Best Taken Aback Poems
I was a planetary climatologist, who studied climate variability and change,
Like sweet variability of stunning, green tulips, in lavish garden rearranged.
Studying the said effects on the biosphere, absorbed so many daily hours,
Like industrious days of fragrant, amber honey, after tumbling into flowers.
My labors impacted energy usage, along with food production and health,
And the survival of endangered species, like golden rays of natural wealth.
Faddish flowers fascinated friends, who flattered them, at my broad fence,
Under fleecy, lemony clouds, fast moving, and orange sun, grown intense.
Famished, feasible family feasted, in lavish flowering fragrance of Fridays,
When fugitive, frosty stars flickered, winking at green garden bonsai trees.
I lived in the house of emerald echoes, in vivid memory of nature's sound,
From birdsong to crickets to evening wind, and brook of babbling renown.
Sachets swept away a sudden sadness, as robins sought another summer,
On my street of starry-eyed forget me nots, like a tune with no drummer.
Nobody knew latest neighborhood news, like my nearest friends next door,
Like chameleon sun, crisscrossing teal sky, wholly ignorant of 'nevermore.'
Pink birds were living high, and red butterflies viewed a world, ultraviolet;
And yellow bees went about their sweet labors, since queen bee desired it.
Strawberry clouds sailed around the world, for clouds ever love adventure,
As dogwoods barked in summer's dog days, during a gold noon surrender.
As I was walking home one day, the sun vanished as skies turned ominous.
There was a lightning flash just before the thunder, loud and cacophonous!
Suddenly, I saw a male face in the clouds, that was bellowing and enraged,
Like blizzard winds through naked trees, howling at a lush year that's aged.
Taken aback, like butterflies in gusts, I had come face to face with thunder-
The mighty, furious face of the storm, and I was filled with sudden wonder!
Then came the silver rains, sideways slanting, at the dead end of drought;
And I raced home like all uneasy nature, in the successive hours of doubt.
Scintillating sun had returned next day, after banishing the tangerine mist,
As benevolent nature was no more angry, its tale ending in an orange twist!
The Unicorn
Once upon a time…
an incredible event occurred that was so sublime.
On a warm summer night many years ago,
awakened by the rhythmic tempo
of hoof beats coming from the yard below,
I peered outside my bedroom window.
There on my lawn I was astonished to see,
a silver-white unicorn peering back at me.
Dressed in only a nightie, I dashed out my front door;
and found him frolicking, prancing to and fro.
Sparkling as he was under a silvery moonbeam,
I wondered if this was only a surreal dream.
He was handsome, noble, and dignified,
so confident and assured trotting to my side.
In awe of this mythical creature, I couldn’t speak,
but gently patted him from cheek to glowing cheek.
His well-groomed mane felt like satin and silk,
with a faint scent of harvested hay and fresh milk.
Then I heard from inside my head,
a deep, masculine voice which stately said,
“Your Majesty, it would be my great honor
to take you on a tour of celestial wonder!”
Reverently he bowed, as I, completely taken aback,
hesitantly mounted his muscular unsaddled back.
Time stood still as he swept me away,
right through the heart of the magnificent Milky Way.
We flew past amazing asteroids, planets, moons,
and zillions of stars looking like fiery, bulging balloons.
In flight, we traveled at the very speed of light,
and I was exhilarated with unbridled delight.
Returning me to Earth, he bowed his gallant head;
and as I dismounted graciously said,
“It’s been a pleasure, my dear Queen;
so long, and I’ll see you in your dreams!”
But even though our voyage of discovery was over,
that mystical experience changed my life forever.
Never again have I seen the unicorn on my lawn,
but from time to time, between midnight and dawn,
in my dreams, I hear a voice that’s oddly familiar
call out my name in a velvety whisper.
And somehow I know that it’s my old friend…
who’ll be watching over me ‘til the end.
02-03-2017
Contest: Once Upon a Time
Sponsor: Eve Roper
Placement: 10th
I
An ode to the courageous hummingbird
The tiniest bird, but bravest of all
He flits about without saying a word,
When most unexpected he comes to call
Fluttering gossamer wings rapidly,
He graces the feeder in an instant
While hovering in usual fashion,
His colorful feathers preened nattily
The ruby at his throat most dominant
--Epitome of avian passion.
