Best Reverberated Poems
I stubbed my toe ...
(I do this a lot since turning fifty-five,
when everything I picked up to read began going to
arm's length in order to be visible,
and "readers" became a permanent style change -
I see things in the lower part of my
vision through wire-rimmed lenses that ride low
on my nose, and the mid-to-upper
views are naked eye, hence my feet are nearer
to objects than they seem,
and my podiatrical digits pay the price)
... and though this particular piggy-pounding
was as intensely painful and bloody as any of the myriad
bashings that preceded it, and while the air around me
reverberated just as rhythmically as it ever had with
streams of well-placed and frustration-relieving profanity,
and though my fists pounded just as relentlessly against
my thighs in anguish as they ever had before, (the purple/
black damage there to be tended to at a later date), and
while my face grew as contorted and red as was humanly
possible, THIS specific stubbing, was entirely different ...
... for when the aforementioned processes had run their
rather ugly (and noisy) courses, THIS time I smiled,
reached for my sublimely-timed Frozen Blue Margarita,
raised it to the direction of the accident itself, offered
a heartfelt blessing to that marvelous twilight air, and
TOASTED the very object I had stubbed it on ... a tree.
But you see, THIS tree was surrounded by cool, white
quartz sand, was near a lagoon that shimmered with the
colors of a peacock, and was festooned quite wonderfully
and perfectly and tropically, with PALMS ...
... battered toes ... be damned! ;-)
Categories:
reverberated, adventure, appreciation, beach, pain,
Form:
Free verse
Written: January 29, 2024
_____________________________________
When a hurricane swirled,
and spread its deluge
of dark evil
onto the fresh green land
gloated
western skies reverberated
with joyous tales
trees had fallen!
ace-high trunk is besotted!
hurricane harms tree life
Had the tree fallen?
not in our endless red streams
not while our thorny limbs,
fed the thirsty roots
while roots are still alive
tunneling deep
deep into the land!
When trees rise, branches
flourish green and fresh in the sun
Tree laughing will fade in the light
and birds shall return
Undoubtedly, the birds will return
The birds will return.
Behold the majesty of a tree
a miracle of nature
standing tall and unwavering
in the face of snow, rain,
and all life's challenges
marvel at divine creation
as trees pray with leafy arms
and wear nests akin to jewels
fools may write poems
the sole divine makes such sights
so witness the wonder
that is a tree—a testament,
to the enduring power
of nature and the divine.
Categories:
reverberated, appreciation, beauty, earth, emotions,
Form:
Free verse
Written: January 03, 2024
_____________________________________
Wrenching writhing
of capacious weeping willows
In a dubious dream vault
I felt spurred to seek safety
from scorching sun
subsequently, in confusion,
I broke into a wide smile
that reverberated within
an inane, jumbled heartbeat,
venous thrombosis.
Imbue a pulse to svelte vessels
I didn't realize when it started
lacking friends and love
shattered heart, rotting core
halcyon recalls vanished
just dying is the goal
It's exhausting to suffer and cry.
Every sound in your name
whispered in the breeze
strengthened our bond
going toward dreams
amid fluttering twigs
I discovered serenity and solace
weeping willow's embrace
wind rustled its twigs as music
quiet fears of long-lost hopes
seeking refuge from the hot sun
I discovered this secret treasure
a vault for memories and dreams
It's a long way to hell alone
life isn't awful, but no one phones
I can stay here until earth scorns
stay with my weeping willow.
