Best Swallowtails Poems
In the middle of the night,
when the butterflies
dance to the moon's song,
I create constellations
with the map of my soul,
allowing astral lights
across feathery skies
to guide my chrysalis
heart back to an avenue
of cosmic reveries.
I lay in a bed of
delicate petals,
and dream-catchers
designed in emerald
swallowtails.
They remind me
of how I found my home
in the gossamer warmth
of your lunar
struck presence.
And when sirens echo,
across silent seas,
distant muse ebb and
flow symphonies of
mystical mermaids-
grieving at the
outskirts of
bioluminescent shores.
For in your absence,
I long to hear your voice,
as the crystal clear
crescent glimmers,
amidst the fragile truth,
floating above
a flurry of glass-winged
jitters, that camouflage
with hypnotic tales
lost in the air.
Tonight I’ll lock
my pollen dusted
dreams in slumberland..
where peacock pansies
interwoven with
pastel peonies,
would be tucked
beneath sweet
scented sheets..
Your love is the
perennial blanket
to all my
nocturnal fears,
as hieroglyphic runes
of life rhapsodize
a lyrical elixir for the
shifting spheres,
whilst change is cloaked
in mellifluous hues,
unraveling a choir
of nature,
orchestrating a
celestial chorus-
to illustrate
cloudless mornings.
Categories:
swallowtails, deep, devotion, i miss
Form:
Free verse
A giant snowball in springtime
From twenty yards out the sound and smell
Closer now; breathing her numbing scent
Listening to the drowsy hum
of greedy and jealous bees
forced to share her bounty
with Tiger and Zebra Swallowtails
School will be out soon...
Memorizing every branch within reach
Her limbs are just low enough
for a boy to scramble up quickly
fleeing imaginary monsters
still lurking and prowling below
Taking ignorant and blissful advantage
of this daughter of the wild; his protector
His big sister to run to...
Shiny and slippery black bark
that oozes burgundy sap
which dries in animal shapes
Summer twilight is coming
Bats twittering overhead
chasing nasty mosquitoes
A noise echoing from far off
A door slamming maybe...
Tucked safely away in his favorite pew
(Naughty boy, eating during church!)
sampling her forbidden fruit
sweet and sour...half is seed
Thieving Blue Jays get the most
Screaming and scolding arrogantly
yet flying away unpunished
Grannny will make jelly...
Oh everlasting Father, creator of all things
He knows that heaven is far beyond the grasp
of a feeble and fumbling mortal mind
But when You decide to send Your beloved Son
back to rule the earth for one thousand years
If he is judged worthy to be in that count
May one humble servant say if it's like this
that would be just fine...
Categories:
swallowtails, devotion, nature, nostalgia, tree,
Form:
Free verse
Where mountains fade to valley shade
And trees give way to meadow's blade
Cottony cattail, wild lilies teem
Obscuring an enchanted stream
Tis there amongst the grassland rue
This tiny fairy village grew
I will not say just where they stay
And risk perchance they fly away
It was by chance or happenstance
We crashed a friendly fairy dance
We got derailed and left the trail
Looking for some swallowtails
Can you imagine our surprise
Fairies dancing with butterflies
They welcomed us and made a fuss
We danced with them and gained their trust
Our day was done, we'd had our fun
We said "goodbye" thanked every one
Then headed back to find our trail
Took home with us, this fairy tale.
Categories:
swallowtails, fairy, imagination,
Form:
Rhyme
I love walking bare foot on freshly cut grass
Sitting under the shade tree while the day rolls on past
Listening to songbirds as swallowtails flutter by
Watching the sun set and the moon rising high.
You can bring a large blanket and a bottle of wine
If you also have cheeses that would be so fine
Kick off your shoes, lay your head in my lap,
I'll massage your temples as you take a nap.
I can play some sweet tunes from on app on my phone
The only thing better than being here is not being alone.
As long as we lay here, I've not a care in the world
I'm in my favorite place with my favorite girl.
Just two glasses of wine and I'm already feeling a buzz,
You ask, "Why did you kiss me?" I simply answer, "Because ...
... I love walking bare foot on freshly cut grass,
Sitting under the shade tree while the day rolls on past;
You brought out a blanket, some cheeses and wine,
I am feeling so happy, I am feeling so fine."
"Besides ... if I need an excuse for kissing my wife,
You're going to have to excuse me for the rest of my life.
Now finish that wine, take the last couple of sips,
Scootch a little closer and bring me those lips."
