Best Thunderhead Poems
I Think Of You - Ground Zero (Part 1)
Leaving under a blood moon
in a jet plane rising
los angeles falls behind me
and I...
You.
Two.
Clouds dance
to the song of the spiders.
Latent sun rays fall on me like rain...I
...They say third time's the charm.
On planes again.
A sky...endless... and then finally
from the other end of the world to here.
A continent, an island,
an australian flower drunk on wine.
Her...uniqueness lends to her beauty.
...and I
A fourth night.
A church spire at sunset.
At a distance bats fill the sky,
resemble a smoke plume.
...I
I plead the fifth.
It's all these moons.
Tonight a hunter's moon.
She's unable to hide
even with her bowl of clouds.
It's no help.
She has no spoon.
Her luminous rays give her up.
Moonshine in the moonlight over the sea.
...I
I count...five,
six...on the beach.
A purple nightshade,
a sand flower,
Irish eyes speak uniquely to me.
....I
I, you...
you can't roll a seven with one die.
Back on a plane.
A snow fog blinding.
From my window seat a one of a kind view.
Alone,
...I
I eight...ate...need to eat.
Africa...a Safari.
A plant chloroform green
has holes like cheese.
A large swiss leaf.
I laugh and I...I distract myself.
A stitch in time beats nine.
Back in North America.
A dilapidated fortress stares down
an overwhelming thunderhead.
...I
I camp out.
It requires a tenth...tent.
An Eagle never blinks.
No eye lids.
An unimpeded view.
...but I...I surrender.
There is no place in the world
I can escape.
...I
i think of you.
You are living art.
Here.
Now.
What I perceive
is what I live.
I perceive us.
I can picture you.
I am photography,
the camera, the lens.
I absorb your image,
process it.
A form of plagiarism
I didn't borrow.
I stole.
Inhaled you but
...I
I dream
and I...
...i think of you.
Armand
March 11 2015
Categories:
thunderhead, introspection,
Form:
Free verse
A cold lion roams, doctrinaire and sterile,
The expanse of Africa offers him no sanctuary, the Saringehti no salvation,
He can only smell the scent of his pride now, his cubs shun him,
Repelled by needless roars, the revolting rants,
Tail tattered, biten by jackels at will,
His nose bit and beaten from battles better avoided,
Soul tethered to a label, only a title, "King of the Jungle" ,
Fleas and insects of all sorts find haven in his muddy mane
once so puffed and wide like a thunderhead trampling over Tanzania,
I hear him in the twilight, lonely, unsated and undesired,
Paranoid about a life that does not seem to love him,
His heart became a desserted Athens, a broken, rigid column slumped on the earth,
He wanders near the Nile, nearsighted and nervous
As an Egyptian boy of ancient lineage stalks him sensitively
Putting the speartip to own temple saying,
I see your ribs, your broken paws, your futility,
I will now deliver your soul unto the cool night,
The spear is launched with a certain bloodlust
piercing behind the shoulder blade, his heart hollers
with the cry of scarred suprise, the lion stumbles and pants
vanity not allowing blame for lack of vigilance,
the boy trots to the spot, kneels in token reverence
telling him, sip the black puddle of your error, as eyes fold ever shallow,
let me feed you these apples of arrogance
so to quiet your grievence, to sooth your ego before final sight,
there is no shame in being slain by a Pharoah King, old lion,
I shall wear your teeth as a timeless trophy of tragedy,
Emblematical of Pride gone on too long,
may the spirit of Herodetous teach this lesson to a new breed -
J.A.B.
Categories:
thunderhead, character,
Form:
Epic
You
Rise, a
Thunderhead
Looming over
Me
Categories:
thunderhead, anti bullying, fear,
Form:
Lanterne
What would Westerns be without Horses
Would our heroes be as well known
Without their equine companions
They’d chase the bad guys on their own.
Roy would be lost without Trigger
And Gene without Champion - no way
Hoppy relied upon Topper
To keep the bad guys at bay.
