Best Scalding Poems
Ironic tears that spill are mocking me
in scathing streaks delighting down my cheeks.
They trace their paths as soft as fingertips
atop sad ivories caressing pain -
but shame me in their scalding disregard
and blame me that they even do exist.
I ache in death knell spiral of regrets,
their embers smolder as they stoke with ire
with flaring pain till nothing’s left but ash -
besmirched by lust reduced to worthless grey.
My life now but an aftertaste of soot;
sweet self-indulgence too much to withstand.
In sunset mood I grow my shadow’s length
in angst I’m reaching out midst twilight guilt,
beseeching in day’s fade Salvation’s light;
forgiveness of my own abandons me.
Oh, burn of sins does choke my soul in smoke
as tattered heart is purged upon the pyre.
Susan Ashley
February 2, 2018
~ First Place ~
Contest: Contest 600, Any Free Verse, Any Theme, Max 20 Lines
Sponsor: Brian Strand
Categories:
scalding, angst, dark, loss, lust,
Form:
Blank verse
Searing flames within hissing steam burns
letting the dragons out in frozen time
cold stone winds blow into the desert sands of illusions etched
Dark and feral holding immeasurable promises
held captive under those that are never completely met right
freedom and forgiveness denied cries from an impenetrable heart
Hatred is the twisted short sided vulture of the virtues
incomplete confidence expressed in a waning moon
Tears of ivory silk burning salted spiced
Cries forever inside chambers weeping wall’s
taken far away into discoveries path
were limitations and love never coexist
Endless beginnings take centrefold in a staged arena
otherworldly visions of a life re-imagined scarcely believed
in a sealing ritual sacrifice, sacred temple of another is played outcast
Vibrant scalding primal evil colors paint the blood truth
boldly endurance can no longer be silence issued
through the sun’s warm radiance Illuminati exposed
Co written by Donna Loughman and Liam McDaid
unrhymed tercets
Categories:
scalding, conflict, cry, dark, heart,
Form:
Terza Rima
Raven Speak Not To Me, For A Plague Flees Thy Lips
Sadness came, in clumps of ripping hard, smashing waves
as if morbid thoughts could such sorrows ever save,
none but the blind and deaf could know a darker realm
or more lost ship with, blinder captain at the helm.
Yet even in such pains, one must seek out the Light
for the blind can see, if they embrace truest of sight!
Wayfarer now in hideous ancient abodes
mind burning flames, blasts of misery that explodes,
born of the vile demons that plagued Master Poe
from fiery depths they sprang, as savage and dark foe.
What greater black-curse can one thus be forced to bear
or evil that sends monsters that nightly scare?
Raven speak not to me! For plague flees thy lips
weeping soul, prays not to enter such ghastly trips,
save your epic lashings and thy horrific calls
as well as scalding-hot brands from thy torture halls.
We that saw deepest pains, you once sent Master Poe
enter not chambers or beg more accursed shows!
Your friends attack, forcing each soul to further flee
from hell's first dark levels, with its pitiful pleas,
into caverns wicked, filled with flesh eating beasts
with each new arrival cry, more food for our feasts.
Sirens lure fleeing lost souls into black-sea pits
always seeking, more blood, deeper cuts, harder hits!
Raven, thy terror-nights will soon come to end
for in bright flooding lights, I have found a new friend,
stalwart ally, armed with more than long sharp teeth
one whose true faith, will silence thy calls from beneath.
Dawn's shimmering lights, you shall plague me no more
I bow to he, his powers seals your wicked door!