Categories:
reverberated, analogy, angst, bereavement, care,
Form:
Free verse
The year is 2025
I have come back to my past
To witness the Mayans
Who said Earth would not last
2012
Was the year they declared
That the planet we knew
Could never be spared
An Asteroid shower
We could never comprehend
Sends this heaven to hell
In catastrophic spend
The first to hit
Was the daddy of them all
Our axis twisted
The human race in fall
Just of Madagascar
In the Indian Ocean
It's where it all started
That set our demise in motion
Tsunami waves
Like giant tower blocks
Swamped Indonesia
As Polynesia rocked
The force of impact
Reverberated west
On the Canary Islands
A dormant volcano so reft
It's massive mountain side
Into the Atlantic slipped
To the eastern seaboard
Of the United States it shipped
A second Tsunami
Half the world long
Would submerge the east
Taking the weak and the strong
The second to hit
Hit a place struck before
Tunguska in Russia
Receives another sore
Daylight turns to night
As earth meets our skies
Fallout from the reactors
In shattered demise
Radiated clouds
Eventually filter down
Leaving bleeding lacerations
As we humans death drown
Smaller asteroids
Some just a few hundred feet
Around the world they were marvelled
Until they meet their greet
The place where I stand now
Was Yosemite National Park
Now dark ridges of black
So bare and stark
It's been many many years
Since the sun shone through the screen
When I close my eyes I remember
When the earth was lush and green
How many of us survived
Will we ever know
Was this in our destiny
I think all around me, now shows
Categories:
reverberated, angst, death, fantasy, history,
Form:
Rhyme
Electric poems reverberated,
Within the walls of a London abode.
A psychedelic haze fueled the gift,
That a creative heart was bestowed.
Far from his broomstick days,
Passionate strums…electrified the room.
Emphasizing the pain from within,
Recalling the days he strummed the broom.
Acid rock...illuminated the winding path,
That led his creative heart to fly.
Good intentions laced by corrosive thoughts,
Inspired the work…from his daily supply.
Guided by his artistic soul,
The frets…fretted to that day.
Captured by a recording device,
Were the anthems…that we replay.
What began in London ended in London,
In the same lonely…workplace room.
He was here that day, then gone the next,
In the blink of an eye, he was gone too soon.
Categories:
reverberated, historyheart, heart, london,
Form:
Quatrain
Her name was Anarkali,
an eloquent carnival of legendary beauty.
a dancer in the court of Emperor Akbar.
Deep russet rouge blushed her red,
a silky smile on her rosy peach cheeks
rich, sensual and seductive...
With the sweet scent of jasmine, and
festal moonlight of crystal starred sky,
the damsel danced her way to Salim's heart.
A charmed Prince reverberated in her dreams
in rhythm of a daisy swaying in his breeze.
Entranced in her emollient ecstasy
Captured in the cage of her beautiful eyes.
Love blossomed like a dazzling wildfire.
But a sinister callous world, was eager to kill.
Passion handcuffed by shackled royal ego,
Anarkali was sentenced to be entombed alive.
Behind a wall of stones and prison bars,
Blood still throbbed her myriad unseen scars.
As vibrant colors of a sunset blurred,
An enslaved moth danced to flames of death.
As chimes of Ghungroo* muffled in mutenes,
An enslaved soul emancipated in darkness.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anarkali in Urdu means Pomegranate blossoms
*Ghungroo is an ornament of bells worn as anklets by dancers.
The love story of Prince Salim ( Mughal Emperor Jahangir) and Anarkali is legendary.
Anarkali, also known as Nadira Begum, was a courtesan from Lahore in modern-day Pakistan. According to one of the stories, Anarkali had a relationship with the Crown Prince Jahangir and the Mughal Emperor Akbar had her enclosed in a wall where she died.
4th July 2019
Sponsor John Hamilton
Contest Name : Slave to love
Categories:
reverberated, dance, lost love,
Form:
Free verse
The rumours were persistent; the split was on the cards
sad news to music lovers, despair for lonely hearts.
Fab Four disintegrated, a tragedy for some,
but fame by then was certain, a legend to become.
My mates and fans forever declared fidelity
and threw a crazy party...they called it Let It Be!
The sound reverberated; the place was dimly lit,
the atmosphere inviting; each song a Beatles’ hit.
We bumped into each other as we reached out for wine.
We clicked...tacit agreement, which suited us just fine.
I asked her name in passing, not wanting to intrude,
She laughed and coyly told me, “Hey, babe, just call me Jude.”
We merged with rhythmic music; unnoticed time went by.
Our drinks were spiked, and goodness, that sent us really high!
We danced till early morning, and that’s when I passed out
I came to on a sofa to beat of Twist and Shout.
Two drowsy days then followed, as well as restless nights;
with blurry eyes all heavy, could not withstand the lights.
