Best Waywardness Poems
The Lord is my salvation and my light,
the stronghold of my life, whom shall I fear?
Protecting when the foe attacks by night;
the prayers of his children he will hear.
O holy Lord, my sin has been a veil,
a waywardness that blinds my eyes to you;
a poisoned cloud I willingly inhale
that dulls the spirit and obstructs the view.
One thing I ask, Lord; this is what I seek:
to gaze upon the beauty of your face.
The dark is often strong and I am weak,
remove this veil that I may see your grace.
Yet now we walk by faith and not by sight
until we see, with brand new eyes, your light.
a meditation on Psalm 27
written 16 Mar 2022
Categories:
waywardness, faith, god, light,
Form:
Sonnet
I can watch the neighbors from my front porch
My favorite is a child of barely three
With curls gracing her head in a shining glow of red
Today I see her bang through her door, hands on her hips
Defiance in her face that you simply can’t ignore
Her mama comes to beg her to return
In her waywardness she pouts with lips hard pressed
And stands stubbornly upon her rocky ground
At mama’s reasoning voice to her intransigence
She sniffs quite loudly in childish disdain
Mama smiles, making cookies appear as if by magic
And a squinting of her eyes reveals her interest
Then a slow shuffling walk up the path to the house
Mama's hug melts the last of her resistance
Written: 7-17-2019
Intransigence Poetry Contest 3rd place
Sponsor: John Hamilton
Categories:
waywardness, childhood,
Form:
Free verse
Adamant mindsets
In a modern setup,
Vibrant visions evaporates
To emptiness, nothingness and waywardness.
Leaving the people in stark darkness,
Leading to nowhere,
As penury is declared "king",
Hunger succeeds the throne
As blind leaders hardened the
Economy like bone.
Giving peanuts to the peasants
But gold for the wealthy,
Oh! what a chess game in the midst
Of blind spectators.....
Mothers swaying in tattered rags,
Struggling with drying breasts which
Produces the hopeful milk of the skinny infants...
Children strolling with empty plates
Searching for who to wet their throats.
Fathers planting courage and assurance,
Hoping the land will be milky someday,
Yet the center is not holding
For heads are plenty but the brains are few...
Therefore turning weakening hearts
To marauding crooks,
Victimizing themselves,
Staining their whites,
Be litling their lives,
Insulting their hands
Making the land stink,
While Africa bears the smell,
To the detriment of her virtue.
Our agricultural and peaceful
"green white green", they've turned to
A dark and bloody "red black red".
Now who leads who in this
Criminal war front, corrupt justice
And indecisive generation?
Things fall apart when truth step aside,
Evil takes the lead when black minds
Score the goal...
Things fall apart when the people can't merge.
Categories:
waywardness, black african american, philosophy,
Form:
Free verse
My pride for the Girl Child
Adorned with beauty
Carved in sensitivity
Nourished in humility
Crowned in glory
Yet denied of my pride
I weep that I might find my place
Struggled from birth to maturity because of who I am
Day by day I face the challenges of acceptance
Hide my insecurity with smiles
To make all happy around me
Yet denied of my pride
At conception they ask is me or my other kind? And the other is chosen over me
They celebrate my other kind as if am not the divines creation
They say am just a fraction out of the whole
They tear me apart with their traditions and religion
Denying me of my pride
They cut my part at a tender age
To disguise their brutality saying they are saving me from waywardness
They shut my mouth from speaking of my freedom
Saying they are teaching submission and humility
Yet denying of my pride.
They treated me as inferior
Excluded me from their plan yet decided my fate
Singing and cheering me up
With chains of mediocrity they bound me
Denying of my pride
They sold me out without consideration for money that had no value
To start a new life at my tender age when I still needed the tenderness and love
Without thinking of my dreams and goals
They pierced my heart with their lust and greed
And they denied me of my pride
They captured me from my innocence because I dared to dream
They took me to an unknown destination
Deprived me of building my life, made me a slave of my own sex
Used me as a toy for their satisfaction, destroying my youth and self esteem
Denying me of my pride
Have been abused but not addicted
Molested but not arrested, Violated but not violent
Bruised but not wounded, Beaten but not destroyed
I fought my way to be here
They cant deny me of my pride .