Robert J. Lindley,
Dark Poetry, ( Poe, Raven and Nightmares)
12-18-2018
Categories:
scalding, dark, evil, fantasy, fate,
Form:
Rhyme
Once upon a time
Distant memories
Dawning of morning crystals
Glittering reminder of starlight tears
In sunbeam's brilliance
Lighting jewels shine
Songbirds break into chorus
The smallest fragment of a breeze alerts
The senses whistling
Melodies explode
Through the branches leaves lament
Observing nature's space hold in colors
Fruit of tenderness
Mellow your sunshine
Blossoms love supreme touching
Fingers raise deep golden feelings yearning
Addresses one's heart
Lonely dust remains
Breathing breathless light explores
In darkness echoes bounce off deep caverns
Cold howling shivers
Devouring warm blood
Into the bones whistling ice
Winds voice of the lost souls' eyes turn bright green
As the spirit leaves
Dark moldy shadows
Light of moon sources cravings
Beauties kiss eclipses rose bleeds scarlet
Immortal heartbeats
Life stops ticking bang
Seduced black velvet pleasure
Sinking fangs into the succumbing heart
Drum beats slow echo
Fallen unchained truths
Slithering lizards crawling
Underneath the skin a beastly vision
Storm roars through timbers
Translucent blood slime
Flowing toxic energy
Mutating hollers screech into wolf moon
Scalding hot flames breathe
When red embers burn
Into the lustful ashes
Born inside scarred remains breathing wounds
An itch that scratches
Onto the mindset
Greenish cornea expands
Opening curtains in a split second
Haunting prey on light
Affliction of need
Rasping rattle in the throat
Death yowls airless scream without sun visions
A Collaborated Poem with Liam McDaid and Angeline Lim
Categories:
scalding, dark, grief, heart, metaphor,
Form:
Quatrain
I come to you,
in the hot blazing sun;
in this quiet place somber and subdue,
flaming sun is burning my hair gold spun.
Your flowers dry,
that yesterday I placed with a sad sigh.
The sun is scalding me,
close by the shade of a tree;
and weeping angel statue . . .
What is written can never be undone,
but still my love, I have asked God why?
Crying I fall to my knee.
And in my dream,
an apricot moon called,
shining brightly down on me a gold beam;
and from my cozy bed I slowly crawled.
To drift and float,
to that quiet place somber and remote;
oh, I see your name,
under the moon aflame.
Really I should scream,
but I don't for entwined we are sprawled;
and together my love and I, are afloat.
His whisper, so happy you came.
___________________________
May 27, 2020
Poetry/Rhyme/Under the Sun and Moon
Rhyme Pattern - ababccddabcd
Copyright Protected, ID 20-1256-244-03
All Rights Reserved, 2020, Constance La France
Written for the contest, The Sun and The Moon
sponsor, Chantelle Anne Cooke
First Place
Categories:
scalding, lost love, sun,
Form:
Rhyme
Lady laughed manic, scrubbing hands
blood stained fingers washed one another
The water, scalding, removed any trace
that evil had transpired here
Her eyes wide and wild...recounting, remembering....
...reliving...rejoicing. He lay dead, face down
Vengence surged euphoric
She whispered through smiling teeth
'You won't hurt me no more'
removing red spattered hand made dress
Naked she laughed and knelt to the splintered floor
piece by piece she pried the wood
Fumbling with foreign tools
Creating this corpses tomb
Rolling this limp, lifeless mass into the earth below
Her bruised, weary face stared down
His eyes, one stabbed, met hers as she smiled
pouring lye over his hated face and limbs
Tossing the dress down to the crypt
She grabbed the knife to follow it's path
thought better of it...keeping it gripped in hand
....a symbol of her new found strength, she couldn't part with it
Replacing planks of floorboards like jigsaw puzzle pieces
Hammering them in place to make a more familiar scene
The table was pushed over to conceal the calvary
She sat...eyes wide and wild...to a dinner made for two
she sighed...naked and relieved...slowly carving the meat
Categories:
scalding, lost love
Form:
Narrative
I watch the pillars crashing all
around your face
I see you start to disappear
