Best Retracting Poems


Premium Member Nick Cage 4 Snl

Get the 'Nick' of Prime.. Transforming TV time.'
With questions well 'couched' what's the take' all about?

Negating generic preconception 
Being His signature intention

Shaking the Quo is His 'art' status shows..'
unmasking 4 the nation those veiled sinuation

With His inimitable way; and ingenuity say
Honest enacted neither trite, nor retracting..

Not a ham per se that's my view by the way.'
Creation-sensation?  (its your choice)

Now..' get us to the revelations..!

© Joe Maverick 6-3-2015
Categories: retracting, art, encouraging,
Form: Rhyme

A Mackerel Sky

"A Mackerel Sky" 

shadows like sun 
dance across 
an ocean of tears

salt for the stinging
walking on clouds
with the Fisher King, 

as if in school 
in the swim of things 
fishing nets for love

all in the eye 
of the beholder
wisdom like pearls

sown, 
an inevitable plant, 
pregnant with possibility

full-bellied, grown, 
then stitched up
embroided 

sewn imperfect
the hem of it slipping
needs fast mending

cirrocumulus,
fleecing
altocumulus

blown away 
an empty canvas 
borne for painting

bluebirds sing
on the backs 
of cloudy angels racing

Mares' tails 
and mackerel scales 
make lofty ships 

to carry low sails;

red herrings 
far from sure
bloody mind dripping

another colour 
washes itself 
in a pink mackerel sky - 

the observing self
hedging bets and 
reacquainting

do or die

(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)








“According to lore (tradition), a mackerel sky means that the weather is going to change.” 




“Mackerel are built for speed and, along with a highly forked tail, can streamline themselves by retracting their dorsal fin into a groove in their body when they swim. Actually, they are the fastest swimming fish, in UK waters, able to swim around 50 metres in 10 seconds.  Mackerel, have to keep swimming to live, as if they stop moving forward they will drown.”





Meaning, Mackerel Sky - "a name given to a sky covered with those same puffy cirrocumulus and altocumulus clouds arranged in a pattern of waves, with blue sky peeking through so that it resembles the scales on the back of a mackerel." 


It’s all rather fishy. Red Herrings, Mackerel Skies.
Categories: retracting, journey, life, muse,
Form: Narrative

Premium Member The Haunting-2

THE HAUNTING
 
Entombed behind isolation's walled prison, a haunting 
Malice has so trapped me within, evils chamber of the forsaken.
It crouches beneath shadows shroud, its leering eyes pierce,
Through the darkness’s pitch black covenant of the night.
A pacing beast, anticipating my movements, mocking my
Feeble attempts to evade this frenzy's tormentor of darkness.
Deceptions deceiver, silver tongued weaver, spewing lies
Deceit, intricately aligning its widow makers webbing,
Feasting on innocence betrayal.
Heckling laughter echoes against dead reckoning, a chilling
Appetizer is my soul of innocence, as if pleased at malice's intent,
Fiendishly, delighting in torturing its human pet.
A vacant numbing feeling over comes reasoning,
A deeper anger begins to rage, rebelling against hatred's 
Horrifying entity.
Motivated to survive beyond my spectral captivity, 
Hear me disgusting creature, I shall destroy thee,
Leave me alone screaming aloud, sanity's domain gives way.
In musty halls empty hollows, an odorous stench fills mine senses,
It speaks unto me, cease mortal miscreant, none leave here alive.
A deepening realization rushes against the conscious mind,
I'm deaths play thing, to be pounced upon, a toy mouse, captured
Between claws, extracting, retracting at whims invoking.
Invisible hands grasp, choking life's breath away from me,
Feeling every heartbeat slowing, quietly ceasing.
A stinging pain rings within my ears; death has claimed me at last.
Oblivion's muted dead, never part shall we, my lips are so tightly closed,
I can't scream with horror's terror anymore.
Let mercy's fallen be forgiven, released from beyond hells hidden
Regions a place devoid of spiritual salvation, foul demonic spirit
Haunting madman's kingdom, it whispers to me in sweet melodies
Aftershock, now we begin!
 You truly belong to me, with satisfactions grimace, the creature smiles
At my deadened corpse, with satisfactions pleasure, the jackal reveals
Itself unto me, the demon himself, called the devil, thus stands before me,
And now I know the shattering truth, I am the forsaken.
 
