On the frozen side of the sun lies Svalbard.
A barren, treeless stretch of land
Buried beneath snow and stillness.
Here, the cold doesn’t just bite;
It consumes.
The whirlwind air scrapes skin with surgical precision.
For months each year, the sun abandons the sky.
Svalbard drifts beneath a vaulted night.
Darkness bleeds through permafrost,
Settling in the earth’s frozen marrow.
But beneath this ice-scarred wilderness,
Where avalanche and ash calcify,
A vault lies hidden deep in the mountain’s underbelly.
It cradles the future;
A womb of waiting seeds,
Asleep in rows of glass and steel.
Hope, suspended in time.
In this tomb of preservation,
Life isn’t gone.
Just waiting with a promise of rebirth.
And when the sun returns,
Brushing marigold hues across glistening glaciers
Like a kiss upon Snow-White's lips,
Those seeds will stir with life.
They will remember the sun.
They will rise.
Categories:
calcify, earth, environment, extended metaphor,
Form: Free verse
The wonders of a salted spec,
an intruder of the calm,
slip secretly by slightest surge
into some open being, drawn.
Creation in the making
by no jeweler of this world.
Hidden from the human eye,
perfect forming of a pearl.
Some oysters blessed and gifted
by nacre’s strong defense,
calcify these precious gems,
sought at great expense.
And when in valued luster
to adorn a woman or girl,
grace bestows the wearer
with an ornament of pearl.
So, we ask, what of a pearl?
A natural thing, divine.
Its maker quite unknowingly,
creates a rare jewel, fine.
5/27/2024
Categories:
calcify, nature, ocean, sea,
Form: Rhyme
PEARL
This damned speck here is so irritating
I’ll try and cover it to find some peace
The only resolution I have is to calcify
It’ll take some time, but at least I’ll try
Hopefully then, this itching will cease
I am a patient oyster, good at waiting
I’ve heard tales of such things before
They call them pearls, tiny and white
Thought as pretty, at least with others
I guess all are products of my brothers
Each one shiny and reflecting the light
But tasty food is what we’re farmed for
Categories:
calcify, identity,
Form: Rhyme
From marrow to vein the thin thread of memory drags another new malignancy out into the light.
I shall tuck it, as a gift, within Destot’s space and leave it to harden and calcify until it’s colour is pale and stony.
This new seed inside my hidden framework will soon germinate, but will never push out towards the dying constellations.
Instead, it will coil its way along ulna, humerus and clavicle and bind bad dreams into a hard, red jewel that will nestle between skull and vertebrae.
Cartilage grinds and sinew creaks as this bud of echoes sprouts and entwines
up through mandible and tooth.
Knife to neck, hand in pajamas, sodden mattress, accusations, laughter under dimming lights.
All of these petals are forever open and held aloft by invading stems that relentlessly offer up the blooms of another time.
I am encased, but the stories of my joints continue to thrive and search a path through my skeletal remorse.
And I will always stop to smell the flowers.
Categories:
calcify, body, flower, hurt, memory,
Form: Free verse
A poem comes unbidden into my head.
I did not anticipate, ask for or expect it.
I write down five words.
Amplify, beautify, calcify, identify, and notify.
There is no struggle.
I stare at them, wondering what gibberish this is.
A foreign language makes more sense right now
One that I have never spoken and do not recognize.
My muse tries to get pushy with me.
Making me angry, so I shut down.
A voice suggests I could keep these words for later.
This infuriates me. How dare they try to control me.
I tear amplify, beautify, calcify, identify and notify into bits.
Determined not to think a whit about them
But here we are
So I guess that did not work.
Categories:
calcify, poems, poetess, poetry, poets,
Form: Free verse
Why do we hate, I often wonder why?
It spreads like a virus, causing our soul to calcify.
Expanding stupendously, as far as your eye can see.
Cornered in time, triggering its inhabitants to plea.
Love thy neighbor, is it really all that hard?
Refrain from following awry masses, stop playing off someone else's card.
It's time we make a change my friends, worldwide.
Start living for each other, instead of choosing a specific side.
Lead by example, constructively engage each day as we all should.
Stop focusing on only bad, and refocus on all that's good.
Expand your mind, try putting yourself in another's shoes.
There are two sides to every fence, each with different views.
Categories:
calcify, analogy, appreciation, inspirational, love,
Form: Rhyme
The Carousel
As I watch my carousel standing still my only dwell
In the vortex of its spell convoluted in my only yell
My mind falls in its wake cadent circles that forsake
I sliver with the snake leaving ruins with heartache
***
My eyes shut to the I, spinning thoughts will awry
Languishing lips calcify upon lost imagery to crucify
Round & round they go dissolving dreams I borrow
Happiness says hell-lo as it leaves me in its shadow
***
Hurricane of my abyss telling secrets that I shall miss
In their blasphemous bliss, morbid storms reminisce
Reaching terminal velocity amidst its ill monstrosity
Carousel of curiosity drowning in dynamic viscosity
***
An elliptical awareness melds allusions of unfairness
Within a secluded rareness posturing, you defenseless
A salivating swell with sorrows that comply & compel
For my none-stop Carousel the merry-go-round of hell.
Nov.23.2018
The I Of The Storm
Sponsored by: Maureen McGreavy
Placed 4'th...thank you
Categories:
calcify, conflict, mental illness, storm,
Form: Quatrain
Broken-Hearted Caressing Sorrow
Where do you bring a broken heart, damaged dreams that won’t depart?
Where do you go when things fall apart, serving silent screams a la carte?
What do you do with a saddened soul, within a virulent void a skinless sole?
What do you do when you’re in a hole, progressive paranoid a shadow stroll?
Within the stillness of my solitude, a storm exists admits a sacrificing seclude
The eyeful emptiness of a life subdued, the evil enlists a blasphemous brood
Within the veil of my bitter black, the idolatrous infant sleeps in a shackled sac
On the wall, my punitive plaque, of the wounded weeps that scornfully stack
Who will be there for me, to mourn, escaping earth a denticulate dust reborn?
Who will be there for me, to warn, a residual rebirth of a lifeless embryo torn?
Who will kiss me before I dimly die, a wretched wreck in a shattered satirical sky?
Who will be there for me, to cry, a segregated speck ceremonially left to calcify?
Oct.13.2017
Broken-Hearted Poems
Sponsored by: Broken Wings
Categories:
calcify, depression, heartbroken, loneliness,
Form: Rhyme