Categories:
retraces, confidence, happy, poetry,
Form:
Alliteration
She retraces the past to uncover the mystery of the many failed relationships.
The first date seems to generate some fireworks.
This entices her to tempt fate and go out again.
Sometimes there is more of a connection and other times she strikes out.
The third date things get more intimate as more secrets are uncovered.
The next thing she knows he is all over or he might wait one more date to get
aggressive.
Yet in that moment the situation has become too intense for her to handle.
She slaps his arm and flees from the vicinity.
Yet she always wonders what could have been.
She thinks back to why she struggles with a guy wanting physical contact with
her.
She admits to herself she suffers from a low self worth.
In middle school she remembers being called ugly while the guys shoved her
around.
While she has untapped this clairvoyant moment, the rush of it all still
traumatizes her.
Categories:
retraces, angst, confusion, introspection, passion,
Form:
Free verse
S pring in her steps she wanders in wonder
R ecoils in amazement retraces the year
I gnites the haven the Persians call ‘bunder’
N o regrets but resilience beyond graffiti of fear
G ive me hope she exclaims I will not go under
I n the semi desert one forgotten Iris blooms
S urpassing the ruins and shackles of tombs
C risp early morning she takes shelter in beauty
O h Allah protect me while my husband is gone
M y children are hungry for them it’s my duty
I nstil all the love past seasons have foregone
N ever give up the new summer comes closer
G ive praise to beginnings a flower’s composer
S pring might well bring all the Peace we deserve
O n this day with the spring and lonely florescence
O bituaries settled and truce's armistice observed
N o winter shall break her so true to her essence
30th March 2017
Categories:
retraces, peace,
Form:
Acrostic
Jeb was a veteran of the War of all wars,
When brother fought brother and families closed doors.
Wounded in battle in the year of sixty-one;
Four years before Gettysburg, fore' it just begun.
Jeb got a Medal of Honor two years ago;
Six months later he buried Anna in the snow.
A mason by trade, local tombstones his forte;
A loner by night, a master craftsman by day.
He lived in an old, clapboard excuse for a home,
Making his living, chiseling hard bedrock stone.
Each stone custom crafted with names of the deceased;
From a quarry, in the town's dangerous northeast.
A rocky splinter of land carved out of coarse stone,
In a place called Diablo, better left alone.
It was here that he'd come, first thing every morn,
When the daylight was with him; the day's mist airborne.
Copious creations completed correctly,
Any work Jeb finished, it was done adeptly.
None to be shipped until the final okay, and
Then only after, he firmly packed them in sand.
Jeb had always hoped that Anna would bear him an heir;
Now alone, there was no one with whom he could share.
Fortune never shined on this kind-hearted old man;
Knowing in his heart that death, could not be outran.
It is said that one day the dark reaper came, and
In the early dawn in the slippery upland,
Jeb fell to his death on an iron wagon below;
The old stone mason landed head down in the snow.
His skull was split open with much gory detail -
Birthed the Stonemason's Legend - a most morbid tale.
Folklore surrounded this magnified tragedy;
As the specter each night, retraces its journey.
You don't want to venture to the quarry at night;
You may find yourself slip with no one to indict.
The townspeople close their windows, just before dark;
Fear the Stonemason - his journey, now to embark.
August 5, 2016
Categories:
retraces, dark, deep, irony, life,
Form:
Rhyme
All men approach the inevitable hardships of choices made or forced upon
A day of “paying the Piper” some may say
Does one go about endlessly searching- trying to live as if won
Or get down and dirty- on hands and knees-searching for the answer to life’s impossibilities
A parent’s love and concern for the addict child- will my baby ever be OK
The face of rejection in a divorce- the feeling of worthlessness and betray
Death of a family member- the emptiness they leave
The- I want to be when I grow up- but it’s never achieved
The loss of friendships- when you choose to do the right thing
These needles in the hay- searching for impossibilities- we tarry on
The needles of lost keys, eyeglasses, or wallets seem trivial in comparison
One simply retraces steps having taken- then the needle is not lacking
But the needles of real life are worth one’s searching
How wonderful to the parent having the prodigal son’s return
How hope on earth is gained in the miracle of a new born grandchild
How comforting new friends become- having ethics and values as me
How wonderful to find love- a lover who would choose me
How grateful for work –whose talent I am blessed
Persistence the key to hardship’s impossibility
The joy of accomplishment when having found the needle in the hay
Categories:
retraces, caregiving, dedication, depression, devotion,
Form:
Rhyme
Old woman, sit.
