Best Tangential Poems
Thus I sail the sacrificial scabrous seas and touch tormented tides
Battle-scarred in the breeze and washed ashore where evil hides
The Sun regrettably retreats where malice mortals digressively dare
Walking barren saliferous streets where I live on a penniless prayer
The citadels of submission crucially crumble where they saintly stand
In their unholy cognition you are a slave to their carnivorous command
Embedded in stone my tangential tears will endure beyond the grave
Bludgeoned to the brutal bone by the unlawful carnal knowledge knave
Lost in oblivion my blood runs calamitously cold by the river's edge
Beware the Ophidian with sabotaging scales leaving you on the ledge
Deceivers of the realm punitive penetrators connivers as they clutch
They manipulate and overwhelm with their torturous tender touch.
Let's stop the abuse...and spread the real love
Aug.01.2017
Let's talk about it
Sponsored by: Richard Lamoureux
1 original, poem on the theme of abuse, emotional, sexual or physical.
Any form is acceptable.
Categories:
tangential, abuse, loneliness,
Form:
Rhyme
An evanescent bouquet of skewed briars,
is how a tinsel laden tawdry essence wickedly unfolds ,
scuppered signpost to a fetid human compost,
faint light pendant on soul crushed quantum migrant,
who might chortle at vivid veil flimsy vacuum,
skirt recklessly around bogus symbols,
peer behind the squalid limp sodden hedge,
mock myopic moribund mist upon boundary busting dawn chimera,
sneer at synthetic spectrum elastic in its irritating tidal wave surfeit,
cerulean fabric‘s milky way escape plot,
in a perilous quest for that eternal tape loop mantra,
the synaptic heart of that vainglorious horizon,
self-knowledge under charcoal moon and silver cloud veneer,
or feral waste rapid fire contagion,
the indecisive day glow dither on the margins ,
of fly weight feeble frantic dash,
that velvet shadow treason daubed pettifog,
known as tangential wanton cobweb fester creed,
the mind a bloated ripple vortex numbing in its scope,
golden mirage but faux fur real concoction,
against the banal backdrop of complex-ridden superficial eddy,
from floral garland poseur stricken en train,
some vox pop indignation mere shrinking violet showcase waver,
the gleam-hued truth has this dastardly demonic derailment,
that I brush aside as spiteful oxalic sting repost,
that deceptive mint green forest of chameleon cant,
sly nuanced molten maple syrup hint,
from out of kilter tree pierce otherworld,
unseen yet bliss-edged virtual garden of firm conviction,
not just from isolated enigmatic individual script,
such as torrid turbulence or mindless scattered rim shot,
when conventions can be altered in exotic prose,
human zeitgeist has this far too often penchant,
for silkworm rapt effervescent double speak,
whilst plain unvarnished uplifting utterance,
resides within the deep crystal spring well,
of us torch aloft emerald earthling sages,
please augment the rock buttress stark phrase,
whose bluntness is a carrier pigeon of candor,
devoid of muted gray cloud blind waffle,
aromatic sprig to giant spasm of bold pluck,
quandary of human race at hearth,
frightened cliques, hidebound yes men who yen,
to swim the azure gulf of august freedom,
to the Eden where lucid tongues herald pristine witness.
where values at the centre of our being should blossom
Categories:
tangential, care, character, deep, emotions,
Form:
Free verse
Written In Beige
Against the bleak bank wall he leans
as the sidewalk moves sideways
across his tangential thoughts.
People pass, the dull parade,
the money-grubbers and hoarders
in their shiny suits that mock
his existence. Sad clouds meld
into a sullen gray sky…it must be raining
somewhere. Clink! Silver coin
rattles metal can. He wonders, when
did the colours disappear?
The pungent aroma from Mickey’s
Taco Wagon punishes his senses
and his eyes begin to leak. He’s hungry.
There was a time when his words
were golden, a rainbow of passion.
He had a family, people who loved him.
A November wind kicks him…no, wait!
Security guard motions as another
peers from behind motion-sensing
cameras. Not wanted. He disappears
next to the discoloured taupe wall.
The mystery: how did his life story
get written in beige?
*Note: this is written in honour of a homeless poet named Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho but, in essence, for every homeless person.
Categories:
tangential, identity, metaphor, tribute,
Form:
Ekphrasis
TRAUMA BAY
Of true evil, I’d had barely a peek
But this day would be an education
A full immersion in the fetid reek
The foul depths of his soul’s violation.
Indescribable draining sensation,
It leveled its shoulder, knocked out my wind
Stop spinning room, dig deep, began again.
