Best Sapped Poems
(This is a universal story of mother’s sacrifice for their children, be it material, emotional, or intellectual.)
It was during the Korean War
Father was taken away by the Communists
Months ago
He never returned
Mother and I were left alone
In an island as refugees
Without anyone supporting us
One day
Mother brought a cup of rice
For me to eat
Only three spoonful
In the cup
I gobbled it up
Without much thought
Feeling still hungry
Mother took the cup in the kitchen
Closed the door
Through a crack
I saw Mother scraping
Scraping the bottom of the cup
For a few grains left
She licked the spoon over and over
How long has she been hungry
To feed me?
I froze
Really froze
I quietly left the room
To a beach nearby
Looking at the horizon
Where ocean met the sky
Far far away
Wanting to swim
Toward it
Until my strength
Sapped to nil
So that Mother didn't have to
Feed another mouth
Then a question surfaced
Will she be happy without me
So she can feed herself?
No way
Was my answer
She has already lost
Many of her loved ones
Without me
She will not go on living
I stood
With my heart filled with
Opposing forces
Resumed my walk
Toward Mother
Categories:
sapped, love,
Form:
Free verse
Written: November 24, 2023
_____________________________________________
Seraphic sand is sapped on the seashore
As swirling waters swallowed the load roar.
The roiling river rapidly ground to an oar
Shore seaweed—pure praise to restore.
A skylark beat the cords, its wings galore
Brilliant sky; rapt gasp wails fading before.
Moon sashayed stars as it whiffed implore
Tides will come and flee—still nevermore.
Upon heavens, a moon casts a silvery hoar
On the whiffed coo, as the seas' soft afore.
Whispered tunefully while purling in abhor
I walked around tiptoes, humming a chord.
Until the sun rose with a blazing core
used their citrin cord to snag the spore.
Categories:
sapped, analogy, appreciation, river, sea,
Form:
Monorhyme
fo'c·'sle /'fohksel/ noun deriv: forecastle
1. the forward part of a ship below the deck, traditionally used as the crew's living quarters.
2. historical: a raised deck at the front of a ship.
With the equinox illuminating a fortnight of recovery
On pelts spread like Ionian jars left askew,
My flame-keep sparked alight against the doldrums of
Greed. Stagnant and fetid.
My bark beats out a call stretched
Skin-tight over the sea’s virgin core
And sets trust aflame.
Ashes collected into the collated casks and
Corked with animus, Moon Girl pounded on.
Drumming a dirge on the tanner's own flesh.
Pounding the seed of echoing hope.
Pounding the corpus beat of life anew.
Those echoed my own harmony and emptied my ears.
My tunes would now be true and crisp.
My struggle to syncopate the middle eight
Was like on the saltchuck the time before.
Before we crossed the bar,
Breakers chasing, pounding aft of stern.
Now in the glow of the coal oil lamp
Sat The Dane who came to trade.
He mumbled a Chinookian curse and winced.
He sensed my mariner's cred, how I lit my smoke;
Muscle memory and addiction married in my subconscious.
But His eyes would never sense the venomous flow
Of the seabreak distant,
Like hounds baying to the highway of stars
And up to the dunes ran with phosphorescent faces
Fermenting the blackness.
Hell-hounds bounding.
Lungs pounding.
Driving on.
River may lick Disappointment’s shanks
But Drake’s gold remains unfound.
The cavities carved along the capes
Echo an emptied ethos and sapped spirit
Which salal and sage cannot clense.
Walk with me now Sister Ilchee.
Beat your dirge
Along the pock-marked ports of plunder
Laid before the flattened corpse of
Ebbing freedom found.
Categories:
sapped, boat, endurance, history, native
Form:
Dramatic Monologue
A spiritual sickness enveloped my stagnant heart.
I searched for her in darkened obscure visions,
A futile illusory chase that led to a desert of love.
Had I become addicted to her presence?
Deep in my heart, I knew that all was distorted.
I wondered if I really loved her,
Yet I could not bear the loss, knowing her as I did.
Finally, she disappeared from circulation,
It left my strength sapped from a wide goose chase.