“Hi-Ho Silver” yelled the Lone Ranger
Tonto followed with “Git em up Scout”
These guys relied on their horses
That’s what Westerns were all about.
Tom Mix rode Tony The Wonder Horse
That goes back a long time ago
Cisco Kids mount was Diablo
Red Ryder rode Thunder, I know.
There were other well known horses
Like Flicka and Thunderhead,
Fury and National Velvet
Black Beauty and of course Mr. Ed.
So as these Heroes rode the range
To find an outlaw who’s hiding
Lets pause and give some credit
To the Horses that they are riding.
Theme: Horses
Contest: Horses or Snowflakes or Horses and Snowflakes
Written by: Ralph Taylor 7/28/10
Sponsor: Constance~A Rambling Poet
Categories:
thunderhead, animals, cowboy-western
Form:
Rhyme
the acorn in the oak
bark bone fingers crusted brown
waving sinew, shedding sky
tap root summon’d deeply down
sighs like summer sound in rain
building up then down the shade
sunlight filters dappled beams
stormwinds wild up the glade
growth rings tell of time and fire
knots hold moments, seasons pass
thunderhead now roaring branches
whirlwind leaves in leaning grass
now black clouds spill heavy ink
first a smatter, soon much more
trunk soaked humid, lichen slick
ozone bite, ionic pour
for a moment pause creation
flash the static, crash the drum
rock the heavens, cloak the sun
clouds bursting out electric thrum
flashing pulse and threading sap
plasma blaze down wooded stroke
crack the mighty, split the bole
greenfather fallen low and broke
spent the clouded day turns blue
as from a storm new days are born
and next to ragged roots and grounded trunk
the oak waits quiet in the acorn...
Categories:
thunderhead, children, father, life,
Form:
Rhyme
Frightening beauty
Buldging with intensity,
Gloomy thunderhead.
Categories:
thunderhead, nature
Form:
Haiku
Two can never touch
Thunderhead lowly rumbles
The fearless arc jumps
Categories:
thunderhead, love,
Form:
Haiku
cloud born illusions
flash in summer’s thunderhead
melt in winter’s sun
Brian Johnston
January 1, 2016
Categories:
thunderhead, nature,
Form:
Haiku
The future seems so hard at times
Although it’s answered prayer
Unfolding futures
Offer no previews,
Are innately mysterious
Have their own rhythm and perfume,
Always leave us guessing.
The future is like a developing cloud
That can build into a thunderhead
Complete with lighting flashes
Or color an evening sky
With rainbow like diffractions of light
Calming jagged nerves.
Always a partner in marriage,
I await my bride at the alter of time,
Whether the music playing be ecstatic or a dirge
The organist has been paid,
The wedding guests have gathered
And many lives await our vows.
Do I love her? Good question!
Like a tsunami approaching the shore
She rushes landward,
As unstoppable as a tide,
How can man say no to lunar phases?
And the future also has its moods,
Blushing like a girl you just kissed,
Withdrawn like forgotten birthday.
But when she nestles in your arms
You can feel her softly purring,
Motor running, she belongs to you.
Brian Johnston
January 30, 2016
Categories:
thunderhead, life,
Form:
Free verse
Summer came crashing down like a thunderhead
Hordes of children released from their brick prisons
My young eyes watched out the passenger window
Our yard, brown spots and all, I loved it
The way we ran, the sprinkler cackling in the background
Voices hoarse from delighted screams, evening bubbles by
Blades of grass stick to my heel, and I dream of junipers
They line the front of our house, protecting it from monsters
I want to take that particular green and paint my life with it
Over again, just once more, standing next to the street
Rubbing the needles between my fingers, sticky with life
The evergreen balm sparkles through my senses
Stirring up magic and stories about the high sea
Night time comes and my memory stands tall
The curtains in my bedroom billow like sails
And outside, the castle wall still stands
Categories:
thunderhead, adventure, april, child, courage,
Form:
Free verse
I fly in the sky
With abandon
Wings spread soaring
On thunderheads exploring.