Although miles away we were from the crime
We felt the direct impact on our hearts
His trigger pulls pierced many souls each time,
Bodies punctured, shrouded, lives torn in parts.
Shock waves broke spirits, families apart.
It was his ghoulish realm made manifest,
Backwards kingdom of delusion, unrest.
CHAOS
United by our common urgency
The fair-skinned devil in our own backyard
Morphed into citywide emergency
A distress call radiated outward
The nation slowly turned its eyes southward
Our easiest, natural reaction
Find the inner sword, and gird for action
JANE 1
A loving deed, rare and touching to all
Warm, kindly neighbor from across the street
Taking her friend, the senator to call
Sweetness like yours, I would cherish to meet
Just not with your blood pouring on my feet.
Half whisper, half gasp, you told me your name
“Ma'am, we’ll take good care of you.” Heart aflame.
JANE 2
A still form on the gurney, lying there
Soul dangling on the thinnest thread of life
Crusted crimson stain in her ruffled hair
The same height, same build, same age as my wife
Eviscerate me, invisible knife
CAT scan on the screen revealed the damage
Twisted anatomy, bullet ravaged
HEROISM
Between heroism and everyday strides
A simple matter that we were prepared
The gulf, in reality, not so wide
The tools and skills we wielded, not so rare,
A thousand heroes happened to be there.
Yet together we formed a solid wall
Resolute warriors answered the call
But of heroism, one thing we did learn
Between appearance and reality
The public laurels that a few did earn
Oft unaligned with actuality
How image misconstrues causality
Media promulgated story lines
Have so many false agendas behind
The convenient plot lines of journalists
Tales of what has supposedly been
So little to do with real turns and twists
Tangential resemblance to the blue screen
The actual truth of all I have seen
Yet all the falsehood cannot steal the pride
The fated day's true heroes hold inside
4/5/16
Categories:
tangential, courage, evil, history, recovery
Form:
Rhyme Royal
Simple Prayer
God whoever you are and wherever you may seem to be hiding
in times situations and places when confusion reigns and I fail to
see please grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot
change the Courage to change the things I can and the Wisdom
to know the difference when the difference is all there is in me
When you deliver the message that there is only one God please
allow for lateral thinking collateral feelings tangential emotion
Give us a source and an essence and Self and respect for others
who have different faiths and names for you like Vishnu and Shiva
Promote the Buddha and shelter him under the Bhodi tree’s calm
the four noble truths and eightfold path and save us from crusades
jihads genocides misguided power fanaticism and self-righteousness
Make me the tool of your grace and freedom show me the light in
the darkness and help me turn the other cheek when exploring
middle ways of meditation compromise kindness love and compassion
Please nurture passion and peace thoughts emotion social justice
God whoever wherever whatever however you make faith and belief
in a better world possible talk to me and my fellow minnows on this
planet earth and let us dance sing paint pray and cherish together
that seeming differences darken in evil steal humanity disguise
one and only one human condition the one of love love and love
Please let us and me not run against the proverbial wall of madness
when things cannot be altered at the moment and direct us to the
matters that matter because they can be changed with your strength
Please teach me to look beyond the little me in the scheme of life
and share the difference that serenity courage and wisdom can make
18th August 2016
Categories:
tangential, god,
Form:
Free verse
I wake up at a different time and place each breaking morning
And set a new path on this earth that beggars all forewarning
One day I’ll try my hand at walking backward down the street
While wearing something lissome yet distinctly indiscreet
Then possibly I’ll pass some time with Nitze-by-the-sea
Considering the ocean’s purpose nihilistically
And if there’s time I’ll blow my mind with something by the bard
For Bill’s a bloke who still can smoke the glibbest avant-garde
And then I think the time may come to speak of many things
Like why we hear of mannequins but never mannekings
There’s lots of things I’ve never done, take suicide for instance
There’s naught to do that’s really new when all is nonexistence
Thus every day that I’m around I try for something special
No line-of-sight approach for me, my life’s been more tangential
So if it’s something new you seek, well that’s just not my game
If all my days are different, well then … every day’s the same
October 24, 2018
Categories:
tangential, irony,
Form:
Rhyme
Casting aside the blunt reality
My conscious swims into the realm of all possibilities
The transition is totally automatic
I wonder if they are my subconscious' semantic
Different scenarios demand different imitations
I direct and act these inceptions.
(Scenarios)
Amidst a bus trip
Whirled in theories of evolution
Nature reveals self
Nature calls bowel
Scientist lingers, cures cancer
NOBEL in my hand
Reading morning news
Leader reforms, policies change
World at peace, prosperity
Youtube UFO's
World crisis, battling aliens
Hero saves the day
Inspiring theatre
Cool actor begins career
Wins emmy, smart speech.