You are a cornerstone,
as gray as the marble vase.
Your hands are gnarled
As the oldest trees.
There are furrows in your face.
But something still shines
From behind your eyes;
A soft and clear, unwavering light;
Something that declares
Your soul still young
And still transcends the night.
Old woman,
Do you search the skies in dreams;
Dance across the meadow's grass?
Do you hold your long gone babies to your breast,
And dream youthful love still lasts?
Old woman, sit.
You have earned your rest
And your life presents a tome to me.
Your scattered mind retraces each graceful step
As golden sunset illumines your dance
And your heart still thrills to youth's rhapsody.
Categories:
retraces, inspirational, introspection, life,
Form:
Verse
The Open door (My life’s Maze day)
Yesterday I painted my dream with the colors of the earth
like many I was afraid of the unknown’ land of dreamers’
The walls of doubt surrounded my thoughts
But to kill the shadow-(dark) is to shine light on it
And faith is ‘but’ the path we fallow in the absences of defined reality
I will not hide behind the shadows of ones long gone
Indeed you never know what you got until its gone’
As I climb above the walls of my life’s Maze, my purpose is set clear
I do not go up the ladder for the world to see me
But for me to see the world
Many moons have passed, Days have become nights
Weeks have become months, Years have become decades
But the true secrete behind the Vail of Mona Lisa
Is known best by the artist with a brush, Da Vinci had a code
Yet the portrait revealed is left for the world’s eyes to interpret
So fear not dear reader and walk with me through this open door
But beyond this door is a story you never Knew
This is a story of a child, as son, a boy and the man, you have come to know
Take no offense in the face of reality, indeed courage is not the absence of fear
But it is the strength of a hero within, without false promises
As the journey continues and we turn another page to my life’s maze
my foot print remain a mark not drawn on the ground or printed in rocks
As we have passed the ages of the soft stone
Let it remain visible in the hearts I have touched
And to the hands I held, the grip remain brotherly
The words spoken be a shied to guide and protect the broken heart(-ed)
For the earth’s beauty can only be defined
When we acknowledge that the moon, the stars and the sun
Are but one thing that give light to earth
As is the earth one with them
And we all stand to be judged but one creator above all
So walk with me through this open door dear reader
Let’s retraces the journey and discover through twist and turns
For the life of me without false promises……….
Categories:
retraces, birthday, destiny, faith, identity,
Form:
Narrative
Your walk
Through the wild urban path
Under lampposts trees.
In vain you travel questioning
The meanders of your grief.
The slimy paving
Of a deserted gallery
Echoes your steps of suffering
On the silent columns
Of a gothic front.
Slow the foot
That pain has bound.
Languid the eye.
But the mind is attentive
To an unreal carousel
Of sounds and lights
That has always taken
The place of boyish diversions.
What is formless confuses the spirit
While the deformed nightmare
Captures the deepest essence
Of a solitary and loveless child.
Lonely spirit of a consuming pain.
You drag yourself with the steps
Of the dreamlike nightmare
And you rest in the arms
Of the missing hope.
Never mother held you
Between herself and her heart
Neither father told you
Of his certain love.
Your breath is slow
But rejoices and agonises
To the scents of highway cuisine.
Hunger echoes inside your empty guts
And the food of other
Luckiest children
For you are part
Of dreams now gone.
All at once, you heart rejoices
And gives you back the hope
While your ears perceiving
The distant chimes that announce joy.
Your thought is now led
By the spirit-mother
That every child has nearby
As a glimmer companion,
Behind the cold corner
Of the building in winter,
Amid the landfills
Of a smoky town,
At the queue for the food bank.
Now your spirit is cast away
Escaping a land
Of desolation
Of night horrors.
Too much for you
To grasp
From the lone
Lamppost and
Cardboard house
And the fire in the bin
You leave life forever
Freed from a world of atrocities.