Life trickled by slowly, as I lost my job, wasted my money,
Rendering my situation an almost irreparable ruin and loss.
Looking back, recollecting my bad choices
It took me some time to discern the inevitable damage
That rendered my skeletal life beyond repair.
Could I renew and restore my affluent fortunes?
Life had its ups and downs, like desert dunes.
All I needed was a fertile oasis. Walking on the hot sand
Was painful but I had to try. I began my journey anew.
Will I ever learn? Who knows? One can only hope.
After all, the desert is never endless though it may seem so.
Categories:
sapped, lost love,
Form:
Free verse
Mary Jane aka ganja, grass, marijuana and a host of other names.
Serenity is yours to gain
being led in dance to fairyland
swing waltz with Mary Jane
Sapped by undue stress and strain
tango’s for two yet ‘lone you stand
serenity is yours to gain
When music sounds an odd refrain
discordant noise in every strand
swing waltz with Mary Jane
One-step, two-step to higher plane
wild rumba to a one-man band
serenity is yours to gain
Cha-cha and spruce your addled brain
Skunk, Lebanese, most every brand
swing waltz with Mary Jane
When life is sucked dry vein-by-vein
reborn yourself with spliff in hand
serenity is yours to gain
swing waltz with Mary Jane
***********************************
A SPECIAL VILLANELLE TO ALL GANJA-GUZZLING OL' GEEZERS
Categories:
sapped, happiness
Form:
Villanelle
Joan of Arc
HE speaks, and messengers appear
To innocence of one so young in year
The calling understood, she will not flee
Till France is free of English tyranny
The struggle long, a hundred years or more
An army tired, sapped of strength by war
She steps into the fray, new hope, inspire
Her words believed, the lighting of the fire
Hoorah, the trepid siege of Orleans broken
Triumphant Gaules their spirit now awoken
Battle proved, proud see her banner fly
On to the capital, her new war cry
Though the king be doubtful to her power
Sanctioned he, and blessed her of the hour
There, before the gates and walls so tall
Defending well, Paris refused to fall
Defeated, wounded, weary, drawn, down
Undone, alone, rejected by the crown
Falls into allied hands when out at large
Imprisoned to be tried, on falsehood charge
Religious order sent to set out court
To seek and force the answer that was sort
She, unwavering in her self belief
Her story standing gave them no relief
A minister dispatched to find (his) truth
Then shout her heresy from every roof
A thousand times the question fills her ear
A thousand times she answers without fear
Time was never going to be her friend
None came in aid or cared her to defend
Sent forth to burn in blazing execution
Inglorious was her perfect persecution
True to HIM her love would not betray
For HIM, at the stake, her life she lay
The passing years, gave her soul release
St Joan, now rests in reverence and peace.
Categories:
sapped, faith, history,
Form:
Couplet
Here lies a women dead before her time
Struck down by guided arrows dipped in rhyme
A wound that first was sweet but turned to vile
It slowly sapped her strength and stole her smile
The words all worked their way down to her heart
Like chamber maids, each word then played a part
At first adoring, then they turned to be
The pseudo kind of love: hypocrisy
They mocked, and they abused her steadfast love
Made her to feel naïve, a helpless dove
Betrayals words they whispered in her ear
And made her fear the dreaded end was near
“Let tombstone read the truth not blatant lie:
'All those who trust in love in pain will die'."