into the altars cracks
Your blood mixed with tears,
your desperate screams
Your prayers for saints lost in
cathedral downpours
Your sins finally catching up to
you
Dragging you from angels arms
Ripping your tattered heart into
bloody fragments
Your chains shattering into
scalding shards of glass
Engulfing you in icy tendrils,
the flames ripping into your
chest
The cyanide in your veins
purging out your unholy
humanity
Categories:
scalding, religion
Form:
At eventide,
Under the roseate glow
Of the receding evening sun
I sauntered down the road
To where my beloved dwell
Not far-off from my own abode
Fast by his threshold
A low moan issued from his room
I made open the unlocked door
And so I happened upon him
Mightily taking his mistress
My eyes grew wide in shock
I made as if to storm,
But then stopped
Loosed upon me, an exquisite pain
Felt with every fibre of my being
Soundlessly, I turned around
Post-haste, homeward bound
In great dolour, I walked onward
Carrying my enfeebled feet
Heedless of the lowering clouds
Lightning flashing, thunder pealing
Yet I walk onward
And so the heaven opened
Pouring, the rain
The entire me suffused with it
Thus I quiver in frost, yet
I walked my leaden leg in the drenching rain
And so the inky blackness of the night cast over me
The evanescent rain went home
Afterwards , I gained my shelter
All rain-drenched
I laid, inert in my bed
With an unblinking stare,
My eyes cast into the void
Benightedly, I fell in the arms of Morpheus
And I saw the door opened with a groan
Came in, my inconstant lover
He drew nearer and sat fast by me
I couldn't cast a look at him
For scalding tears welled up in my eyes
He pillowed my head on his chest
And nursed me in his arms
Touched his lips to my locks
Now patting, now caressing
My shoulder, my tresses
His heart beating pitter-patter
He held the nape of my neck
And with an undertone voice
Whispered to my ear
Forgive my failings, my Inamorata
You're a vision of beauty,
And you're my true love.
I harkened to the honeyed words
Falling from his silver tongue
My heart leapt
Thus, hungrily,
I bathed his lips with sensuous kisses
And I melted into his embrace.
I arouse from my slumber, behold!
E'en the murky darkness of the night
Has passed away
And the sun, smiling in the heavens
But my heart, still heavy with pain
Alas! Who to bring solace to my lugubrious tear-stained visage
Categories:
scalding, betrayal, break up, feelings,
Form:
Ballad
Her hormones fled the coop
on scalding tires.
He drifted into her,
working the night-shift
of a traveling fantasy.
Motel maids were her sisters
bars her occupation,
a place to work
on the aerobics of hope.
Their love
was an unhygienic affair.
Everything spilled out,
much maintenance
in putting back in.
Emotional jism
was scrubbed by hand
until skin-tight excuses
glistened
milky as mollusk flesh.
They had lots to attend to.
Feelings had to be
daily resuscitated
into former victimized forms.
He would not leave;
she would not go.
He anointed her again,
and again
with his pity-me flesh.
Their mutually dependent rodeo
played itself out
on the steps
of a haggard tomorrow,
both now blinded
by owl-light.
Categories:
scalding, poetry,
Form:
Free verse
‘ Volcano’ ( or The Perils of Passion )
Volcano … You Inferno ! … You, Latent Threat
… I am not Ready, for Your Rise … just Yet …
So Stay Low and Do Not Throw …
… Your Boiling-So, … Nor Tell-Tale, Glow
Your Trembling Thrill, is Unseemly, So Leave
… Is that Bubbling-Fire, Leaping ? … Not Now, Please !
With Cool-Logic and Reason, Let The Brain- Blow ! …
and Ease the Simmering, Sultry, Steam Below
… Stay Sluggish and Drain thru my Strained-Veins
‘Lest Nothing, but Ashes and Embers Remain
Journey to The Center of The Earth … Don’t Emerge !
‘Lest The Core of My Being … Spill Over and Purge …
Burning This Complacency … This Routine Degree
For this Mercury, could Melt my Civility
or Expose my Feminine – Fear of Falling into Fissure
bringing Scalding Tears and Smoke-Screen Tissues…
… All in His Temperate-Touch, lays my Malfunction
He has Ignited, a Full-Blown, Sky-High Eruption !
