Best Roost Poems
That life is a struggle, there's no denying
when the distance between light and dark
is just one misstep across the boundary line
Problematic for mankind since time began
Prompted by the reminder of crows flying
I have need to heed his words in the great book
There's truth there to find courage and strength
Armor and shield to prepare me for the fight
In chapter and verse I found it when I searched
for the way out, a way to escape the sea of madness
I pray not to get lost in the dark swells I abhor
It's the only way to assure my soul's salvation
Ravens roost there, in a forest of leafless trees
where damnation spills its virulent seeds
There, in the shadows of the valley of death—
like carrion for the picking, is how they see me
Blackguard avians wanting to spread their disease
Beady eyes following me as I walk through the mist
Waiting like vultures for me to take my last breath
To save myself from plight of battle and eternal death
I pray to defeat the demons crying out for me,
concentrate on the consciousness of mind over matter
and denounce the thought of "What will be, will be."
I must avoid the darkness for in its shadows, sings
the ruthless caws of ravens, fluttering their black wings
I've come to despise the sound of their beastly cries
Behind me the sound arises again, that baleful cawing
and ominous sight; the murder of crows taking flight
Overhead, they squawk a challenge with talons clawing
but I will face the soulless demons that tyrannise me
To their offers of temptation, I vow never to succumb
for a sin it would be to forsake my will to remain free
Categories:
roost, dark, fear,
Form:
Free verse
There must be something I haven't written about
In over eighteen hundred poems
Searching and searching my large massive brain
But for now creativity has flown
Can't think of anything that's worthy of my time
I've started to run out of gas
Could write about anything just to fill in for now
But can't imagine writing just trash
Will bide my time, maybe suck on my thumb
That's how I usually get inspiration
In the future, the human mind will be extinct
That's the last of our imagination
A real sad day in the annuls of all mankind
Leave me out don't want to partake
In a society where machines are ruling the roost
And the freedom of mankind is at stake
Well thankfully I don't have too many years left
I know it would be hard to survive
In a world without warm and close human contact
This guy doesn't want to be alive
© Jack Ellison 2015
Categories:
roost, life, scary,
Form:
Narrative
The political storm is gathering
Election fever is at its highest pitch
As Nigerians head to the polls
To exercise their franchise
In the mother of all elections
The most crucial ever
Since the birthing of uninterrupted
Democracy in our dear father land
This would be an election like no other
Coming at a time Nigerians
Have their backs to the walls
Victims of unmitigated misery
Kidnapping, banditry and general insecurity
Victims of multi-dimensional poverty
In the midst of affluence
Proverbially living near the river
But washing their hands daily with spittle
The time of reckoning is here
Chickens have finally come home to roost
A Daniel has come to judgment
This is the time for Nigerians
To speak with one voice
That would echo and re-echo
For a long time to come
Categories:
roost, allusion, encouraging, evil, grief,
Form:
Free verse
Vulture; brazen carnivore, perched high atop the tree
waiting, just waiting, to swoop down for his opportunity
to pick the bones of something or someone he wishes dead
and all the while he roosts and waits for his daily bread.
Nasty black-eyed bird of prey, your ego is fat with bloat.
Hide your cause beneath your claws, on yourself you dote.
Stay on the highest branches of the timber where you judge
but cast your glance behind before another gives you a nudge.
How dare you look upon the ones who's intentions are good.
How I wish to cover your demeaning raven head with a hood.
You snicker and you sneer, but nothing of worth do you bear?
Sink your claws onto paper; let others judge you, if you dare.
Glare until you've had your fill. Cry foul if you will not abate.
No more will your dastardly disguised scorn upon me grate.
Caw out your tale, as did Poe, of the striking rights you defend.
You wanted the last bite of flesh; you got it. Now it's the end
Categories:
roost, image,
Form:
Rhyme
Where The Owls Roost, The Moon Shines Brightest
Where the owls roost, the moon shines bright
The old withered oak stands beaten and proud
Scars, proud medals of its strength and might
night owls hooting , often not so very loud
Where the moonlight streams onto life below
Seas move with that mighty Titan's commands
In wonder, the earth watches the light show
Racing, racing onward across all the lands
Where the sky dances with glowing splendor
The night paints shadows with joyous glee
In awe, man watches stars as they surrender
Moonbeams shining upon owls in ancient tree
As dawn approaches the Titan slips on away
Gracefully as King retreating to another view
Generous to the Sun's birth of each new day
Upon green grass thirsty for its morning dew!
