Best Riper Poems
O ever changing sky, blue-gray and maudlin
your mood and unsettled ways, meld with mine.
Clouds seem but blemishes upon horizons
as weary as the soot smudged cheeks of urchins.
Bruised in hues at once fresh with pain and longing,
not yet healed by the riper rise of next day’s bloom.
O ever changing sky, the nascent forest’s buds.
Its lashes linger in the purple poignancy of dusk
and whip thy brow with thrashing maple limbs.
Eyeless vault of heaven cry for me, release my plight
erase with thy wonders this tattered visage so forlorn.
The sky of night holds many jewels of delight.
O ever changing sky, clear to crisper shades of sapphire,
ping with shooting stars and glowing diadems of light.
Let lavender blue soften my sorrows for I like Merope*
need Orion’s might to lift my heartache, to point the way.
May thy constant rebirth give hope which melds with mine
and brings a beauty brighter than your Venus** to the day.
*Merope was Orion’s star crossed lover.
**Venus is the Goddess of Love and the Morning Star
Categories:
riper, inspirational, life, nature,
Form:
Pastoral
Tribute To The Memory Of John Keats
Child of the storm-swift Hermes, lithe and strong
To Trojan tumult, had the gods thus willed,
They gave thee one short year of riper song
And more melodious than ever filled
The heart of youth; they gave thee power to build
A noble altar for thy offering
Amid the heedlessness that had long chilled
True poesy, true souls that fain would sing.
And thou, from depths of silent agony,
Hast left unto the world such rich bequest
Of love's own loveliness that thy last rest
Becometh as the soul's own sanctuary
To all that long have learnt of thee to wear
Sun-raiment in the shadowy House of Care.
R.J. Lindley
Sept. 9th 1975
Categories:
riper, art, dedication, deep, judgement,
Form:
Classicism
Do We Celebrate Ancient Red Rose's Well Earned Death
No great fire, yet get the water hose
decayed words fall in ancient settled dust.
As they break under weight of new age prose
in modern shone light are we now to trust?
No riper fruit to be sweetly savored
classic poetry is now scorned as rust.
New age ink, tis now the new gem favored
ill winds destroy more with every huge gust.
Birds of Paradise show only dull gray
old vineyards no longer make treasured wine.
Sun illuminates brighter the long day,
bow to new masters and all will be fine.
If allowed, new-age will destroy the past.
With such broken foundations, what house can last?
Robert J. Lindley, 6-30-2017
Sonnet( Do We Celebrate Ancient Red Rose's Well Earned Death?)
Nay say I, Fate controls death yet we control our souls and heart
Categories:
riper, appreciation, art, beauty, character,
Form:
Sonnet
With my Patriotic Self
I played this song for our National Heroes
“Forward, Forever United”
But the words felt hollow to my ears
Because no longer do these represents what we have become
A society which has failed to grow,
Stagnant and Toxic with the stench of death
Getting riper and riper throughout the years
With my Patriotic Self
I played this song for our National Heroes
“Forward, Forever United”
And I see the corruption, the pollution
Politricktions fooling the nation
While we walk in blindness
Embracing the Technological evolution
Thinking we have progressed,
Oh! What a delusion!
With my Patriotic Self
I played this song for our National Heroes
“Forward, Forever United”
Then News Flash! A man just beheaded a woman!!
People living lesser than human,
From the refuse of society they feed their children
Mothers pimp daughters to Dons for protection
Fathers give sons their first thousand amunition
For their guns because “my yute affi have him weapon”
With my Patriotic Self
I played this song for our National Heroes
“Forward, Forever United”
And I hear our Heroes weep
In their graves because their deaths now have no meaning
To a nation hell bent on continuously demeaning
The legacy left behind by them, our National Heroes
Nanny, Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle , George William Gordon
Marcus Garvey, Norman Manly and Alexander Bustamante
With my Patriotic Self
I pray that Jamaica, Land we Love
Will shine again in Her glory
Then we will sing again our Heroes' story
“Forward, Forever United
Students, Workers and Farmers...”
Categories:
riper, grief, patriotic,
Form:
Chant Royal
NOSE WOES - limerick
My nose told me it couldn’t get riper
as I opened and peeked in the diaper
one last gasping breath
succumbing to death
single shot from intestinal sniper
John G. Lawless
5/30/2015
Categories:
riper, baby, father, humorous,
Form:
Limerick
Tom Tom was the son of a piper
But here’s where the story gets riper
His dad, so they say
Could lay pipe night and day
Of his women, there wasn’t a griper
Categories:
riper, son,
Form:
Limerick
WATER LOO
Water water everywhere*
and oh how it did stink
water water everywhere
and all my undies pink
alone amid the rising tide
of baby toys and diapers
I stand in brownish bubbling surf
wondering which is riper
my mutinous crew has left the ship
fleeing from the putrid stench
I’ve also been abandoned by
my “ever-faithful” wench.
Alas as Captain I must endure
consequences of this blunder
hold my nose as I await
my rescue by - the plumber.
John G. Lawless
3/30/2016
My apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge for stealing this line from his poem
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Categories:
riper, deep, humor, water,
Form:
Verse
Adorned by cycles in rich décor,
she refills her bounty, her lush gifts
as Mother Earth nourishes a womb ;
caressing seeds of life to unfold
into fertile roots which tend my hearth,
and layers of her skin gather the fields,
where herds of cattle, rows of boughs roam
regaling toil’s leisure , gold the corn…
Pleased with the laughter of womenfolk
carrying fruits riper than sunlight
her earthy breath at ease like a dance
alive in continual motion:
yet this maiden’s glory longs for time
boney spine aging from burnt decay
while she recalls the fresh of pure mist;
awaiting man to cradle her again.
