Best Trapeze Poems
Up high on our soul’s trapeze
we tire of the bar we hold
but we find it hard to release our known.
Eyeing the free bar of full potential,
we wish to air dive, then faith-catch that swing
so we may fly to where our allure roves.
All crave heights something in us sights.
Here comes, now nears, the free bar
we thoroughly want to grab,
but fear paralyzes all dreams we have.
We tell ourselves what convinces ourselves
to stay put, we count the reasons we should:
"there’s no way it could work out;
not with the balance in my bank account;
I'm too body sorry and old for dating;
I’m so tiny they won’t want me playing;
If I joined, problems would just stack;
Not without good health that I lack;
Trying would just lead to more crying.
Many angels tend God’s blessing warehouse,
some dusting boxes of blessings bearing names
of those who felt they deserved no claim.
When faith lacked so did dust thick stack.
Father stressed pressed,
promised abundance,
yet many clutch less
and name it their best.
Such believing may weave soul regret debt
for our depth knows we were made to love, not fret.
circus performer
a family tradition
passed on to me
a big top flyer
Oohs and ahhs heard from below
in the spotlight's heat
higher I rise
reaching for my partner's hands
the moment of truth
I hold my breath
hundreds of feet above ground
grabbing victory
swinging freely
after somersaults flying
applause like music
an entertainer
my calling to defy laws
of gravity
Suspended with roses, a garter and courage.
Her wispy white costume blows in the breeze.
Silky vibrations as she sways her bodice —
the Rapunzel-princess of the swinging trapeze.
Brunette hair and outfit bound with pearls and lace.
High with Magellanic clouds, marvelous outlander of earth.
Slender fingers wrapped around the seraphic twine.
Daughter of the heavens, from the day a trouper gave birth.
One...two...three, the excitement sounds, the air surfeits
about like maddening faerie dust. The open sky burns
with eccentric flame - crowd applauding like cherry bombs.
The darling of the sky, entices every cent she earns.
This rapturous virgin makes love to the dawn.
Her stupendous feat goes on and on, drawing
in oohs and ahhs...the climax as her knees
hang vaingloriously from the seat, outlawing
the silver and gold wings that flutter about
outside the circus tent, as this beauty shines
upside-down like an albinotic bat, frenetically
stirring the breeze… waving from the vines.
7/29/2019
Children with candy floss and wands of bright plastic,
Anticipation of the big top fantastic -
“Affordable family fun!”
The circus has come to town.
A carnival and a frisson of people,
The smell of the diesel,
It's magical and visceral –
Intense.
There's a girl in hoop earrings
Stands ready and steady and poised at the entrance,
Beckons our queue, guides us on through.
Later in sky blue and diamonds,
She’ll balance the line
Of the high tight rope walk.
To the right, a big burly man,
A wandering vendor of neon lit sabres -
“As you've never seen him before!”
Will throw a precision of knives at his wife.
Twenty years she has whirled in her satin and modesty chiffon,
On her own wheel of fortune.
To the left, there's a girl in an ordinary sweatshirt,
Wide spangled hairband, at a stand where pink sugar is spun.
Soon, she'll be spectacular!
Twirling on ribbons and ropes.
Belief suspended on the thrill of her peril,
Her grace.
We’ll be spellbound.
Sounds surround us as we take our seats ringside,
The beautiful boy selling programmes
Will descend,
Perform a daredevil act.
Our necks strained as we look
To the infinite blue of a tarpaulin sky -
Trapeze artist high -
He'll fly and he'll never grow older.
Dream big.
And then come the men,
Louder and bolder,
Selling bottomless buckets of popcorn and pop,
Sweet, salted and fizzy,
Between sets, they'll be busy.
A cascade of jugglers and clowns.
The big gestures of jesters and tumbling chaos -
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!”
And too soon the showtime is over,
We spill back out into the park,
Blinking into the afternoon,
Rare and recount the fleeting visions of awe and wonder.
Tomorrow the circus will have packed up and gone.
Leaving behind just a fairy circle of flattened grass
And the ghosts of muddy tyre tracks.
Thirty years I have lived with chronic heart disease,
After heart surgery at fifty, more problems arrived,
I have felt like I am living on a high-wire trapeze
With faith in God and medical care I have survived.
After heart surgery at fifty, more problems arrived,
Diabetes, severe gout, arthritis – they all struck
With faith in God and medical care I have survived
Sometimes I have felt like my body has run amuck.
Diabetes, severe gout, arthritis – they all struck
And all the common ailments of age have shown up,
Sometimes I have felt like my body has run amuck
Congestive heart failure is the most recent cup.
And all the common ailments of age have shown up
But, I have been blessed with a good sound mind
Congestive heart failure is the most recent cup,
A person self-sufficient at eighty is hard to find.
But, I have been blessed with a good, sound mind
With faith in God and the best medical care available
A person self-sufficient at eighty is hard to find
So, I make the most of everything that I am capable.
