Bound Up Poems

Forest For the Trees

It is right there in front of your face.
Look around, it’s all over the place.
Don’t know why it is you cannot see
What is plainly apparent to me.

Could I get you to open your eyes?
Look again and you will be surprised.
But you tell me that it isn’t there
Thus, you never have reason to care…

There’s a different set of life rules
Separating all the types of fools.
But we are all within our own box
And we’re bound up in chains and with locks.

But I think it is kind of a crime
To refuse to look all of the time.
And insisting there is nothing there…
Thus, you never have reason to care…

Still, I guess it can be hard to see
The whole forest from among the trees.
All the details obstruct and confuse
And will block out the much grander views.

I guess I could be totally wrong.
Maybe this is where we both belong.
But don’t tell me there is nothing there
Thus, you never have reason to care…

Broken Chains

Crimson tide, Amber tears. Bones of gold, blood of iron
Hold me close to the fire
I seek my fathers aide
Warning, faithful to truth
Silver spirit, Orange soul
Broaden the scope
Trace down the shadows
Snowfall of blood
Marching to peace
Feathers bound up in leather
Kept from the flames
Made warm and safe
Words minted in bone
Zooming toward my own destruction
Powerful introduction to silence
Still alive, awake, aware, centered
Scorpions devour the stars

I Loved You Till I Died

No longer a witness, 
though not by choice
I still hear your smile
In your exuberant voice
Memories in my mind's eye
Bring it all back again
Can you still hear me cry


No I never spoke words untrue
When I said, I'd die for you.
Cause I never, ever lied 
When I swore, when I swore
 I'd love you till I died.

You broke my heart, 
my body and soul
I was bound up with you, 
you made me whole
Now, those ties that bind
Are cut away, 
so I drift alone in pain

No I never spoke words untrue
When I said, I'd die for you.
Cause I never, ever lied 
When I swore, when I swore
 I'd love you till I died.

So baby, when you hear
I've gone away, don't shed a tear
And baby, when you realize
I was true, until the day I died
Maybe regret will fill your heart
It's too late now we're apart

No I never spoke words untrue
When I said, I'd die for you.
Cause I never, ever lied 
When I swore, when I swore
I'd love you till I died.

Yea this is good bye
And I loved you, I loved you, 
 I Loved You till I died.

Memoirs of a Serial Killer

There's always a whisper of madness, 
playing in my brain as I struggle to get 
loose from it's refrain and the constant 
pounding me to comply makes me feel 
quite insane.

Disaster brewing behind blue eyes
bits of chaos that won't be denied. 
They tell me the choice is completely
mine but they don't see or feel how
I'm bound up inside.

Touch the people and watch them fall
knowing the horror to come,  the pull
to cause pain,  is the worse of all. I'm
the bad man says the song,  but they
don't really know bad, no, not all.

©SamHarty

In a Cage

On the exhausted ends of a day
you pick over a life that seems
to be just passing time 
or doing things it rather not do.
Even when granted moments
to fly your freedom, you sit
with folded wings, those same 
wings that once flew on the lift 
of your dreams.

Now you just hop around
at the bottom of a cage 
hung inside your head.
And when I call to you
to step out and take to air,
you curl up and hide from sight,
bound up in your cramped soul,
afraid, only a few feathers away
from losing the power of flight.

Grief

grief
    a blinding, blurring, dizzying pain,
    a refiner’s purifying fire
it scrubs us clean, like hard sand,
    re-opening old wounds as needed,
    so the new, the healthy, can grow again
it removes and softens hard edges
it sounds, deep in our souls, where it morphs,
    changing us forever
it is bound up in both prophecy and promise
it becomes a gracious gift
    a tool for remembering, humility, gratitude
it is an ingredient in the creaturely essence
but it never leaves…
not in this life, anyway
grief

No Way Out

Slogging swampy bogs, suction at the feet
Like pushing through molasses with a spoon
No evidence of forward progress made

Mired in a morass of foul decay
Vile filth closing in on what once was
Trapped in horrid ever-present now

Who can say what tomorrow brings?
What does tomorrow even mean?
The hands of time are bound up tight

Fetid vapors rushing up
Senses overwhelmed, recoil
Oppressive, suffocating

Forward has no meaning
No option for retreat
The world is closing in

Rudderless and lost
Disoriented
Every way is down

Such heaviness
Stoops the shoulders
Buckles the knees

Despairing
Silent screams
Go unheard

Hopeless
Endless
Nightmare

No
Way
Out

—————

For the 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 11 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Mark Toney
Written 07/13/2022

Emotion Sickness

The knife in the back struck me ruthless.
I bound up the wound as best I was able. 
I had to get small in my room at the farm
And store all my books in the stable.
Emotion sickness, Mal de Mer,
First cousin to the deep blue sea.
She courted me ad nauseum;
Made me Vertigo’s sad devotee.
While on my knees I noticed the dirt
Hard caked on the soles of her feet.
I counted my chickens as all wings and legs.
And I’m left with a page full of Fabergé eggs.

Released

eating your own heart
leaves no room for joy's desserts
bitterness banquet

the law of Lamech
once bound up, is now released:
there is forgiveness


----------

Genesis 4:23-24, Matthew 18:22

Salubrious Spring

Northern Hemisphere bound, up past the equator
Sun rising, blue skies and temperatures getting greater 

Away from the stalemate of winter tide 
Springing and scampering forth untied

Fresh exuberance in the air
Beautiful bodies moving everywhere

Blues and Reds just a flappin' and a chirpin'
Children laughing, playing, and slirpin' 

Verdures greening with life
Man relinquishing all artificial strife

Beautiful butterflies, black and yellow
Sipping on lemonade and feeling quite mellow

Ahhhhhhh!

