Best Shuffles Poems
A shadow walks
beside me
in the sun—
faithful companion,
mimicking my every move.
Through the
decades of my life,
I scarcely noticed
little changes
in his form.
He seems just
a bit shorter now
and stooped slightly
at the waist—moving
slower than before.
Now I find he is
also not so near
and one hand mimicks
the shake of my own hand.
Where does that come from?
Hardly see him anymore,
as I sit here in my room.
But friends and dear ones
gather round.
I seldom feel alone.
I tug now at my shadow,
for he shuffles more than walks,
as I spend more time outside,
walking in the sun, finding
purpose in my days.
Still my shadow struggles but
works hard as any friend—
never giving up.
Someday, I suppose,
I'll finally get a new one.
Categories:
shuffles, age,
Form:
Free verse
A is for Annie Apple Blossom she buds in the Spring.
B is Betty Baby Breath she's such a dainty thing.
C is for Miss Candy Tuft pink-cheeked with hair of gold.
D is Debbie Dandelion who never does what she's told!
E is for Easter Lily she's as white as snow.
F is Francie Fairy Bells who ring-a-lings where she goes.
G is for Ginny Gardenia perfumed oh so sweet.
H is Holly Hocks a Tomboy, she has two left feet!
I is for Inca Lily dressed in colors light.
J is Joanie Jump-Ups, Johnny's little sister bright.
K is for Katie Kangaroo Paw her nails are painted red.
L is Lila Lady Slipper who stays too long a bed.
M is for Merry Morning Glory dressed in pale blue.
N is Nancy Narcissus who trumpets ""toodeloo!"
O is for Olivia the Ox-Eyed Daisy dolly.
P is Patty Petunia, her pancakes are a folly.
Q is for Queenie Anns Lace her dresses all have ruffles.
R is Ruby Rose-a-lee who almost always shuffles.
S is for Sandy Snap Dragon tall and thin. petite.
T is Tallulah Tulip her clothes are so off beat!
U is for Uma Umbrella Flower, sweet and sunny.
V is Vicky Violet she plays with Easter bunnies.
W is for Wendy Water Lily she'd rather swim than dance.
X is Xana Xmas Tree in Winter she's entrancing.
Y is for Yani Yarrow, a girl so bonny fair
Z is Zelda Zinnia, she pinning Yani's hair.
All our girls are fine and strong, so beautiful and brave
Not a single one of them would think to misbehave!
Bio: Wise woman.
Categories:
shuffles, daughter, easter, little sister,
Form:
Couplet
He shuffles along the leaf covered path
slowly dragging in his wake
the full weight of old age.
-------------------------------------------
Contest: One Kimo
Sponsor: Rick Parise
Placed 2nd
© 9th October, 2016
Categories:
shuffles, age, old,
Form:
Kimo
The weary ploughman shuffles
along the deserted bridle path,
his day-long work completed,
furrows wound around his piece of land,
just arable enough to provide his daily bread.
His dreary shack is cold and bare,
just a few essentials. Oh, once it thrived,
but that, alas, was quite a long past.
Slow movements help him light his fire,
and hang inside the hearth a pot full
of vegetables harvested from small plots
that once was a sort of garden of his wife.
Waiting for his meagre repast, he sits.
upon a decrepit sofa, thinking of the furrows
and what he could sow there provided
he manages to find the seeds and tubers
for the next Thanksgiving Day.
Furrows, furrows everywhere, so very like
the furrows of his weary days gone by.
The day when he was barely ten years old,
came home to find his drunkard of a father
dead at last from cirrhosis of the liver.
Left school and began to till the land
under the caring eyes of his once-battered mother.
The day he met plain Jane, shy and speechless,
they walked along the banks of a lonely stream,
never uttering a word, never holding hands
until the day they finally got married.
Then, the worst furrow of all, the day his child
Was born prematurely stillborn. That day
he could not mourn. Only his wife cried.
Until some years later she too followed her child.
And still, he would not mourn, bottled-up grief.
Yet he had one firm conviction.
The paths of life lead slowly to the last furrow,
there to find, at last, eternal peace.
