Best Rock Of Gibraltar Poems
For This Is The Story, An Old Poet Sought Not To Miss
(Part One)
I've ate Eden's last apple, coveted Jason's* golden fleece
chained myself in caverns of darkness, begging no release
refused mighty crowns of power, fed myself painful feasts
crushed my beating heart, as if it were a ravenous beast.
I've tamed the lions of Serengeti, sailed around the Horn*
trekked unarmed, darkest jungles, where fiercest beasts are born
slain dragons with Sequoias, tossed Rock of Gibraltar*
walked in realms of Hades, spat upon its first altar.
I've outran Hermes*, sank my teeth deep into granite walls
sat beside Odin*, gave Thor's* first crown in Valhalla's* halls
wrestled mighty Minotaur*, its armored hide I ripped
stole the Nectar of the Gods*, laughed at them as I sipped.
I've shot Eurytus' bow*, killed Titans* with Heracles sword*
defeated dark Elf* armies, massacred Atilla's* first horde
swung Hammer of Hephaestus*, slept in Forest of Burzee*
trained Arminius army, taught them to show no mercy.
I've quenched Vesuvius fires, held lightning in my hand
flew bright skies over Asgard*, defended its precious homelands
swam with Undines*, feasted with beautiful Amphitrites*
fished with friend Ao Qin*, dragon king of the Southern Sea nights.
I've seen this world of fantasy, inked its splendor in words
sailed in its oceans of love and flown with magical birds
dreamed in its word-paradise and found true love's deepest kiss
for this is the story, an old poet sought not to miss.
Robert J. Lindley
Rhyme
original version written , March 9th, 1977
edited/updated today- August 9th , forty-one years later
When You're Gone
My darling precious Mamacita
before you go,
before your last breath is drawn,
I just want you to know
how much I love you so.
Please forgive everything
your errant child has done wrong,
and all the times I disappointed
and let you down.
It's so hard to let you go,
my Rock of Gibraltar, my strength,
my brave warrior and defender,
my trustworthy confidante,
even though your time has come
and the Great Spirit calls you home.
Forgive my selfishness,
my beautiful, brave one,
for I do know you are tired,
your mission here is done,
and you seek eternal rest.
But I don’t want to miss you,
the sound of your melodious voice
singing old Spanish love songs,
your loving smile, and your wavy,
snowy white hair reflecting the
venerable sage that you are.
What am I going to do, Mamacita?
What am I going to do without you?
Without your unconditional love and support
which keep me afloat
when life tries to pull me down?
Not even my tears that overflow
like a river swollen with grief
can ease the pain of the
motherless child I will be
solitary on a sea of sorrow.
A big part of my heart
drifts away with you,
my lifeline, best friend, and hero.
Yes, I know you have to go; but
I wish you didn’t have to leave me,
my darling precious Mamacita.
02-10-2017
* Sadly my Mother passed away two days (on February 12, 2017) after this piece was posted.
Contest: Sadness
Sponsor: Silent One
Placement: 2nd
I have blown by the rock of Gibraltar
and whispered to the waves of the sea
I have heard the dolphins laughter
as I travel ever free
I have been to the highest mountain
Cause I journey far and wide
I am here in every season
From me you cannot hide
In summer I will gently caress your face
But in winter I'll be fierce
I'll be there in spring's embrace
In autumn, the leaves I'll chase
8-26-2023
What is love?
The North Star guiding
a lost seafarer home
or the Siren’s song luring
him to the rocky shores?
Is it frolicking in the moonlit
nights in a field of flowers
or trudging across
an arid, scorching desert?
Is it a freeway to bliss and joy
or a meandering trail
through a rugged terrain
of grief and woe?
Is it a cup of hemlock
or a chalice of nectar?
Is it a snake pit
or a bridge over the chasm
of hatred and bigotry?
Is it an ever-elusive mirage
or the rock of Gibraltar?
Love is all that and more
and yet it’s nothing,
A mere emotion, a feeling,
At first blush, irrelevant
and yet it’s an impetus, a catalyst--
An euphoria permeating our entire being.
It is here, it is there,
and it is everywhere...
Yet, it is nowhere!
It creates mayhem and chaos
if it turns and walks away.
Love knows no boundaries,
It follows no customs or creed;
It cares not for any
race or language.
