i reached for love as it soared like a comet amongst stars
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Submitted on February 25, 2025 for contest ONE BEAUTIFUL LINE POETRY sponsored by CONSTANCE LA FRANCE - RANKED 4TH
Ploddingly it took the form
Of some dispassionate melody
Our wailing voices at crescendo
For our undying we mourn
With care they traipsed the deck
A mass of notions in mind
Did ten artlessly disappear
or were held by the Atlantic's inside?
Still we stood and tried to inform
Searchers of our malady
That we living men hitherto
can presently not be seen
Still we stand on Mary's deck
To us the world is blind
As they neither see nor hear
our gestures nor our cries
Not all can be explained
Not all can we fathom
Some presences can't be felt
like the eight in seventy two
I gaze at those fireflies in
your butter-sweet eyes that shine,
succulent with white lush pulp
of love's purity,
you hue my wildflower heart
with hyacinth, as we twirl
like spring-shaded tulips in
life's regal-black psalms;
mon cherie, I wish for stars
to sequin your shimmering
wine soul and cradle comets
of faith in your fate,
as, rubies glazed with honeyed
hibiscus and nectarine
daisies will be my pink muse,
forevermore true;
afterlife shall foretell our
lavender soliloquy
of celeste romance, whipped in
soft beige affection,
and your coral spirit will
eternally emphasise
cherry letters as tokens
of swan-shaped twin flames.
Crescent wisps on rolling stones
swivel bubbling ember to burn.
Sizzling jewels on moss thrones,
redwood embellishes withering fern.
Showers of September rinse
sunset in mellowed strides.
Lustrous pink rivulets wince
on shimmering green slides.
The lonely squirrel rolls in bed
to drench in soothing musk tide.
Cuddled mist drizzles the red
veil of fir seeds on the hillside.
Fiery twigs write velvet songs
on your pier of echoing lights.
My tender soul on bridge longs
to melt with iridescent nights.
Hush! Golden sequins bloom
in tunnels of moistened birch.
In Celeste's gorgeous room,
I witness our emotions perch.
Our crimson desires fuse
on dew-kissed bluebells.
September begins to cruise
on footprints of silver shells.
August 31, 2020
A Lipogram Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
A Lipogram without the letter 'A'
Echoes in the cool of the sea
Riding on the winds of the Pacific,
With reverberations of faint whispers
Tearing through the reins of the soul;
Thus it came striding through the cruise:
A ghost aboard the Celeste!
Smiles on the faces of beauties
Met with no sense of premonition,
Popped open a bottle to a toast—
Only to fill their glasses with blood;
For then a guest raised a cup of death:
A ghost aboard the Celeste!
A lone ship on the sea it sailed,
With a mysterious accuracy—
Yet with no soul nor clue to reveal
What has become of the journey;
But alas, its mission accomplished,
A ghost aboard the Celeste!
Marie Celeste
There once was a Man of Mystery,
Who survived an event in History.
Escaped the Marie Celeste,
In a Canoe, heading West.
As for the rest, it’s still a mystery.
Neck resting on the crook of my arm
gentle throaty murmur, content, calm.
Moonglow eyes no longer bear the weight of day
and slowly set. She gently drifts away.
I too must sail the night realm where she goes
but not yet- please, not yet
Mary Celeste
When I came to my brother’s house,
In the sweet suburbia, the house was empty.
But the table was set four and dinner
In the kitchen the food was warm.
My brother has a lush garden and it was a hot day
so I switched on the sprinklers before leaving.
I heard muffled screams but thought it was
children in the neighbouring garden playing
hide and seek.
Do i see pictorial echo's of love
in hues of pink? upon a heavenly ceiling,
dramatic as the verse instructed from
an eternity of muse's, conveyed in cloud valleys
under their thunder headed bluffs
outlined by faded magenta
and rising in coloums of power
or sense it within my need for colourful scenes
as light the the reflection of ashes grey
shadow my solitude, and daylight hours
no! i know it is.! & within its silver sheening come..
(from celestial realms,) this reflection of heavens flowers.
Lost at sea, rudderless
Steaming coffee awaiting lips
gone into eternal mystery
Ghosts of love long vanished
Shipshape sinking soul
A'fouled by waves
of indignant pain
Love lost at sea
Empty vessel sails on
Adrift
Ever adrift
Indifferent to its fate
Destination of no concern
Where has the crew
vanished to?
The table is laid and untouched
Blankets of silence hold sway,
The table is laid and untouched,
Day becomes day after day
The lamplight’s burning out.
The floorboards creak and shrink
The lamplight’s burning out,
Yet Marie she does not sink.
Her structure towers strong,
Unflustered by passing time,
Her structure towers strong,
With timbers robbed of shine.
The curtains sheathed with dust,
Portholes caked with salt,
The curtains sheathed with dust
Within this floating vault.
No helmsman at the wheel,
No rats play in the grain,
No helmsman at the wheel,
No sails to hoist again.
Becalmed and graveyard still
Upon the glassy sea
Becalmed and graveyard still
Their fate a mystery
The occupants of space
Weathering quiet grief,
The occupants of space.
Stole by some master thief.
Who walked upon her decks?
Who climbed her mizzen mast?
Who walked upon her decks?
And saw what came to pass?
Where have the people gone?
Blankets of silence hold sway,
Where have the people gone?
Where have they gone away?
A ghost ship of the night,
By day she is no less,
A ghost ship of the night,
The dead Marie Celeste.