Robert J. Lindley-- 05-06-2015
Categories:
roost, beautiful, celebration, imagery, inspiration,
Form:
Rhyme
Some call me prolific
I call me obsessed
Some say I'm a kook
I say I'm blessed
It's all that I think of
Poems from the heart
But silly damn nonsense
Is still my main art
Takes the same effort
To make people laugh
As it does to depress them
To make you gasp
So this here is me
Just little old me
A happy old duffer
Filled with much glee
So next time you're looking
For a morning boost
Check out this old Jester
He'll be riding the roost
Categories:
roost, life,
Form:
Free verse
Some call me prolific
I call me obsessed
Some say I'm a kook
I say I'm blessed
It's all that I think of
Poems from the heart
But silly damn nonsense
Is still my main art
Takes the same effort
To make people laugh
As it does to depress them
To make you gasp
So this here is me
Just little old me
A happy old duffer
Filled with much glee
So next time you're looking
For a morning boost
Check out this old Jester
He'll be riding the roost
© Jack Ellison 2013
Categories:
roost, happiness, humorous,
Form:
Quatrain
HE WHO RULES THE ROOST
toddler holds the clock
reveille at five o’clock
before the cock crows
6/13/2017
Categories:
roost, good morning,
Form:
Senryu
Microlight
When they appeared, we were like, “What …the?” motorcycles
dangling from multi-coloured wings, animated comic book scene
blond wisps racing at leisure in deliberate mid-morning breeze
rainbow spectrum gone haywire, in the azure June sky
they were flaunting metallics, Kariba breams in fish eagle talons.
They hovered above, the whole school was set in a frenzy
nerds set books aside, watched in awe, tree-hoppers
gnawing into altitude like Superman, zooming in to land
ZAKA AIRSTRIP from Buffalo Range Aerodrome passing
through Eaglemont, dodging murk from the hosts.
The first time Gogo had seen the sun being made to shrivel
like a berry in the sun by something audible was back
in ‘the year of grasshoppers’, a great swarm had turned
the high solar heat to warm by a massive green curtain
that came down to roost with a whirr, a body, onto a village
of keen locust eaters, leaving skeletal contents for the silo
a celebratory mood took over, there was nothing fishy here
she undid her floral *zambia swirling, bringing it down
dust was confetti showers rewinding. Gogo ululated
blissful as a bride, took to a prance, a new kind of dance
round and round her third leg. Wakanda? A vibranium-like rod
It was raining men!
Airmen!
Categories:
roost, africa, change, culture, grandmother,
Form:
Free verse
Yo chickens coming home to roost bitches
While you went south stealing their riches
One hundred years you plundered
While putting South America asunder
Copper Silver and Gold
Polluting the land while you stole
Aluminum and Iron Ore
Thousands of death if you re keeping score
Now the poverty is wrecking havoc on their society
While you scorn their misery
Crying about the cost of feeding the immigrant
The ugly American his bullying rant
Yes the chicken are come home my friend
That's the cost of thievery in the end
Categories:
roost, political, prejudice,
Form:
Epitaph
Rooster ~
Pecks the dust, raising
Particles, pebbles
Earth.
Hen ~
Comes around
Roosts with him.
Paint a Picture Poetry Contest (7 lines)
Sponsor: Joseph May
September 22, 2020
Categories:
roost, animal, bird, earth, easter,
Form:
Verse
he told me i was crass
he told me i was trash
he told me i had no fire
he told me he was tired
he told me
he was leaving me for her
perched on the window
of my empty lair
with a half sneer parked
on my dry lips
i watched their cute
garden wedding
as they strolled on the
jacaranda carpet
today
she tearfully knocked on my door
he told her she was crass
he told her she was trash
he told her she had no fire
he told her he was tired
he told her
he was leaving her for her
Categories:
roost, betrayal, break up, irony,
Form:
Free verse
While whittling away,
Household tasks today,
Sparrows peacefully perched by my window,
Sunning on golden Cyprus, as they will tomorrow.
Betwixt bird feeder flights,
They absorb warmth of sunlight,
Until seed needs lead to silly squabbles,
Luckily the extent of their troubles.
Back and forth the tiny flock follows its leader.
A chilly day makes them eager.
Lo, one perches on the window ledge,
Peeking inside to check me out.
Disappointed, for I’m only dashing about.
Oh, what idyllic days they spend,
Better than I, for all my good intent!
M. Renee Taylor
12-3-15
Categories:
roost, bird, life,
Form:
Sonnet
There is an expression "when the chickens come home to roost" and our current pandemic is revealing these raw truths. Did we let a rooster in the hen house? Did he keep us safe? Does his presence keep us vulnerable and on our nerves grate? Perhaps we "let a fox guard the hen house", a more likely situation, and we now stand by witnessing while he brings down this great nation.
Categories:
roost, 1st grade,
Form:
Political Verse
A buzzard circles slowly
gliding across the
forest, his
home
The sun shines shadows
rolling across these
fatigued hills
forever
Categories:
roost, animals, imagination, mystery, nature,
Form:
Free verse