Best Thronged Poems
...carries the wilted weight of autumn
in its broken beauty
with fields of brown stalks,
unharvested pumpkins that rest like mislaid dreams
patient where they are
November, detached from the moorings of green
when golden leaves, sparse, cleave to skein branches
to thwart the creep of cold
the leaf brown baggage below curls at its edges
like fickle affection
and yet,
the busy abundance of harvest
foretell platters of gratitude
Thanksgiving
a mix of deliverance and charisma
tangible
like the elation of coming home
month of nocturnal stabs of frost bring foliage to weeping
L i s t e n
L i s t e n
to what murmurs beneath half frozen furrows
fields that know what pushes through seasonal loss
radical roots
stored in darkness
a spring-to-come growth
thronged with voices
that never lay
far below
the surface
Poem written November 6th, 2022
He approaches fast
We bump - silly heart beats wildly
Him - lost in thought- No word of apology
We pass each other
He approaches fast
Eyes so blue - elicits soundless sighs
He stares - out into distant skies
We pass each other
He approaches fast
Sensual lips - beg a moonlight kiss
A dropped beat- my heart does miss
We pass each other
He approaches fast
New day dawns - new courage found
Courage flees - from lips no sound
We pass each other
He approaches fast
Gold tipped streaks - on hair of brown
He neither smiles - nor does he frown
We pass each other
He approaches fast
Hint of down - on a manly chin
Imagining stroking it - I hide a grin
We pass each other
He approaches fast
Convinced he’ll smile - eye contact meet
He hurries by - I concede defeat
We pass each other
He approaches fast
Smile he does - chatting on the phone
Pangs of hurt - He’s not alone
We pass each other
He approaches fast
I hurry on - with eyes downcast
A bump I feel - and look aghast
I look into the bluest eyes
My heart it stops
I groan
I die
A quizzical smile plays on his lips
Oh beating heart that soars and dips
And so this moment I shall seize
Forever in my memory freeze
We stand and grin- no words to utter
Still ----We don’t pass each other
Footnote:
School over and kids thronged a mall, where I sat sipping my coffee in a café. I couldn’t help overhearing some high school girls, loudly talking about their teenage crushes which prompted me to write this amusing poem. I’m sure parents of teenage girls the world over will undeniably identify with. Oh!! And of course Taylor Swift was one of their favourite singers.
Music video by Taylor Swift performing ‘You Belong With Me’ (C) 2009 Big Machine Records, LLC
Published on Jun 16, 2009 #VEVOCertified on April 16, 2011.
I hold myself a prisoner
A captive taciturn
Unspeakable enticement still yearning
Since coming of age to discern
Yet never knowing
Except in part
The fullness to overflowing
In the cerebral cortex of my heart
The heart knows reason
Which reason does not know
Inoculated by truth a lie will weaken
Like the dawn of a child in an embryo
For this the battle to bring heart to speech
In mind, for one to live oft' another thing dies
It's the delicate balance when determined to please
Suspended between fulfillment's death and the giving of life
The beauty of a fractured symmetry
Where thinking heart meets mind
To know this elusive camaraderie
Perhaps in a world in eternities time
So I see myself in another life
Where sorrows hold no interest
A wistful smile proves transparent
While intensity conveys my signet
Warmth and wrath bear equal zeal
But I, an antithesis in perfect balance
A lonely vagrant thronged by faces
Embraced by insipid attachments
As honey brines by way of nectar
In homes fashioned with wax
Void of every ignoble stinger
Known to propitiate the diffident task
Thus so masked I travel still
The duplicitous road yet shackled
Until my tongue finds clemency
From the demons my mind embattles
Outside
The streets are thronged with people
Chanting empty slogans
Mindless minions
Dancing to a globalist agenda...
W.A. CHOLT. Copyright Fergal O Reilly. 2017.