Contest Elements Part 1: Earth, Brian Davey
3/12/2016
Categories:
riper, earth, introspection, mother,
Form:
Blank verse
dults we stand for time has passed us by
our childish ways have bloomed into a blight
the roots we set, now gnarled, so pained decry,
the visages of springtime love's delight.
Upon foul winds you've flown, you've left
a thief without the strength to be forthright.
A fallen limb, a rotting bough bereft,
am I to lay alone, as winter comes,
as you bloom again within a riper cleft?
Is this your wish, and how your pledge succumbs?
Never had I dreamed I'd be so harshly left
for a younger bloom with naught but dried crumbs.
By sins of the flesh, we've been undone.
I will not forgive what you've become.
Categories:
riper, angst, lost love, sad,
Form:
Terza Rima
Why does come the ripe age?
To count the evils of it one by one
upon your note pad or diary page
when you are alone?
To speak ill of your younger ones
to your equals/
to find their mean-less extravagance/
to be of no use to them in their
hours of stress/
to make them realise
that you are nothing but a kind of trash/
to advise,admonish or make them
to abstain or advance
just for the emptiness of purpose-
is this why the old age comes?
Was the whole of your life
that you lived a prolonged sin?
Is the whole of your life
that is yet to live
a season of repentance alone?
Well,if this strange but true
wretched turn has come at last-
let it be lived to the befitting terms.
Let those moments be recalled
when life bothered you in this or that name,
and you save the situation then,
just listen what time whispers
in to your ears
in this hour of disdain.
You are not yet alone,man!
The one in you,though much riper
still much younger is ready
to hold your trembling hand
till you reach somewhere safe and sound.
He is also eager to share with you
quite adventurous his story times.
Sweep back the light
that yet makes the outside bright.
Find within your kith and kin
that were lost in the crowd one by one.
Taste the elixir that you were
nowhere offered,nor were served
in any inn.
Categories:
riper, retirement,
Form:
Blank verse
The book that’s my absolute favorite
is the most effective by far
after all my years of stuttering
having left many a inward scar
‘The treatment of stuttering’ on hardback
written by the renowned Charles van Riper
a former severe stuttered now it’s master
so hoping could be my stuttering wiper
Having tried many therapies in my life
none had much effect upon my tongue
so now in my early 60s one last fling
giving it my all so full must be my lung
CVP was leading speech pathologist
with this book showed his learned light
working out his pre-block modification
hoped this technique be my speaking sight
Now since my study of this therapy
can get coffee on my very own
this indeed is a huge forward step
so now make on to next milestone
The fears of past now receding
thanks be to God for His intervention
directing me to get hold of this book
giving me the way to speech correction
('The treatment of Stuttering' by Charles van Riper (1905-1994)
Speech Pathologist and former severe stutterer.)
Categories:
riper, books, life, words,
Form:
Rhyme
“BABY FACE WHAT’S YOU THINKIN’” Picture “B”
Get a Load of This One Dad !
Oh yeah! Yesterday you changed my stinky diaper ! In case you think you’re tough, today’s is even riper! So steady as she goes with your footing, because the proof will be in the pudding, Get ready Dad, the stink will bite ya like a viper!
Written 1/7 2019
Categories:
riper, funny,
Form:
Limerick
Morning quietly stands
On the silver sill,
Black heels puncturing the view,
A faceless, coiffed character
Turning its dim limbs
Into deliberatly chosen landscapes,
Eyes unraveled into the puddle
Of dripping crimson down the edges.
Her in bloom has never been riper
Under the weight of the light air
Smelling of fruity sweat
And sweet commotion behind the skin.
Close the window open
And let me crawl inside her.
Categories:
riper, autumn, beauty, for him,
Form:
Free verse
She snores under Night's somnolent veil,
Far from quiet throes of his teetering sail;
Her pulses come and go in silent throbs,
Attuned to trigger no lover’s salted sobs.
Her breath kicks in and out in frail wafts,
And makes sullen breather and her lover
Immune to stingy Love's meanest dose,
Both unhurt by Time's estranging cover.
Both lie on the false-soothing couch of hope,
That dupes naive souls to wait for riper days;
More fecund seasons marked by richer crop
To nurse Cupid’s stars and prop their praise.
If heavens their rationed graces further hold,
Her hushed snores and his dreams shall die;
And the two loving aspirations end in naught;
A sad tragedy like of Juliet and Romeo of old.
She's laden to death with yet unrequited love,
And he dies for a brief feel of her turgid verve.
Categories:
riper, allegory, allusion, anxiety, betrayal,
Form:
Ode
Let’s say he wanted to live to the fullest .
She wanted to die and couldn’t wait for the grim riper to come knocking .
He saw good where it didn’t even exist .
To her good never existed .
He believed in happily ever after
She can’t believe in happiness if she never felt it .
He made her see the white in black while she made him see the black in white .
Tho he made her feel what one could maybe describe as happiness .
But as their fate was dared he died of cancer ............he left her .
So he wanted to live while she wanted to die
He died so now she will live for both of them .
Categories:
riper, best friend,
Form:
Free verse