Categories:
swallowtails, love, wife,
Form:
Rhyme
Rolling hills, alive with hydrangea and thyme
O'er cavernous quarries of sapphire and lime
Darting monarchs, tiger swallowtails
Artwork on the wing, a-lighting in the dale
A tender, spotted fawn startles awake
My awkward footsteps her slumber shakes
She pirouettes away, with virtuoso leaps
Each elegant stride, mine forever to keep
July 05, 2020
Strand Completely New (5) Contest
Sponsor: Brian Strand
Categories:
swallowtails, animal, beauty, flower, memory,
Form:
Couplet
The mulberry fell to its knees;
in Smith-Gilbert Garden, it prays,
near the moss-stone steps;
and I look on, in curiosity.
It was an oddity, but I learned
of its plight. In sorrow, we make
it right, a great fall onto infrangible ground.
Like a bonsai tree, twisted.
Listed, like a ship at storm,
but sailors will never use nets,
to cast, for silent butterflies;
In July, they gather.
Hereby is Summer magic,
buzzing bees, buckeyes, swallowtails
and painted ladies (sailors swear by them).
Yes, all the prayers needed.
Unimpeded, the mulberry fell,
whilst fluttering wings that disappear
in season’s cold, bring merriness,
there’s little hope for thee.
Still, we visit the treasure that bows,
climb the steps, for a further glimpse.
This garden is where I stroll
among the butterflied tree.
Categories:
swallowtails, butterfly, tree,
Form:
Free verse
Deep violet Hibiscus with velvety petals,
On the quaint fence, sprawl the zestful creepers.
Mesmerizing tall branches of serene evergreen,
With tricksy Swallowtails, Redbreast Robin merrily whistling.
For Rithimus Divisa Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Gregory R Garden
Taken From The Poem "My Muse and Me"
Written on : July 26, 2020
Contest Name: Muse
sponsor: Regina McIntosh
Categories:
swallowtails, inspiration, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
From the Painted Desert, head west
Past sagebrush, brittle bush, desert scrub
And The Petrified Forest at rest
To the Rocky Mountains above
Go past the Continental Divide
Below Douglas firs and pinyon pines
Head down the sunset side
Where the Colorado River cuts and winds
Many generations ago
Native Americans were inhabiting squatters
There were herds of buffalo
Along with now extinct muskrats and river otters
Beaver, cut cottonwoods and willows
Leopard frogs slept on limestone pillows
Mule deer and bighorn sheep
Climbed up and down walls so steep
Follow me down the foot trail
Like indigenous butterflies with swallowtails
In to the Valley of the Sun
Where Hopi civilization begun
Tassel eared squirrels frolic about
Bald eagles fly over and scout
Stream orchids, honey mesquite and arrow weeds
For pocket mice and other rodent species
Gray fox, weasels, bobcats
Spotted skunks, ring tails, and bats
Call this canyon their home
Where bark scorpions and rattlesnakes roam
While gila monsters and red spotted toads
Search for midges, flies and black widows
It took this river millions of years
To make this home for all who are here
an original poem by the "poemdog" Daniel Turner
Categories:
swallowtails, adventure, america, animal, history,
Form:
Rhyme
first,
it was a single entity
an unbrilliant black charcoal sloe female by identity
faded shadowy shades of stygian dark
slipping in and flitting flower to flower making mark
second,
two came dancing like onyx layers
colors changed sabled ebony players
deep dark obsidian pitch male
pipeline swallowtails spotty blue indigo sails
The final dance
black butterflies
in the last summer cries
separate goodbyes.
In apartheid-torn South Africa, poet Ingrid Jonker struggled tragically in search of love and a sense of home. Portrayed in the 2011 movie Black Butterflies
Categories:
swallowtails, color, dark, poets,
Form:
Rhyme
They float rather than fly with their kite-tailed long wings,
watch them descending on tulips, blueberries and lilacs:
these butterflies are yellow-green striped and love pawpaw trees;
imagine Nature without their fluttering sounds and stunning colors!
The zebra swallowtail butterflies work too hard as they constantly move,
sipping the sweet nectar found on flowers and trees, but not on clove!
Oh, they are as delicate as petals...ever wondered where they came from?
Their life span is brief and before winter arrives, they'll be gone and won't roam.
Plant more shrubs and fragrant flowers and your garden will be
visited by them on cool and warm afternoons so scented and dandy,
and they will leave as the shadowy evening brings on many lady-bugs
to replace those lovely zebra swallowtails with their constant glows.