Consuming Heat, Please – Show Some Compunction !
Would Moving Further Away, Stop Quaking Expulsions ?
… My Heart is Napalm-Warm … I Know …
but … Does It Have to put on a Shower of Sparks Show ?
Oh, I Can Not Stand This Incinerated Assault, Any More
Not, While, He Persists … To Pour and Pour …
… Too Late, I Sputter … Now, Lava Flows …
Alive-Thing … on Volcano Floes
Caught … In Volcano Throes … …
Molten Sea ... Let It Go
Categories:
scalding, allegory, fantasy, life, love,
Form:
Light Verse
.
Babel: “A bottomless pit of violence, a Tower of Babel where all are speakers and no hearers.” Alexander Smith
The preachers preach what they've been taught.
Reporters say what they’ve been told.
The politicians lie and lie.
I watch a tragedy unfold.
On social media I see
some folks who like to blog or play
while bullies bully; haters hate.
“Talk to the hand” they seem to say.
Mean twitters, memes and certain posts
use scalding words - an endless thread
scrolls down as if into a pit
where fire by sparks of hate is fed.
Opinions can be strong, but why
can’t some folks hear the other side -
with peace agree to disagree?
Yet fight they do and then collide.
Insanity is not just lurking.
Madness spits right in our faces
as many blab and jabber on,
heedless of the social graces.
Ears get clogged up; loose tongues flap.
See Babel’s Tower now so high!
We’ve come too far to still believe
that towers climb to touch the sky.
The fire raging underneath it,
spurred on by hate, crawls up each wall.
Violence will overtake us;
Then Babel’s Tower we’ll see fall.
Categories:
scalding, society,
Form:
Rhyme
GOD MADE US ALL
He did not make you better than another!
But created you to honor one another.
Nearing my three years of poetry here,
I found comments about many others that
brought a hot, scalding, tear.
I was warned several months ago,but
did not believe this?
But the viciousness I saw had the most
malicious twists.
I wanted to tell all those with written
lies about them in their backs.
Worry not, God sees all personal, hateful
attacks.
So naive, was I, to without question ttrust
all souls.
Some here, with souls, as dark as the the
blackest coal.
But, it made me value poets with clean
souls, all the more...
Those who will be entering, one day, God’s
most holy doors.
One poet warned me long ago, this was
happening to me.
I did not believe her, but am grateful to
her for warning me.
No, she is not one of my constant readers!
But to to me, she deserves a giant trophy
as a moral, humanistic leader.
Be a friend, not a foe, to every poet here.
Have the dignity to honor them, not one of
you is a a seer!
If you think you are superior in thought to
another,
Do tell them in soupmail!
They are-not grist, for inhumane, poetical
fodder!
With best wishes for a great Holiday
season.
Whether Jew or Christian, you were
put on this earth for a reason!
11/ 25/ 2021
Categories:
scalding, anti bullying, bullying, christian,
Form:
Rhyme
In a dreary mood, bent and broken,
With an ailment that crippled my life
I lay bedridden for many a month
With every muscle weakened by arthritis
And every nerve radiating the pain
Dull were the days and sore were the nights,
Time slouched on in mechanical beats,
Mind devoid of any buoyant thoughts,
Senses shut to every cheery throb of life,
I lay awake, day and night staring at the ceiling.
Never a smile lighted up my face,
Nor a gleam of hope brightened up my brain.
Inertia crept over from head to foot.
I had long lost my zest for life.
With my life sap drained out like an empty well,
All I felt was the burn of scalding drought.
Nothing could move my grief laden soul,
None could lift the weight off my back,
Embers of fire sparked from the anvil of my heart,
Heaves of sighs escaped my parched mouth,
I wriggled and writhed in unspeakable pain,
My spirits sank deeper into a slithery marsh,
I saw around only a thick pall of gloom,
Or was it a projection of my own self?