Start
Enclosed in a glass casket
Cuddled in a flower-decked basket
She lay serene as ever
No sign of her past fervor
Resting in her last abode
Before the journey by road
To her final burial site
For performing the last rite
Dignitaries came to pay their last respect
Placed a wreath, sad and circumspect
Consoled the members who were dear
To reduce their sorrow and repress a tear
She ruled the state for over a decade
Hailed as the Iron lady, never swayed
Adored by the masses, especially poor
She was the mother to all and a doer
Millions of mourners thronged the street
Wishing she was alive for them to meet
Sea of humanity surged in a melancholy state
Thumping their chests and lamenting their fate
Alas! She can’t hear their mourning cries
It’s a feeling no one can ever reprise
Slowly the coffin was lowered into the grave
The sea responded with a mighty wave.
UNSUPPORTED CODE
It was never my intention,
not a conscious decision,
to cause you any level of grief.
Our give and take wasn’t as envisioned.
Blindly, I let you fall between my gaps.
It’s not right or wrong, but fact that
I got lost in a thronged rhythm
recovering from things life had given.
You have always shone a warm light
selflessly bright into my life.
Stern storms drowned my content,
turned me until forlorn bent.
I pursued a healing renewal but
my drenched attempts were futile -
I didn’t mean to hurl you into my duel.
Please accept my sincere apology
for giving less than you handed me.
I’d never set out to hurt another
but denying friendship gratitude
colors me pallid shades of rude.
Ode to the people of Norway
Strophe
O, the darkness has descended on a paradise
Of Norway’s bounties of nature
On the people living a quiet life
Not concerned about the politics ever
A drug addict, calling himself a warrior
Taking pride of being a savior of Europe
Unmindful of the death toll of the young
Rejoicing in the tears falling from their eyes
A Hitler has raised his ugly head up
Polluting the minds of the old and the young.
Antistrophe
But trying to take a refuge to insanity
Taking drugs to make himself efficient and awake
Priding over to start war for years sixty
Pleading not guilty to terrorism namesake
Though confessing to bombing and rampage
But remaining unaffected by what happened
Thus his plea assures him of future court hearings
By the attacks Norway is riveted with rage
By Breivik’s paranoid writings stunned
Hundreds thronged the courthouse proceedings.
Epode
With tears in their eyes people paid homage
To the victims laying roses a few feet deep
While the killer faces 21 years in prison
The stiffest sentence can be given by a Norwegian judge
His lawyer says the whole case suggests his client is insane
The Royal couple consoled people and tears shed
The prime minister called it a national tragedy
And summed it up “evil can never defeat a nation”
The killer may enjoy Halden, the luxurious jail in the world
Where cells have flat TV and designer furniture facility.
+++++++++
* I wrote this poem two years back when the tragedy took place. Not posted anywhere
Date 4-11-13
Dr. Ram Mehta
Tenth Place win
Contest: Ode (Old/new) poetry by SKAT Love
The Parade
The sun beat down in the still May air
The streets were thronged with people there
Expectantly waiting for the large parade
As it marched its path down the Palace way
The marshal music from afar
Soon became a louder roar
As the bands played gaily down the road
And the ranks marched stiffly, straight and proud
The people gave a loud applause
But received neither glance nor pause
From the uniformed troops
Each in their smart individual groups
Drums rolled and bagpipes skirled
Bass drums boomed and kilts, they swirled
Trumpets blared and cymbals crashed
While clarinets, our ears, caressed
On and on still they came
Some so slim, some sturdy of frame
Some so young, some strangely old
Though either shy, cheeky or bold
Men, women, boys and girls were there
Bearing down upon the Palace square
Then the stiff “Eyes Right!” was moot
As the president “took” the salute
The sun beat down in the still May air
Oblivious to it the throng stood there
Scouts and Cubs, Brownies and Guides
Yes, even Dolphins made the ride
The annual May Parade
Has passed us by, splendour thus displayed
The “military precision” might not have been there
But their effort was – And that’s more, by far!
I’m flabbergasted at how the streets are thronged
Could You be the one for whom twelve years I’ve longed?
Oh say, a Physician like no other before seen?
Different from the kind to where I had been?
Could Your timing have been more impeccable?
And Your approach be more unbelievable?