Eileen Manassian
Categories:
sapped, betrayal, dark,
Form:
Sonnet
Starry skies over Damascus
Like a star chart for the
bomber pilots eating
Milky Ways and lives
Chocolate in the desert
for desert in consumption
The poem could stop here
its pretty clear not pretty
Petty lives perambulating
hiding hobbling around
on what was their feet
foundations souls and
is their ruin's wreckage now
The planes feature logos
“Just do it”
“Whiter than white”
“Put the tiger in the tank”
“Eat confectionary be happy”
What an advertising space
for the daily news rounded
up like the refugees
refusing to be refuse
“Powered by democracy”
“Fuelled by share holdings”
“Rocket launches for a better world”
in the weeping nights and days
lactating for another holiday
of some on sunny beaches
oozing oil wells wealth
and inequality
Milk where it needs not be
in luxury not infant powder
hungry breasts run dry by hunger
sapped empty in the face
of some lives counting
more than others where
camouflage is but
a distant varnish
in the pursuit of power
Soon their will be billboards
“Baghdad was not built
in a moment” “Invest in
Kabul” “Concrete for Allepo”
“Live the dream”
“Life liberty and the
pursuit of happy-mess”
“Constructing globality”
Munching away in my
cushioned arm chair
built from greedy land mines
I collude
“You can have your milky ways”
if the bomber pilots did not
eat them all
Whose wives implant their chests
with silicone from
the valley of evil
that forgot
Instead the artificial brain
the heart transplant
Mindful disposition
of humanity
Looking
instead at the stars
spangled banners
of Damascus
Milky ways
Categories:
sapped, war,
Form:
Free verse
I let you break the door to my soul,
You savoured the flavour there in
Only you did,
But the broken door gave me pain
I let you, cos of the sweetened words
Issuing forth from your honeyed lips
I let you, cos those words tells of your love for me
And it enchants me,
It sapped me, and pets my stubborn soul
You kissed me passionately
With the girdle of your muscular arm all about me
You cooed words laced with rhythm like strains of Celine into my tender ear
I quiver like a leaf by a flowing river
As I opened the passage to my soul
You entered me, you took me
My painful moan tickles your shaft
You unleashed your manfulness over me
And I felt with all the nerve in my body,
Your shaft stirring the abyss of my hole
You quiver, like you were epileptic
This time, I heard your groan-moan
And a milky fluid from your shaft rained on my navel
Weariness engulfed my whole
I barely could raise a bone
I saw you walking to door,
Hoping a meal would follow your return
I made out of the bed to bath
And await your coming
Alas! My wait was a waste
Categories:
sapped, betrayal, emotions, feelings, lost
Form:
Ballad
brittle stained jagged fingernails
scratch against the splint hairs
of a cold weathered wooden elbow
an impatient clock had sapped
a once supple leather coat
now requiring constant mending
as homeless unraveling posed an inevitable ending
torn pockets spilled over
with a plethora of dead letters
hope had long ago delivered
its final walking papers
without care of return receipt
handmade trees with news of unease
spun unmercifully
into the arms of a brisk fall breeze
birds began their escape
into the mouth of another sun
a slow rise from a patinaed throne
on a benched park seat
a myopic vision of how cracks
are formed on overused and forgotten streets
she walks alone
to nowhere
a decayed ballerina
the place she is seen as most complete
Categories:
sapped, life, lonely, woman,
Form:
Free verse
New Guinea Kokoda Campaign
In 1942 the Japs appeared, took all the islands north.
Our troops were mainly school boys and for New Guinea bound.
13,000 Japs landed, climbed up Kokoda and came forth.
As Yanks, Macarthur's boys took over Melbourne town.
Churchill said "No we can't help, let them take Australia too,
we'll take it back later in a few years."
Our P.M. got most of our men home, to fight our war it's true,
Though Churchill tried every trick but tears.
The Thirty Ninth Battalion, old men and school boys.
400 kids to do the job, oh yes these few.
They met the Jap whose weapons, were anything but toys.
Militia boys, with old 'threeo's' there to use.
Our boys could only hit and run.
Or be surrounded and slaughtered like the roo's.
The Jap he had it all, mortars, machine and mountain gun.
New Guinea we could more than likely lose.
War seasoned 2/21st Brigade it's then they climbed the trail.
Came to meet the Jap so many thousands there.
They tried to stop em, many died, but no they wouldn't fail.
These men so game and earnest every where.
Battle hardened 2/25th Brigade now came to do its bit.
Replaced the dead and wounded, and the few left on the trail.
Our men charged the Jap trenches as the 25 pounders hit,
used cold steel, Yank Tommy guns and leaden hail.
The Jap ran back o'er the ranges with fear he was instilled,
with just three battalions snapping at his rear.
At Templeton they stopped, got surrounded there and killed.
Aussies made them pay the price, much dread and fear.
The Kumusi river was in flood, where Horii's men pulled up.
