Best Tempest Poems

surrendering
reflective puddles
of rained regrets and sins

I offer my humility
the only gift I can give.


Susan Ashley 
September 2, 2018


~ First Place ~
Premiere Contest: Pithy Pants 
Sponsor: Maureen McGreavy...

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They know how to press those buttons,
With just a familiar chosen word or two,
How to enrage one's spirit with a tone,
A glance sharp enough to pierce the skin.
A will that screams, I am better than you,
Stronger, louder...how they deftly dominate.
 
Sometimes a controlled backfire is...

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Upon a glorious night
A burning fire lit upon my unrented spine
Deafened by fleeting sight
I flee the home that never was quite mine

Crushed in garish fight
Within the corridor I dare to flee
Blinded by his might
While all the sad spirits return to me

Oh Tempest, you blow in...

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O daughter of thunder, slayer of dragons (and of men's hearts), why do you hurt me so? For which sin must I reside in this purgatory of despair, this abyss which allows me no peace nor ray of hope? If I were to serenade you...

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The Tempest

Upon enchanted sands of shipbreached shores
Dethroned beggar of a borrowed callow mystery
Heaves a lightning staff into the waves -
Thunderous and raw clandestine secrecy
On luminous swirling ariels sheering the celestial –
Into the curfew of castaway souls as a hoary appeal
Where storm surges loot delirium in...

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Like winds incessant through the night 
and torrents dumped from darkened clouds,
the storm raged on without contrite
my anguish hid ‘neath subtle shrouds.

A storm like this I’ve never seen
in my whole lifetime to be sure
when hot converging airs convene;
‘tis more than one should e’er endure.

But now...

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cataclysmic waves

                                     awaken sailors' nightmares

    ...

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TEMPEST

Twin limestone tors thrust up through valley floor
Like isles or icebergs in a calm flat sea
Deep green save where shear rock can hold no spore
To spawn in fecund niche a vine or tree

Midday and all is calm untroubled, still
In tactile heat, all movement paused, restricted
No...

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Wind, your double essence is well-known.
Whispered summer breezes you exhale;
Then suddenly you turn.  You surge and wail,
Expelling rage, you bluster or you moan.
Your brute relentless nature then is shown
For you become a cyclone, Hound of Hell,
Or show yourself a monsoon, squall, or gale.
Unquelled, a...

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Summer Tempest

Oncoming tempest
Charges the air with ion
Strong wind gusts predicted soon

Torrents of rain fall
Like a river coming down
Flooding sidewalks and sewers

A rainbow appears
Promise sign that seems to say
"The city’s survived the storm."

7/15/16
For" A Perfect Storm"...

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A Storm, A Tempest And A Hope

Remorse hangs like dark and bitter fruit
A tragic voyage far off the right course
Cuts to the mind with an evil root
Blood-lust still in the crying remorse
Defeated
Alone
A shot into this darkened lost world
Future clouded in a racing mist
A boulder into...

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"Helios and The Tempest"



...

full knowing his azures
she watches him rising
he sends sunlight 
to her windows
full knowing the thoughts
non-conditional behind
her shaded jades
what fresh hell is this
spring green now
becomes her dazzling day
he doesn't miss a trick
he sends golden smiles
they're forever in eclipse
when he is the sun
she is...

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I ride the waves of innocence
on the ocean of The Now.
From the depths of dank
a demon stalks my bow.

On deck afraid, alone I stood
quelling fear the best I could.
Furled the jib and reefed the main
what you do when the wind's insane.
Then rising atop a stormy...

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another tower, rising up the skies,
a high terrasse, a night, a starry weather,
a caviar, a bird of paradise
for every towerer, a golden feather
on tux’s sleeve… 
                   ...

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The Tempest


That misty shadow on the shore, 
     with crimson sunset gone from view, 
        foretells a tempest is in store;
           the dreaded forecast...

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