BY: CHERYL ANNA DUNN
© Cherl Dunn  Create an image from this poem.
Categories: retracting, dark, evil, fantasy, gothic,
Form: Free verse

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry


Premium Member Unquotable Quotes - Xii

Unquotable quotes – XII

To catch a monkey, you need a young coconut with three holes for eyes ; bore a hole in one and wait : the monkey will thrust its hand in to grab a mouthful and will not let go come what may.
To catch a false monk, you need an orphan.
To catch a thief, you need either a camera or a cobra.
To catch a bluffer, you need to make him believe ya.
To catch a fly, you need a spider with a parlour.
To catch a poisonous snake, you need a retracting  loup on a long ten-foot pole.
To catch a giant, you need a sling with a stone.
To catch a Pharoah, you need his sister with a hisser.
To catch a priest, you need the advice of his Chief Geist.
To catch a stool-pigeon, you need another stool-pigeon.
To catch a plane, you need a valid ticket.
To take a train, you need a ticket-puncher.
To board a ship, you need to rise with the tide.
To catch the woman next-door, you need to wait until the paramour goes out the back-door.
To catch a ripe durian, you need to have a hard or an empty head.
To capture a girl in a burqa, all you need is another burqa.
To capture a rat in a hole, all you need is a secret service mole.
To capture a pirate ship in a canal, all you need to do is to lower the water-level.
To catch a polar bear and her cubs, all you need to do is to raise the level of your exhaust fumes.
To catch a lark on a bark, all you need to do is to click your camera.
To catch the sun in the morn, all you need to do is to sleep with your window open.
To catch cold, all you need to do is to stand stark naked bold.
To catch forty winks, you need to be full of drinks.
To get on peoples’ nerves, you need to step on their toes.
To catch the pox, you need to meet a certain lady who lounges around the docks.
To come to grief, all you need to do is to rob Fort Knox.

© T. Wignesan - Paris,  2016
© T Wignesan  Create an image from this poem.
Categories: retracting, humor, life, satire, women,
Form: Epigram

Ash

She stood stoically fighting
the disease that crept through 
her dry trunk
Sapping her life,
withering her leaves,
leaving her naked limbs
silhouetted against the
summer moon.

Her Roots retracting from the
moist soil
lose their grip on the earth
Until slowly, imperceptibly,
She leans
She falls

Lying in her lost leaves
her resting place accepts her
Embracing her death 
with its life
Slowly, imperceptibly
She is subsumed
Until
Under a summer moon
A sapling grows
© Kaye Locke  Create an image from this poem.
Categories: retracting, death, natural disasters, nature,
Form: Blank verse

Premium Member Wonderland VII: The Preacher's Tale

- Readers, I hope you forgive me.
I’m retracting some words I once said:
I'd planned to write just five of these tales
But I've added a sixth tale instead..


Night

The preacher was searching for Duchess
Also known as 'The Tabard Inn Cat'.
Scared by the storm she'd run out of the inn
And knocked over his drink where he sat.

That event brought an end to his chess game:
The first he had played in a while.
His worthy opponent who sipped water had said
That his comforting words made her smile.

The preacher had stood from the table.
Looking scared and somewhat distraught.
He felt for some reason there was trouble ahead
And proclaimed that the cat should be caught.

He'd opened the door of The Tabard
And was met by the sound of the rain.
A sailor pushed past him and into the bar
As the preacher limped off down the lane.


Later That Night

The last person to see him still breathing 
Was sadly not sober at all.
A 'top-hatted' man who was heading for home
Thought he saw someone scaling a wall.

He swore that he saw something smiling
And eyes that stared back and looked weird.
It was all very dark and his mind wasn't right
Then the shadows he saw disappeared.


The Morning After

The preacher was found dead the next morning
He had fallen it seemed from a height.
Whispers and rumours were swirling around
Like the wind from that wet stormy night:

 - "He had feelings for a woman who's taken.."

- "Their love was just dead on the shelf!"

- "He was burdened by guilt with his faith and all that"

- "That cat was the devil itself!"


Later That Week

A sermon revealed at his service
(That the whole town had turned out to see)
That the preacher was an animal lover
And had suffered with PTSD.