II
His coat glistens with iridescent hues
Most easily seen in the bright sunlight
He’s glaring at me from his fleeting views,
Interrupting his bold, erratic flight
I look back at him with determined poise
Enraptured by his slow backward retreat
With rare aplomb think him taken aback,
I hear his delightful low humming noise
As he refuses to admit defeat,
Comes quickly to my face, spiraling back.
III
Oh, sweet little fellow so loved and prized
Topic of bird-lovers conversation
Yet when you appear, I am so surprised
Enamored with your gay presentation,
Wanting to hold you to my gentle breast
To say I have made you my little friend
Your colorful beauty so astounds me,
So far surpassing Mother Nature’s best
Lovelier shades always make up your blend
Love you, hummingbird, my pleasure to see.
[NATURE]
Submitted to: "2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 2" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Mark Toney
June 15, 2022
FIRST PLACE WINNER
Written April 28, 2022
Syllables check with HMS
written for "O Form - Ode - New Poems - Poetry Contest"
sponsored by Constance La France
#4 on BEST NEW POEMS LIST
Poetry Soup
May 27, 2022
she leans back and points bare toes at clouds
chains creak their rhythmic squeak, hypnotic loud
taken aback, her hair sails slipstream flung
downstream freedom for a moment hung
in mid-air - earth's force gives up its grip
hands sweat, hold tight, they cannot slip...
underneath, grave ground drops and falls away
above, a fraction weightless, she holds sway
swing's song suckle drugs her hungry mind
lids close, sun glows infrared behind
pushed ahead, prow barges coldest breeze -
heady heights drop back to life's sleeze- tease
whistle warns soft shots across neck's nape -
a tug towards untimely no escape
pendulum head, concave waver rocks it
self gives way to backbone's growing grit
back or forth, the dipper croons reprieves unbought
no more a cradle - ladle, once more sought
after - alter course - alter - falter, first
of all, go back, bold, and slake high spirit's thirst
looming dark dips her fears in far off stars'
molten matter - fired white hot globes unbar
eternal flames, external spin as atoms swim
in ether - her thoughts burn bright just for Him
now's the time, now's the place, blown up sky high -
now's the time to kiss the shattered sky.
5th March 2019
Aqua Marine.
"Righteousness and Peace - they have kissed each other. " ( the connection of the two will be as evident to all as is the close association of affectionate friends...) Figuratively, a kiss could represent a demonstration of respect and devotion, and often served as a token of affection.
"Oh, honey," he cried on the phone,
"It's terrible being alone.
I'm feeling the blues,
and I have some strange news. . . "
He went on and on with a moan.
"I went to the back yard one day,
not too long after you'd been away.
Do you know what I found
everywhere on the ground?
Can you guess what I'm going to say?"
"No clue," I said. "Why don't you share?"
"Dead animals are everywhere!"
If he'd not shouted,
I may have doubted,
but then he said, "Baby, I swear."
I was taken aback, so I said,
"There are animals? And they are dead?
What kind might they be?
Tell me how many?"
Just to think of it gave me some dread.
Since it sounded so terrifying,
I thought what a terrible thing.
Had our yard become scary
like the pet cemetery
I had read of by novelist King?
Were they poisoned? Were there rabbits too?
In the back of my mind I just knew
that his tale was too tall.
I was not wrong at all.
As it turned out, the number was two!
For I called up my daughter who said
she had gone there; what she saw instead
of some big horror show
was just her dad Joe
with one snake and one bird that were dead!
Written July 1, 2016 : True story with a bit of exaggeration making hubbie look wussy. But I'm not far off the mark!! This happened a long time ago when I had gone to a family reunion and left hubbie alone for a week!! Our daughter was newly married and went to the house to see all the "dead animals everywhere" For the Tell a Tall Tale Contest of Jesse Day
A Study in Love
Her expressions were delicious, her aroma intoxicating,
Her presence was lovely, and her conversation intriguing.
I was at a loss for words as we engaged in study, together,
Of the arts, which separates human beings from the animals,
But it didn’t feel like working to me; it felt flirtatious.
And when the spark from her eye leaped into my heart,
I was emboldened to ask her, shyly,
“Do you believe in love at first sight?”
And without hesitation, she answered, “Of course!”
(As she gently placed her hand on mine, the touch, soft and warm.)