But I’ll undoubtedly put the last of my trust in You
I have much to lose, yes, indeed that’s true
But out of options I’ve finally run
And now even money, I truly have none
So I will find my way to your garment
So You can put an end to this bloody ailment
With an old blood-stained dress
I start out and on I press
I hurry through the deafeningly noisy crowd
Each one giving a careless, yet imploring shout
And it feels like You move further
With every step I take to get closer
“Please, if You are the Saviour”, I think,
“help me to press on, for I’m at the brink
Of breaking down, about to forfeit
I’m helplessly at the mercy of defeat.”
Not only will I touch your garment
But You will make my life to Your goodness a testament
Finally, after pushing past the multitude, I see an open space
To my advantage, in the other direction, is turned His face
Unworthy I am, so I really do not have to talk to Him
All I truly need to do is swiftly touch His hem
The hem of the Saviour’s garment, that’s all I really need
And then from this sickening bondage of blood I’ll be freed
I touch His garment, and it really was not my intention
To in any way catch the Saviour’s attention
I find it strange that no change in me I see
Until that mysterious Physician spots me
And confirms soothingly to my soul
“…thy faith hath made thee whole.”
So not only will I touch the hem of Your garment swiftly
But I will praise You from the bottom of my heart sweetly
Not only will I touch the hem of Your garment as I said I would
But I will ever bear in my heart of hearts to my Saviour gratitude
Not only will I touch the hem of Your garment, but strife
I will, as I hold onto You, Lord, for dear life
Not only will I touch the hem of Your garment with my finger
But in Your presence I will overstay my welcome and persistently linger
Not only will I touch the hem of Your garment as scary
As it may seem, I will cling to You, oh, loving and lovable Redeemer of Calvary
Refugee - the refugeless!
Belonged somewhere sometime,
to relate with, in space and time;
Uprooted, evicted or torn asunder,
circumstances induced mindless plunder!
Giving up all that once belonged,
alien and distant shores we thronged!
Dangers abound on the ruthless trip,
false promises made to safely ship!
Causes aplenty for me, to set-off,
on journey - any human would scoff!
My body ain't mine, till I reach,
my life at mercy of a blood sucking leech!
No tears to shed or a way to tread,
wandered in seas and land for bread.
Befriended death, 'the trustworthy',
who often checked, if I was 'seaworthy'!
Wet and tired from within too - my state,
at an alien shore, extended souls berate!
Herded at their will, coerced to spill,
tired of being treated like cattle!
Some of me was just a few months old
and was expected to do just as I was told!
In this measurable space in which I roll,
Life loses to life and Soul loses out to soul!
Congolese Dreams:
Yesterday, I cried.
Yesterday, I cried for the lies I told.
I cried for the pain I caused my mother and her nursing hands.
I cried like a child left to wander in silence--to take up strange thoughts as my brown body grows old.
Yesterday, I cried.
I cried like a widower whose pleas disturbs the peace of his neighbors.
I cannot remember what made me hurry into my room, sat on my poorly dressed bed, untied my shoes and wept. But on the corner of my eyes, angry tears rolled down.
Tears of longing-- from waiting for what will never be.
Tears that came from the fear that romanced the ideas that thronged my mind.
Yesterday, I cried.
I cried for you, my mother and my sister.
I cried for the suffering my sister endured
I cried for her broken heart and the desire my ignorance killed.
I cried for the woman that got me a child,
I cried for the pains she felt and my insecurity
I cried for her youthful desire and the trust she had for me
I cried because she showed me love but I was absent
Yesterday, I cried till my lips became loosed.
Yesterday, I cried.
I cried for a future I might not see
I cried for peace and a home away from shame.
I cried for the days I was ignored,
I cried for the years I was forgotten.
I cried for my mother.
I cried because she had not known my child, let alone her name which resembles hers in spelling
I cried for the forty years I spent trying to find a home within the rims of my broken history.
Yesterday, I cried.
For my child and my dear wife
Like a village man.
Thronged investors at the allotment bazaar
Large cap bearish
Scripts at fall.
Awaited ingenious and expertise capitalists
Then brought into
Scripts at down.
Mid Cap bullish
Scripts at rise
Wavered SENSEX
And small cap ingress
Gives the once over like a cliffhanger rise.
Beginners rapacity and analysts variegations
Former’s paucity and latter’s accrued funds.
Pulled blue chips
Superior position
And more towering price
Then again a new firm
Offering a bid price.