Am aware of my potentials
I take my destiny in my hands
I will be liberated
I will be educated
I will be celebrated
They cant deny me of my pride.
Omoteleola Vera-Cruz
Categories:
waywardness, culture, discrimination, gender,
Form:
from birth until this moment with your family as supporting team
the journey within your space/ time continuum stream
found trials and tribulations comprising the spool o yar existential ream
some incidents assessed in retrospect might now appear
as particularly significant undertakings – getting you grounded with clear
insight into what future dreams may become manifest with yar dear
beloved husband – I aver to when ye will endure empty nest fair
lee soon, whereby yar life will constitute andy and his anatomical gear
whose cupidity, fidelity, integrity, levity, opportunity, runneth tranquil
tiding up for gatherings or packing with his efficient globe trotting skill
bubbling with energy, harmony, synergy through his confluence he rill
lee doth possess – in my humble opinion, though less to take quill
to paper, him this brother in law applauds how he accepted any bitter pill
i.e. figuratively when the fickle finger of fate seemed to obscenely mill
a tate a contrary outcome than he desire, a fighting esprit de corps did fill
his entire being – putting forces of destruction re: no longer threat of evil
which waywardness with this poetic intent to type a birthday cheer
sans thy lovely sister activated thoughts pertaining to positive people dear
as senescence shuttles thine youngest harris heiress who everywhere
she goes affects a blessedly diplomatic, friendly holistic imprimatur
and thus tis probably apropos to attempt to communicate with mere
crude symbols i.e. the 26 letters of the alphabet to formulate the near
wrist approximating her significance in me xy z lived life a prayer
and many a broken wing, but tis necessary 4 me 2 expunge – though rear
the positive presence (most often invisible) whence shari did tear
out from the birth canal even at that early infantile stage did wear
autonomy to evince can do spirit whereby she irresistibly insinuated an air
that inexplicably captivated family, friends, romans….with no blare
ring burst, but she exhibited a magnetic trait – I now heartily cheer
cuz many stepping stones to mine current ah fair
rooted tuber remembered per the unsolicited advice aye did hear
when oft times shuttered in this man cave, hell lair
re: us lee chuckling at online jokes, which laugh tier
medicine for this bot deed father, a pro motor still sputtering each year.
Categories:
waywardness, age, anniversary, appreciation, birthday,
Form:
Ode
Dissolute December
As far as the dissolute December went
And beyond , went the waywardness of minds
And the apostate April at last did end
The real- time revelries sometimes feigned.
Letting the reins drop and resting all bother
And clicking away till the parting of ways
In the thick of things , with one thing or the other
The reasoning remained stupid anyways
Depressed , texted; and devastated, e-mailed
The status quo still stood so starkly severed
Malware still ruled the failings soulfully rued
In the wake of rulings, rash, virus, fresh, brewed.
Booting up senses to download life once more
Gadgets of head were restored as never before.
@ 23/Sept/2012
Categories:
waywardness, life, passion,
Form:
Sonnet
Two Beach Strolling Sisters Discussing Their Savior
This was his virtue; that with head and heart
He saw life sanely, from all mist apart,
and spoke with such assurance as he showed
our way as straight as an old Roman road.
This was His beauty, that with bird and flower
He loved the strange revealings of each hour,
from wandering stars, from waywardness of earth;
Fountains of poesy quivered at his birth.
This was his grandeur, that in all he saw
or dreamed, he bowed before eternal law.
Knowing his soul the vassal of the King
whose realm is established by our laboring!
Robert J. Lindley, 1-10-2016
Painting number seven
Poem number seven, Ekphrasis (rhyme)
Inspired by- the painting
( Twilight Confidences, by Cecilia Beaux 1888)
and Debbie Guzzi's 10 for 10 challenge
Ekphrastic: Writing on Art and Art on Writing [this site ACCEPTS reprints] http://www.ekphrastic.net/submissions.html
Categories:
waywardness, art, beach, beauty, faith,
Form:
Ekphrasis
If they ask you of me,
Tell them u did not see me,
Though you can see it is me,
But tell them you did not see me.
The former me has faded away,
Now am new as a new born baby,
Tell them am saying bye to vanity,
Carelessness and waywardness.
Tell them i have been claimed by
The lovely unseen,
Tell them he made me matured,
I am no more like a vulture,
So,can no more be tortured.