Yesterday around noon, a zebra swallowtail butterfly fell into my open hand,
I tried to console with my human touch...she was badly hurt;
her wings were broken and she could hardly crawl or look...
perhaps she wanted me to keep her and remember her after she was dead.
Categories:
swallowtails, friendship, nature, places, seasons,
Form:
Rhyme
My happy butterflies
Bright yellow wings, scalloped in velvety back, are fluttering
In the mellow morning air,
Dancing in happy search of nectar on a purple,
sweet scented clover bud.
Joined by his mate, equally wondersome decorated.
They greet each other in a joyful dance.
“Follow me, I know of a fragrant, red butterfly weed blossom
over here-- come on!”
“Oh yes, I like this! Now come and taste this gorgeous orange-
painted Zinnia.”
“Why, thank you, it’s quite good, I like it too!”
A goldfinch is clinging to a swaying milkweed,
but it does not bother the frolicking couple,
It takes to the air, swooping further down the colorful meadow,
While my happy Swallowtails found a rain puddle.
“Ah, this is just what we need , a cool drink,”
they smile.
Categories:
swallowtails, nature, happy, happy,
Form:
Free verse
An angelica queen wearing a gown of lace
Like fine Victorian lace tattered by hand.
Radiating white flowers, dainty and sweet,
She nods and waves with the slightest breeze.
Her stems stand with finery, airy green ferns.
Bumble bees come drinking her sweet nectar
And swallowtails feed upon her tender leaves.
Wildflowers are nature's beautiful bouquets.
Categories:
swallowtails, flower,
Form:
Free verse
Teardrops of dews glistening
Breaks the days of dawn
Caterpillars shedding shells of cocoon
Awakening with yawns
The little fairies quaintly appear
Dancing their favorite dances, all the day long
But, where do the butterflies dance to
When the sun hides her head...
And the days are shamelessly gone?
They fill up my gardens
Frolic from tip of tulip to end of the rose
Next to sunflower, daffodil the flutter flies flown
Never attempting to speak even one little peep
Keeping their precious secrets
From sun up until the sundown
A parade of floats
Viceroy to the Monarch whom he tries to pretend
Royal and regal, ginger and black
Passes the hours while waltzing with flowers
But where does each of them go as processions end?
Dainty, the Painted lady curtseys
Among the swallowtails that swan through the weed
And the Admirals through the blade
But soon to hide away
Flying rainbows of season’s beginning to fade
And my magical gardens now they are bare
The little fairies all have disappeared
Following the whisper of wisps, of a new winter’s air
It’s the beginning of autumn
And soon will come the billows of snow
Did they take journey to a summer, in a far away land
Where oh, where did the butterflies go
Categories:
swallowtails, autumn, beauty, butterfly, dance,
Form:
Free verse
Georgia Brown
1898-1914
We were the deathless dream dancers
The crazy girls with secrets and surprises!
Me and Nellie and Trudy and Olive.
We waited monthly for the full midnight moon
Waited with no words uttered
Our secret times together,
Times and moments never mentioned or known about,
By everyone we knew and did not know,
Except by us, the crazy girls
The deathless dream dancers, barefoot
With satin ribbons in our braids,
We joined smooth perfumed hands and fingers
In old Clark Cemetery
Across Citrus Road over there,
As our sleepy snoozing town dreamed unawares,
And we danced silently, gracefully, freely,
As with the monarchs and the tiger swallowtails
Fluttering in the summer sunlight of our audacious youth,
Our sheer cotton dresses,
Lifting them up, and letting them fall,
Again and again and again,
From the Hadley tombstone, and
Around the standing procession of desert palm trees
Around and around and around,
All the way over to the Hardy gravestone,
Me and the crazy girls!
We, the deathless dream dancers,
Keepers of secrets and surprises,
Saw something in the moon shadows there,
Something no one else has ever seen!
Yes, we saw the smile of Sappho
Carved with the knife of God
On the stone sepulcher of Roscoe Settle!
Categories:
swallowtails, beauty, dance, death, first
Form:
Epitaph
"A collection of butterflies is a kaleidoscope, to watch them flutter together is kaleidoscopic."
blue painted lady's
flutter cobalt wispy wings ~
parading nectar
milkweed butterflies
vibrant in orange and black~
fanciful tigers
swaying swallowtails
fluttering along green stems ~
delicate giants
3/10/23
Contest: Writing Challenge - "k" words poetry contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
( checked with howmanysyllables)
Categories:
swallowtails, appreciation, beautiful, butterfly, nature,
Form:
Haiku