Broker’s commission and depositories dematerialization
Varied revenue
Over investors capitalization.
Inflation hikes and deflation brought down
Again a widespread decline in the GDP
Brought the whole market to pull down.
Analyst’s accrued funds and NIFTY’s superbia
Top thirties jackpots and investors allocations,
Sharply jerked down.
Brainsick market
And a quidity beer bar,
A full-time financial express
And the morning tea NDTV regular.
Beginners’ luck to fill the pot
And a period later
The crow sated the piggy bank pot.
-------------- X -------------------
As peepholes windows rattled on over pot holes,
In the inner sanctum, dim-light show darkly,
As prolific pickpockets glimpsed full fat purses;
With stealthy filty paws to fiddle and fondle inside hot
pies
Where hustling market's women chests underwear pouches,
Raucous kerfuffle flew after razor slashed deep pockets;
Like the flight of Flamengos
Dropping on motion, the golden stolen wallet assailant
vamoose;
And here, disgraceful disguise faces of nourished notorious
beggars,
Glib salesman eulogize marble chalk tablets and
turpentine,
To singe one thousand and one sickness,
And lifeless crowd spilled and shrouded lapsed on the parts
of poison ivy;
Thrust-thronged, defacing the emerging showcase of faceless
skyscrappers,
Better forgot in the museum of pyramid antiquity,
And rot on the garbage of yawning-gap memory,
Dark films smoke caked on drooping ill-faded fountain
Hibiscus,
Tree-lined traveling barb-wire amid
Toxic sludge plaster grass on muddy carpeted borderline,
The prowling beast trailing, triggering machine-gun
shrapnels and blasts;
Screaming smoking tires scattered shimmering lights on wet
avenue,
Turning bank of orchard blooming in red pomegranate into
cemetery bay.
I was told in the beginning
That a wish may not well be unicorn
With two winged thrust-thronged
To soar upon the cumulus,
And for those who are wishing
Wishes to fall on their laps
Were wholly rendered redundant,
Those who want to attain,
Tainted and tarnished past attainment
Forgetting forward fortune
And glory in goods temporary.
Now those who dole out mischief;
Sowing the seed of acrimony
Rotten in corruptible credo
Reshuffling reservoir of redundancy
To establish the roots of inertia,
Of Demo-CRAZY
Of masq-UERADES
Of lob-BEASTS
Of cons-titu-PATION
Of elders
Of fools
Of economy
Of pain
Of nemesis
Of crying jags
And hopelessness, deep furrows on wanton minds
Remembering the deceit of denigration
That brought doomed to deserving daddies
That it is always a surprise,
Unwilling stallion in the midst
Of same blind, semblance sahibs,
A remembrance of the past remembrance
Raising the boys to take the Salutary gauntlet
of the favour done
To pave the way
For stock taking and a quiet get out,
Of the unending, pass measure euphoria,
Then it fell on the laps
Of a fiery warrior; then
The dance of the macabre
And a sycophantic applause,
Mutatis mutandis, endless queues
Of rebounding stomachs
Roaming, rounder the ruins
Recounting remnant reservoir
Denouncing, declaring deceiving
All one enmeshed in the same pot
For the final stir of the arbiter.
I was immersed in an impervious imagination
of these frail flowers feigning a feel of freedom
I watched their wings whirling in whoredom
Impious, they are implanted with impinged impetus
A dignified dust, decorated and dubbed a domineer
Yet they decided to be detritus on a detour, detrained.
Thronged by thick thorny thoughts, theme and thrust
On a throne of thistles, ever thrilled by thralldom,
Pots parading potpourri, they preen in power pomp,
positioned in a plain, poisoned, they prey on the potter,
O where did you wield those wings of woeful wisdom;
to trail the terrain that will only twist and tame you.
A dust you are, drunk and drenched with delusion
Deluged by derisory dream in the domain of darkness,
you drill and drink from the dust you did not designed
O dignified dust, your destiny is but dross and dust.
Devious: you devise deviltry with the devoiced dusts,
With a magmatic mind, mutinous against your marker
Your beauty, brain and brawns will soon get broken,
And you will be drowned in the dust you dignified…