Best Terrain Poems
'Course as a grim teller of tall tales,
(albeit poetic) reasonable rhyming
quasi roundelay I readily admitted to feign
cuz, stringing words together with
pride and prejudice plus
sense and sensibility, jocularity,
and conformity I dissed deign
(spoiler alert) iamb, trochaic,
dactylic, and anapestic metrical reign
jest your ordinary garden variety
dollar short day late dime a dozen
penniless citizen banker Abel and Cain,
yet mine mean mien blithely, daringly,
fatuously, ludicrously, nauseatingly,
pretentiously playfully urbane
many (if not all readers)
will coon sitter
yours truly harmlessly insane,
whose feeble attempts
to wax and wane
oft times falls flat (splat goes Matt)
as if dropped out plane,
without a parachute
instantly recuperating while lain
supine (winded, but...
none the worse) asthma brain
suffers concussion, confusion, contusion
actually, immediately, and unexpectedly
knocked fluent German speaking ability
within germane guy verständlich?
If ye really comprehend
trademark non Turkish gobbledygook
then explain (using
language of least familiarity),
but best to commence
with eye catching hook
impossible mission
apt lit pupils (mine)
to evade even momentarily
riveting, spellbinding,
and transfixing look
courtesy ingenious way
with word ye snook
cored me and took
wind out my sails.
Nor could I breakaway courtesy automobile,
cuz 2009 Hyundai Sonata
would not start... yea for real,
thus finding me ready to yoke
neck (think gibbet) each heel
dangling as body goes limp
blessedly, finally, happily
ridding me of any/all hangups,
one less goo goo gaga born this way
poker face cards for him to deal.
UNGABLUZUM describes this schlemiel!
THE TERRAIN OF ABSENCE
I think I've finally understood why distance makes
love tremble like a flame held in strangers' palms ~
it isn't distrust that shakes it, no, but that concrete lack,
a hunger for the body, for air breathed in the same room,
a territory of absence with maps drawn on water,
where your name is a city I can no longer touch.
When you're near, I learn you instinctively, the way skin learns rain:
the way you go quiet before saying something important,
the faint tremor in your voice, like a spider's thread in the wind,
the shadow that crosses your face when you remember something old,
the gestures you make without knowing you're making them ~
I know you through evidence, not guesswork, I hold you in context.
But distance leaves white spaces, clearings without footprints,
and the mind has this cruel habit of filling them
with whatever it finds in its darkest pockets:
with versions, with mistranslated silences, with scenarios
grown overnight like mushrooms in the basement of thought,
and every silence of yours becomes a room without a door.
That's why I believe closeness makes love more certain ~
not because distance would shrink the love itself, as people think,
but because presence gives certainty a body, bones, weight,
a breath that confirms, a hand that signs
everything the soul says and cannot prove over the phone;
truth needs a temperature in order to be believed.
When I can't see you, all I have left is to believe, and faith is beautiful
and dangerous in equal measure, like a glass bridge over fog,
because there, exactly there, in the gap between believing and knowing,
uncertainty builds its nest, that white and greedy bird
that pecks at night along the edges of your face
until what's left is a love built only out of memory.
Maybe that's why long-distance love is a cult without an altar,
a prayer spoken to a window that never answers back;
and yet I wait, the way a field waits for the snow it was promised,
I stitch my days to one another like unopened letters,
and I tell myself that one morning you'll simply walk through the door,
and all the white spaces will fill, all at once, with you.
It is a beautiful terrain,
Sometimes we pretend everything is alright
Even if all good things seem to wane.
But yes, everything is alright.
Sometimes we make decisions,
But the results turn to become the mistakes we've been trying to avoid.
Sometimes we are ruled by perceptions,
And all we meet along the path is humanoid.
Life on the terrain is perplexing;
Yes, You ought to dance to the rhythm of joy and of pain.
What is life worth? I tried to find, wandering and wondering;
No poetic word could explain.
It is visible, hence I doubt not that it is feasible,
Accept it as it is and make no complain.
You cannot do more than you can; just be affable.