When i was deadly like a bullet,
He made me calm and peaceful like a pullet,
When i was like carmeleon
He liken me to a champion.
Let ears hear different of me,
Let eyes see different of me,
Let the nose perceive different of me,
Even as a sweet fragrance.
The mouth,utter no more courses,
Tell them of me,my newness and me,
Please tell them for me.
Categories:
waywardness, inspirationalme, me,
Form:
Gods of my Birthwaters
I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
my soul) I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go with me) and whatever are my thoughts
(you are in the thoughts)
Gods of my Birthplace
I have no life (you are my life)
I have no future (for you are
my future) and I have no dream of my own
(for you are in every dream)
where can I go
without you (can the tiger deny itself
the spots in its skin)
I carry the birthmark
of the tiger
but here is the deepest sorrow
the darkness I carry in my waywardness
stranded at crossroads away from Home
(and this is the root of the problem) I’m in love
with macaroni-n-cheese
(and I’m told that’s civilization
away from yam puddings we knew at Home) and we
are forced to drink stinging grief and smile calmly
I have taken a new name (and it wrung my hands
and killed my memory of Home) and turn my soul
to a stone and under the dark veil (I have to learn to live again)
it’s the he-goat that learns something
when it loses an ear
on the long running highways
of blues
how can I forget to pay my debts
to ancestral Birthwaters
when many stones are thrown
at my last smile and the pit
has become my solitary mast
at the bay of the Master Termite
it is the herring that said
homebound is the last resort of the maimed goat
maybe, when the northern breeze comes
I’ll take the deep dive Homeward to where
the broods eat grains of sorghum from scuffed
pages of the mother’s palm and the sun’s last rays
bring joy to dying lips
walking this long dark road
dancing to nowhere to call Home
your tattoos on my soul shatter my dreams
and here I sit holding to an albatross
searching through echoes
of yesterdays for a bright eye
to see through footprints of frozen tears
in this twilight zone
I gather in the silence
the will to sail on before the sun
is gone from silence
and the lighthouse eaten by the storm
Categories:
waywardness, adventure, introspection, people, tribute,
Form:
Blank verse
March 15 Scripture Meditations Based on 1Kings 17-19
Key Verse – 1Kings 17:4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
MY GOD, THANK YOU FOR FEEDING ME
Thank You for feeding me with Your bread-abundance
Despite my slothfulness’ annoyance
I repent from indolence-endurance
Truly needful am I for Your forgiveness-assurance.
Thank You for feeding me with Your health-wellness
Despite my ailment-sickness
I repent from negligence-stubbornness
Truly eager am I for Your healing-wholeness.
Thank You for feeding me with Your grace-sufficiency
Despite my commitment’s deficiency
I repent from murmuring persistency
Truly watchful am I for Your patience and mercy.
Thank You for feeding me with Your goodness-satisfaction
Despite my disobedient action
I repent from waywardness-direction
Truly hungry am I for Your favour and protection.
Thank You for feeding me with Your sustenance-nourishment
Despite my worldliness’ involvement
I repent from vanity-enticement
Truly thirsty am I for Your wisdom’s supplement.
Thank You for feeding me with Your love-nurturing
Despite my bitterness’ gesturing
I repent from bitterness-torturing
Truly prepared am I for Your training and rearing.
March 15, 2022
Categories:
waywardness, blessing, christian, faith, god,
Form:
Rhyme
Allow my wisdom to assert warnings along historical authenticity
Bringing the truth, “In the beginning God created…”* with perfect beauty
Championing supreme sovereign control over mankind’s creativity
Driving the need for people to fulfill their foremost directed duty…
Exposed toward Adam and Eve along their impact for eternity
Faith of mine fervently clings to the Lord midst human frailty
Gripped by God’s grace while grieving due to greed’s gravity
Here am I heralding that there’s hope in turning from hostility…
Immune to the cycle of people’s existence marked with infirmity
Justice I yearn to behold in advocating honesty of triumphant joviality
Kindness shown to everyone, not just to pets like doggie and kitty
Love for each other, I hail, to reign along enjoyment of pardon’s liberty…
Mismanagement of resources midst selfishness mars the Creator’s majesty
Now, I beseech functional citizens to exercise nurture against notoriety
Opening themselves for constructive changes with readiness-opportunity
Paradigm shift toward transformation for next generation’s posterity…
Quitting irresponsibility and abuse for granted dominion with role’s quality
Realize, recognize and resolve problems along God’s governing renewability
Sensibility with sensitivity I continue to seek from civilizations in their sobriety
Thankful for grace of the Life-Giver Who upholds earth in His tenacity…
Understanding Earth’s status vis-à-vis inhabitants’ stature of uncertainty
Virtuous heart vows to pray for redemption, repentance and revival’s vitality
Wishing to win against waywardness and wickedness, while watchfully witty
‘Xercising optimism along trust in the Lord for people’s grievous 'xtremity
Yearning for “O earth, hear the word of the LORD”* to become divinely yeasty
Zooming toward New Heaven and New Earth with holy zeal, spiritually zesty.