Naturally, I was taken aback by her quick response
And gazed into her face, contemplating whether to kiss her or not.
The moment seemed real, the timing perfect, and she was willing,
But the fool in me, out of desperation, looked for an excuse,
Afraid to show my innermost feelings due to my upbringing,
Pulled away, pretending to resume our interaction in education.
But my mind blossomed in that encounter!
She told me to write about love…
…fine.
…
I gave up on you.
I gave up on your testaments.
I gave up on the way you said to hold on tight.
You told me you would hold me like you used to.
You told me you would scold me like you used to.
Because I liked your attitude,
Allegedly.
…
I would be taken aback
When the sunflowers finally
Noticed the rhythm in my strut
When Mondays would pass by without a suicidal teardrop
But still I
Gave up on
The endlessness
Of you
Striking these vindicated ivories
To a song you didn’t want to hear
You left me unspoken
An empty chorus.
Until I grabbed my pen…
…to become the composer of my tomorrows.
Without you.
The Unnecessary.
©Tacito
At the moment
Of my restless teenage run
Your eyes emanated lights of million stars
Many times the size of our Sun.
Frenzy feeling for clinging to you, singularity.
But I was taken aback by sudden bars,
Though I could sense the gravity.
I should keep firing my rocket
Against all odds, unhoped for
Real fact was too much ferine to the prior.
I would eventually lose my goal:
That was my closest buddies'safest bet.
They described you as a black-hole,
They said, " she is not your girl."
They said, "For you, she is evil incarnate."
But, how could I ignore you,
Embodied in such amazing curve and curl?
So, before my eyes you appeared as an Event-horizon.
Yeah, it was you
My teenage beauty-paragon.
Beyond this nothing can escape
Not even light,
I kept travelling towards you,
The universe looked somewhere dim and somewhere bright.
But my clock slowed down
Now, I've to keep my feet on the ground
I feel like, a king without a crown.
To this nostalgic journey my consciousness's been bound.
For a black-hole
There's a whole universe to devour
But I'm absorbed in my amour.
I did
A time travel
A story of incompleteness to tell.
But no need
I've reached a brand-new universe!
I could never get
My first love, remains insatiate.
I've no regret, it cann't be a curse.
I can bend
Yet
The story is not end.
I'll not bore anyone with my reminiscence.
But, I've gathered a vast time travel experience.
Here I feel no delight, no pain,
I'm ready to fall in another love once again.
A summer afternoon, I stepped onto my study porch's to go to lunch. A Hispanic-looking man was standing there waiting for me. I said hello to him, and thinking he needed some assistance, I said, “Are you here for the food pantry?” He said that he wasn’t. I thought, perhaps, his family was in a car somewhere, so I said, “Do you need to get into our clothing closet?” He said, “No, thank you, I don’t need any clothes” Trying again, I said, “If you’re traveling through, I can arrange for you and your family to have a room for the night in our local motel.” He said, “No, I won’t be needing that.” “Well, if you’d like,” you can join me for lunch. I’m going down to the restaurant. Want to come along?” He said, “No, I’m not really hungry.” By this time, I was rather puzzled, so, I decided to introduce myself as the church’s pastor, and he said to me, “You would spell my name J-E-S-U-S.” I said, “Oh, I speak Spanish. I’m glad to meet you, Jesus (I pronounced it hay-sus).” He said, “No, not Haysus; I am Jesus.” I was somewhat taken aback. He said, “I’m going around to churches to see if they are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. You have offered me food, clothing, and lodging. You are doing what my followers are supposed to be doing!”
when we least expect
Jesus may appear to us
unsurprisingly
Thinking I was, maybe, seeing things, I nonetheless bid him farewell and went on to the restaurant. No one in the restaurant had seem a man like the one I described. No one in town had seen him. The next day I dropped by the motel, but they had not seen any man like that either. From that day on, I told folks how, one day, I met Jesus at the back door of our church; but, no one believed me, of course! Be that as it may, that epiphany changed my way of thinking and my life.
