Best Tonal Poems
nothing spoils this surface view ~ see me
crave attention, gift empty touch
tonal mask veils flaws and vices
face alter ego and kneel
to feed the shallow shadow that circles
~ around gossamer tears of the grieving moon,
as silenced streaks of tongue-twisted lines,
undress a puddle of poisoned stars
pull force imperceptible, attraction
lost in blissful contemplation
comatose until that last equation
gravitational persuasion creating longing
but will the lake that flows with fears
thaw words tangled in golden chains?
for I’ve drowned in liquified lies,
drawing perfection from imperfect reflections
delve to the depths of my spun world
peripheral interference dissipates in darkness
only requirement is carved version of self
that steadies my hand and drags me in
sinking beneath Narcissus's polluted undertow
tainted oxygen leaves my expanding lungs
hitting jagged rocks, spoiled skin shreds,
exposing a forgotten empath ~ salvation rises
Categories:
tonal, angst, deep, mental health,
Form:
Ekphrasis
Invisible formations streak
Through clouds around the Moon,
Then delve beneath the canopy
to voice a mortal tune.
Your soul the vessel to impart
In perfect tonal scheme;
One second of a beating heart,
A light year's span, a dream.
Now as you wake in stretching moves,
As night to day evolves,
A messenger left vital clues
To aid your will to solve.
Gene Bourne.
07-20-14
.
Categories:
tonal, allegory, allusion, emotions, fantasy,
Form:
Rhyme
A mystic rose smile that belonged to my mother this is what I recall
My easel and I resting in the spirit, by the grandeur of a morning tilt. As the
Yellow sunrays streak across the canvass, I think of Lamancha
Saffron and mom's tasty soups. Contentedly I paint away until a
Ticklish breeze brings me back to present stay. A lifetime away still I recall the
Indian sari she wore with shades of orange/gold lamer. Lustrous hair pulled
Carefully back, exposing two dark coaled eyes that shone like brightly lit topaz .
Red carnelian sun in tonal ranges splashed across a tapestry of love
Oxidized colors melding into the portraiture of Sahana, Matriarch of Bangalore.
Smiling at the camera a thousand watts from Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Her
Energy exhumed inside the sketch my recollecting fingertips
Subservient hands cupping my tiny face, "My little turmeric "
Maybe you'll be an artist some day, she spoke with her eyes
I like to think she was the reason I succeeded. Her every word a
Laud accolade. I remember the day I held my first paintbrush
Every time I pick one up today, I think of my mom and a village called Aluru .
November 19, 2021
Categories:
tonal, appreciation, mom,
Form:
Acrostic
Pursed
Lips
Again
Yield
Through
Holy
Exhalation
Fine-tuned
Lyrical
Unclouded
Tonal
Ecstasy
Categories:
tonal, music,
Form:
Acrostic
Frog playing violin
Perforated Ceiling Washer
White Dot Wassily Kandinsky
©Rajat Kanti Chakrabarty
16 December 2014
Notes:White Dot was painted in 1923 while Kandinsky was a professor at the Bauhaus. He combined various shades of white which are thought to imply possibilities in life and bold curving shapes of black which portray the antithesis, death. Interspersed are varying shades of red, blue and yellow.
The circle was the perfect shape to Kandinsky and he felt it was "the synthesis of the greatest oppositions". He believed it led to the 4th dimension and was seen throughout many of his works of art during this period. The black circle with the white dot draws the viewer's eye to the upper right of the canvas with an intensity that is broken by the "squiggled" black line that bisects the canvas on the diagonal. The triangles as well as other shapes appear throughout the piece broken by diagonal black lines. Not only do layered planes of color give this two-dimensional painting depth but tonal variations of color on a given shape lends a three dimensional feel as well.
Kandinsky's connection to music is felt as the riot of colors and various shapes can be compared to the arrangement of musical notes. The combination of angles and curved lines as well as bold color and shaded forms imbue the painting with energy and one could expect to hear a symphony resonating off the canvas.
