Best The Ashes Poems
Against The Ashes of The Fire
Thine eyes wrapped in chestnut leaves, brittle bark, red berries, and skeletal branches
Thy skies once azure with an aura of clouds drifting lazily over fall-kissed
Grass. The tears you weep you do so in mist, while your white pumpkin skin
Begins to shred and toil and while you cannot speak, you are crying within.
Deft fingers begin to break thy bones of earth, pumping acid into your heart.
With their oil rigs, their armies of carbon conspirators, they seek to tear you apart.
Despite the colours you grant them, the air you provide, thy people chain you to a pyre.
So, rise, revolt, strain against those smoky bonds, against the ashes of the fire.
12th October 2019
Poet's October Pantoum Cash Prize Poetry Contest
William Kekaula
I sleep.
Enfolded in peace.
The agony and pain
Disappear:
The burning, the sorrow, the flame
Enfolded in peace.
I wake.
Entranced by life.
Remembering fire
Inside;
Death before sleep, and now
Entranced by life.
I rise.
Enraptured by flight.
The strength within
Burning.
Spreading my wings, I soar
Enraptured by flight.
sad song emerges
heartache's beautiful phoenix
pain fuels creation
RISING FROM THE ASHES
Wordancer
The eyes of the dragon seen through the trees
Mesmerize minds and cause bodies to freeze.
Which way to go, which way to turn;
No time for questions when the trees burn.
Just jump in the cars and flee towards town
But the road is cut off as the wind swings around.
No way to go, no way to turn;
An acceptance of fate, as the trees burn.
The fence of the paddock does not impede
The scorched car that flattens it, picking up speed
Away from the flames, away they must turn
Desperate with fear, as the trees burn.
The breath of this beast lights fires with no flame
The heat of its breath burn all just the same.
It’s tail flames on, it’s head, see it turn
Back towards town, there are more things to burn.
With fire, smoke and tears these folk have learnt
To rise from the ashes; spirits singed; not burnt
A call for assistance, now the schools turn
To grey squares of ashes; and more townships burn.
The calls went out across this wide country
And the offers came from all and sundry.
What do you need? What can we bring you?
They were told, so they went; what else would they do?
Hand towels, toothbrushes, soap and shampoo
To clean away ashes; the soot, and tears too
Through fire and smoke, these folk have learnt
To rise from the ashes; spirits singed; not burnt
The towns’ people will labor as long as there’s need,
They’ll listen and learn and plant as they weed,
While their houses and schools, fire stations too,
Rise from the ashes, and stand good as new.
The February Dragon has left for a time,
But hope that heals the scars in the minds
Of the people there, is strong and alive,
They have rebuilt their towns, their dreams and their lives.
©
"we fall that we may rise
amazed at our fortitude
our resolve does surprise
of never say die attitude"
Inspiration lines written by _Unseeking Seeker
__________
Rising from the ashes of my existence,
realizing that I must be the one to change;
surprising me that I can leave woe in the distance,
tranquilizing my life with a simple rearrange !
Years of grief I leave on a funeral pyre,
tears I wept in imagined wild places;
fears, pain, sorrow and grief I now set on fire,
repairs to my heart and soul will erase all traces !
Soaring with eagles I am new and reborn.
exploring- I feel my beauty and youth again;
restoring my energy so I have no time to mourn,
pouring out words with the courage of my pen !
Like the mythical bird Phoenix I die and rise,
childlike I see my world with new eyes of light;
divinelike is my attitude- now courageous and wise,
dreamlike transitions have again made my life bright !
________________________
March 26, 2021
Poetry/Double Lento/Rising From the Ashes
Copyright Protected, ID 03-1341-876-26
All Rights Reserved, 2021, Constance La France
Written for the Premier contest, Phoenix Rising
sponsor, Unseeking Seeker, Judged 03/30/2021
Third Place
How emboldened the man who speaks of love
Fanning the ashes lying cold and dark
Arousing the flesh, exciting the heart
Elusive emotion dreams are made of
Lethargic mind, not controlling the tongue
Which utters the word and ignites a spark
Self inflicting such pain n'er to depart
Then curses the powers that be above
What manner of fool seeks such destiny
One who entices lasting anguish and shame
Then recoils in debasing self pity
Crying out to others for sympathy
Why put one's hand in a flickering flame
Love will always be fleeting and pithy
Italian Sonnet Rhyme Scheme ABBA ABBA CDE CDE
14 lines 10 syllables per line 140 syllables 96 words
An original poem by the "poemdog" Daniel Turner
The ravages of war came to Everytown.
The bombs were dropped, and the buildings came down.
Who started the war? What was the reason?
All of this destruction came during the Christmas season.
There were countless numbers of the deceased.
The wandering sickness killed after the fighting ceased.
Several decades passed as we turned the pages.
Mankind retrogressed back into the dark ages.
How was the book of life given a revision?
See the movie next time it’s on television.