Content to be free
Knowing the risk
Of natures hard and cruel ways
Than to be held prisoner
Safe from winters winds
In a gilded cage
Of my own making.
.
Categories:
thunderhead, allegory
Form:
Free verse
Thunderhead
Billowing blackness
towering over it’s prey
yellow eyes flashing
she deliberately licks
cold raindrops from trembling lips
3/31/2015
Submitted to Rick Parise - Tanka contest
Categories:
thunderhead, imagery, rain,
Form:
Tanka
Opinionated- And It’s Eyes---
I awoke and flung my mind soul in the heaven
What could there be more purely seven?
'It's that lordship,' I muttered;
And am I the nonbeliever never okaying;
I crave the divine, deponent denominationalism Why?
Death shall bring skies;
What could there be more purely otherwise?
And its eyes have all the lapping;
Human dogs!! I discovered the deists;
And its eyes have all the licking;
Instead I uncovered the thunderhead;
The grounds the earth cries, the garden smiled;
'It's that pagan,' I muttered
What could there be more purely profiled?
That moment my soul grew ritualistic;
And its eyes have all the plaining;
Eagerly I looked for the deity;
I am shorn of my heterogeneity;
Eagerly I looked for the backslider;
I felt compelled to sniff the atheists;
I awoke and flung the redeemer;
And its eyes have all the scudding;
Of the Zephyr's that is spudding;
It threw its ghost against the churchgoers;
Only this and a dominion;
And the eschatology never poppling;
Somewhat louder than the public opinion;
It threw its ghost against the peonies;
There stood a dear dominion;
The epistasis brought such sorrow;
I discovered the adherents;
The damnation laughed;
The patristic parson pitting;
And its eyes have all the reputing;
Death shall bring religionists;
But in the fact that it was whispering;
Loping and loping with my euphorbia;
Mankind, opinionated- And It’s Eyes
3/6/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. ©2019
Categories:
thunderhead, analogy, anxiety, assonance, emotions,
Form:
Dramatic Verse
Cloud
Looking up that I see..
Is a Cloud..
Thunderhead..
Forming..
Humidly is on the rise..
Air is sucking..
To the Cloud..
In the Sky..
Soon this Cloud will form..
Into this great huge storm..
No telling what this storm will do..
Sheets of rain will stream down through..
Sometimes hail - will damage the ground..
Much money loss over a cloud that grew to prevail..
Sometimes tornados spin down then destruct a killing path..
All started from that Cloud, that humidly, in a rising air mass..
Categories:
thunderhead, history, life, recovery from...
Form:
Heroic Couplet
Weeks of hot days endlessly parading across the desert
Lulled me into a coma believing the weather would stay that way forever
Mid afternoon I stepped outside to go to the post office
Something was different
Thunder boomed and over White Mountain was a giant thunderhead
Bolts flashed but no rain had fallen yet
The chickens vanished into hiding
The feral cats dashed from under my parked car to find a safer hiding spot
I ran to the clothesline and yanked down the red work shirts and old t-shirts
Into the sack I stuffed jeans and my boyfriend's socks and towels
A quick glance and I realized all the folding tables were still out
So I swooped those up and into the shed they went
Now rain was falling like a maiden's blush
I opened the gate and climbed into the car as harder rain started slashing the windows
I hopped out to close the gate and was tempted to stay home and watch the storm
The forked lightning changed my mind.
Halfway down my dirt road I saw a thick bolt of lightning pummel the ground at the foot of the mountain
Wind whipped papers into the air and trash cans into the street
As the rain gained momentum
Hours later I drove back up the hill
Sand crisscrossing the road was evidence of flooding in a dozen places
Pools of water still stood off the roadway
Sections of the road were washed down into gullies
Part of my driveway looked like a giant had drawn a sharp knife through the sand
The power had been out
A neighbor said one bolt of lightning had hit the ground and out it went
Pretty sure it was the same bolt I saw
Categories:
thunderhead, mountains, nature, weather, wind,
Form:
Free verse