Not unlike air and water
or the enlivening sunlight--
Vital in good measures
devastating in excess,
Vexing as a thorn but
as enticing as the fragrance.
Love is but love!
No one has seen it
Yet everyone is touched by it,
Its constant presence is overwhelming
Yet you’ll never find
if you go looking for it,
It traverses distant shores,
Yet it doggedly never
leaves your threshold.
You are born with it
but never can you own it,
Forever it hovers around you
but never can you rein it in.
“Love is a many-splendored thing”.
Yet none can explain its true meaning,
It would call through a bullhorn
and you may not hear it,
It merely whispers in your ears
and turns your life topsy-turvy,
More furious than the flowing lava
It would give you the chills if provoked.
He indeed is a poor soul
bereft of hopes and dreams
who befriendeth not love!
~05/02/16
~Free Verse on Love contest by Laura Loo
~"Love turns the world around"
contest by Nayda Ivette Negron
You see I had lots of respect
NOW you are begging for attention
and a reality check, so try me,
Try me like satan tried jesus,
Your trying to unleash all that steam
but you only sound like a tea kettle,
you claim to be the rock of Gibraltar
but your only a pebble,
didn't your mother tell you not to play with fire,
now I must burn you for pulling this dragons tale ,
no one wants to hear your fairy tale, its very frail,
you can speak and speak until your face is pale
but flattering your self with your words is of no avail.
Keep checking your mail because karma is on it way,
I hope you can eat all that is on your tray, and when you
stuffed with your own hatred ,I hope you get on you knees
and pray, not every thing in life can go your way,
didn't history teach you that
dictating,
manipulating,
belittling,
lack of peace making,
heart breaking,
lack of loyalty,
unjust,
disrespect,
neglect,
self indulgence
hatred
lies
and bias
is not the way,
well I am going to teach you today
Adolf hitler ,
Maximilion,
Malcom x,
Martin luther king,
Rosa parks,
Allen Ginsberg,
Jesus Christ,
the little rock nine,
Mahatma Gandhi,
Fredrick Douglas,
Harriet Tubman,
Rodney King,
Elie Wiesel,
Sean Bell,
DOES any of this ring a BELL,
or your self you continue to smell,
are you still under the devils spell,
how DARE you be unjust,
teaching a child like you is a must.
Your whole approach and appearance is stale,
but HEY
I guess you don't see that
because a donkey can't see its tail.
Diamonds are a dangerous commodity.
Topaz brickettes pave lost roads
for the unfortunate paths
of bewildered Dorothy's
(and misguided second-removed cousins).
The birthday cards
I send myself,
are never returned to sender;
they're forwarded to you.
Rubies are ominous and a crucial burden.
Red. A vibrant statement.
Look at me! I'm red!
Quite a pathetic gemstone.
(Dorothy - you need to re-dye your slippers).
The birthday cards you've sent me
are now forwarded back to you.
Diamonds and rubies
are dangerous commodities.
Quartz tickles my fancy.
Limestone abandons my will.
Emeralds? I visted that city; once.
The PO Box for my re-routed
birthday cards are registered there.
My second-removed cousin
tiles his palacial floors with them.
Diamonds, rubies and emeralds are
dangerous commodities.
Sapphires are worthless crackerjacks.
Amethyst is a word that
(half the population of Idaho can't spell).
A Rock of Gibraltar. The man you needed.
The dupe you wanted.
The patsy who refrains from
visiting your morosed petting zoos.
The gemstone you suckle?
Who is it?
No!
I'm not your diamond;
sweetheart.
Hardly, am I your ruby;
cupcake.
Perchance, an emerald?
Doubtful!
Quartz, limestone...a sapphire?
You orchestrate personal deaths
upon the metallic
bands around your rhenoid fingers.
A gemstone I'm not a part of.
Being there -
I was the part of your life
that was accidentally flung over
rusty-coat hangers
stuffed in moth-ridden closets.
I was the gemstone
that never glossed
your fancy fingers.
Diamonds?
Emeralds?
Rubies?
Sapphires?
Quartz?
Limestone?
No...pumice;
my love.
Understand, pumice doesn't sink!
I'll pop back into mischievious
blackened-hearts anytime I please -
and you will welcome me for
a sincerity that warrrants no appraisals.