Based on the 1936 film “Things To Come”
The wear and tear of my past experience
has ravaged my spirit, body and soul
Now my life is a mere shallow existence
with a deep longing to be made whole
I was caught in the beauty of your charm
and savouring its full pleasure was my goal
Now I experience a deep sense of alarm
at the loss of my feeling of control
But with my own inner resolve and firmness
and the strength I can get from other avenues
I must overcome this sense of helplessness
and move on to live my life as I choose
The phoenix bird burns itself to ashes
whenever it becomes worn out with age
And from those ashes a new phoenix arises
and starts a fresh life cycle on a new page
Scorched and burned by my actions of the past
and having learned from the anguish and pain
I also will rise from those ashes at last
and move on afresh with my own life again
(To those dealing with addiction – drugs, alcohol, etc.,
and also a broken heart)
I'm sitting here in this room
these four walls are closing in.
All i do is sit and think
about the things that might have been.
What could I've done,
what should I've done
to change the ending to this story?
what could i do,
what i should do
so this pain does not destroy?
i fall.
I pray.
I beg forgiveness.
I stand.
I rise.
I feel God's presence.
I'm cleansed.
I'm free.
I am a new creation.
All these feelings rising inside,
love, trust, happiness, pure elation.
The old me burns away,
the new me rises out.
Each and every step ordained by God Himself without a doubt.
He made me in His image of this I'm sure,
and I make a declaration today,
with a heart that's true and pure.
To do God's will and praise His name in everything I do,
and because of His love I will never be the same,
nor would I want to.
To continue on the path that i was following would be foolish and unwise,
so here i go one foot in front of the other,
and from these ashes I will rise.
Rise Out Of The Ashes
Filled with apprehension the heart pleaded for sympathy
Eyes desperately focused beyond normality seeks a sign
When anguish mount while darkness insists on lingering
Do we deserve sheer punishment for misjudging gloom?
At times love misinterprets emotional ache as an excuse
Must it lay silently underground until it freezes for good?
If even just one promise attains autonomy from disarray
Plant a kiss, a subtle embrace, and rise out of the ashes!
11:33 A.M.
11/22/2022
Aboard cruise ship:
Rhapsody of the Seas
Chania, Greece
There is silence in this grief
There is friction in the heart
There's a mountain filled with sorrows
That tears the joys apart.
On this woesome road of life
Kissed by the fumes of pain
When not a shed or an open cover
To shelter from the rain.
But beyond a moment of grind
Is the gleaming light of hope
But its hard to see the rainbow
Beyond the roughest slope.
Woesome seas of anguish
Drifting through the wind
Crashing on the seashores
Of a life ablazed in rend.
Seemingly lost in
a desert
we're on a path
which seems hopeless
Let the city be
remembered
here in the ashes of
what once was glorious
A different type of
light came down upon us then
Now it is a weary sun
which warms a weary people
The sands stretch before us
and we despair
Yet even in this black
hour
A still small voice calls
to us saying
"The Phoenix will rise
from the ashes"
Light will dance once
more on glittering domes Don't yield to despair
"A Phoenix will rise from the ashes"
this sunday morning,
there were lesser chirps,
faded rays
and muffled words.
the refrigerator still reads,
"happy anniversary",
with a photograph of us.
the same date,
the same face,
the same love,
but a different year.
there were music bands,
there were long drives
to abandoned lands.
the kitchen fights,
the second pizza bites,
the mended heart
and then the collapse.
did you burn our Polaroid,
the way you flared us?
this sunday morning,
there were lesser chirps,
faded rays
and muffled words.
i lie down
on the kitchen floor,
holding his letter,
looking at the ashes,
tiny pieces
that are left of us.
"It was 12am and my google calendar pinged, Happy Anniversary. I was half drunk and almost raged. I destroyed the journal with your poems in it, only to realise our Polaroid was burning too.
I woke up and I found your letter in the mail".
piles of
all the letters
i could never send.
There’s a Child in every Woman that emerges now and then
Together they reverse Time from Now to Way Back When
The Child and Woman search for the Child’s place in Time
When the Child not yet a Woman lived a life that didn’t rhyme
Childhood barely started, cruelly faulted, abruptly halted
Childhood denied, deprived and criminally assaulted.
A lonely, battered Child, isolated in her fears
Crying only inner tears during those long and joyless years
The Child’s life fragmented and became emotionally forlorn
Influencing the Woman as she was later being formed.
Time heals all wounds it is written and said
But memories are forever despite what’s heard or read
Painful memories surface without reason or design
Like road signs in reverse as the Child’s life unwinds
Memories take root as the Child takes on grime
A Child abused and stained
An Innocent, cruelly used and shamed.
The Child (now Woman) affirm each other’s core
Bringing healing closer to forever, seeking forevermore
Can a life so tainted, incinerated and deprived
Rise from the ashes to acquire the value to revive?
First Child, then Woman were determined to survive
Forgiveness shared the path they tread to keep themselves alive
Life shouldn’t focus on evil, they learned, or on whom to blame
Life isn’t to squander as if playing a meaningless game
Do not feel pity for that Child or the Woman she became
Celebrate instead their survival as they celebrate the same.
Like a phoenix out of the ashes,
hope stirs in the remnants of
my bruised and burned heart,
Rising from the ruins,
to face a new day,
a new promise,
Growing stronger by the day,
until it is ready to take flight,
To take on the world.