Anguish gnawed my nerves and sinews,
Flames of pain danced within my spine,
I felt my head wobbling and reeling,
And the heavy weight of lead all around my neck.
Felt being pushed down to abysmal depths,
And the octopus tightening its tentacles all around.
“Who on earth will set me free?
What on earth can lift me up?”
With thundering force, the question shook my weary self.
I sprang to my feet and broke the binding chains,
I found I was but in self – exile,
A captive entrapped within boundless space.
I saw the door opening to infinite lengths,
And the arched horizon looming larger than life,
Unbroken, I spread my wings and propelled up,
And darted through the clouds to distant shores.
Who would have thought, my life would change this way!
(Own Story)
Categories:
scalding, angst, depression, recovery from,
Form:
Free verse
From fabrics torn, in ruin, she hail,
Above the deck, beneath the sail,
Above silent meadow, the sea,
Her frosty breath, in doom, she see.
Her fondness torn, her kids apart,
Though love follows her broken heart,
Her sorrow tears on rusted chains,
For holding children once again.
The howling steam erased skies,
And fright gallops the silent cries,
As faces pale in feeble grip,
And sea moaning the crowded ship.
The days are past, remedies none,
The burned down farms from firing sun,
They bent on knees for kids to feed,
Beneath the feet for coin, indeed.
Her husband dead from bones to sweat,
Hard labor earning, closing, debt,
She buried body, beneath the farm,
And begs for mercy, waiting harm.
The beats in rage far fierce than flame,
The bells were rung, with chains they came,
Her toes were trembling, wrath unfolds,
They tortured, beat and tied her, cold.
While taken heart and soul from kids,
The slave in chain with tearful lids,
They dragged and stripped in crowded street,
And brought with slaves to ship, the fleet.
Through cries unheard and night she sails,
With slaves in ship with fuming trails,
To hungers deep in scalding cold,
And chapped lip-lines numb, breaking hold.
Her skin was pale, the hunger tale,
As blue veins rose beneath her nails,
To fading night, her dim eyes sleep,
Her moon-light fades and die asleep.
©Anees Rahman
Categories:
scalding, abuse, dark, family, sea,
Form:
Ballad
William Harrison Hardy
1823 - 1906
I believe a fair introduction is in order here.
Not that a handshake from me could ever take place anytime soon.
I was Captain Bill Hardy:
Proud Indian fighter!
And celebrated toll road builder!
I was the one who built the big road
From San Bernardino to Prescott Arizona!
And it was I, Captain Bill Hardy,
Who founded old Hardyville in Arizona
On the sandy banks of the cool Colorado.
Back when Lincoln was still warm
And the blood of Gettysburg was still not dry.
Back when the old west was coming alive
With wagon wheels and railroad ties.
Growing as a child would
With intrepid enterprise and such derring-do
The likes of which few eyes have seen since!
I came out west from New York
As Captain of a California-bound wagon train
And found a fortune in gold in Placer County.
But it was in the Arizona Territory where I later
Made my mark, and lost my fortune.
Oh my friends. I found out.
Found out what plain hard work can accomplish
And I learned of its resultant riches.
I found out.
Found out what plain greed and dishonesty can accomplish
And I learned of its resultant poverty.
Alas, I was but a survivor in life,
And that was my final legacy.
My friends, have you ever stared death straight in the face?
Have you ever seen the eyes of a wanton murderer
Only an inch away from your own eyes?
Nothing is more frightening and more sobering than that!
But I, Captain Bill Hardy, at your service please,
Experienced it first-hand that day in the scalding desert sand.
That Indian devil was right there!
His nose next to my nose!
But I got away!
Ran away from that place and lived to tell about it!
My friends, next time you come to Clark Cemetery in Whittier,
Go to the eastern fence by Dorland Street,
At the corner there, you will find my little plot of land.
It is a far cry from having an entire city named after you!
But it is a fine and restful spot.
Come closer and lean down to me.
I wish to extend my firm handshake to you all!
Categories:
scalding, history,
Form:
Epitaph