A stroll to market
Writing a fictional piece
Booker, money, wife
Countless imaginations about every possible theme
At the end I reign supreme
After the end comes the brute reality
Chaos and confusion dominates my serenity
This is all about my tangential reality.
Categories:
tangential, humorous, imagination, introspection, philosophy,
Form:
Denouement
The plot thickens broadens in plastered confused juxtapositions
over time there and then weaves tapestries lost unfound caught
Viscous tears dried out shed rivers searching oases oceans of love
squeeze suffering hatred solid misconceptions scripted resolve
Crocheted dreams unsnarled in disguise colour rainbows stain-bows
stain blows and arrows offer inkblots from coiled council reconcile
Waters cascades cataclysmic beginnings alleviate alluvion’s weight
skirmish tease entice droplets of truths splashing change alteration
Naïve native losses childish unadulterated tangential torrents unfold
allude inundate delude adulthoods’ illusions commence from afresh
Under the bridges of ricocheted echoes trickle drops from Styx to
Ganges feed and contend with the seagulls and vultures of life
The story line concocts and conceives tell retells and remembers
the past as it blends narrates a misty final initiation’s webbed spray
Resolute resolution wets the gills washes clouds spins them around
until springs guzzle project thoughtful narration to entangle once more
Denouement Renewal De-new-ment confer contain depositions repositioned
as some tangling wisdom posits one swims in the same ocean never again
09th August 2016
Originally entered for contest 'Denouement' judged 24th August 2016
Categories:
tangential, change,
Form:
Free verse
look out from Hawaii
where summit isles peek at volcan panorama
like curious messengers scouting out ahead
where we spied Oumuamua skim slanting past
interstellar sliver rock tumbling by our yard
from Lyra curving by the sun, on to Pegasus
hyperbolic speedster, too fast for solar capture
......
am I poet enough to catch your angular drift ?
prophet of the space age
Arthur foresaw your approach some years ago
for moments our eyes meet, tangential traveller
mysterious wanderer, wonder who probes whom ?
wonder whether we are worth your fleeting visit ?
here's hello from us to the white-horse mythical stars
wisdom and excitement resides in not being sure
......
am I poet enough to read space between the words ?
do not stare directly
be askance, be oblique and somewhat off-kilter
watch the molten islands plume across the ocean
cosmic time, ancient journeys, canoes and planets
stumble on a meaning, kneel down, breathe in, rejoice
feel transition, change of key, symphonic rise and fall
music in the silence, in divergent destinations
......
am I poet enough to hear gaps between the notes ?
Categories:
tangential, adventure, goodbye, hello, science,
Form:
Narrative
I aged a small number of hours,
none the worse
since posting about Daylight Savings Time,
a radiant playful verse
teasingly succeeded against being terse,
a cogent tangential thread,
where passage of "time"
ranks front and center
this central theme constitutes cultish obsession
with vibrant youthfulness
as if senescence a crime imposed
(at birth) on every purse
son, thus a healthy and prominant grow wing
(nee bursting out all over)
market and cottage industries didst swing
into high gear (make that overdrive)
addressing telomeres shortcomings
justifies tamper ring
with chromosomal genes
to sustain bug eyed sales figures,
asper amazing grace full spy king
scales into the stratosphere,
with cosmetic surgeons hoe ping
where, (particularly among
baby boomer generation)
appear younger looking than offspring
(albeit, whereat either gender undergoing
bust ting bosoms and tightening tushies)
to foster said tune, where billions of dollars
come into play, I haint joe king
this feeding frenzy removing without a trace
(of surgeon's needle) unsightly wrinkles,
stretch marks, blemishes, et cetera
(over a life time) fulfilling vanity
in the name of eternal quest to dupe biology
paying mega bucks postponing twilight/ evening
years not yielding to depredations when dotage
a stark reminder what natural aging doth bring
superficial (skin deep) transformations,
which cannot reboot major organs
allowing elderly to rock with van
halen again, since primary maximal apex
i.e. post adolescence/
early adulthood marked urban
boisterous antics, the tacitly accepted behavior,
that would appear down right foolish
as if elders played kick the can
if chronologically old geezers let Mother Nature
rightfully round up steering committee
gently rowing rickety ship of lovely bones
dutifully paying (chump change) to the bargeman.
Categories:
tangential, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Free verse
Dancing with the angel; winding
Like an eel and a geisha girl.
Her hips vibrating like a dog drying its wetting hairs.
Will she glue herself into my waiting hands?
Yes she does, she does it in style:
Her right foot finds a place between my feet,
Her head dangling on me like banana bunch,
Her hands cuddling my neck like a baby in its flannel.
