Best Tiki Poems
I shiver tears.
My joie de vivre;
summer esprit’s lemon zest,
lilac flirts and coral whispers
have escaped me ~
grievous gray
now flows through my veins.
I shiver melancholia,
entombed with my winter blues
in the dark dreamless hollow
of my frowning igloo.
Draped in decor of dispirited drear
I wear a wistful woebegone fog,
an overcoat of overcast moods.
I weep wall to wall
in the listless light-less nights
alone with my lonely longings—
my psyche withers
like a frost-stunned leaf;
I shrivel
a little more each dull day.
I shiver sadness.
My colorless tears
cry out loud for color!
I yearn for watermelon sunsets
pink sands and tiki cocktails swirled
with swizzle stick glee.
I wish for rainbows to color
my lackluster laughter
and crave for fireworks to celebrate
in my mirthless eyes—
restless for Sol’s warm hands
to tenderly undress and caress me
and lay bare my soul
straitjacketed by winter blues.
Categories:
tiki, depression, loneliness, longing, sad,
Form:
Free verse
No storms stalk the turquoise sky,
white towering cloud-kites unhindered fly;
brisk breezes bear a sea salt sip
of tangy kisses on wild, wet lips.
The sneaky sand is never shy,
all defenses it defies
to nestle down against soft skin
in just the spot to cause chagrin.
Smells of pineapple, coconut,
drinking cheek to cheek in a tiki hut
to the beat of bossa nova bands-
young summers on the golden strand.
Copyright, November 2, 2014
Faye Lanham Gibson
Categories:
tiki, beach, fun, youth,
Form:
Rhyme
My dream holiday on an Island so far away
I’ve wanted to go there for many a day
‘Kon-Tiki’ film by Thor Heyerdahl caught my eye
Now Easter Island is a destination I dearly want to try
A journey, which would take me over land and sea
But to reach my destination would be a dream for me
Easter Island is located in the Pacific Ocean
I’d need to fly to Santiago de Chile then to Hanga Roa
The Rapa Nui tribe used to inhabit there
No trees are on the Island – isn’t that rare!
At one stage the Island suffered deforestation
This could explain the total devastation
The Island is famed for its archaeological sites
Its monumental statues cause many delights
‘Moai’ are the famous statues with oversized heads
They rest on rock altars ‘Ahu’ their own comfy beds
These incredible stone carvings are heavy and some are very tall
The largest at 86 tonnes would have been a nightmare to haul
To view all the statues I would stay for a day or two
I do hope one day my wish will finally come true
Contest Take a Vacation
Sponsor Lin Lane
02~03~16
Categories:
tiki, holiday, journey, travel,
Form:
Couplet
The night emits a citronella scent
From tiki torches topped with living flame;
I swim in circles -- softly speak your name --
While starlight washes over us, content.
Cicadas still sing secrets to the trees
Like Summer's heartbeat throbbing in the dark --
While on a new adventure we embark,
Sped onward by a silent, gentle breeze.
Your kisses ripple slowly down my spine --
Your touch is strong and steady, like the tide --
Warm bodies wrapped in motion dip and glide --
You turn the turbid sea to fragrant wine.
The rising moon gives witness to my cries;
Tonight I drown within your ocean eyes.
Categories:
tiki, adventure, allegory, happiness, love,
Form:
Sonnet
Outside October perches it's little feet
upon summer's fading scenery,
replacing marigolds with mums
and swapping tiki torches
for dimly lit jack o' lanterns,
illuminating midnight
with another seasons mysterious approach
and I cannot help but wonder
if fall had a heart,
to whom would it belong
(a fallen leaf,
the moon's cycloptic eye,
or perhaps someone of human descent)
an owl gazing restlessly
at the cool, autumn sky
seems to be interrogating God
with the same, single question
who, who, who
but no one answers
Categories:
tiki, life, nature, sea, seasonsautumn,
Form:
Free verse
Serenade Me, Julius La Rosa
His striped tie has a green tint color
And his hands are dark and bulging with blood.
I can see them gripping the steering wheel like parrot talons.
I can see from all the way up here
That one of his fingers has a golden wedding ring,
And he just sits there in that Studebaker
Looking up at my apartment window,
Like I’m some freaking captive locked in a high tower,
And he’s my guard, my sentinel,
Making sure I do not escape.
“Hey you! Yeah you! I’m talking to you!
Oh? You have a problem with me seeing the blond bombshell?
The one with the face that launched a million ejaculations?
The face that burned the topless towers
Of a million American households?”
Now he has a cigarette going inside that sleek automobile.
It’s dangling from his lips
Like a big white toothpick from Scully’s.
The Los Angeles Mirror,
The front page,
Rests forlornly on the passenger seat.
I can even see the headlines from up here –
Something about an execution,
Julius and Ethel R.
Serenade me, Julius La Rosa!
Sing to me now! ‘Eh, Cumpari!’
It’s 1953 and all’s well in the world.
