Best Stiffen Poems

"Black Ice"

Sorrow flows from the first sunrise 
Eyes deeper than winter and rainfall
A painful combination never felt before 
At core death awaits
   - laughing while she begs for clemency!
In her eyes, fault is found in every sunset
   - after coming down...

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When I met the tall and amiable Vietnam War veteran,
my shyness showed,
yet, my throat dried and tightened when he softly
spoke the words, "The war never goes away."
All these humanity destroying wars never cease,
soldier's names, faces, their eyes so well-worn.
Their love letters sent home never faded...

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Sudden and strangely strong
many shocks flood my body
causing muscles to stiffen
in protest.
Does it hurt?
Sometimes.
My mind drowns itself in
electricity without prior warning
causing a myriad of odd seizures. 
Each one different from the 
last; no seizure is the same.
My memory is not impaired,
I remember every one and...

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We’re closed neighbors, we cared for each other
I trusted you dearly,  I was your girl
You’re like my father or older brother
Your friendship was a gift - a precious pearl

Every moment with you was a sunshine
We played music, sang… held each other’s hand
 If I...

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My Cloud white and five-point stars 
join royal blue and strips of red,
stitched into a familiar pattern,
folded and temporarily put to bed.

The first time up the pole, crisp 
edges flap and crack in the breeze.
Frosty air and rain pelts my sides
as I stiffen with winter...

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On Growing Older Than I Am

Alas, this growing older than I am
drained me of the will to search for more
my life consumed incessantly with spam
I stood a vagrant beggar at the door

naked beneath the trappings of old skin
gazing through windowless cloudy past
as life, I’d truly...

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Laying here in my bed
Listening to your deep and shallow breath
Such a smooth and calm sound
I roll over and lay a hand on your chest
Too much movement it seems
For you rolled onto your side
As I steal my hand away
I close my eyes and try not...

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How must I break free and fly away
when your cold hands clamp me down?
Your critical, callous words besmirch
and pinion me to the ground.
 
For I am a sensitive butterfly
flailing in fear, struggling within
the throes of your darkness.
You shatter my repose 
my delicate wings close 
and...

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A crumpled thought
Unfolded
Asking questions
I felt their sting
“I came to you”
“you tossed me out”
“why will you not listen”
I watched it struggle
To un-crumple itself
Smooth its rejection
Stiffen its resolve.
My cold coffee
Took its side
Whispered from the cup
“you do that a lot”
“dismiss thought’s thoughts”
An oily film clung to my throat
As...

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Enough Angelina, drop the bouquet of harebells.  
The flowers wilt as your graying hands stiffen. See, how grave
is our newborn son. We gift him a black crêpe layette.
Say Darling Edward, say, Golubushka, make me come alive.
Leave this chapel, return to his cradle, quicken your...

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After fifty years plus my old friend
could take years till he gets on the mend,
when he's testerone free
he'll be harder to see,
but, also much easier to bend.

As the side effects continue to evolve
there is a problem I still have to solve,
for when i'm all alone...

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Mud and leather
dirt and nerve
bloodied laughter
collision to serve,
distance, drive and demolition
battle axe ambition in the wild air
muscle and mind joined in steeled instinct, 
a stitched pigskin ball, the grail of the Fall
to fumble it means spleen infamy
while intercepting it invokes Victory's voice,
in the huddle a...

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It started when I was a child
I was a kid with a gift
That no one understood or recognized
Instead of loved I was picked on and ostracized

However I blocked it all out
But little by Little its all coming back
Like layers of an onion
That held me tightly...

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**Acrostic**

**Her Blue Dress**

Hemp necklace with an ivory stone, hoop
Earrings and exquisite body tone!
Remarkable, I have her all alone! 

Blessed, she wears that blue dress
Low cut, she struts with such finesse.
Under a spell my hands caress
Every contour, a gift I must address!

Designer boots display her thighs,...

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fingers
like tendrils
stiffen from refrains,
despair on moonless halls…
blistered




Dr. Ram Mehta's Cinquain Contest
by nette onclaud...

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