Best Time Honoured Poems
Long gone are the golden
Dusty days!
Where once, like Blazons
On Armorial Shields,
The gathered bronze sheaths
stood -
Cut through at the stalk...
Raised from time honoured
swathes.
Burnished like brushed copper
By high summers slanted rays:
That were sliced so thinly
From the thickening air,
As they brightly
Caught the hot glare,
From the grass mowers blades.
For the singing scythes,
Once wielded so ably
By strong, capable arms,
Are standing abandoned and
Forsaken:
Blunted, left rusting,
Languishing alone
In damp, dilapidated barns.
Now their songs are forgotten -
Lost within a woeful winds
lament!
Blown far out
From the green meadows;
Separated from their verses
Once sung so heartily
With purposeful,
Lusty, well practiced intent.
So think you all well,
Next time you pause
Your drawn eye,
Upon Englands rich harvests
Of ripened barley,
Yellow wheat, and stiff rye...
To dwell on the lost seasons
With melancholy tears...
And think of the old reaper
Who cuts back at the years!
Categories:
time honoured, autumn, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
Strange thought just entered my head
What if I critiqued my own poems
D'ya think I'd really be tough on myself
Or would you detect a slight bias tone
Tried using the criteria of accepted norms
I'd be down at the bottom, no bones
But for humorous verse and originality
Call me Oliver Wendell Holmes
First I followed time honoured patterns
Of poets that have gone before
But that's not what makes a poet of note
Originality is what raises his score
So go ahead and break all the rules
That have been in place forever
Develop your style of creative writing
And be proud of your endeavour
Categories:
time honoured, funny,
Form:
Rhyme
Love is like a warm wooly hat
On a cold and blustery day
A raincoat shielding from a driving rain
A cup of cafe au lait
The morning sun spreading its joy
The warmth of a child's touch
A sleepy hello from the love of your life
Tender words that mean so much
Can you think of anything sweeter
Than the call of a whippoorwill
A protective lioness feeding her cubs
A meadow at midnight so still
Mere words at times fail to express
What's hidden deep in our hearts
Only with time honoured expressions
Are we able to describe it in part
There are so many words and phrases
But none so meaningful as this
A gentle touch, a warm tender smile
A long and passionate kiss
Love is like a warm wooly hat
On a cold and blustery day
A raincoat shielding us from a driving rain
A cup of cafe au lait
© Jack Ellison 2012
Categories:
time honoured, love, words,
Form:
Quatrain
APPASSIONATO
He made overtures to her,
With the time-honoured chat-up line,
“We could make sweet music together;
I want to make you mine.”
She conducted herself quite cautiously;
Remained composed and calm.
A duet might be pleasant;
And he certainly had charm.
But she didn’t want to rush things,
The tempo should be slow.
He wished to proceed allegro,
She favoured adagio.
She played second oboe,
While he was a double bass.
They came from different cultures,
A thing she found hard to embrace.
And so she resisted his overtures,
They really weren’t well-matched.
She had an affaire with a flautist instead;
A thing with no strings attached.
2nd July 2019
Music Theme Contest
Sponsor - Geraldine Taylor
Categories:
time honoured, love, music,
Form:
Rhyme
It's the first day of the rest of my life
I'm feeling reborn
Filled with great anticipation
Wondering what exciting things
Lie just ahead
It seems it's all up to us
We're the ones steering the ship
If things don't turn out bright and cheery
We only have ourselves to blame
However I am not unique
Everyone controls their own destiny
I've learned this fact early on
There's a time honoured old saying
Smile and the world smiles with you
Cry and you cry alone
So very true!!!
So when you're feeling down
And it seems like the whole world is against you
Just smile to yourself
It doesn't matter who's watching
Soon the sun will come out
And you'll have a brighter cheerier outlook
To overcome anything this old world can throw at you
To be honest, there are times
I have trouble following my own advice
But then I remember these uplifting words
Smile and the world smiles with you
Categories:
time honoured, life,
Form:
Free verse
It's the first day of the rest of my life
I'm feeling reborn
Filled with great anticipation
Wondering what exciting things
Lie just ahead
It seems it's all up to us
We're the ones steering my ship
If things don't turn out bright and cheery
We only have ourselves to blame
However I am not unique
Everyone controls their own destiny
I've learned this fact early on
There's a time honoured old saying
Smile and the world smiles with you
Cry and you cry alone
So very true!!!
