Best Tugs Poems
I long to write a poem just right
Between the somber and the light
To tease the edges of a heart
To hook the reader from the start
Seduce them with a metered plea
A nuanced message: “follow me”
For I invite you to ascend
The peaks we’ll reach before the end.
To wander lost across the page
To tap the knowledge of the sage
To walk away wondering why
The answer is the endless sigh
Why poetry will never die
For words are fashioned without guilt
In whispering poetic lilt
That holds a hand, that tugs a heart
Bids you adieu as you depart
Rejoices in that gentle touch
That poems long for oh so much.
©5/24/2022
Within her frail shell, death abides
through the final hours, I remain by her side
fearing a forsaken place of webs that lie in rows
of haggard fields where everything forbidden grows
surrounded by caverns of mortal's deserted bones
she faintly whispered, "I want to go home"
Death awakens the wandering soul, affliction steps away
vanishing through corridors numbered by years of pain
yet, illuminates all delightful wanderings in between
eternity tugs at her robe to calm the heavy laden breaths
into softer mournful moans, she'll acquiesce
Within a midst of welcoming hosts rapt in lucent haze, hallowed air
transcends her delicate last breath, then earthly slumber ends
her requiem, immersed through immortal gates
never to be cast into a cold stone grave
Karen Anglesey 4/29/13
he enters the room
coyly she tugs her skirt
just a bit
enough to reveal her shapely legs
tossing back her golden tresses
she shakes her head
just a bit
hoping to attract his eyes
tiny shift of the derriere
she takes long, gentle strides
just a bit
has he seen her yet?
bending to reveal cleavage
she winks as she pours champagne
just a bit
a taste of ambrosia from a vixen
“Sometimes less is more,”
she says in a deep, sensual tone
“Just a bit,
I saved the best for you.”
in the mirror she sees his eyes
they follow her
just a bit
before he saunters to her side
he kisses her hand
warm and soft
just a bit
camouflaged emotions become clearer
other partygoers stay inside
he coaxes her with flashing green eyes
just a bit
as he leads her to the lakeside pavilion
a vision in the moon’s soft light
she moves closer
just a bit
and whispers demurely in his ear
“Your place or mine?”
they giggle
just a bit
"Should we call the babysitter?"
Bright eyes,
blue skies,
it's a beautiful day!
"Let's go, Mama!" her cheer,
down the tall slide, no fear.
Twisting, bumping, "this is fun"
one more bend then it's done.
from the bottom goofy laughter.
One more go, another after.
"Come on, Mama!" she tugs
off to the swings after hugs.
back and forth, smiles soar
keep on going, swing some more!
Chain rattles with gaining speed,
she kicks her legs with excited need.
"Look at me Mama, I'm going high!
Look Mama, look Mama, I caught the sky!"
"There Mama, let's play in the sand"
off the swing in a quick demand.
Castle made with stick flags on top,
another bucket and we don't stop.
Laying back she buries her toes
and wiggles when sand gets in her nose.
Shake it off she says "I'm hungry"
it's time for a picnic, her and me.
Days like this, so fun and sweet.
Mama and daughter, summer heat.
True smiles of discovery
always to be cherished... my girl and me.
Blue skies,
Bright eyes,
it's a beautiful day!
To love
Is to remember
The touch of your hand
Your voice
When you called me cariad
My mouth remembers your kiss
The feel of your lips
Sensual touch of your tongue on mine
The closeness this brings
To love
Is to want to be with
Man woman or child
To love them
to want them near
To take in their being
When you love
It tugs at your heart
Making your chest swell
With unknown pleasure
Spreading to a smile
your eyes lighting up
face aglow
The feeling of love
Keeps you young at heart
Helps you want to face another day
Yet no more
That love has lost its way
Floundering in the brink of destruction
Searching, for the exit of depression.
Needs to see the light once more
Yet all there is, is the heat of hells fire
The internal hell, that goes around and around the brain
Looking for answers, for the reason.
Memories try to flood the senses
Memories of the hope that once flourished
Now is smouldering in the no mans land of waste
Is there love ever after?
This is the third writing with letter L. As suggested by Jan..
One half is submerged in light,
the other in darkness.
Half says goodnight and the other
tugs the harness.
Kids climb backyard trees tinged
with school bus yellow.
As lovers play hide and seek
in the nighttime meadow.
Training wheels lay abandoned -
youthful eyes bear cornea confidence.
The silver spokes whistle through copper leaves -
once in a lifetime decadence.
August stars say their last farewell
in glorious beelines.
Whilst wrinkled fingers grasp the moon
in delicious daytime.
A woman dressed in white walks down the aisle -
her father proudly flaunts.
As a preacher recites Scripture at a funeral:
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want...
A newborn's laugh lights the whole world up
with effortless ease.
Whilst a pair of liver-spotted legs
unbuckles its knees.
One takes the first step -
the other reaches the end of the line.
One is a wealth of wisdom -
and the other is a gift divine.
Tiny toes to caress the sand,
ashes to sprinkle in the sea -
as if Nature itself has read aloud
Ecclesiastes Three.
Beneath embered brands of burning roof,
The firefighter waits.