Categories:
tonal, art,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Dawn song / sweet trills / thin flute roused
Splayed light / warm vibe / worn slats doused
Dream haunts / harsh cough / plumb tears smart
Heart touched / mixed thoughts / frail past frouse
_____________________________________________________________
Jueju is a curtailed verse of Chinese origin that grew popular amongst Chinese poets during the Tang Dynasty. Some of the formal rules of the regulated verse forms were applied in the case of the jueju curtailed verse, these rules as applied to the jueju include regular line length (either 5 or 7 monosyllables per line in each quatrain), the use of a single rhyme in even-numbered verses (lines), strict patterning of tonal alternations (see the updated definition of Jueju here at PS), use of a major caesura before the last three syllables, optional parallelism and grammaticality of each line as a sentence. Each couplet generally forms a distinct unit, and the third line generally introduces some turn of thought or direction within the poem. The final line ponders the meaning and draws the parts together. The English form was first taught by Dr Jonathan Stalling at UC Berkeley in 1997 who introduced the rhyme scheme aaba (mimicking the Rubaiyat), and a dictionary of monosyllable words to be used in the phrases.
RECOMMENDED READING
1. poems.com/features/what-sparks-poetry/jonathan-stalling-on-spring-snow/
2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jueju
3. Jueju Poetry Form: Brush the Past's Echo (+ Example) (wordwool.com)
Categories:
tonal, feelings, image, memory, nature,
Form:
Jueju
Hi keep me in your visage,
keep me in your sociostew
quote me in a passage
or hey, F U
themes, ideas, sonnets,
mambypamby contrivances set to words
tell me your thoughts are merely
terds. No creativity, stilitd patterns,
prose passivity and illcreated
rhytm lanterns given to pre cunni
lingual callings set to teen tonal
twitterings of **** adult annoyances
of prepostadnoidial fake frontal toe the line
godforbidugetpregnantwhileI haveuinthe
backseatofmycar,basementmotelroomparkalbeit
sanctifiedmarriagewithalloftheaccruments beguiledgiven to the EverWaiters
of sexo satisfied vagino villified vanilla wafer
wishes until the wounded wedding night cherry bursting
(yea right)
bomb blast blemishes. Keep it in in novative organ aztional
invigor ative essence to stand by yr manwomanpersonit
as statedstated by state in a reverenced supreme courted not society
given to a biased"What the hell do we do now guys/gals and inbetweens", SFHD.
Guess it and get the prize, or play our home game
as your consolation gift.
We r un evolving without the neutral notion of
core capacity locus of control and seminal socialization.
We r what we BE and all else is con
trivity. Sons/daughters noncompliant with the so be its and told u so's
do as I do keep it simple, we as boomers ahve set a style too conseropliant to
reinvent the self. youth recapitulate your entity and serve no one unless it
benefits those insufficient to a misnomer antiquated to a universal device
dead to annoyance and brevity. Unforgiving to a future promise.
All for one and one for all.
Categories:
tonal, betrayal, corruption, education, future,
Form:
Free verse
Even the hollow reed voices across sand, dry plains,
startling lilt, notes we can remember.
We can forget. Forgetting is our salvation,
not reincarnation.
When memory is destroyed, we are spared
thorns, destiny.
No further life.
Peace be with you.
With you, Father.
To each the choice, known, unknown, of what the
heart can render. Rending forever, keeping us
worn, sworn to earth, dust.
Do not erect stones for me, they would keep me
company. I did not have companionship in
life, why plague the stones at sunset?
Cover me with thorns, as in life, one reed,
one drum. I clutch music of death,
no salvation, yet reincarnation.
You are in peace. Let me.
Remember me.
Remember.
Who would leave their bed of winter's night
to light dark's ice with wax candle?
Not you, priest...
bound by law to the body, not soul's grief
or expansion.
Bound to limit the soul in one direction.
Denial of reed and drum leads voices,
in canto, to ceilings.
Captured. Tonal.
Never twice on key.
To each a choice...thorn, dulled thorn.
Thorn nonetheless.
Vine. Rose.
What redemption after salvation?
Can salvation be redeemed?
Must it, should it, by who's hand...
long the vine, short the rose.
Together...vining rose of headstones
rendering hollowness in winter's
dark ice.
For you who remember...
a candle.
Categories:
tonal, allegory,
Form:
Alliteration
For centuries of ancient thought
cosmic harmonies have been sought
in the vast eternal motion
of the grand galactic ocean.
To some the twinkling sky inspires
poems about celestial choirs.
But if those serenades occur
it’s just as if they never were,
since sounds of stars cannot be heard
‘tis said, not even by a bird,
nor bat or dolphin, beast or man;
for frequencies are higher than
any species of mammal can
detect in auditory span.
Albeit space may ‘silent’ be,
the waves traverse that spatial sea,
which scientists convert to sound.
Plus other systems have been found.
With asteroseismology,
a useful methodology,
“starquake” flickers of light can turn
into sonancy to discern.
