BONDED STIFF
Our love knows no swiftness;
It’s tied and bowed in stiffness.
Our love life is no played game;
It is an everlasting bond attained.
May our love ever be as if a royal palace evening ball;
An orchestrated ball, admired and wished for by all.
May this precious bond between you and me,
Be granted an ever-blessed bond of eternity:-
Todd spent two weeks working in a seaside town
Til he and his boss man had a falling out
He packed up his bag, paid up his motel,
& he was outta there like a shot
before the sun went down
He hadn't seen his wife in quite a long time
So he couldn't wait to be homeward bound
By: J.N.R Dutton
Leashed to your dusk,
a husk of exhausted Day,
lambent love spirit musk
musing richly into our fresh foreplay,
I surrender to seduction angellically savage,
aggressively aplomb, precisely laced
around the base of my homage
to Your fearless conquest confessed,
Submission not as weakness,
rather a devotion to ache alive
as a diamond born in smoldering pumice,
My heart longing like lightning reaching for sky,
You please Me for pure domination,
to own my desire raw and refined for You,
Your neck in my grip of affection,
Your hold on Me ruthlessly true...
J.A.B.
A poet I am,
A writer I be.
With my epilepsy,
I see what cannot be.
I am not better—
I am different.
The me I be
is love, to empower.
Know yourself.
Embrace your me.
Two moons bound in gold,
A diamond sun, set and sold.
Imperfect perfection
within the perfection
of the universe.
after "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down today.
Nothing gold can stay.
after poem: A Pulse Is Bound To Wane
A pulse is bound to wane,
red rhythm vibes in vein.
A stream-bed’s liquid power
still stirs when mood turns dour.
But beats do follow beats,
like cleats on city streets,
‘til red sun siphons west
throb beneath my breast.
The journey was rough
but I made it home to you
and now I'm finally safe in your arms ~
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
The farther I travel the more home sounds like a good place to be
Here on invigorating fresh lovely day,
one can lazily saunter along the way,
through each winding street so alive,
where the heart’s bound to thrive,
each. and. every person that I meet,
is quite friendly, warm, and sweet,
throngs in cafe with trademark verve,
plot some schedule, sway and swerve,
in my role as that astute observer,
I absorb prevailing charm and fervour,
paths, pavements, highways, parks,
they compel instant recall of amusement,
from impish childhood and boisterous larks,
forever etched and somehow fondly linked to,
evolution of historic town’s bemusement,
never ever shied away from embracing anew,
preservation that monument forever to the fore,
past and present composite of lasting merit,
world so truly modern, vintage world of yore,
impetus for our future offspring to inherit
The velvet room has no corners,
only corners that melt into the ceiling’s ink.
Here, thoughts sit on chair-legs made of echo,
silently knitting sweaters for cold statues.
They do not speak, for words are only paper moths
trapped within a heavy glass jar of night.
One thought, dressed in grey flannel,
listens to the heartbeat of a sleeping clock
while shadows perform acrobatics on the wall.
A thousand tiny clocks are ticking backward,
pouring sand into a basin of muted water.
The air tastes of static and old photographs,
with floorboards that are made of forgotten dreams
slowly dissolving into the solitude.
They watch the doorway where no one enters,
perched on stilts of suspended animation,
waiting for the sun to become a bruise
and turn the silence into a faint, black song.
I'll loan you my own plugged nickel
if you have a red cent I may borrow
but swallow a dollar today
and you'll be passing the buck tomorrow
I watch you.
Always.
In the quiet spaces between your steps,
in the moments when you think
you’re alone.
I tell myself it’s love,
this hunger that follows you,
this ache that claws at my chest
every time you pull away.
I tell myself
I’m the only one who truly knows you,
the only one who can keep you whole.
You run,
but I’m already there.
You hide,
but I’ve memorized your shadows.
You build walls,
but I find cracks.
Life without you is no life at all.
I’ve convinced myself of that,
over and over,
until it feels like truth,
until the lie becomes my heartbeat.
You don’t see me.
Not really.
You only see the weight of my presence,
the hands you never asked for,
the words you never wanted to hear.
But I’ll make you see.
I’ll make you stay.
Even if you don’t want me.
Even if you run.
Even in death,
we’re bound.
Even in the silence
of your absence,
I will still be here,
pressing my shadow into yours
until you cannot tell
where you end
and I begin.
So bright in the night
bound by butterfly kissed stars,
a deep breath of hope.
Why don't we take up our wings and fly?
away from this earth and up into the sky.
We have been earthbound for so long now
it's almost as if we've been keeping a vow.
_________________________________________
I’ve been told by those that know
Love is like a red red rose
Planting love in fertile ground
Beauty blooms from all around
Red has stained the dogwood tree
Nailed there to save you and me
Hate surrounds us in this world
Evil deeds daily unfurl
Focus on the red red rose
So the evil world will know
It can never bring you down
Love has got you glory bound
Catnip ketchup
Pleasant pheasant
10/3/25
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2025©
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.