You see he was once a brave soldier
But lost hate when he lost his right leg.
He left to preach love and bring all things together:
..He was truly an all-round good egg.
Categories: retracting, character, literature,
Form: Narrative


Premium Member The Haunting

Entombed behind isolation walled
 Prison,
A haunting malice trapped me within.
Crouching beneath shadows shroud,
 Leering eyes pierce.
Through darkness’s pitch black,
 Covenant.
Pacing beast intercepting motions,
 Movements, mocking my,
Feeble attempts to evade frenzy's,
 Tormentor.
Deceptions deceiver, silver tongued, 
Weaver, spewing lies deceit.
Intricately aligning it's widow,
 Makers webbing,
Feasting on innocence betrayal.
Heckling, laughter echoes, against,
 Dead reckoning.
A chilling appetizing, as if pleased,
 At malice’s intent.
Fiendishly, delighting in torturing,
It’s human pet.
A vacant mumbling feeling over,
 Comes reasoning,
A deeper anger begins to rage,
Rebelling against hatred’s,
Horrifying entity.
Motivated to survive beyond spectral,
 Captivity.
Hear my disgust, creature,
 I shall destroy thee.
Leave me alone, screaming aloud,
 Sanity's domain gives way.
In musty halls empty hollows,
 An odorous stench.
Fills mine senses,
Cease mortal miscreant,
 None leave here alive,
Shudders blood runs cold down raw
 Veins nerve endings,
A deepening realizations rushes,
 The conscious mind,
I'm deaths play thing.
To be pounced upon, a toy mouse,
 Caught between claws,
Extracting, retracting at whims invoking.
Invisible hands grasp choking life's,
 Breath away.
Feeling every heartbeat slowing,
 Quietly ceasing.
Stinging painfully ringing at ear, 
Shots quivering,
Oblivion's mute murmurs never part,
Lips tightly closed.
Let mercy's fallen be forgiven,
 Released from,
Beyond hells hidden regions,
A place devoid of spiritual salvation.
Foul demonic spirit haunting,
 A madman's kingdom,
It whispers to me in sweet melodies,
 Aftershock.
Now we begin, and you truly belong to me,
With satisfactions grimace, it smiles.

BY: CHERYL ANNA DUNN
© Cherl Dunn  Create an image from this poem.
Categories: retracting, dark, death, evil, fear,
Form: Free verse

Premium Member Final Break-Up

Colossal retreat 
Feelings that I’ve harbored true
Retracting my love

Russell Sivey
Categories: retracting, life, lost love,
Form: Haiku

Premium Member Dance of Lunar Festivals

rushes now the spill of feet
a lunar festival right nto moonlight
skirts flaring, hats flipping
as silhouettes swagger with desire
bosoms advancing retracting
against tunes from guitars and tambourine

slay this fiesta with quickening of heels
an extravaganza which shrieks
in the thrill of music
refined by the ecstasy reeled by
tiptoes midway...the exchanges
arm for arm as ladies and men
seal a choreography made only
to.last on this evening, lusty and divine!

???? ?+?3??'?? 
 take me to primitive times
when after bouquets and incense spray the air,
a dance unknowing rigid choreography
pulsates to  inner  throbs of  my body
soaking the nectar of soil beneath my feet,
then to dive among flickers of heat, to drape
a world circling far across stars without
glass nor walls... till all but percussion tempos
inhale the floats inside my lungs, my flesh.
Arms open all cages of birds winging
past trees, hips shedding butterfly threads
floating on sounds of  grass waves and
stone kneads ...

how wild, how tender
and unrestrained my child’s spirit.

Somewhere, Prapto whispers, “listen
to  heart’s movement; break your head”,
till my whole body connects  to the fragrance
of my inner breath, spicy and pungent...
like an odyssey of primitive spins
known only by  my soul willing
for a movement... the invisible cloth of dance.


--------



*Prapto is the proponent of free body movement,
a distinguished  guru from Java, Indonesia

*Inner body movement-dance connects me 
with nature, life , and self... this i enjoy!

In the Year 2012 Contest: Carol Brown
by nette onclaud
Categories: retracting, body, inspirational, me,
Form: Free verse

Uprooted By Empathy

Staccato inhale
Eyes stinging like alcohol on a latent cut
Your kindness hurts
It bends back my arms, 
My shoulders straining to remain attached. 
Feeling trapped by my desire to be loved 
And dreading its sequelae. 
I fear your caring.
I am terrified to accept it.

Why, why, why, why do I want to retreat?
To be plucked out by a helicopter,
Immediately lifting, a forward disappearance
Whipping the air with its blades, drowning out your words.
I do not want to hear you.
I do not want to see your eyes;
Your brows meeting in the center.
I was unable to absorb the blow to my abdomen, 
Innocently extending and retracting,
Not prepared for this moment. 
Years of defense training, wasted.
Categories: retracting, anxiety, confusion, emotions,
Form: Free verse

Premium Member Limerick Crochet: Once a Dangling Dude Got Himself Tattooed

Limerick crochet: Once a dangling Dude got himself tattooed

Once a dangling Dude got himself tattooed
All over to make himself look pretty good
Only piece tattoo free
Was the retracting pPp:
So he installed stainless steel under hood.