However,
my utmost truisms sparkle
decadent- bright
like diamonds -
a dangerous and rare
commodity.
.
Create In Me A Clean Heart...
Create in me a clean heart, Oh God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
May my flesh be crucified...
so that YOU... others may see!
Please don't remove from me
your presence, or Holy Spirit.
May I meditate upon your word...
and daily live it!
Restore unto me the joy
of your salvation...
As I serve you with a deep
love and appreciation!
I will teach sinners,
of your wondrous ways.
So that they my serve you
all of their days!
I will shout aloud of your
righteousness and proclaim
That you have delivered me
from all guilt and shame.
As my lips are open...
I will sing glory & praise to YOU!
May you be exalted in all
that I say and do.
My sacrifice to you are a spirit
and heart that's broken.
God will not reject me...
this he has spoken!
May I bring sacrifice and obedience
as I come to your altar.
You are my solid rock...
like the "Rock of Gibraltar!"
Thank you for cleansing
and making me whole.
You brought healing...
and restored my soul!
By Jim Pemberton
Read Psalms 51:10-17
Pride & Arrogance’s Wedding
Pride was looking for a partner to share his life.
He found Arrogance and asked her to be his wife.
This would be the grandest affair no one could beat.
Anybody who was somebody would fill the seats.
Sarcasm would be the maid of honor Arrogance’s best friend
While Pride’s buddy Boastful would do the honors of stepping in.
Pompous, Pretentious, and Presumptuous found their places
While Vanity and Bossy were screaming in each other’s faces
Smug walked by with Snotty his wife of many years
As Arrogance’s mother Egotist tried not to shed a tear.
As Arrogance came in the room all stopped and stared
To witness true love Pride and Arrogance shared.
Pride took Arrogance by the hand to the alter
Looking stiff and stoic like the rock of Gibraltar
The wedding was beautiful but just a little odd
But everybody knew they were like two peas in a pod
They now live in a town called Imso Crass.
While Arrogance works hard Pride sits on his ass.
Arrogance, if she only knew her fate with Pride
She would have never agreed to be by his side.
But now there’s a baby whom she must take care.
Little chaos born on her birthday they now share.
Erin Soares-Anselmi
01/06/14
If I were the president
Of the this great legacy
We call our home,our country
Left to us long ago
By our long departed great fathers
I will strive with all my heart
To build with it a monument
Dynamic yet stable
Solid and strong
Like the great rock of Gibraltar
She will be the envy of other nations
The pride of generations yet unborn
Alas I’m not the president
I’m but a resident
Like everyone else
I can only watch and pray
Perhaps weep
For once there was a nation
Green and beautiful
Filled with potentials
Whose back is now bent
Under the weight of depression,
Corruption and segregation
One day soon, maybe
Our hope that is now withered
Like dying roses in the evening sun
Will receive a surge of life
And blossom yet again!
You and I may yet sing our nation’s anthem
Head high, chest out
And filled with pride
Shining as the stars
On a darkened night sky
And even though we all can’t be president
We will believe always in a new Nigeria
Vibrant, strong, dynamic and stable
Our country, our pride.
LIMERICK
You can have the two kids but not the hound
And I'll need the Caddie to get around
Said she I'll take the house
You good for nothin' louse
By your cock and bull I will not be bound
HAIKU
love that drifts apart
like two diverging rivers
ne'er to flow as one
COUPLET
Their marriage made in heaven was as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar
'Til his boozing and roving eyes caused the whole affair to falter
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
© All Rights Reserved
Placed No. 5 in PDs "Divorce Club" Contest - December 2010
Create in me a clean heart, Oh God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
May my flesh be crucified...
so that YOU... others may see!
Please don't remove from me
your presence, or Holy Spirit.
May I meditate upon your word...
and daily live it!
Restore unto me the joy
of your salvation...
As I serve you with a deep
love and appreciation!
I will teach sinners,
of your wondrous ways.
So that they my serve you
all of their days!
I will shout aloud of your
righteousness and proclaim
That you have delivered me
from all guilt and shame.
As my lips are open...
I will sing glory & praise to YOU!
May you be exalted in all
that I say and do.
My sacrifice to you are a spirit
and heart that's broken.
God will not reject me...
this he has spoken!
May I bring sacrifice and obedience
as I come to your altar.
You are my solid rock...
like the "Rock of Gibraltar!"