Yes indeed, it is a beautiful terrain.
soft peaks...silken valleys
a short hike only to discover
a terrain you already know
Stepping into the frozen terrain has left me breathless…
Incased in snow pillars stand tall above the sharp edges of snow drifts…
The scene is surreal in front of me…abandoned buildings awaiting for the cruel wind to wipe away what once was held dear…
Sunk deep in the hollow crevices of this harsh wet slush… I am speechless… this fierce winter has left nothing but desolate ruins…
Breathing deeply I cough as my throat is smothered... in this crippling... damp cold air…
Illumination
Breaking through nature’s rubble
Revealing essence
Up, up, up
Is the atmospheric pressures rise
Innermost static zero-dynamic
Winds do cry
As all wing creatures fly
Up down in the midst of the terrain
Smoke fill island mountains
Brown, green, orange ridged volcano
Smooth trim valleys bronze and gold
Down, down, down
As all wing creatures fly
Up down in the midst of the terrain
Into the ground the sub-terrain
Blacken dark caverns and caves
Moles and bats conversant
Dampen cooled caves bears and other animals hibernate
The middle ground is the safest to be found
Ivory blue lines the skies
As all wing creatures fly
Up down in the midst of the terrain
2/7/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr.2019©
Brined voids surround my already bounded vision, throwing me headlong into confusion and disarray.
Hesitation in what may be the next correct course is what has landed me, and with much despair, in this current crisis of identity.
It is also what keeps me still.
This sea of doubt, once touched by the poet Alighieri, drowns my senses, casts my sails of logic askew and all at once sends my fluttering mind into a turmoil so grand as to take the attentive and oblivious alike.
Oft in mesmeric trance, the soaked foundation upon which I stumble offers none but fleeting moments of blessed relief. The rotten cored planks creak and shudder with the shifts and contemplations of my psyche, and I feel as though one misstep or overreach will drop me into a depth not easily realized.
And, I fear.
Oh do I fear.
I fear that will be the end. The end of a great many precious jewels which have hitherto been forgotten, discarded, and altogether scorned.
I fear that I will not be mourned, or that I will but be it with half of heart.
I am surrounded by unknown terrain.
Till tomorrow The Spectacular
Not a thing about it jocular;
Does keep wasting Nature's Wondrous gift
While rugged terrains giving new lift...
Steely replica of Dynamite:
It has been the same show of might;
The weakest of them all still iron
And that's the reason it is Lion...
Caterpillar at work vibration
But it's a prelude to foundation;
A couple of Day's Disturbing Earthquake
For tomorrow's structure that won't shake...
In movies crushes one like a car
And real or not the bloke turns a star!
So, would you still fault Caterpillar,
Modernist flaming sword and pillar.?
Life is a journey, sometimes it's juicy, sometimes stormy,
the more we live, the more we walk inn gloom and glory
some focus on the storm and they end up coming last,
some keep loitering around and the end up on the ground.
Life is a journey, some are so lazy or proud to start simple,
and they end up being used as a bad and bitter example,
those who walk amiss are either a warning or wake up call,
those who wait for a perfect start often end up staying small.
Life is a journey, with many bus-stops and one terminal,
at every stop, you will found simple and special signals;
but some men are blindfolded by fun, that they could not see
they end up taking the wrong direction...and ask "why me"?
Some road users are destroyed for lack of knowledge,
they rush into the road without learning what it takes,
life is a technical terrain, learn or you will get lost,
perseverance is the price, and a life crash is the cost...
Focus is the rule of the transit, slow or smart, forge ahead,
keep moving, no stopping, but watch...bumps ahead.
Look out for traffic lights, traffic officers...and pot holes,
so many warning ahead, why worry about broken boles.
Tighten your seat belt, the road is so rough...and smooth,
learn to face each day with whatever it brings, gloom or glow,
life is simple: live to love, laugh, learn and leave a legacy,
Let honesty, integrity, hope and hospitality be your policy
MOUNTAINEERS TERRAIN
evening valley fold
up down around the horizon
mountaineers terrain
~
sun, moon, wind touches
up down around the horizon
terrain mountaineers
12/5/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2019©
Kindness is a gift we get from heaven
Reaches us through humans
Or through things around us
Created by souls on earth with God’s grace.
While on a study adventure
One such act of kindness
Touched the deep niche of my heart
When around Lyderhorn, a sleepy village
Lodged on the banks of Norwegian Loddefjord
I was on a field work looking at the Caledonian rocks.