His mask is on; he’s donned his gloves,
Ready to enter the fiery state.
Once again to battle beast,
Whose heart burns with flaming hate.
On hands and knees he treads with care
Over blackened brittle floor.
Making way through smoke dark rooms
Fighting fear from door to door.
Outstretched arms reach for muffled screams
Heard above the deafening roar.
Hoping to find before too late,
The source of curdling screams.
A scenario played all too oft
Within the hero’s dreams.
The task at hand his only thought
And the safety of his team.
Crying, scared a young child waits
For rescue from choking heat.
Then through the blackness something tugs
And pulls his trembling feet.
A Vadered voice says “it’s OK”
And hugs him to the street.
The fire alone remains to beat;
And return to fight he goes.
To find the beast alive and well;
Destroying, as it grows.
He aims his weapon at the seat
And from it water flows.
The devil dies as fire gives in
To the water’s cooling spray.
The house is gone; but at least,
No lives were lost today.
So back he jumps on bright red truck,
And into night he rides away.
In quiet contemplation,
The firefighter stares.
Holding back a hundred thoughts
That known might seem him scared.
But he pushes fear aside,
And treads where others do not dare!
They enter the strip
joint like the last
flurrie of flakes.
She hears the music,
hears the voice of the
D.J. Wind, enters on cue.
Her cold poles await her
as she moves to the beat.
One south, one north.
She works them both.
They call her Storm
she is the feature act.
Drawing her minions
in for months now.
Quickly the starkness of ivory
starts to melt off her body.
The long blanched gloves
covered those particular
patches are the first to go
revealing the fresh lustre of
bare skin once again exposed.
Sexy,
she's a professional!
She stares out
noticing the skeletal
frames once only
shadows,
now with a glimmer
of light.
She knows her time
is short now
feels a hint
of life in her
domain of
dead stares.
Hears sounds
that are telling.
Was that really a chirp
or just a whistle?
The pulse of warmth starts
to pump through her veins.
Now her shiny robe
falls to the ground and
you can sense the smell
of want in the air.
The flow of liquids
previously frozen stiff.
Storm the stripper
slowly teases the crowd.
Down to her Victoria Secret
garb she tugs at our groins
knowing her audience craves
more.
In this case that also
means less.
I personally will miss her
in this present form.
Her tidy white lingerie
against her tanned skin.
Covered peaks,
rounded mounds.
You just want to
ride up, and maneuver
your way down.
The timing is wrong.
I know she will strip bare
as first the top goes then
down to a G-String of snow.
Naked,
winter stands
in front of me.
She will meander a bit
shake with a breeze
of perfumed cold.
Slide onto the floor as she undulates
with her come ons that near a finality.
She saunters off the stage
and me I watch winter's end.
Spring, on winter's barren
ground starts to peek from
around the curtain,
with her touch of green.
Warm breezes.
Her array of pastel colors.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Winter has left the building,
Spring is here!
01~19~2015
Sponsor: SKAT A
Contest: Winters End
Homer, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Goethe, and Crane;
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolstoy, Whitman, and Twain;
Whose imagination and toil helped to unfold
Stories, philosophies, and lessons to be told.
The inquisitive student absorbed in his books,
Contemplating and learning while everyone looks
At him with judgmental glances, as if to say,
“Strange seeing him indoors even on this fine day.”
But to him, the weather is of little concern
While he is satisfying his deep thirst to learn.
Taken in by tales of peasants, lovers, and knights,
And those waxing on people’s and government’s rights.
Just then, he feels a chilly draft, but no matter,
As he tugs at his worn jacket collar’s tatter.
Off in the distance, he hears children playing games,
But no match for his fables with fanciful names.
Lost in some fiction, he really can’t help himself,
He thirstily reads his way across his bookshelf.
Hungry – but his knowledge appetite can outlast,
He ignores stomach growls as the lunch hour has passed.
The reader pores on in utter fascination,
As if in a trance, but not caused by libation.
Searching, grasping, he is mentally enraptured,
With meanings bold to subtle all being captured.
In deep translation of the scenes, plots, and faces
Scribed in earlier times and in other places.
He can wait for frolic, frills and things of that kind.
For now, the scholar will sit and enrich his mind.
2/26/17
Plunked down in chaos
from a gentler time,
blinkered from the traffic
he pulls the coach along.
Patient, in his harness bond
he tugs at hearts, with pathos-
as to his love of duty we respond.
Amidst the screech of sirens
and the blasting horns,
he stands and dreams
of meadows in a nosebag.
Such rhythmic clicking of
metal shoes on concrete,
full rolling of the carriage
wheels and he, confined,
down through the centuries
he thought he'd left behind.