There shall be a tiki torch in every back yard!
“A cocktail? Here, have mine.
I’m well stocked here in my Kasbah.
Now, sweetheart, what were you going to say?”
“When I dance with you,
I feel like I’m in Paris by the Seine,
Dancing in technicolor with Gene Kelly.
You have wonderful moves and a very masculine touch,
And I can almost hear Gershwin music,
Way off in the distance.”
“By the way, my darling Norma Jeane, who taught you to dance?”
“To be honest, my mother.
It was an emergency situation, I had a hot date, so…”
And now we are sashaying on my torn and tattered carpet,
With Perry Como crooning ‘No Other Love’ on my Hi Fi,
Over there in the dark corner.
The lights of the Big Enchilada
Glisten outside my lone window
Like a million incandescent candles
That burn with lust for us.
“Hold me closer.
I need to feel your warm blood.
I need to breathe in your luscious sweet cologne.
Mmmmmm. Kiss me.”
“I will kiss you.
I will kiss you long and I will kiss you very hard.
But first, my darling, why not some Rachmaninoff,
The second piano concerto,
Instead of Perry Como?”
“No Piggy.
Locked in your arms I’ll stay.
Waiting for you to say,
No other love have I.”
Categories:
tiki, memory, me, dark, dark,
Form:
Dramatic Monologue
sneaky black cat on
the back of the couch likes to
lick oil from my hair
Categories:
tiki, animals, funny, nature, pets,
Form:
Haiku
I like to write on the screened-in porch
By the light of the grinning tiki torch
Listening to nature's sounds
Ideas sound abound
Ignited by the creative force
Received an Honorable Mention in "Inspired"contest
Categories:
tiki, on writing and words
Form:
Limerick
Two Aloha-shirted Hawaiians
of generous girth were strumming
their ukuleles
on a small stage in front of the hotel’s poolside bar
in the late afternoon,
rehearsing for the night’s performance.
It must have been the low season,
as both bar and pool were deserted.
and the singer, unburdened
by a leis-laden audience’s
Mai Tai-soaked expectations,
was going through a mele
as if trying it on for size,
his voice loose-limbed with an easy grace.
Wrapped in the ukuleles' lolling strains,
his falsetto notes tumbled out into an
uncongested airspace,
where no ceiling formed by small talk, disjointed laughter
or tinkling glasses impeded their progress,
so they unfurled their wings,
lifted themselves into the hibiscus-brushed breeze,
and climbed,
hopscotching and frolicking on their ascent,
skipping from Tiki torch to treetop to balcony.
Some straggled, loitered on windowsills.
Some, afraid of heights, fluttered back down
to rest on top of beach umbrellas
next to shadows of palm fronds.
Still others hang-glided out over the sand
and the lapis water,
lured by the marigold light.
So that, when they alighted on my
hotel room balcony ten floors above,
they were fragments,
excerpted by the intervening air
from the upflowing cascade into
a broken yet voluptuous murmur,
a soft, lilting South Seas benediction
floating around my head.
I’d just sat down in the balcony chair, alone,
my wife being inside the room busying herself
with the correct placement of luggage
after we’d checked in.
And so it was that I found myself looking out
at the beginnings of a sky-painting Maui sunset
accompanied by air that quietly sang.
Maybe it was my senses unwinding
after the bustle of the journey,
or maybe it was simply that I was caught unawares,
but the feeling of contentment,
the almost Zen-like awareness of the here and now,
that overcame me at that moment was something
no convergence of sights and sounds
has been able to reproduce in the 20 years since.
It was, to be sure, an experience I’d paid more than
a negligible amount of money for.
The irony is that it was the first time
I truly understood the simplicity of happiness.
Mahalo.
Categories:
tiki, blessing, happiness, memory, places,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Fall has come
and with it the march of the NY Giants
Dangerous game!
But the players do it
for the glory (and the not inconsequential financial rewards)
I will watch the game Sunday
on TV
I have good friends that
don't like the game
But I get thrilled when
the NY Giants win
My uncle met Tiki Barber(of the Giants)
I remember going to an
Orthodox shul
I went to as a youth
Someone said "What's the score?" with a smile
Autumn has arrived
Categories:
tiki, autumn, football, seasons,
Form:
Free verse
We stood on a beach of white sand, on a beautiful tropical isle.
I held my daughter's hand in mine. We shared a knowing smile.
There were no words spoken. We knew what was left unsaid.
Our voices surely would've broken, so we shared a hug instead.
No father to walk with her today; no strong arm to keep her steady.
I was the one who'd give her away. "Mom," she said, "I'm ready."
Then we felt a gentle breeze, ruffling the hem of her chiffon dress.
It rustled through palm leaves, soft and sweet as a lover's caress.
An orchestral wedding march became music with each rushing wave.
Romantic lighting from tiki torch, to her groom, my daughter, I gave.
A golden sunset cast its light, as the happy couple whispered, " I do."
