Best Wide Eyed Poems
I look for you in the stars,
and in the streets,
and all the people I greet.
I look for you in books of poetry.
Such a place to find,
yet unaware that I'm
lost, like a button.
Arrive home from work to flip through pages
of a book I knew as a child, yet still
not remember the reason, so special
then.
It was though, so special..
Watched 'To kill a Mockingbird',
recalled fond memories of Scout and Jem.
A proud Atticus Finch..,
and Tom Robinson.
But today's me isn't the same,
as the me I remember.
More akin to a cartoon, a paper cut out,
a meme.,
compared to the wide eyed child of then.
~~~~~ To Kill a Mockingbird - Novel by Harper Lee, 1960 ~~~~~~
a wide-eyed child
leaps into a woman’s arms –
a butterfly lands
By Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
Copyright January 20, 2014
Written for Poetry Soup Member Contest: Beauty
Sponsored by Shadow Hamilton
Wide-eyed Child
The child is he who watches
Keeping pebbles self-refined
Catching ants in a candy jar
Roll in roller coaster rides
Then set them free to seek
refrain
He is the wide-eyed child
The child is she who stands on
ledges
Tracing rivulets down side
windows
Wading through fresh
riverlands unknown
To wield liquid diamond dust
Beheld in her unblemished
palm
She is the wide-eyed child
The child is he who listens
Crouched at the top of sun-
dried stairs
Head cocked to hear mellowed
speech;
Whispers of a future that will
never be
He is the wide-eyed child
The child is she who looks up
Traces clouds with stubby
fingers
Grabs autumn leaves with a
tiny hand
Tumbling through deep pools of
maple
Then getting up to run again
She is the wide-eyed child
*Entry for Gail’s “Sandcastles by the Seashore” contest
By Carolyn Devonshire
There are some things in life
That you never forget
Buried deep down in your soul
Your very first kiss
Your first two wheel bike
The very first cookie you stole
Nothing quite compares
To a lifetime of memories
A treasure trove to cherish forever
Your sixty-five Corvette
With a 350 engine
Feelings never equaled ever
Nostalgic these memories
When the world was brand new
Your life was just waiting to be lived
Experiencing new things
Exciting new adventures
You've got so much giving to give
May think my time's come
To throw in the towel
Plan to still be around for a while
Got stuff to explore
Lotsa places to see
Still wide-eyed and eager like a child
© Jack Ellison 2013
I'm a wide eyed open dreamer
Who's not tethered to a bed.
While others remain sleepinig
I just live my dreams instead
I'm all about adventure
I live life like it's a ride
My heart is fully open
Not a thing I wish to hide
In my dream are people
Who've been gifted to me
When it comes to dreaming
I'm where I wish to be
I am riding a rainbow
Looking up at a blue sky
No limits to my thinking
With my mind I travel high
Living in the moment
Finding magic every place
Feeling each precious second
As I breathe they interlace
You can rise up from your bed
Be a wide eyed dreamer too
We are not so many
Yet we're still quite a few
This poem grew out of an email conversation
I had with my niece Nicole. I dedicate this
one to her.
mother star beams, behold her errant brood
six troubled rocky planets
the innermost, a dense, two-faced, frosty furnace
the outermost, pulled apart
by a distant massive gaseous jovial giant
the fifth, marred by dust storms
red ragged rift-valley scar, enormous pimple
atmosphere leaking almost gone
the second, bright but secretive, clouds of deception
concealed runaway heating
........
the other two, calamitous and extraordinary
individual but fatally curious
third and fourth spiral in close
wild and wayward, so eager and elliptical
a deadly orbiting kiss
the smaller sibling is stunned, shattered and shaken
mass and momentum reduced
memory wiped, coalesced, captured and condemned
demoted, demented moon
gravity bound, bombarded, heavily cratered
transfixed, compelled to witness
........
momentous mayhem convulsing the tidal companion
condensing from surface to core, dynamic orb
mesmeric melt transforming
rhythmic magnetic field flickers, shielding
convection and subduction
radioactive warmth, magma, mantel and crust
moving land, oceans and ice
coriolis-driven storms and chemical soup
then strange organic matter
evolution, what's this? pin-prick lights, tickling feet
the moon has a grinning smile
........
from a mini-module, some wide-eyed children have come to play
canny creatures, evolved, programmed, launched to survive
trial and error beings
hopeful genes to be nurtured, cuddled, teased and taught
transcendent and emergent
complex beyond their parts, the planet's pinnacle
challenging older orders
the chains of certainty, imbecilic greatness
time-surfing on nature's wave
promoting intelligence, compassion and love
bathed in envious moonlight
........
mother star knows her wide-eyed children will leave one day
There’s a burning yen nomadic deep within entrenched,
to absorb fresh environments ambrosial on foot,
where incidental hue or august colour wash abound,
or that March bloom tantalising shady patch,
with its dreamlike mystic wide-flung allure,
some blue pigment dawn whisper tempting spur on,
that hidden orange-red sunlit prompt I can’t curb,
I follow blindly without oppugning brier cloak
pitfalls,
yet noonday mishap neither blight nor wanton cross,
as other fellow venturers might script a manifold offshoot,
but from sound and slant sentient aspect,
I can awaken fond galvanic episodes,
of uproarious elation emanating from a golden grained beach,
where energetic offspring unleash their zeal,
adjacent to labyrinthine thriving townscapes,
ancient river, the stuff of verse and bard,
parallels its salted surging thunderous ripple,
with its indigo bold rush beneath a stoic wharf.