Categories:
shuffles, life,
Form:
Free verse
Tap dances on steps to sanctuary sites
glued to visions felt from glory's grace
only in you I see
reflected in orbs of watchful care
dipped in mocha swirls
as time slowly disappears
a sense of attention
focusing on more than just an outer me
Soft shoe shuffles within the breeze
wistful remembrance and dainty dreams
filling the fragrant air
with a gust of evergreen
calling ever so calmly
for opened eyes and hearts
to harbor a frail humanity
and follow a simple way
Categories:
shuffles, beautiful, humanity, journey, love,
Form:
Free verse
she shuffles in tattered slippers
held by elastic bands
securing them to her feet
bindings taken for granted
her thoughts settled into routine
to cross the dining room floor
to her table
lunch still matters to those buzzed by fog
dessert still stirs the blood to move
dysfunctional in age
she could go off in any direction at any time
like a heart monitor jittery, at the cusp of letting go
a harvested jumble of beats that still hang together
her odyssey
a matter of edges
stunted steps
close enough to the movement of others
bickering bodies sometimes
but removed enough to breathe
Categories:
shuffles, age, endurance, humanity, life,
Form:
Free verse
It was the bronzed bell of a tinseled Ocean ship.
Until destiny was scuttled by a fiery water witch.
In time, it became the haunting clang upon a reef.
A macabre Nic Nac for cliques that ruled the deep.
They returned like blue birds, lonely for a blossoming.
To pay homage to every sailor overtaken by the sea.
They lay bouquets of flowers, over shadowed grief...
as ghosts pared sweet memories into paper effigies.
Between shuffles of worn decks and ninety proof lips.
They spin tales of crimson seas and horrible dorsal fins...
Torn hearts and sails, forever on a starboard list
Drifting between a blue refrain and the salty mist.
In the graying vein of time, everything's forgotten.
The sweet angelic, the mundane, the eternally rotten.
Gravestones hoard salt within their granite cracks.
Tokens to a time when auroras bled into blackness.
One by one the crew will drift from this pearled realm.
Riding TradeWinds into the gilded scented heavens...
or becoming driftwood, in the brackish heart of hell...
as the captain sways to the clang of his beloved water bell.
Categories:
shuffles, grief,
Form:
Rhyme
In the night's chilling air a phantom figure, drags itself from
The watery edge of the river bank, emerging, rising upward
From beneath the moonlight's illumination, she is free, to walk
The earth's spiritual plain of existence once more.
In soaked layers shifts, of tatters whiten lace, the corporeal
Image moves across the old chapel's courtyard.
Slowly this deaden heart of the betrayed, shuffles through
The fallen autumn leaves, crunching them under the weight, of
Her drenched wedding gown.
The haunted bride, carries a wilted bouquet of for-get-me-nots,
As she weeps, walking down the aisle of past regrets.
This virgin maiden, sounds a low mournful sobbing, that echoes
Against the marble ruins, of a dilapidated church steeple.
Lifting skeletal limbs, step by step, this bride of
Desolation climbs unto the threshold of condemnation.
Her wailing screams grow louder, and louder with each
Movements, begging, pleading for salvation's penitence.
But in the Lord's realm, the haunted bride has violated the sacred
Laws of God, so is she doomed for all eternity, to repeat her final,
Moments of life.
Wearing the veiled shroud of death, beauty's once fare,
Is nothing more than illusion's shadow vision of the forsaken.
A victim of abandonment's fall from grace, for consumed by
Sorrows pain, did she take her own life, in limbo she is the accursed.
Slowly descending in sheer remorse, her tears cascade
Downwards, staining the holy soil therein, her unkempt train
Trails behind this ivory phantom, with muddy green
Seaweed woven amongst the antique lace.
Cold watery waves crash against the murky shore,
A foreboding eerie mist lingers up top the rippling lake,
One last air's stale breathe she does inhale, as again life's
Essence leaves, become just exploding bubbles,
Popping at the water’s surface.
Here the haunted bride so does rest, in a fathom's aquatic crypt,
Beneath the dark abyss of no return.
BY: CHERYL ANNA DUNN
Categories:
shuffles, betrayal, halloween, heartbreak, horror,
Form:
Free verse
THE PENGUIN
Way down south on a continent frozen
The penguin a tough life has chosen
Though you’d think he’d be coy
Like a super-cool playboy
You’ll find him out preening and posin’
With movement on foot unexciting
He shuffles along then goes sliding
Though on land a slow coach
In depart or approach
In the water he goes like greased lightning
He’s a little short in the leg
Dressed bespoke (can’t wear off-the-peg)
Hand it to this ice capper
He always looks dapper
Even when he is hatching an egg
So the penguin’s no slouch, he’s a winner
By sartorial standards no sinner
He’ll emerge in a trice
From the Antarctic ice
Already dressed for dinner
Categories:
shuffles, animal,
Form:
Limerick
From my chap book, "Not So Serious"
‘Tradition demands respect for age.’