It was quite a charming night, beside still waters of turquoise hues.
A moments respite from the fray, I sat with my daughter alone.
"Mom, I wish Dad had been here today." A tear of sorrow was sown.
"So do I, my darling. I miss him, too. Right now he'd be so carefree,
on the dance floor with you. He's not here so come, dance with me."
She wore a smile, for a while, then I saw her walk out the door.
My little girl, no longer a child, said, "Hi Daddy, this is Eleanor."
Time to put away her denial, and whisper her last 'goodbyes.'
Daddy walked her down the aisle, when he sang her lullabies.
~ Internal and Ending Rhyme Schemes ~
There are no rules for the number of lines or syllables per line.
I especially like this double form of rhyming because of its
challenge to rhyme in the middle and at the end of each line.
Example for each verse: a b
a b
c d
c d
Lin Lane ~ Poetry Writing #1 Contest
December 10th 2015
Sponsor ~ Broken Wings
Categories:
tiki, father daughter, wedding,
Form:
Rhyme
I remember the land of drums I was born
bedded beneath great hanging nets;
the sound of the conch and the horn.
My blue suitcase filled with stuff,
the red tricycle and pedal car
that made me race and made me puff.
I remember the hounds of revolution nightly howl
on the streets of my island home.
Now I reign afar in the land of my exile
as might a king given up his throne
I remember my first day of school so bleak,
a gingerbread house on Picton Street
where I first kissed a sweetheart cheek.
Hearken tales of men in Sherwood,
Nelly Stone in her rocking chair
reading The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The loud guttural yard turkeys’ gobble and flap,
and kids singing their songs of joy.
I remember the year, the girl, the songs
in all its virtue when I was a boy
I remember the front yard we would play
and the annex rooms we called home
watching The Riki Tiki Show at 17 Gray.
Waving at the Queen’s royal parade
down on Saint Clair Avenue
in the crowds following her motorcade.
I remember huddled around the old valve radio,
long siestas in the hot afternoon
till late beneath a corner streetlight halo
raving drunk slumped Blue Moon
I remember sticky chewy peanut brittle
with my cold Nestle chocolate milk
while gorging my tummy little by little.
Behold down-de-islands dashing
in a pirogue out on Staubles Bay -
the sea spray across the bow crashing.
Watching as darkness fell on high moon and tide
shining on bay and jetty so bright,
when as young eyes grew weary I would
rest at peace all through the night
I remember all dressed for Sunday School
and afternoons at the Country Club
splashing around in the swimming pool.
And at sea playing captain and sailor
on board a ship Panama bound
in my cabin with my toy boat and trailer.
I remember the ports and voyage of no return
into the yonder crossing the equator,
when old Neptune rose from the undersea
to bless our ship and navigate her
Written: September 1990
Categories:
tiki, childhood, home,
Form:
Rhyme
On Saturday night in Waikiki
The teenagers turn rather freaky
Though blue as a smurf
They all love to surf
Like a Kahanamoku tiki!
Categories:
tiki, humor,
Form:
Limerick
Like an upright bowl
the moon hangs filled
with starry light
sparkling in your eyes
Stained glass celestial orbs
consume the night sky
beings of mercy swim
in poisoned clear blue waters
I've watched the death of innocence
sunburned noses turn north
far along the rabbit proof fence
they search for nirvanas shores
in beds of dirt and grass
they hunger for the purest water
to fill the belly of their soul
jackaways swoop tearing holes in heaven
spears of the light of illumination
carress the heart of the world
imagining tomorrows on dreamy seas
little brown hands grasp grass blankets
protecting satin skin from injection
in huts of mud peoples commune with gods
Riki tiki shakes bones from crowns thorns
yesterday is in eyes not wanting tomorrow
humanity calls with her bag of tricks
pressing the hard sold achlmey of science
failing to bind their wounds they flee
a blessing would be the unclothed hamartia
ego calls again to the weak and weary
following the death of a modern world
Yet forgotten customs rise their heads
they seek golden shores of opportunity
only to be turned back with a tryants buck
sitting on the shores disappointed hosts
packing away a welcome mat head lowered
ashamed of our Queen and Country, yet again
Categories:
tiki, abuse, anger, children, fear,
Form:
Free verse
My love,
What a dream you are to me.
We walk hand in hand,
Sometimes by the sea,
And yes it seems a dream.
But a dream how can it be?
With you I feel so free.
The crashing of the waves,
Erasing old footsteps,
To create new beginnings,
A new life, you and me.
I walk with you tonight,
As we always do,
Showing our love,
How great to be with you.
My heart fills with joy,
With every thought of you.
Tiki torches in the distance,
Their flames dance to the breeze,
As if they are beckoning,
Come dance with me.
Dance we will,
But first a kiss,
As the water sweeps across our feet.
With you I am ready to begin,
Where are you, but in my pen?
Categories:
tiki, girlfriend-boyfriend, life, love, passion,
Form:
Free verse