I followed that cad Robyn Hood
and discovered he's up to no good
An expert at cheating
bad mouthing and bleating
His actions I've not understood
Oh how awful that folks feel so glum
Many now call him Robyn Hoodlum
He's a raunchy thief
who brought them to grief
He preyed on the blind, deaf, and dumb
Robyn has folks dancing like Muppets
He loves to treat them like puppets
He tugs at their strings
and then clips their wings
No wonder their confidence plummets
Heard the sheriff will arrest him soon
Robyn will be singing a new tune
While sitting in jail
He will cry and wail
In sorrow for acting like a goon
Sheriff found out Robyn is a girl
Her real name is Antoinette Pearl
Robyn Hoodlum wed
Now the sheriff is dead
and Robyn is engaged to an earl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fairytale plot by Jan Allison, Marti Sutherland, and Lin Lane
~
She reached for the ribbons of her gown
not knowing why, but she held them in her hand
as she floated through the ever changing mist,
whites and grays in a swirling pattern,
mesmerizing in blends and shifts,
blurred yet possessing a clarity she could not explain
or cared to think about right now
She looked down on herself in her bed sobbing,
clutching tightly a dampened pillow, lonely, a photo
in a silver frame on the bedside table, missing...
now very confused as a peaceful awareness wrapped about her warmly,
caressing her spirit, washing away the pain,
the sadness, the torment which she fought now to remember
as it drifted below, creating new shadows about her feet
but distant, never forgotten, she couldn’t, it was promised…
Once more the satin ribbons were pulled gently, guided
as if a feather laced kite on a silver string embracing blue skies,
dancing about in the slow rhythm, spun in clouded dreams,
breathless she soars higher, it seems towards the sun
or perhaps a light of a different source, it felt soft, cool
beckoning her and she yearned for it…
for some reason it felt right
Stars swept past her in wiry glistening designs
like a sparkler at a summer cookout waved through the air
in abstract cherry-lime glowings and apple pie tickles and she smiled,
for the first time in a long time as the moon disappeared on the horizon,
embracing this new experience she continued allowing the tender tugs on her ribbons
to move her freely, when she felt something, it was a hand on hers,
helping her hold the ribbons, it felt familiar, safe, comforting
When she saw his eyes, as clear as she had ever seen anything,
deep and friendly, soothing just as she had remembered…remembered?
He took her by the hands and he came even more into focus
“Hi there, I have missed you,” he sighed and she knew it was him
He was here, wherever here was, he held her in his arms now as he said,
“I promised you I would love you eternally, I have been waiting for you”
She cried again, happy tears as she whispered. “You did, you did, is this…”
“Shhh,” he placed a caring finger to her lips…
I sit in stillness
framed by glass
the world outside dances
sunlight spills like golden honey.
yet within these walls I stay.
regret coils.....
around me tight as a noose
lurking in shadows.
I breathe in
inhaling the vastness of
the ocean's essence.
I can feel it
my heart beats.....
steady as stone.
I glance out and see
islands shimmering like dreams…..
clouds lazily drift by.
like ghostly albatrosses.
heavy with the mental wobbling weight
of untold excruciating hours
spent in despair.
I can hear
waves hum their foaming forgotten lullabies.
spilling secrets from the depths.....
beneath the starlit sky
I sail on
gliding over waveless waters
alone in the stillness of the night.
the salt air mingles with my thoughts
hope burns
a flicker caught in the tempest howl
distant as fires beyond the glass
a pleading prayer goes unanswered.
I gaze at
the world, so alive.....
filled with laughter and song.
joy drifts in like soft misty mist
but raw regret tugs at my heart.
snowflakes fall quietly.....
silence calls.
then Darkness Descends.
Draping the earth in it’s shadowy spell.
Dancing, Drumming, Devouring.
hope's last flicker Dies…..
echoes of a Dying breath
chaos reigns supreme.
I feel frozen
in this shattered world
where cracked glass bites into
my dreams.
I’m helpless.
I am a silent witness
to a dying light.
I find myself fractured like
just like the life
I let slip away.
I’m the voyeur of lost tomorrows.
their cost carved deep into
the marrow of my soul
a sentencing weight I’ll carry forever.
Luxuriant black hair
Trails your naked body
Soothing all those places
Seared by my burning lips
Waves of silky curls
Cascade over you
Following the rise and fall
Flirting with your fingers
Inviting gentle tugs
Midnight strands curtain your face
As your body emulates
The motion of lips and tongue
A black waterfall of ecstasy
Coconut scented dreams
Of long wavy black hair
Keep a smile there on your face
Until I’m again in your arms
Eileen Manassian Ghali
Stepping past the crater towards your door,
I am reminded of warm days
surrendered in flowery abandon while
brushing against cool veins of
leafy promise, requiring only the slightest
compassion for the flow of life.
The scope of our crusade sings bitter,
like absinthe in a Fanta bottle;
tangs of anise and wormwood persist
within ether's truthful vision
resisting factory flavors in a curtain,
velvet reminders of flesh.
Lap your moistened shape. You dissolve,
my expectant sugar cube, no longer
made jagged by expectation or campaign
but fragile again, doughy in
blissful rapture upon my snacking,
curling up in a fetal calm
until we flow once more with the surge
propelling us entangled yet
unencumbered, finally breathing our
amniotic potential within this
spiritual umbilical making my stomach
spin within these tugs of finality,
despite my carpenter's heart yearning to
mend or create. Do arrogance and
industry compel mankind's devastation? Such
a question drifts unanswered as I
kiss your wrist before strapping on my boots
to hurl my blood into the fray.