He met a woman with scarce a stain
On her svelte body smooth as satin
So they locked jaws and torso:
Steel piece severed in grotto
Surgeons found tattooed insides: shark’s teeth and fin !

© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2013
© T Wignesan  Create an image from this poem.
Categories: retracting, eve, humor,
Form: Limerick

Premium Member 'carpet of Disorder'

It is like all the other certainties

Were pipedreams reflective of the confusion you felt

When I walked in,

I walked in; into your chaos 

Without knowing I added to it

Instead of retracting you swept me up

Causing more turmoil

Now we are floating on a carpet of disorder

Destination self-destruction

©050620171459
Categories: retracting, confusion, imagination,
Form: Free verse

Bushwhacked By Love

Being
         a 
      Little
   Abstract
   Whacked
      and
   Cracked.

          I
   Snatched
        Eye 
    Contact
      with
  Distracted
     Impact.

    Enacting 
        an
     Attack
        on
         a
  Suggested
       Sex 
       Act.

  Interacting
      with
     Jam
   Packed
   Counter
   Attacks.

       The
     Knack
         of
      being
Intellectually 
    Stacked.

  Retracting
      One
   Tracked
 Fraudulent
      Facts.

Bushwhacked
      and
  Carjacked.

  Transacting
 Transparency
         in
    Outdated
    Contracts.

    Attracted
         by
        the
   Unbacked
     Smack
         of
     Inexact
       Yak.

 Sidetracked
       and
 Highjacked
         by
          a
Prepackaged 
   Jackass!
Categories: retracting, art, betrayal, break up,
Form: Free verse

Fire In My Heart

Tongues of flame have fallen on me.
Deep down in my heart I can feel it. 
In the epicenter it's concentrated.
It's not the pentecost day but I can feel it.

From the day I met her, I have known no peace.
My legs are restless, always in want to go for her.
My fingers very itchy.
Always demanding for caress her fine textured body.
To prop her mane is my want.

Everytime, a message pops on the screen.
Superfluous thrill descends down my spine.
Whenever my ringtone takes the atmosphere.
My ears echos her melodious hymnic voice.

My nights have become long.
Mayhem all night long.
Awaiting the new day to be born.
I can't cool the fire in my heart.

My mind an archive of her pictures.
Prints if her going and retracting.
All segment of my brain.
Triggering the fire in my heart.

@Tha Formidable Cheru
#themonk.
Categories: retracting, i love you,
Form: Free verse

Brother Gaus

Brother Gaus


Gaus is a Rainbow man
Only that he’s not curved.
He’s just a miscellany
That makes him striking.
Gaus has a funny knack
Of repairing any gadget
Can do so with anything
Except repairing himself.
He can service the lot
Except his own wife.
With identity so fluid
He lives by convenience;
He’s black to a black man
White to a white person.
He’s a fast talker, Gaus,
Using a funny diction....
Take it with a pinch of salt;
He lives by expediency
He’s curved as his colour!
A mixture of colours-
A chameleon in the bush,
He takes colour of bush
In which he deeply hides
And never the lash bush
The colour of his hide!
He’s always out of colour
Unless abound colour nearby
This makes him fluid,
Expeditious and impulsive.
Gaus believes in a god;
A god not too black
Nor a god who is white
But god who is coloured!
At least his is not racist
Though not coloured God
Or one of expedience
Or God who is fluid
Or one who repairs all
Except mending Himself,
Or who is a fast talker
Getting followers nowhere
Good to regard or take
With a pinch of salt...
But then Brother Gaus is!
Talks of the war time
Fighting on the wrong side...
It gave him sense of sate
Choosing who paid most.
Maybe his side was right.
He was on the cross roads;
Colour crisis that mislead
Both and was hated by both!
He was also ostracised
But hung onto the diction.
His wife is sable black
Memories of ancestors;
All are as white as snow.
He is left-handed and fast
When kindled a slugfest
He embodied barbarism 
Of one side and tactic
From the other camp.
He demands white’s meal...
When he fails at school
“Native ancestors are ok!”
Lazy: Whites are thinkers,
“I need no manual work...”
Greed: “I need much meat,
“Ancestors were hunters!”
That’s why a tortoise
Has a shell that is cracked;
The tactic of retracting
After attracting hatred
Draws a lot of resentment.
Both cannot trust Gaus!
He’s like a mouse and bird
Both merged together
To create a power mule
Of a funny countenance.
Would he run with Hare
And hunt with Hound...?
Gaus will run with both
And be chased by both..
And, none will be pleased!



JM

03rd Nov’ 2013
Categories: retracting,
Form: Free verse
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