Thank you for cleansing
and making me whole.
You brought healing...
and restored my soul!
By Jim Pemberton
Read Psalms 51:10-17
I have seen the Rock
and I don't mean Dwayne Johnson
Rock of Gibraltar
The Rock of Gibraltar stands steadfast,
A landmark to show men the way,
A sentinel post of the ages,
An emblem of quaint bygone days.
And so stand the old guard among us
Whose deeds ever echo through time.
They blazed a sure path to the future
An uncertain, strenuous climb!
But the lines on their faces betray them,
No longer can they bear the load.
So plot ye a course strong and steady
And start down the way that they showed!
They are the hallmark of freedom,
Of courage and stalwart resolve.
But you are the hope of a nation,
No problem is posed you can’t solve.
Decide now, young people, your credo
For liberty lies in your care.
Be it virtue and faith in the future
Or slothfulness, greed and despair!
RECIPE: “Poulet Roti” French Style - Ballade Le Chant Royal 6
(NOTE: This French “ballade” is being composed on permutations of the number ONE repeated twice, I.e., 11. Eleven syllables to the line in iamb or anapeste, interposed with dactyls, I guess, and of course with the ENVOI added. Eleven lines to the STANZA in eleven in res media “instalments”involving the minutely PERSONAL in interaction with the larger hoi polloi in relation to the STATE and its tentacular authoritarian apparatuses designed to keep the independent INDIVIDUAL always nailed in limbo.) T Wignesan
STANZA VI
“So why don’tya get out of this Third World hell !”
Near-East stronghold now in Maghreb stranglehold
Where Asians and Africans mingle pell-mell
Where the French affix sign-boards on their soil: “SOLD!”
The moonlight flit now turned to Indian rope trick
Where East Europeans come thick and homesick
To join the ranks of those from South-Euro lands
Who make much of the Far Right extremist brigands
Les français de souche* still commute to keep jobs
Like they once nostalgic did in foreign lands
The migrant refugee does odd jobs and robs
ENVOI
French lasses push prams with babes sunburnt inlands
No Tariq Ali* need turn back for want of bans
May the World colourless be sans hapless gods
Or will it taken over be by hooligans
The migrant refugee does odd jobs and robs
*Les français de souche: the French of stolid French ancestry.
*Tariq Ali, the Berber Moor alighted on the rock of Gibraltar, in 709 C. E. , with 30,000 horsemen, and by 711 had over-run the Iberian Peninsula, but Abdul Rahman al-Gafiqi, the Governor General of al-Andalus, who tried to extend the conquests further into Europe was halted in his tracks by the Frank Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers/Tours in 732.
(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017
THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET
THE AL-ANDALUS QUARTET: PART ONE
GIBRALTAR / DJEBEL-TARIQ 711 AD / 92 AH
In the eyes of the hawk
Djebel Musa to Djebel Tariq
is the tactical distance across the
turbulent waters where the blue
Mediterranean meets the
endless blue sea
The dark swirling currents and
the threatening waves, mediate
traffic between the east and the west
like a vigilant father in a Numidian tribe,
and like a doting negassa, chaperone
a wedding at the Rock of Gibraltar to
marry the landscapes of Africa and
Europe, stir the chaotic brooding of
Christianity’s north with the volatile
moods and enraptured exuberance of Arab
and Berber, soon Tuareg and Black, the
stormier winds of Maghreb and mission
from the Islamic south,
and on this new day as a military favor
to the warrior Tariq, mask the
gathering sounds of derbouka, sagat,
war-horse and armor, zurna, al-oud,
turban, tunic and the long curved sword
at the sharp leading edge of a shining
idea which, like a flaming sharuq of
faith and surrender from Djebel-Tariq
to the Guadalquivir, from the Guadiana
north to the Tagos and Duero, to the
Ebro and the Pyrenees, the territory
beyond, through the chasms and
gorges of the disintegrating map of
the Hispano-Romano, Visigoth and
Vandal, will conceal Ano Domini
beneath Hijriyyah in a new land
of Allah called Al-Andalus
Sharuq (Arabic): A hot dusty humid southeast wind in southern Europe that begins in the Sahara and picks up moisture as it crosses the Mediterranean. Spanish: Sirocco. Italian: Scirocco
Emanuel Carter