to capture lush spots
with the pourboire of bright eye
as timeless haven
Yet late phase hours settings have cachet,
in tandem with the peep of day burst,
as I reveal a harvest swept ashore,
flotilla at a dock and day boundary,
so nocturnal bliss enraptured round each plinth,
and plethora of svelte unearthly steps,
where haunted hair-raising halos splash,
adding lustrous night fly element,
beside the raucous alleyway caper,
inchoate, invisible, intriguing inlay,
shards of boisterous daring impishness,
cast at my intrepid moonlit atman,
enigmatic echoes chase skinflint shadows,
whoosh of splintered black ice sepulchral,
under reckless swerving car manoeuvre,
muddy slush speckled rim upshot,
street lanterns wondrous wide arc madrigal,
spoon wink and woo lambent opus,
banisher of eerie eve ghost glow silence
earth atmosphere shall
watch bemused as moonlight orb
peers at globe beneath
Wide Eyed Smiles
Children falling through the atmosphere
Dropped by storks or other forces way out there
Seem to always have wide eyes and smiles
Dropping in from many baby making miles
They are beaming with expectations
For birthday presents at their new locations
And obviously, a safe landing site would be nice
Since they have no experience at flight
Though not too coordinated at this time
They keep their falling out of mind
They watch everything because it’s new
And they want to make it through
First impressions are important coming from above
With expressions of their love
Parachutes close upon their drop
Babies caught in a glove by mom and pop
Wide eyed and smiles all around
We’re so happy they didn't hit the ground
9/22/14 Eccentricize My Eyes – Poetry Contest
I'd sit on his lap, content as can be,
until he'd slide those dentures out
and giggle with glee..
My two year old self would reach out
to grab, he'd suck them back in
before I could nab..
With time as I began to age his
talented teeth ceased to amaze.
No longer two and as wide-eyed,
I'd yell "stupid Poppa" and
from his lap slide..
Between my ears the visions whirl
Without a care they hurl and twirl
Bouncing off walls as they unfurl
I sometimes remember a gal named Beryl
And how her long blond hair would curl
Sweet as sweet could be a pearl
Became a mother when she was barely just a girl
I imagined how that would change one’s world
I wonder what ever happened to that wide-eyed girl
AP: Honorable Mention 2021
Submitted on April 30, 2020 for contest STRAND PICK J sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 3RD
Wide eyed cat girl had a glow and a glimpse
We steered clear of her of course, as we are imps
She had the crazy look of one of those chimps
You see in the circus who walk with butts out like gimps.
Wide eyed cat girl had a look that said leave me alone.
She did not answer to anyone, rules she did not condone.
I never saw her with technology – TV, an I-pad or an I-phone
Since she was a cat, I assumed she might like to bone.
Wide eyed cat girl gave me a look that shrunk me down.
It was the same look she gifted to others in our fair town.
She ran off one night with Sir Tom, a circus cat clown.
Someone said she got married in a hand me down pinkish gown.
As I walked into the serene woods one day,
I met Windy, the wide-eyed nymph,
resting against a weeping willow tree,
her eyes were half closed as she looked at me.
In her arms she held a colorful urn with an eye,
It was winking at me and I sensed it was alive,
Windy said it was her protection from evil,
passed down to her through time primeval.
Her grandmother gave it to her before her death
and asked her to guard it with her life and more,
it possessed magical powers and was all-knowing,
reaching faraway shores as if oceangoing.
Windy said that the urn can predict the future,
its answer would appear within the eye
as it turned into a miniature T.V. screen,
I was curious to what would be seen
A question came up on the end of the world,
the eye blinked a few times and showed a scene,
a world of total devastation much to my shock,
it showed me sitting on top of a huge rock.
I looked at Windy and said it can't be true,
she smiled and said that the urn does not lie,
afraid of the future I ran out of the forest
waking up in bed from a nightmare of no rest.
O wide-eyed baby browns
pink lips curl, produce sucking sound
mother loosens her blouse, instinct
she rubs his ruddy cheek
he drinks deeply as her heart leaps
5/15/2019
Writing Challenge 2, May 2019, Lind68868
Sponsor - Dear Heart
Theme Chosen - A Living Scene
There is an urge within me to wander randomly,
to explore in vivid detail each kaleidoscope,
incidental hue or pristine colour I encounter,
or just as likely that tantalising shady patch,
with its dreamlike mystical allure so faraway,
this blue pigment dawn whisper as tempting spur on,
that hidden orange-red sunlit prompt I can’t curb despite myself,
I follow blindly without oppugning brier cloak
pitfalls,
yet noonday mishap neither blight nor wanton cross,
and I glad to extol such plus point impact,
as other fellow venturers might script a manifold offshoot,
but from sound and sentient slant,
I can recant galvanic episodes,
of uproarious elation emanating from a golden grained beach,
where energetic offspring unleash their zeal,
adjacent to labyrinthine thriving townscapes,
ancient river, the stuff of verse and bard,
parallels its salted surging ripple,
with its indigo bold rush beneath a stoic wharf.
to capture lush spots
with the pourboire of bright eye
as timeless haven
Yet late phase hours settings have cachet,
in tandem with the peep of day burst,
as I reveal a harvest swept ashore,
flotilla at a dock and day boundary,
so nocturnal bliss enraptured round each plinth,
and plethora of unearthly steps,
where haunted hair-raising halo splash,
adding lustrous night fly element,
beside the raucous alleyway caper,
inchoate, invisible, intriguing inlay,
shards of boisterous daring impishness,
cast at my intrepid atman,
enigmatic echoes chase skinflint shadows,
whoosh of splintered black ice,
under swerving car manoeuvre,
street lanterns wide arc madrigal,
banisher of eerie indigo silence
earth atmosphere shall
watch bemused as moonlight orb
peers at globe beneath