The General's men they'd stopped again to fight.
When five hundred died upon the bank they'd really had enough.
So they tried to cross the river in the night.
400 drowned there in the flood with General Horii too,
from capsized boats and rafts and other craft.
They retreated back to Gona and to Buna they were through,
their ranks so thinned, they hadn't cause to laugh.
Our Pilots flew with the Yanks, to bomb and strafe and kill.
Then our Tanks appeared with Mortar and Field gun.
With better support now, we sapped their very will.
Our mountains choked with dead now Kokoda it was won.
by D H Johnson
Categories:
sapped, adventure, school, men, old,
Form:
Ballade
Covid spread throughout the kingdom –
the people inside the elite compounds,
if they heard the many sounds of the
ill falling dead, did not seem troubled,
not a single head – besides, it was, for
them a special day, 60th birthday of
their consecrated God and his Queen,
to whom all will homage pay –
Politicians and Hollywood celebs alike
will take numbered turn fawning accolades
at the podium mike. Tables strategically set,
armed security carefully to vet every
privileged guest before passing the Walled
Castle-door, so not to allow Covid
to take flight and soar, spreading deadly
spore through the air – over His Majesty's
Red-carpet-floor...
There are plates with gold trim, not the
painted kind – of Twenty-four Karat as their
goblets of wine, precious silver from royal
chambers, billionaire vaults, brimming over
with champagne from prized cellars, vintage
of all sorts, tribute paid by appeasing, complicit
European Courts, with thousand dollar a-bottle
highly acclaimed ports. There will be classical
music combined with White Shaming Hip Hop Rap –
diamonds and precious other gems abundantly given
for gifts, the nation having been well sapped,
American's Treasury criminally tapped,
for the king and queen's off-road treats – while
theft and murder rages in the commoner's streets –
shortages developing to the point masses of
people will soon have little food to break-bread
and manage – to the ruling devils, simply
collateral damage....
Categories:
sapped, freedom, perspective, political, society,
Form:
Free verse
When death and his friends walked by it,
It simply smiled and sank a little into its soil.
When its fresh air started to pollute, like the water it sapped on,
It simply smiled and sank a little into its soil.
When it sees the dusk rises out of the ground,
It simply smiled and sank a little into its soil.
When the kids that knew of his presence, showered him with their blood,
It simply smiled and sank a little into its soil.
When a soft hand tendered to its ravaged petals,
When a sweet lip whispered comforts into its stems,
And
When its thorns were bathed in clear water,
It simply cried and grew a little towards the bright sun.
Categories:
sapped, life
Form:
Free verse
You’re not good for me
You’ve just got to go
You’ve brought me nothing....
Nothing but sorrow!
You’ve sapped all my strength
You’ve tortured my heart
You’ve crushed my spirit
You MUST now depart!
You’ve splintered my wings
You’ve wrung my soul dry
You’ve fed my mind’s beasts
You’ve made your girl cry
I’ve tried those potions
I’ve tried the fake priests
I’ve followed the rules
I’ve had sacred feasts
What else can I do?
What chant can I pray?
To exorcise you
There just seems no way!
You’ve made your own home
So deep in my head
I’m obsessed by you
Tormented in bed
Get out! Please, Get Out!
For I must go on!
Be exorcised NOW!
For my sake...be gone!
When I am all clean
With no demon trace
Then....
Posses me once more
With your angel face!
Eileen Manassian Ghali
Categories:
sapped, dark,
Form:
Quatrain
With loving heart and caring hands
I soothe your pain, I bathe your wounds
An ill wind blew and sapped your strength
There was not much that you could do.
Corruption, greed, no rule of law,
Unfair the treatment handed out.
Betrayed by those you trusted most
Who sold their soul for worldly gains
And dared to stab you in the back.
Do not give up; you’re not alone,
Delay of justice will not last.
Till then I’ll prop you, wipe your tears
With loving heart and caring hands.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Whitman Inspired Contest
Sponsor: Carolyn Devonshire
Placed 1st
Chosen POTD (21st Jan 2020)
© 19th January 2020
Categories:
sapped, betrayal, corruption, pain,
Form:
Ode