I often think and wonder ‘bout Jude my stranger-friend
who whispered with insistence: ‘I wanna hold your hand’.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Contest: Rock ‘n Roll Rhyme Fest
Sponsor: Phillip Garcia
© 8th September 2016
Categories:
reverberated, memory, music,
Form:
Rhyme
"Who are you to enter my room?", her aunt's screams terrified the 10 years old's cold feet.
She ran away from there while her aunt's question reverberated in her tender mind.
Years later the question got its answer when the girl's name was printed on the cover page of a book.
Categories:
reverberated, child abuse,
Form:
Free verse
yesterday
I worked without being able to control myself
I thought I was a guy in a pot of clouds
coming out of one of the earth
frightened
at midnight the endless midnight and I stretched out my hands
to catch him
to run
I fell asleep tired
stolen into nothingness
almost morning
you opened my eyes to me in new burrows
your eyes dripped over my writing
mangoes and we smell the holiday smell
tens of shining stars
I, a restless animal, run away from home
I was picking on love
we sweeten your footsteps, the footsteps of humanity
caught from flight to flight
the wonder rolled through the reverberated circles
echoes where unseen
how many thousands of years in the unknown
how many days on earth
small and scared
will they fit into your arms?
suddenly
I was ashamed of my fear
I answered
I kept quiet and went on with my life
where I left her trapped
no, I'm not a child left, even if my heart
that's how it felt one day
I cried out in nothing and dozens of lights went on,
dozens of houses and = have opened the doors for me
I have a long journey to do
joining in a drawing
outlined from one to the other
our lives
in one
Categories:
reverberated, earth, identity, inspiration, literature,
Form:
Free verse
The heavenly music my soul heard and the bliss of its sound reverberated in my heart!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
03 May 2017
Categories:
reverberated, blessing, heaven, music,
Form:
Monoku
Is dance a metaphor for sex?
You’d think so if you knew my ex
(at least the barflies all believe
she’s hoarding something up her sleeve).
But what makes people want to dance?
An aural frenzy? True romance?
Would Hamlet, Shylock or Macbeth
ever dance themselves to death?
Strasbourg is the kind of town
that’s unassuming, buttoned down.
These people don’t let down their hair:
rarely reckless, somewhat square.
The year before a reign began
(that’s Charles the Fifth – the Habsburg man):
to celebrate Saint Vitus’ Day
a Strasbourg woman’s new ballet
was launched in Rue des Hallebardes
(a strange event in all regards).
Right outside her Strasbourg home,
a stone’s throw from Strassburgerdom,
one Frau Follea hit the street
(and man, that chick could move her feet!)
We don’t know what her motive was:
perhaps she did it ‘just because’.
Did she deserve the looney bin?
No - other folks were joining in!
With twisting torsos, poor and posh,
the city streets were soon awash.
Without the need for record player,
the followers of Frau Follea
bopped and boogied through the night,
as hot as Rhineland anthracite.
Did scruples sting at morning mist?
Did conscience prick them to desist?
Did people halt their hellish dance?
Not one mosher! Not a chance!
On they conga’d, rocked and rolled,
oblivious to heat or cold.
More Alsace dusks, forever amber,
reverberated to their samba.
The local grapes are full and juicy:
the people step a mean watusi.
There’s such a thing as civic pride,
but this lot cha-cha’d till they died!
Housewife, beggar, baker, barber
were parties to the danse macabre.
Was their motive pleasure? Fear?
Penance? Sydenham’s Chorea?
The reason for the quick-quick-slow
I don’t suppose we’ll ever know.
Categories:
reverberated, dance,
Form:
Couplet
When the tar-soaked rain cascades from ominous clouds,
And the oceans roar with Poseidon’s might,
As the screaming ground heaves beneath your careless feet,
Will your deadly heart remember the last 39 minutes of my life?
When tears stained my scarred cheeks,
And I cried out to the heavens, scrambling for your hands,
But you ripped them away, leaving me to stand alone—
Knees shaking, feeling so frail,
Begging, pleading, breaking.