Oh, she parts again like an arrow parting the bow.
What could I have done? What is the irritation?
No, she smiles, stretching out her hands like an eagle wafting in the air;
Her right grips my left as she comes closer, she will not glue again;
Flinging me out like a school girl flinging her paper plane into the air.
Wow! She bows like a zero's cord, her long hairs carpeting the ground.
Suddenly she bounces back like a bent shrub regaining its old position;
Her right now on my left shoulder, her left belting my waist about,
Her lips on my cheek, her hips tangential to mine.
A round of applause!!!
Categories:
tangential, celebration, dance,
Form:
Blank verse
I CHOOSE THE FASTEST LOOKING HORSE
MUSCULAR YET SLEEK IN SHAPE
WITH A FIXED LOOK OF DETERMINATION
A BODY OF BRIGHT COLORS
AND A SADDLE AND BLANKET TO MATCH
I HOLD ON TIGHT
THE CAROUSEL MOVES
AROUND AND AROUND
THE MUSIC CONTINUOUSLY PLAYS ON
AS MY HORSE GOES UP AND DOWN IN PLACE
THE WORLD AROUND ME CONTINUES TO CHANGE
I KIND OF SEE IT
VIEWING IT AT A TANGENTIAL ANGLE
FROM THE CORNER OF MY HORSE
FROM THE CORNER OF MY EYE
AS I GO AROUND AND AROUND
AT A CONSTANT SPEED
THE WORLD SEEMS TO MOVE
IN A CHAOTIC WAY
I HOLD ON TIGHT
I PULL ON THE REINS
AND I AND EVERYTHING AROUND ME
SEEMS TO COME TO A HALT
EXCEPT THE WORLD
WHICH SEEMS TO BE OUT OF CONTROL
AND MOVES ON
Categories:
tangential, funny, life, world, me,
Form:
Blank verse
I love the rims on the wheels of my car,
Each rim that’s made out of steel,
And I love the spokes tightly holding these rims,
I love how they each make me feel.
Hundreds of tangential shiny small spokes,
Crisscross from the hub to the rim,
All of them a dark, metallic bright blue,
Makes the car all slick, sleek and slim.
Together they make her big, bright, distinguished,
An air of grace, style, and poise,
And when I drive her, I become all gentry,
No longer just one of the boys.
And then there’s the torque, her true pulling power,
Owned by each wheel dressed in blue,
Simply measured by the number of men that gappingly gawk,
And say that they all love her too.
Categories:
tangential, beautiful, car, love,
Form:
Quatrain
Hallowed win is never impossible
When wrought by God’s might that does enable
He makes all evil spirits to tremble
Vanquishing ill feelings so terrible!
Midst frightening night’s schemes of lurking trick
Truth’s light brightly radiates with divine click
Devoid of deceit’s twist and scam’s fake flick
Smashing demonic spells that make souls sick.
The Lord’s triumph* is great treat from heaven
His love covers sins, truly forgiven
Thru full trust in the Saviour, it’s surely given
Conquering hell’s damnation; faith-driven!
Such is what I learned in my mortal existence
Though called the "Ancient One"* in my fictional essence
To God, "the Ancient of Days"** I bow down, trembling in His presence
Aware of His omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence.
*The Ancient One possessed the ability to manipulate the forces of magic for a vast number of effects and was able to tap into extra-dimensional energy by invoking entities or objects of power, existing in dimensions tangential to those of the Earth, through the recitation of spells. The Ancient One was capable of astral projection, levitation, interdimensional teleportation, and a large number of other effects. However, in his extreme old age, the Ancient One was unable to perform any major feats of sorcery without placing great physical strain upon himself.
**Daniel 7:13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, [one] like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
October 23, 2018
Edited on February 24, 2023 with the last stanza added
2nd place, "Marvel and DC Superhero or Supervillain" Poetry Writing Premiere Contest; Sponsored by Robert James Liguori; judged on 3/4/2023.
Categories:
tangential, christian, faith, god, jesus,
Form:
Rhyme
Longing astray from the corners of my thoughts
I try to accept what is
Distance, separation and apart willingly so
I fight to accept what is
Striving towards the epitome of comfort
I try to reject what is
Dependency, rejection and ungratified unwillingly true
I mourn to accept what is
Parting from solace I watch you
I try to catch what is
Away, distant, and tangential believably painful
I attempt to fathom what is
Humbling to partake I run to you
I try to take part in what is
Beautiful, spectacular, and fascinatingly a part
I dare to challenge what is
Categories:
tangential, angst, love, visionary
Form:
Verse