Best Startled Poems
Her garden faeries were more delicate than she remembered
She delighted in their frolicking playfulness and sense of fun
One flew pretty close to her face, almost touching her nose
She smiled, loving the attention they were giving to her this May
A man’s voice frightened them. They were gone before she blinked.
Beautiful garden, he said. His voice was baritone, handsome.
She looked up and saw that he had a prince charming face.
Two of the faeries giggled, but she did not think he heard them.
Lovely hollyhocks he said. She was amazed that he knew hollyhocks.
Your lily of the valley and phenomenal bleeding hearts are marvelous!
Faeries peeked out from behind the roses and a mushroom village.
She knew then that they liked his voice too. He might be a keeper.
Tonight winter startled
It came unexpectedly
Few people walked
Below the gleam moon
Shivering beneath their fur coat
I stood trying to figure
A black contorted portrait
Drawed from the yellow dim lamp
On a cold brown dune
Which I stared
As they passed
Waving a friendly gesture
Greeting me with unknown tongue
Still I am naive
Longed for each nostalgic sweet sound of
My homestead, thus this cold
Consume my certain pause
Not far from the clustered bush
Also do heared a lone bird lark
My sigh and the whisper on that shade
Gone howling with desert breath
A floral blanket of silence
Lies out across the desert
Nothing moves-not air
Nor trees
Nor blades of grass
The ogre’s breath is held
Suspended, then expelled
Stomping his feet,
Flashing his eyes,
Grumbling, the ogre
Blows
And, grumbling, cries
Fat sheeted tears –
Trees quickly bow
Shaken green heads as
The silent blanket erupts
In oceanic waves
Of startled grasshopper minions
Through the fog, I see shadows.
Silhouettes of people or spirits.
Like the cat that scampers when startled.
Without haste I hide behind the sofa.
"J'adore le genre de personne d'avoir
une maison pleine de canines!
Vouloir glissent sur les nuages
en Berlin!
Pour les nuages me guidera -
vers un nouveau chemin!
Les Montagnes et les vol qui
me guide...
Les nuages et le vol qui
me guide..."
The hailstones pounded the window
as violently,as if they had minds
bent on killing;soldiers in rows and ranks rushing onwards;
as each fell another and another took its place.
Cold and mathematical they had a simple precise force and geometry.
Into this warlike scene,floated two white butterflies
Crossing and recrossing the spaces between the hail
they followed a random path;now together.now apart
Their unplanned,loving dance leads to mating, procreation and a future
while the hailstones can only die.
Seems sometimes fragile freedom is more productive
than the fierce mechanical modern world can imagine.
I see the butterflies now like startled flowers
hunting for the sun
Let me be open to be startled
to let the unexpected in,
to be surprised, astonished, shocked,
wide open to action happening in peripheral view.
Let me be open to strangeness
by looking for difference and oddity
with laser cutter eyes
slicing away the clutter
of mundane sameness.
Let me be startled by strangeness,
glad to be jostled and jangled,
disturbed and wrangled
to action and reaction,
by being receptive
and willingly open.
A Flock of Startled Birds
He had sat for an hour on a long, low, flat rock,
He had checked himself over from bald patch to sock.
His leather shoes burnished to a mirror-like shine,
Tie ironed flat – a perfect straight line.
Trouser legs spotless, each one like a razor
Creases removed from a freshly-pressed blazer.
Beside him his beret, shaped, shaven and fitted.
Medals on chest at the spacing permitted.
A lifetime of honour, in metal and ribbon,
Scant recompense for the services given.
On the rock, gleaming black in the late evening sun
A Webley revolver – his Grandfather’s gun.
Then drawing himself up and heaving a sigh
He stood and was conscious of time slipping by
The sun was still shining but the far hills were dim
He knew that there wasn’t much time left to him.
No friends, no family, no future but pain
Nothing but memories of comrades, all slain.
The only survivor, he felt like a thief,
His mind filled with torment, dishonour and grief.
A lifetime of desperately trying to mourn
Till the shame and remorse were too much to be borne.
He put on his beret, threw up a salute.
A pang of fear stabbed, but he stood resolute.
With one hand in pocket he searched till he found;
Then picked up the revolver and chambered a round.
Near the rock, at his feet, lay a bottomless cave
Unmarked, uncorrupted, an ideal grave.
He stepped to the edge, raised the gun to his brow
“We all have our time,” he thought, “my time is now.”
As he tightened his finger, a calmness descended
In a moment the anguish and pain would be ended.
It was all he could do to defeat the despair.
Then a small flock of startled birds took to the air.
startled fox turns with his fluffy tail down
His fur he wears like an amber kingly gown
Against the forest wall, he gives so much color
Hiding in the thicket is his older brother
His teeth have barely come in, he is a baby
Will he run off like a frightened deer? Possibly
He skitters away; now his beautiful tail is up.
He is a kit, I realize, not a dog, pet or a pup.
Black
silence
wakes me up
spooky feeling
my heart beats eighty miles an hour
who and where I am does not register
hyper hearing
kicking in
fast heart
fear
noise
sudden
startles me
outside door creaks
too paralyzed to run I wait for it
Startled
In the dark I fight for air
puzzled
at my sight I gaze with fear
numbed
with my mind
slumped
to their kind
quiver
in my being
shiver
what I have been
wrestled
from him
strangled I slim
am petrified
I wait
stupefied
on me he weight
he thrust his hand dip
in my bag
I slip
I drag
At me he pounce
and bands
In silence it sounds
for non can hear at me pangs
In pain I distress
myself comfort
I digress
I fought
he beat
the end
his feet
he tend
I wake my mind
from the chains
that binds
in pains
I forward
to flee
to board
a fleet
am free
to laughter
my knee to plea
to God on altar offer
1ST PLACE WIN
BRIAN'S SELECT 6,any form,any theme
18/5/2020
An acquaintance
and former neighbor
I haven't seen for eons
sneaks up and
excitedly grips
my shoulders from behind.
The sudden jolt
of electricity
that was his hands!
Oh, he got my attention alright!
He scared the dickens
out of me
I'm not gonna lie!
Not that I held it against him.
He just wanted to say
hello...and Happy New Year!
He's got a funny way
of saying it, though
Yeah, I don't like such surprises...
Nice fella. It was a pleasure
meeting him
after a long time!
Date written: 01/03/2020
Pavlov got it right I feel, conditional behaviour we never seem to lose
This one revisits sometimes for me and dog, but over time it seems to weaken
Last year we walked away from our previous life, only a few scars for both mostly external
We are lucky, many have brought worse things home
It was a different time not like now and we are far removed from that world
A nice life, peaceful, secure, and then it happens, that world comes back with a littoral bang
Perhaps when walking, drinking coffee in a café, enjoying life
We both react, differently, for our own reasons, own motives
All relate to seconds of fear, surprise, some shock
I jump a little, eyes darting, body tensing, reaching for a defence
Dog stands alerted, head seeking the source, ears like radars, nose aloft, a tremor of body
Of course so stupid, I feel embarrassed, then relax, dog accepts my calming hand
She returns to being just a dog and we try to fit back in, I laugh it off
Those around us who know give gentle assurance, and then it is gone, our Pavlovian gift
Until the next backfire, the next firework, the next hunter’s rifle shot
I am not truly worried, knowing that it is old stuff, one day I hope it will leave us
Feb 2022
Were Startled and Cringed
We had become startled and then cringed,
Loser Trump lashed out and was unhinged;
We would wonder,
About his thunder;
His stupid hair looked ugly like it is singed.
Jim Horn
Awake at three.
Startled from dream state
Why is heart beating so fast?