There a gracious lady named Julia Aasen
Rented me a room with a kitchen
For she needed money, her husband
A fisherman, had died a year ago.
My work was going on well until one rainy day
While crossing a mossy rock ledge
I lost balance and slipped a good ten feet.
My backpack disappeared in a creek
An arm of the deep blue fjord below.
I lost my wallet, money and cards,
And with them my poise.
I couldn’t pay the weekly rent
nor could I buy the provisions.
Finding me, a stranger, in dire need of help
Julia said I needn’t pay the room rent for a week
And be her non-paying guest, give her company
Although I knew how badly she needed the money.
Supported by her hospitality I could finish my work on time
And return to Bergen on a bus ticket she purchased for me.
Julia no longer lives in the hamlet by the fjord
But wherever she is now I know it can’t be but heaven
For she made me realize random kindness doesn’t come
From a random person.
It flows from a special soul
Where an angel lives.
May 18, 2020
Contest : Action Adventure
Sponsor : Chantelle Anne Cooke
I knew you hated me,I knew you despised me,
I knew you were my enemy,I mean my foe
I Knew you wanted me dead,buried O`engraved,
I Knew you were pretending yet I never knew it ran so deep.
I Knew who I am, I knew my whereabouts,
I knew my heart,its avalanche,its weakness
I knew you planned to kill me,I knew your plans,
Yet I Never knew they ran so deep
I knew the time of your dreams,your nightmares
I Knew when happy and pretending
I knew you were a hypocrite,knew the acquisitions of your life
I knew we'd marry and all you''d be my wife
Yet this I never knew,that you were this deep.
I knew you were silent and coldblooded,
I knew you were keen,but not this hyperactive,
I knew you were egocentric and all yet not this selfish
I knew you were deep yet i never knew that you were deeper than oceans.
I knew you were deep but not this deep
Terrain The Poet
Constantly down shifting
Riding the clutch
Can’t get higher than 2nd
Too much traffic keeping me from you
My mind is racing
If only these cars would
Stalled on this exchange
Thinking about getting to you
Taking this exit
No congestion here
GPS working well
I’ll be there quicker
Finally, shifting to 5th
Giving the clutch a rest
Driving as fast as my mind thinks
To be with you
I’ll pick you up
Let’s take a drive in the country
Study the trees and the sweet terrain
Behind us small in the rear view mirror
We can park in the shade
Walk through the tall Midwest grass
Wade in the cool creek
You are my sweet terrain
See them coming down the street
Dancing with a passion that is very deep
Hands waving in the air
People cheering far and near
Voices shouting out of control
And the music is playing very loud
Chatter and laughter, cussing and swearing
Everything is wrapped up in the mix
Bang, bang, bang, the sound from
Domino hitting the table circulates through the room
Hands and heads banging on wall
And contention echoes through the hall way
The men playing domino in the corner
Burst out in laughter and said, “what the f***k
is going on?
“Give me a glass of rum” another one shouts
Men and women, boys and girls
Dressed up in all types of fancy clothes
Fine hair do, polished nails and toes
Fashionable designs jumping on hips
And red lipsticks all over the women’s lips
I wonder what this is all about?
Is it the New Jerusalem coming to town?
All types of body style rolling down the street
in the sweltering sun heat
I can recall when the heaven was tall
And the minstrel parade the street all night
While dancing around the mystical candle light
Noisy people, noisy street dragging the devil off its feet
How much longer will this masquerade continues?
Hollywood spectacle and the media DE battle
Scores of journalist lined out on the floor
Listening tentatively and waiting for more
The grilling and the chilling,
The nervousness and the temper
Swirling up and down the chair
Yes they are asking for more
And crowd is anxiously waiting,
Hearts are beating and sweat is dripping
Then suddenly a voice shouts
“Guilty!”
A sudden silence saturated the room
And the voice spoke again
“Guilty! On several count”
Then a roaring sound engulf the room
And an angry voice shouts;
“What took you so long?
We knew the verdict all along”
The banging increased
And the pressure decrease
and the voice continue to speak
“I can grant you pardon
but I want you out now!”
The roaring crowd gathers in the street
Resonating a message that is very deep
The trumpet blow the last sound
And the minstrel escort the verdict out of town