Chipmunks and squirrels sprightly moving in search of food
Energy, so much energy got me in a salubrious mood

Today I Stopped a Stranger

TODAY I STOPPED A STRANGER
I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW
IT TOOK A LOT OF COURAGE
BUT I THOUGHT IT REALLY OUGHT TO SHOW

THE LINES OF CONVERSATION
WERE PLAIN AT MY DEFENCE
IT TAKES A LOT OF TROUBLE 
TO FIND IT CAN’T MAKE SENSE

SO I TOOK A BIT OF MY HEART
AND LAID IT ON THE LINE
“MY LIFE’S A MESS, I CANNOT COPE
WOULD YOU HELP ME PASS THE TIME”

BUT I SAID GOODBYE ABRUPTLY
AND LEFT TO GO AND HIDE
ALL MY FEARS AND FAILURES 
HAD BEEN BOUND UP IN MY PRIDE

I WON”T STOP AND RECONSIDER
WHETHER THE FACE I’LL SEE AGAIN
ANOTHER PAIR OF EYES THAT CARE
ARE ALL I NEED TO GUARD MY HEART WITHIN

FOR SOMEONE ELSE PROBLEMS 
ARE NOT THEIRS BUT ALL OUR OWN
AND COME WHAT MAY MAYBE WHAT YOU SAY
WILL LIGHTEN UP A STONE

DON’T TAKE THIS AS ADVICE OR CARE
IT’S WHAT I FOUND IN FACT
A FEW SHORT WORDS CAN CAST A LINE
TO GET SOMEONE BACK ON TRACK

LET FOLLY FLY AND FEAR BE FILLED
IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IT’S TRUE
THE HEARTS EXCHANGED THE WORDS EXPRESSED
WILL BE ALL WE EVER KNEW

SO TIME IS CLEAR AND CANNOT WAIT
FOR ERRING HEART’S TO SEE
SO STOP A STRANGER ON THE STREET AND DON’T BE SURPRISED
IF YOU FIND THAT STRANGER
EVEN ME

Revolution of the Mind

REVOLUTION OF THE MIND
visionary
&surprising
 a  phenomena
    transitioned
to the threshold
  in remnants
    of atmosphere
glimpsed
  simultaneously
 within
reach
  unfettered
unconscious

a concept
  deranged
yet bound up
 & peripheral

 doubt
coexists
devoted
chaste
  yet unleashed

induced
to disturb
  &reproduce

THIS IS AN OPEN(organic) FORM VERSE without grammatical symbols the ' open' relies upon 'the one breath limitation' & so inherently requires the 'reader' (reciter) to input and respond thus making the form a two way interplay and often a unique interpretation by the enigma so derived

Oh Deliriums

He stakes my arms to the wall, with binding hands.
I feel his desire through the strength of his grip, he
presses against me and I can’t move. I meet his eyes. 
He smiles. I smile.

We kiss to form a scabrous, common bond.
I feel bound up in him and we remain, as such, 
too long, too rude, too rough - and free for all to see. 
It’s enough to draw curious eyes and jealous sighs.

We stop for air, to reestablish equillibria.
Our immediacy is too giddy - we’re too flushed 
for words - the libidinous overtures of dirty birds.

It’s just a kiss, or two - too few - measure them by 
pleasures blush - but now, we to the dance floor rush
to join the crush - YES, fun is enough.

Blood Moon

spreading fear
of pending apocalypse
end times will appear
with the blood moon eclipse

the stillness of night
could not quite hide
the cost of original sin

too much pure delight
bound up within pride
we took it on the chin

as if our birthright
has become too tightly tied
to the color of our skin

the dead did not rise
nor were the quick judged
despite the alibis
reputations were smudged

on the verge of crisis 
in the middle of May
new blood moon rises
but doubts get in the way

the selling of shadowy omens
requires better helmsmen
to pull off an errant escapade
were belief shall be betrayed

bound up in false pride
egos begin to collide
the stillness of night
exposes this tale’s plight

a foretelling of doom 
or more about who’s whom?
in either case it's too soon
for another rising of the blood moon

Keola - Free Verse

Keola – Free Verse
Crossroads Converge

Robert Frost

TWO ROADS crossed paths – DIVERGED IN A crossroads YELLOW WOOD
AND I felt the binding turning points
Bound up on fiery indecision of whispering bellows 
Take the smooth byway that beckoned –
The easy thoroughfare of compromising positions –
Or
A narrower way, a dusty avenue of overgrown ambivalence,
A rough path cobbled with pacing anxiety
Tread this indolent valley’s vacillation
Slightly overgrown with luring curiosity begging for attention.

I TOOK this invitation
THE ONE with scattered isolated footprints LESS TRAVELED
BY hasty choices AND the one THAT sang
In baritone vibrations of either or –
That HAS promises of reconciliation in quiet meditations
MADE upon this parallel path –
ALL OF THE DIFFERENCE beneath the serenity of arching boughs
And songbirds cooing in cool glens, scented leaves fluttering,
Resting in consolation’s life -
The consummation of white fire.

1-21-22
Contest: Keola Secret
Sponsor:  William Kekaula

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