Towed in your last pilgrimage
By the heart
Of a mother who never had
Offspring of her.
You are now led along
The green meadows
Of a boundless Eden.
There, finally, you find refreshment,
Love, and the house
That you have always dreamed of
From your terrestrial shelter.
Your body now gradually
Frees your spirit
That retraces your streets
Of loneliness and suffering,
Of violent adults and absent friends.
What remains is now a small
And a cold little body
In front of an abandoned portal
And the pity of a pilgrim
Leaving a glance
And a slender flower.
Categories:
retraces, child abuse, death, hope,
Form:
Dramatic Verse
Weekend wanderlust, backwoods trail tramping
Accesorized with well-heeled, hard-soled boots
Forrest frolicking, overnight camping
Freefalling footsteps connect to grassroots
Lost in labyrinth of lengthy commutes
Energized inboard engine outpaces
Scavenger hunting and other pursuits
Tieing up loose ends with taut bootlaces
Observing the touch of untouched places
Muddy meanderings, dry diversion
Pathway erases bootprint/ retraces
Exiting road-less-taken-excursion
Rejuivenated, (much to my liking)
Striking campfire desire for more hiking
Categories:
retraces, adventure, earth, mountains,
Form:
Sonnet
A wee silky cat
With heafty cordial fair eyes
Perched at a fence
At my sight descends
Escorts me to the mosque's gate
Retraces back at risk
Human presence troubles him
Categories:
retraces, animal,
Form:
Choka
I describe you as beautiful
Within the silent amber glow of the sun
I watch as you pose to the heavens
Outstretched to claim the breeze as your own
Touching softly the coming night
To bring beauty into the dark.
~
My desire is to hold you close to my heart
Yet as I stare at you deeply I see,
Yours is a beauty forbidden
To my senses do you offer me touch
Intensely you stir within me
All the needed love to live.
~
The scent of you caresses me
As you move the emotions of my soul
Clearing my mind of want
Removing the hazy shade of blindness
As truth overwhelms my eyes to tears
Allowing me to see the beauty of our world.
~
Is there not a word to describe,
The feeling of together between nature and me?
As if time flows from within the soul
Like a breeze that moves the essence of love
Capturing every particle of life
Connecting the infinite souls to love as one.
~
The blink of my eye retraces the path
A return to my singular existence
I now have the understanding of your power
The reason you are forbidden to hold
You are the truth of all things living
Holding the thorns of death.
~
Within you is the knowledge of love and time
One soul could not bare your truth
Nor hold the nature you possess
I stare at you in tearful awe
Only one description can I give to your being
I describe you as beautiful.
~
By: Darren J McMurray
June 30, 2009
Categories:
retraces, fantasy, visionarynature, beauty, beauty,
Form:
Free verse
Everything off,
In the darkness quiet seeps into me.
My body is tired yet my mind continues.
As if searching rounded corners which never end
Looking for something which hides in the night.
But I know what's missing,
Her breathing mimicking a heartbeat,
Those slight movements of her feet, lifting and pulling the sheets.
Her hand sleepwalking reaching over to make sure i'm still there,
And the smile I feel as she sleeps knowing I am.
Being apart isn't as easy as I thought it would be.
Never have I been so consumed by a fire which doesn't burn,
But the pain I feel overwhelms like a crackling bon fire,
Rising to heights never experienced before...yet I still smile.
Smile at a love so true,
As it exposes the falsity of a world I thought I knew.
Finally I have been given the opportunity to distinguish the difference,
The difference between emotional infatuation,
The chemistry of Lust and it's pitched fever,
Which satisfies momentarily, only to feel the lacking.
That certain unexplainable something, which can fill the emptiness,
And make one's heart glad, joyful, and meaningful.
Yes,
In the quiet darkness I smile,
As my mind retraces the slopes of her hips,
The taste of her lips,and
The warmth of her body next to mine....
Love can be so amazing and confusing at the same time,
Not that we question our Love,
Only the When....When can we be together ?
As to not endure another second....being apart.
Cherry
Categories:
retraces, longing, love,
Form:
Free verse