*Genesis 1:1
**Jeremiah 22:29
November 20, 2024
1st place, "In the cycle of Existence" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Anoucheka Gangabissoon; judged on 1/5/2025
Categories:
waywardness, blessing, christian, encouraging, faith,
Form:
Abecedarian
Why, why,
the question
upon all the world's
lips
Why,why
with a world
weary sigh
they ask
and wonder
why
and yet
with the
same voice
deny
aye
deny
again
and again
inherent
waywardness
constant
self centred
ness
ego
worship
a theism
of me
me
me
for beyond them
selves
they cannot
see
this
earthly
reality
Listen to me read aloud
my poetry @
http://youtube.com/ichth
yschiro
Categories:
waywardness, addiction
Form:
Verse
When we see the ww’s we think different things.
Some of us see wrestlers. Others visualize internet sites.
What about zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzz s.
when you see zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs do you think of rickrack?
Or is that an old fashioned trim that is no longer visualized at all?
Maybe you see the zzzzzzzzzzzz s and think snake.
I have seen that pattern on one, who was curled up in my garden.
When I see w’s, I see witches, warnings, wariness, and waywardness.
Poets have a way of seeing things that others cannot.
This is why I guess I will be a poet now.
Categories:
waywardness, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Free verse
My pride for the Girl Child
Adorned with beauty
Carved in sensitivity
Nourished in humility
Crowned in glory
Yet denied of my pride
I weep that I might find my place
Struggled from birth to maturity because of who I am
Day by day I face the challenges of acceptance
Hide my insecurity with smiles
To make all happy around me
Yet denied of my pride
At conception they ask is me or my other kind? And the other is chosen over me
They celebrate my other kind as if am not the divines creation
They say am just a fraction out of the whole
They tear me apart with their traditions and religion
Denying me of my pride
They cut my part at a tender age
To disguise their brutality saying they are saving me from waywardness
They shut my mouth from speaking of my freedom
Saying they are teaching submission and humility
Yet denying of my pride.
They treated me as inferior
Excluded me from their plan yet decided my fate
Singing and cheering me up
With chains of mediocrity they bound me
Denying of my pride
They sold me out without consideration for money that had no value
To start a new life at my tender age when I still needed the tenderness and love
Without thinking of my dreams and goals
They pierced my heart with their lust and greed
And they denied me of my pride
They captured me from my innocence because I dared to dream
They took me to an unknown destination
Deprived me of building my life, made me a slave of my own sex
Used me as a toy for their satisfaction, destroying my youth and self esteem
Denying me of my pride
Have been abused but not addicted
Molested but not arrested, Violated but not violent
Bruised but not wounded, Beaten but not destroyed
I fought my way to be here
They cant deny me of my pride .
Am aware of my potentials
I take my destiny in my hands
I will be liberated
I will be educated
I will be celebrated
They cant deny me of my pride.
Omoteleola Vera-Cruz
Categories:
waywardness, culture, discrimination, gender,
Form:
I see beyond the dimness
Of the distant hazy past,
Into the book of knowledge,
And I'm homeward bound at last.
I see beyond myself,
Into your loving ways,
I see beyond so many things
I didn't yesterday.
I see beyond the anger,
I see beyond the pain,
I see beyond my waywardness,
I see beyond the gain.
I see beyond tomorrow,
I see beyond today,
I see beyond humanity,
I see beyond the grave.
Categories:
waywardness, philosophy, visionary,
Form:
Rhyme