Proclaimed some ancient Chinese sage.
Ah, that is such a noble thought,
But wise old Chow he really ought
To walk the isles of a supermart,
Stand behind old granny’s cart,
Left mid-aisle, perhaps forgot.
Limp, lump, wrinkle, lowly bent,
God only knows what’s her intent.
She, oh so slowly, moves about,
No particular thought or route.
Oblivious, she, this ancient dame,
To all but her arthritic pain.
But be thou merciful, be kind
When standing in the checkout line.
She’ll goose you with her shopping cart,
Perhaps let loose a trembling fart;
Then once she’s standing at the till,
She’ll fish a coupon, argue the bill.
Then comes one’s truest peeve of all,
Poor clerk has made call after call;
Out comes the hoary, leather purse,
A waiting shopper’s foulest curse.
She shuffles, mixes, dips, dips, dips,
A whiteness on her withered lips.
Minutes go by, seeming like weeks;
At last she grins, cackling, speaks.
“Oh, dear, my money’s out in the car.
Please wait, I’ll run, it isn’t far.”
Categories:
shuffles, funnyold, old,
Form:
Free verse
to mark the edge of spring
to tilt strawmen 'gainst their will
late April wind shuffles new leaves like a deck of cards
a simple trick
nature in its gliding
the willow rustling
pushed by the huff and puff of big bad wolf intention
a wind that incites the season's freshness
rich romp of swaying
aspirations warring
their swooshing blow of heaving like a magistrate robed
wispy clouds wafted away to find other kin
as whispers fill night air, thick and thin
to hide themselves in willful skies
the wind at one's back, a spritely elevation
when worry mislays direction
when whistles overwash resistance
when the wind is weightless like devout contentment
you'll hear its chords of song
Poem composed April 24, 2023
Revised May 20, 2023
Categories:
shuffles, april, environment, inspiration, nature,
Form:
Free verse
a meandering breeze shuffles starlight
while a serenade whispered moves to tears a low hanging moon
~ the goodnight kiss lingers
AP: 2nd place 2022
Submitted on July 13, 2022 for contest A BRIAN STRAND PREMIERE sponsosred by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 5TH
Posted on July 12, 2022
Categories:
shuffles, good night, kiss, longing,
Form:
Free verse
He saunters along
towards somewhere
An easy walker
with bright white hair
In his Jean coat pocket
a casino discarded deck
If you look close enough
sunshine’s imbedded in his neck
Yes, twenty years sober brother
he keeps his hands and feet busy
The way he shuffles both
slows my mind, makes me dizzy
He’s not one to share his story
by himself he’s blissfully content
I wonder where he hails from
and the places he has went
Still, he’s not my puzzle to solve
his quiet provides my answer
He’s a solitaire aficionado
and a easy walking dancer.
Categories:
shuffles, character,
Form:
Quatrain
Forward momentum shuffles desire
from conceptual states to real;
the leaves on the boughs glow with autumnal fire,
drift down to the carpet of grass.
In times of transition a slow burn proceeds
until spring bears the fruit of rebirth;
the gestate of feelings trickles and bleeds
like rainbows of oil upon glass.
Steps beget steps and before one knows
the travel of vision begins,
traces of footprints on virginal snows
follow the dreams to the lair.
Walk slow beside me, holding my hand,
patiently keeping my faith;
perhaps we will see from the place where we stand
how we made it from here to there.
Categories:
shuffles, life, love, nostalgia,
Form:
Verse
M,
"If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around, does it still make a sound?"
the sound akin
a honey bee
guarding her hive
alive
with tiny wings
not letting
not forgetting
anyone
shan't slip on by
the dance
floors tapped
mouths taped
trapped
together
as shuffles brush the polish
illuminating
off the dwellings
of her naked floor
resound
praise
a knock upon the door
echoes
chambers
on knee
begetting
soul
deepened in pools of green
a serenade
the world hath never seen
inside
growing rings
wrapped upon a tree
beginnings
blooming
branch reaching branch
two entrance
eye to eye
we climb, we climb
worlds escape
eclipsing to be free
passed in between
intrigue
allure, amoré
attracting
moments evermore
a tongue, a key
a Bee
ever free
Categories:
shuffles, love,
Form:
Romanticism