So when you're feeling down
And it seems like the whole world is against you
Just smile to yourself
It doesn't matter who's watching
Soon the sun will come out
And you'll have a brighter cheerier outlook
To overcome anything this old world can throw at you
To be honest, there are times
I have trouble following my own advice
But then I remember these uplifting words
Smile and the world smiles with you
© Jack Ellison 2014
Categories:
time honoured, happiness, smile,
Form:
Narrative
There’s a time-honoured stretch of a river
that’s a cog in the natural wheel
flowing longer than mans’…
time upon earth
and home for the blackfish and eel.
They say that the time of the crayfish
goes back to the dinosaurs’ day
and rocks that are fighting…
the endless flow
ever slowly, have eroded away.
There’s a time-honoured stretch of a river
fighting the log on a bend,
diverting through snags…
rippling on sand
finding it’s own way to wend.
Platypus live in a backwater swirl,
where flotsam is blending with foam
a track has been worn…
down from the bank
and leads to a water-rats home.
There’s a time-honoured stretch of a river
Well guarded by wattle and gum.
Sword grass and fern…
ti-tree and hazel
are providing a haven for some.
The parrot and fantail along with the bellbird
create many tunes in this vale.
Whistles and shrieks…
one syllable notes
or the currawongs’ melodic wail.
There’s a time-honoured stretch of a river
where I am a gourmet delight
for march fly and leech…
bush fly, mosquito
or the bull-ant’s unbearable bite.
There has been flood when the river runs wild,
and the land is totally drenched,
the litter from hills…
is wrapped around trees
with mountain silt weakly entrenched.
There’s a time-honoured stretch of a river
with a calming appeal for my mind,
Where I can sit…
where I contemplate.
It’s a place to completely unwind.
Nature has given me more than the peace
in the harmony it does deliver
here in the valley…
pristine, unspoiled,
on a time-honoured stretch of a river.
Categories:
time honoured, nature, river,
Form:
Remembering the days way back when
Baseball was what made life tick
Lived and breathed that wonderful game
With the Babe, Ted Williams, and the Mick
Jackie Robinson breaking the colour barrier
Sweet memories inhabit my brain
Jackie was the absolute first hero of mine
Brought equality to this time honoured game
Stan Musial, Bob Feller, and Joe DiMaggio
From a much simpler era, these names
When salaries hadn't yet become astronomical
They played for the love of the game
How many remember the powerhouse Yankees
Every year the cream of the crop
They were always a perpetual Series contender
Seemed like the Yanks were always on top
Those days are gone but sure not forgotten
In the recesses of this old mind
Can still see Ted hitting one over the fence
In my mind, it's nineteen-forty nine
© Jack Ellison 2013
Categories:
time honoured, memory, nostalgia,
Form:
Quatrain
Here's a time honoured expression
Wild horses couldn't keep me away
Methinks that's pretty much a fallacy
Their power is an awesome display
Wild horses are majestic animals
Roaming free o'er the plains of Nevada
Manes flowing, hoofs a-pounding
They perform their lively cantata
Aristocrats of the animal kingdom
Called Mustangs in the U.S.A.
In Australia they're known as Brumbies
Each performs an equine ballet
Reclusive high-spirited stately stallions
Reside on a huge open range
This pompous and regal force of nature
A beauty that resists being tamed
© Jack Ellison 2012
Categories:
time honoured, animals,
Form:
Quatrain
Which Pete was “for Pete's sake” uttered
When mom got flustered, she always muttered
This time honoured phrase
From back in the day
Riding buggies for two that were covered
© Jack Ellison 2015
Categories:
time honoured, humorous,
Form:
Limerick
The buffer and howling is strong through the night,
loose tin on a roof puts up a good fight,
something goes crashing; something flies past,
the moan at the window is ghostly and fast.
There’s damage at daylight, and still goes the whine,
there is swirl on the wattle, a list on the pine.
The strength of the gum trees are tested, but found
boughs have been splintered and fell to the ground.