With faith in God and the best medical care available
I realize the arteries all over my body are shutting down
So, I make the most of everything that I am capable
I do not face heart caths and surgeries with a frown.
I realize the arteries all over my body are shutting down
I have felt like I am living on a high-wire trapeze
I do not face heart caths and surgeries with a frown
Thirty years I have lived with chronic heart disease.
SECOND PLACE WINNER
Written May 19, 2022
For “How I Live with Difficult Health Issues” Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Angela Tune
awed watchers whisper
afraid to break the silence ~
flyer leaps forward
A young man on the flying trapeze
Used to fly through the air with ease
Then something went snap
He thought what the crap
Now in heaven he swings through the trees.
A New Bawdy Or Humorous Limerick Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
Trapeze Wire
Flips, twisting mid-air:
Lissome acrobat performs;
Awe-struck audience.
"Hammock Trapeze"
pink powder puff clouds caress
ornate hammock with fair kiss
silky velvet fabric feels
petals starry-eyed trapeze.
*For Nette Onclaud's Hammocks of the Sky Tanaga Contest.
*Written by: Linda-Marie The "Sweetheart of P.S.
*August 28, 2012.
Mary can't catch her death from tornadoes
As she sits on the cage with a swing of her legs
They whisper upstairs for a change in the weather
While young Daddy Bling lights a fire to caress.
And you, yes you, would you take a bullet
For the son of a son that you haven't yet met?
Will you rush the high ground, the rest of us haven't,
And carry the torch from the land of bad guesses?
I can't lend a hand, though I'd really love to
The only one here with a family to keep,
We'll post you a tweet and return to the jungle
As Mary throws shades from her dazzling trapeze.
Look there in the dark at the damp cardboard castles
You trample your promise and he'll break your teeth,
It's lost in the thrum of a million heart lines
Mary threads cable, she's got no crowd to please.
An incredible journey, a delightful insight,
Performing under the big top,
Flying through air, on a wing and a prayer,
Hanging just like a plumb bob,
And the tent is in black, all lights are on you,
Dressed in your leather costume,
Every eye in the house cradles your frame,
Hoping you don’t fall to your doom,
But you manage to fly, with invisible truth,
You manage to belong in the air,
Growing your wings where wings shouldn’t be,
Holding hands with someone upstairs,
And the crowd, well they don’t believe what they saw,
The crowd you know you’ve deceived,
Because the applause is enormous, bigger than big,
For you, on the Flying Trapeze.
Written: July 2nd, 2024 For Robert James Liguori Contest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patience has been my companion
Through endless days and nights
In the sweep of love
A gentle caress upon my essence
Emotions stir within
Rise with the sun, my dear
May you never stray.
You've been evading me for years
Spinning in endless circles
Forever spinning outward
I have a love that fills my heart
An unspoken love, concealed within
Patience has been my companion
Farewell.
In anticipation of my love's arrival
Oh, longing to embrace my scope
Emotions stir within
You've been fleeing, always on the move
Caress the depths of my being
Pause for a moment.
I don’t want my feet to touch the ground as I soar effortlessly above the anxious crowds. I am the world’s greatest trapeze artist performing unimaginable acrobatic feats of daring and intrigue. Gasps of death defying artistry are caught in the throats of the stunned masses always demanding another backwards flip. Secretly they hope for a midair collision as I attempt the impossible act of trying to catch a falling angel, not allowing her to slip from my grasp at the last second.
My fingers clutch at the fleeting air as it moves towards us, snaring her arched body in one breathless motion, and then a quick release to a twisting, turning backwards flip, as if she was never in my arms. The screams of the unbelieving throng still demand another sensational acrobatic thrill, wanting to get their monies worth. They know they will never again see an angel without wings soar unaffected by the laws of gravity.
She is an angel soaring with exquisite gracefulness but the crowd clamors for the inevitable slip from my fingers, as she becomes a blurry image descending from the heavens, the ground rising up as she crashes back to earth. She is an angel without wings plummeting from my arms without a net to catch her; perhaps it was inevitable since love is never perfect.
frog came across tightrope riding on a bike so high
entire circus crowd gave a loud gasp and a sigh
there is a dog in that basket! A little one yelled.
We held our breath now, for he could have been killed.
the frog was cocky, reckless, wild, and crazy for sure.
But dogs are innocent, loyal, kind, totally pure.
I hope the dog is okay, someone yelled from the crowd.
Let the dog down! We began shouting, some of us loud.
frog gave us another cocky wave, and kept pedaling away.
it was a scary ending to a very nerve-wracking day.
the next act was an acrobat who had done away with the net.
I was too nervous to stay, so I ran home to be with my pet.
Intended upended
suspended
upside-down
on trapeze by knees,
is caught,
catcher-clung
flung over
and righted,
as it is to be