Still, stars are sounding on their own,
with song motifs as yet unknown,
Aural hums and thrums they render
symphonize great Nature’s splendor
in astro-plasma pulses strange
from universe’s tonal range,
like resonance of bells immense
ariose in a stellar sense,
with strains, refrains sidereal,
majestic sounds ethereal.
Is there a unifying theme
melodious in heavens’ scheme?
If only humans had the ears
to hear the music of the spheres!
~ Harley White
* * * * * * * * *
“Each celestial body, in fact each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element, while having its own function and character, contributes to the whole.” ~ Pythagoras
Inspiration derived from article with image, “Have researchers discovered the sound of the stars?”
Categories:
tonal, imagination, music, sky, space,
Form:
Verse
She has great freckles and a live wire voice
And red hair with beauty that can’t compare
Green eyes and lovely tonal lips displayed
Can hear her love by her motion she shares
I always hold her deep inside of me
Her glory lies outside of her beauty
Her real charm is beyond her simple looks
Her whole loving heart is just how I see
Her longing gaze is what I surely see
Deep within my soul I long to view her
So when I am near her I want to be
One with her heart, a Hug I must confer
Charming and inspiring are her great looks
There’s not a man on Earth that would not see
Her gorgeousness that’s fueled by her power
Not a second goes by that she’s not free
She always desires a lovely warm Hug
From any good looking man that surrounds
Hugs are her thing, no matter her beauty
All men win, from her heart of love astounds
Russell Sivey
Contest: HUGS
Sponsor: S. K. A. T.
5/28/2013
Categories:
tonal, heart, life, love,
Form:
Quatrain
Exuberant Light
Selfless rays spring from tonal anagrams
Crystal daybreaks that never know twilight
Released from the pure rhapsody “I Am”
Innocent of intention, free of night,
Nascent from infinity’s essence – light -
Unselfish benediction leaping up
Vitality born in perfection’s cup
Pure spirit, benevolent chivalry,
Enduring present animas closeup,
Crucible, animation’s ministry.
Breathless, lives without infected judgement,
Simply chanted bliss in the present tense
Torrents of chaste delight’s descant descent
Dainty clarity, effervescent zest,
Seeks no return – collects no interest -
Unselfish bounty - Eternal always –
Cascading lambent merriment of praise
No need of sun or moon nativity
Incorruptible abundance ablaze
Light sings everlasting festivity.
11-16-21
Contest: Agendaless Exuberance
Sponsor: Unseeking Seeker
Syllables checked with PS
Categories:
tonal, giving, god, life, light,
Form:
Dizain
Plein air and picturesque,free flowing
and festooned in tonal harmony
Hear me recite from my 4000+ PS anthology on youtube under my pen name ichthychiro..
catch my short forms @strandpoet on twitter...
read my amazon kindle guides
Categories:
tonal, art,
Form:
Couplet
Lesson 1.
What do you have to teach me today?
For I have learned much from “teaching” my “children”.
Lesson 2.
I will not always give you what you want.
Lesson 3.
You will not always appreciate what I give you.
Lesson 4.
I will teach you to spit and swear.
For each has its place and should be done properly.
Lesson 5.
Language is an art form. Words are tonal paint brushes.
Lesson 6
You look just like yourself!!!!!
Don’t let them pin Uncle Harry’s nose on you.
Lesson 7.
Dining advice….fingers were made before forks.
Lesson 8.
Listen to Dad(Papa). He’ll tell you some strange things.
The wisdom of his words will come to you as you mature.
Lesson 9.
Don’t pull the cats tail.
Lesson 10.
Everyone has something to teach you.
Not all of it is worth learning.
You’ll figure it out.
Lesson 11.
Friendship is a welcome mat.
Lesson 12.
When in doubt….
GO ASK YOUR MOTHER!!
©2/12/2023
Categories:
tonal, children,
Form:
List
I.
“A hiatus, not a parting.”
I waited until stones gathered
on the mothy carpet of the
living room. Then I stopped,
like mothers and fathers,
the un-watered
Delphiniums window-side.
II.
Laid a rusted finger on
the lip, the dredged ice,
Alaskan wind, a single
prayer before expatriation and
a loaf of pennies.
You don’t know what
opportune means (question mark)
III.
A thousand chests,
the ribs crumbling;
it’s a melody, a syncopation, some
Eucharist pre-hymnal tonal exercise.
We all waited for false angels,
the permanence of grief.
Categories:
tonal, absence, angel, culture, emotions,
Form:
Imagism
You cannot refute
The charm of a flute
Playing nicely with breezes
Categories:
tonal, nature,
Form:
Haiku