Fence lines have gathered the loose and the dead,
there’s a terrible lean on a time-honoured shed,
and crops on the plains are all twisted about,
after the windstorm has finally blown out.
The country looks different and definitely prone
to the strength and the power of natures war zone.
Bittersweet truth lies with heartbreak no doubt
after the windstorm has finally blown out.
The billabong’s murky; the river flows brown,
and carries green pruning, snapped and blown down,
chainsaws are cutting what must be thrown out,
after the windstorm has finally blown out.
After the windstorm, has finally blown out,
It’s just one more hurdle to add to the drought,
but farmers resilience will win here no doubt,
now that the windstorm has finally blown out.
©2004 Lindsay Laurie
Categories:
time honoured, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
Is poetry only meant for teaching what is time-honoured
what is authorised
what seeks not to rock the ship of fate
Part Six
Helas! My universally-renowned peerless ancestor!
I’d like to think
You’d be the first to have recognized the always changing world
The first to have accepted the parting of ways
For your intelligence your foresight and hindsight
Your immensely powerful quill
would have sought other remedies
other means to convince
a wayward world
a world far too gone and worldly-wise
to hatch the nuances of your admonishing word
all afresh
N’empêche your name is a comet
hurtling down the ages
©T.Wignesan, December 2001, Paris, France (from the Sequence: "Words for a Lost Sub-Continent", 1999 )
Categories:
time honoured, on writing and words,
Form:
Free verse
Strangest thought just entered my head
What if I critiqued my own poems
D'ya think I'd really be tough on myself
Or would you detect a slight bias tone
Using the criteria of accepted norms
I'd be down at the bottom, no bones
But for humorous verse and originality
Call me Oliver Wendell Holmes
First I followed time honoured patterns
Of poets that have gone on before
But that's not what makes a poet of note
Originality is what raises his score
So go ahead and break all the rules
That have been in place forever
Develop your style of creative writing
And be proud of your endeavour
(My apologies to Oliver Wendell Holmes!)
© Jack Ellison 2013
Categories:
time honoured, introspection, humorous,
Form:
Quatrain
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
The Lord is with me too.
He whispers in loud soothing words
that resonate like
liquid softly fluent.
His watchfulness always lingering
in the pushing of
this steel plated city
where I am trapped.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
The Virgin Queen of Heaven
intercedes for all of us.
She intercedes for me too.
She prays in splendid atmosphere
anguishing over every
sin I am thinking.
Her once-flesh hands twinned in
ever steady prayer.
Shapes populate in my always troubled
daily life.
They upset and tangle the soothing
urgings I feel God placing
in my contemplations.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
The pleasing phasing of spiritual halo's
surrounds me in constant
reassurances.
I'm praying mental rosaries, intoning
words familiar, yet, so loved.
So firm in comfortable places where
I come to God.
This straggling pretence of reality
that we call human-kind;
is not as clear as the affable prayers
of Blessed Mary, my holy Mother.
Standing or sitting does not matter.
Nothing of flesh
ever does.
What is critical are the prayers of
faithful gathered
in presence in Christ's Sacred Mass.
I shall be there too, joining my voice
in time honoured assistance,
"Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you."
Categories:
time honoured,
Form:
Free verse
Jesus the Splendor, voice before any sound
Earliest word spoken
Silent kind messenger of primeval joy
Unending bright epiphany
Shining as ageless wisdom who calls you in
Classical wonder before any dim star
Heartbeat before weakened blood flowed
Relieving faith before any sweet tear fell
Immemorial still perfection
Soporific and eternal pleasantness
Timeless patience for you at night
Time-honoured meekness that shall attain the world
High-standing calmness for harsh storms
Elegant righteousness as a crown for you
Saintly kindness to be worn by the elect
Primeval gift from the Father
Long-standing attainment through the Father’s grace
Endless blessing before all things
Nirvana of praise that Mani arrived at
Deathless treasure shining with light
Original soft garment of golden light
Revelation of Jesus, the light in you
Based on the hymn "Twenty-Two Aspects of Jesus the Splendor" from the Book of Hymns (page 48) on r/Manichaeism on Reddit (in Resources of Manichaeism section).
Categories:
time honoured, deep, jesus, religion, religious,
Form:
Acrostic