I can no longer taste hope,
Nor feel the warmth of light ignite my dreams.
Darkness swallows me, piece by piece.
Still, I called out your name, but only silence reverberated back.
I could feel Death's bony fingers wrap around my neck,
His black cloak covering every bit of my flesh,
Barely able to utter a sound,
And only the dying color of my eyes piercing through.
I look in your ruthless direction with fear,
But you turn your callous back toward me,
Letting me succumb to the pits of despair.
As my heartbeat stops and death takes its toll,
My spirit curses your unforgiving soul to eternal damnation.
Categories:
reverberated, dark, deep, depression, gothic,
Form:
Free verse
At the heart of Marescaux Road’s Maroon and Gold
Lived a timid girl with dreams yearning to unfold.
An inner-city teen with a spirit aglow
Yet hidden in shadows, her potential lay low.
Then entered a teacher with passion ablaze
A beacon of hope, guiding through life’s maze.
With eyes full of kindness and words like a song
She saw through the silence, knew the girl didn’t belong.
Anne Girvan was her name, a mentor so bright
Igniting a spark and banishing the girl’s night.
With patience and wisdom, the teacher gently untied
The knots of self-doubt that had bound the girl’s pride.
“Believe, my dear,” she whispered, “you are strong,
Your voice is a melody; let it carry you along.”
In the world of words, the girl found her escape
A refuge in language, a chance to reshape.
The pen became the girl’s ally, the paper her friend,
Thus began her journey, a path to amend.
Through verses and prose, she let out her fears
Dropping them like anchors, dissolving in tears.
Anne Girvan—the guide, the catalyst of change—
Empowered the girl to break free from her cage.
In the alleys of Kingston, the girl’s story took flight,
A blossoming author, her words pure and bright.
She painted her struggles, her triumphs, her strife,
A testament to the teacher who transformed her life.
The pages reverberated with the strength of her voice
A symphony of triumph, a tale to rejoice.
The timid Jamaican girl was finally set free,
Her metamorphosis sparked by Anne Girvan's decree.
In Kingston’s inner city, where dreams often stall,
A teacher and poet answered her call.
Now she pens accolades for the one who believed,
Who unmuted her voice—her hero, reprieved.
This tale is her hymn to a teacher’s grace,
Whose influence lingers, transcending all space.
Decorated with praises among the heavens above,
Her ode to Anne Girvan, a testament of love.
Categories:
reverberated, 10th grade, 12th grade,
Form:
Ode
(waterfall sounds.... birds chirping)
a peaceful cello melody sings joyful
resonating in perfect pitch --- the pianist's heart
a praying soul within the strings echoes
reverberated with nature's gaiety --- the cellist's smile
smooth movement of hands and fingers
music is flowing through each rising notes
a pianist's touch is sincere
hovering bow weaving love in the air
parting black clouds silver landing rays
a cellist's voice is pure
a soul doesn't need difficult words to express a feeling
one simply knows ...
...With God's Blessings...
Categories:
reverberated, nature,
Form:
Free verse
Aha: a Poetic Noetic Instantiation in Three Acts
rushing inference, imminent insight
suddenly it’s clear, a gut feeling—
swooning, reeling,
cross-connected hemispheres
syncopated, reverberated, totally aware
open byways, ahh blue-sky days, making up my mind
synapses shiver, axons quiver, dendrites deliver,
’lectrik neurons fire—suddenly—in time
aha! aha! oh gawd I see—I ran around ’n cried—
a fool I’ve been; all along it’s there, right in front of me
with a grin ’n a nod ’n twinkly-looking ’round
raised my arms ’n slapped my thighs
’n made a ruckus sound—
donned my hat ’n set it skewed
upon my big bright head,
set off to town in an uplifted mood,
while whistling a sweet sound—
forgot what I had found
#
there’s a hole in my head
where the wounds of reason seep;
all words are dead inside my head—
what’s left is dark ’n deep
@
I’ll always live
and always die
on the event horizon
of my mind’s eye,
where the flash
of neuronal fires
flowers into
sudden epiphany— --
Categories:
reverberated, humorous, meaningful, music, mystery,
Form:
Limerick