we often discount
mystifying occasions
when Jesus drops by
FIRST PLACE TROPHY WINNER
Written August 9, 2022
Submitted to "An Epiphany That Changed Your Life" Contest
Sponsored by Chantelle Anne Cooke
To be immune from aspersions mean and vile
May assuage our hurt feelings for awhile
But to really uphold the Golden Rule
We must also withhold words harsh and cruel—by poet
In an upside-down world
Where self-victimization
is a realization and hatred lingers, it goes nowhere
May not yet get it, and still not self-aware
Now some may think that healing is
Ignoring what is destroying and go on enjoining
others near them to do the same, their end game
Using, medicating with words as ammunition stored on a shelf
Toxicity is there, taken aback, down deep in yourself
Hatred lingers, collecting dust mites
Imploding, suffocating smites and is on reserve
In a mindset where glory they deserve
Personal gut-wrenching bile packaged
Collecting more dust, disgust has an impact
It only makes you a stronger hellcat
One that hasn’t let go of the baggage
Is in an upside-down world of their own
On their own and may think they’re OK
Flies in the ointment, stagnant, a delay, decay
In a world where “making it better” ails, and means
Undoing what has taken lives in time in details
Only bequests, and is deeded
A new form of healing is much needed
Healing is embracing the newest challenges
There are bigger issues, bigger things
Then just you, heed the warnings
It begins within
“Civil war tested the proposition that America is one nation indivisible”—from the book “With Malice Toward None"— Stephen B. Oates
~
There once was a young Brit, Robin Hood,
Plundered bad folks and gave to the good,
He loved armor and knights,
But was quite fond of tights,
And decided to wear them for good ...
Now, sweet Nottingham, taken aback,
For his pantyhose took too much flak,
Thus dressed like a fairy,
With men, far too merry,
And not near enough gold ... in his sack.
~
~ 5th Place ~ in the "A Limerick, Old Or New: Your Personal Favorite" Poetry Contest, Andrea Dietrich, Judge & Sponsor.
~ 1st Place ~ in the "Limerick 3" Poetry Contest, Joseph May, Judge & Sponsor.
(Syllable count = 9,9,6,6,9 x 2, counted @ HowManySyllables.com)
The very essence of reality
Pricked the man's four chambered pump
Today he became a dumbfounded child
Taken aback by the simple reply
He was brought back to the ground
From the fanciful flight of his own little dream
She said"Distance is the river I cannot cross"
These simple words drowned the pictured life
His whole self was shaken to the core
That river lost him all
Trying to recuperate
And
Introspecting the things he said and heard today
He now asks" Why can't my dream be my reality?"
Two teens shoveling snow that February day,
wanting to hurry up so they could play,
quickly shoveling heaping piles of snow,
into an open 1935 NYC manhole,
Seeing something move down in the hole,
both teens thought "holy mole!"
yelling theres a gator down in there,
wanting to help it out they showed little fear,
Getting a clothesline they helped drag it out,
an 8 foot alligator with a toothy snout,
loosening the line the gator snapped,
while the teens were busy watching their backs,
But both boys were taken aback by the attack,
and decided to give the gator some whacks,
both killing it with their work snow shovels,
whereupon the gator didn't give them anymore trouble,
Now in NYC every February 10th,
the people are reminded of how that day was spent,
with a bronze gator pulling a man down in the manhole,
a quirky subway commemoration reminder for one and all.
4-6-17
Vanessa flutters by
A painted lady, a butterfly
Wispy wings a delicate design
Polka dots align her spine
Marbled brown with fringe
Warm sienna tints a tinge
Speckled black scales of fancy lace
Easy breezy full of grace
Dainty aerobat’s with olive scent
Classic angle iridescent
Painted white ink spots each wing
A sight for sore eyes in virgin spring
A fancy moth is what some say,
‘til they're taken aback by flair’s array
Milkweed flowers in her garden
Honeydew nectar a feast to regard in
A thousand miles she will fly,
against Fall's tender cool blue sky
Golden rays her solar compass,
to orient her pathways—alas
Her journey comes to an end
Up the coast where time she’ll spend
Sometimes in a black-veiled night
When sleep eludes my frame.
My mind succumbs to fright
Of things too wretched to name.
I ponder the possible eventualities,
"What if this?" "What if that?"
They seem to be tenable realities,
And I am further taken aback.
One dark thought leads to more
'Til dawn's birth grants reprieve.
But other such nights are in store—
A specter I tremble to conceive.
Sweet Savior watch this night with me,
Bless me with the peace thou giveth.
From every fear let me be free
For I know of a surety thou liveth.