Sponsor's name: Nette Onclaud
Contest title: VIBRATIONS FROM A VERSO Poetry Contest Date: July 26, 2025
A sky like a pressed coal
Stars like embers
Shadows unforgiving
Absence of light
Dust-laden silent air
Faint warmth enters
The dark brushes the skin
Scream of the night!
Vibrations from a Verso 7-25-25 Sponsor: Nette Onclaud Theme Chosen: Dark Coal of Night
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dark Coal of Night
Moonbeams, morning’s prophet,
Chase coal of night
Into wombs of white fire
As flames imbue
Dreams with clarity’s gems
Facets of light,
Glittering stars of dawn ~
Diamonds of dew.
Neath moon, dark coal of night
Fills my wide eyes
As shadows of tree limbs
Sway in the breeze
Like eerie snakes they twirl
And hypnotize
Night monsters on the ground
To haunt and tease!
For: VIBRATIONS FROM A VERSO Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud
July 24, 2025
*****
in the dark coal of night
the light the light
is hidden from our sight
each one is blind
and silent deaf and dumb
without the right
to question why oh why
can't You be kind!
Contest: vibrations from a verso
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud
Date: 24th July, 2025
Placement: third
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A dark cloak wraps the sky
Draped in deep gloom
Blind to starlight's bright glare
Fear grips each ghost
Running helter skelter
Their time of doom
Lies ahead in the night
Fear at each post!
Heartache swells like a bruise
Sky fades to black
Eternity passes
And still no light
Curled in lonely despair
Dawn will not crack
Buried so low, I am
Dark coal of night!
We are going to do a flash mob dance Comet told the crew.
I have a choreographer trained reindeer to help, her name is Bonnie Sue.
Vixen and Blitzen were miffed, because it was not their idea at all.
Dasher and Rudolph did not hear, they were watching snow fall.
Bonnie Sue came in and kept all the reindeers on their hooves for sure.
She had a sassy way about her, she was full of holly and manure.
Olive was irritated, because she was not asked to choreograph the dance.
Don’t be persnickety said Donner who thought with B.S. he had a chance.
Their dance steps were merry, they left prints all over the fresh snow.
Santa tried to find them but with all these prints he did not know…
Where his reindeer were or what mischief they were about.
Olive past him on her way out, her nose was in a snooty pout.
Dancer and Prancer said “we hear Santa” and all the dancing stopped.
Pretend we're rioting for better rations, said new elf named McFlopped.
“that won’t work, let me handle this, my friends,” with reindeer cheer.
Cupid lied to Santa’s face, so coal will be in his stocking again this year.
I'm heading home for Christmas
(Snows on the way)
In a plane, then a cab and a sleigh
Bringing presents and prizes I've made
Giddy yup horsey! I musn't be late
Of God we are saints, of myth this Nick
This mystical and elusive controtionist
Over rooftops, down chimneys without a slip
Hanging stockings and mistletoe
For an occasional kiss
Stretch and yawn and wiping sleep from our eyes
Hey there's frost on the window
On green bows dancing lights
On the mantle the the stockings "Oh boy, what's inside!?"
There's no coal in my stockings, that isn't right
There's no coal in my stockings but I need it for heat
Then on with the stockings to comfort my feet
Little black books- blooming everywhere.
from shining sea islands, to Belair mansions
to white house lattice and cathedral bastions
Little black books-Bloom-blooming-everywhere.
A few pawns are pared/
but the bishops and kings are always spared.
Little black books... blooming- blooming everywhere.
Little black books with coal dusted secrets
Magically disappear.
From The Coal Mine …
Liars …
early prophets
of impending doom
(The New Room: February, 2024)
The Moment Shared
We often forget
wrapped up
in our own drama
— that everyone feels the same
(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Circle Game
The purpose of war
is peace
The guarantor of peace
— is war
(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Crucibles
Moss
hides the message
Whose altar
ascends
In joy’s
adulation
The pilgrimage
— ends
(1st Book Of Prayers: February, 2024)
I Bequeath Thee …
Birthing a memory
o’er future and past
To carry my words
inside others to last
Birthing a memory
o’er time and space
To those still unborn
— my welcoming grace
(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Four Steps
Incinerate
all kindling that burns
Articulate
the knowledge that yearns
Reciprocate
before it’s your turn
Elucidate
— each lesson hard earned
(The New Room: February, 2024)
True Fortune
Good health is loaned
— but never owned
(Deamsleep: February, 2024)
She wandered like a gypsy to Wyoming,
Where she settled in and sojourned for a spell.
She found herself a billet at the Hog Ranch,
And son, there weren’t no high-tone clientele.
It was just a soiled dove’s privy crib
Where Martha Jane set up her chicken coop.
She was a cowhand’s heartthrob,
All buckskin and sutler whiskey.
She could drive a team of oxen.
She could drive a man to sin.
Times she frequented Old Bedlam,
Drillin’ with them soldier boys;
Some were galvanized Yankees,
Some were mere tenderfoot lads.
When she wasn’t barkin’ at a knot,
She’d be somewhere raisin’ sand.
She considered each calamity
That buggered her contentment
As just another maverick to brand.
black coal soft
not rough rigid
but coal soft
not a stocking filled with coal
but a fluffy cat coal soft
With a rough ridged motor
The coal miner descends
into the mine much like
his father and his father’s father
it’s his way of life.
Into the mine much like
the others, he goes into darkness
it’s his way of life
as they carve into mountains.
With the others he goes into darkness
far below a world of light
and they carve into mountains
as he finds veins of coal.
Far below a world of light
the dust he breathes coats his lungs
as he finds veins of coal
to be taken away.
The dust he breathes coats his lungs
as he gives his life for bounties
to be taken away
like dreams that fade as a child.
As he gives his life for bounties
his wife’s heart yearns for a better life
like dreams that fade as a child
but her visions take wing
His wife’s heart yearns for a better life
far beyond mine shafts and scarred hills
but her visions take wing
as the coal miner descends.
Although it matters not anywhere else my heart crushes for what it knows better to have...
I am overreacting and incapable of concluding the ordeal inside myself...
I know how vain and futile such an allowance of mind into obsession is...
Indeed a desperate man void of inspiration leaches on any hope...
This inspires the fire within...
Long a go the fire warmed my soul now so cold...
A stove of ash and coal...
How long shall I dwell within this fantasy so real?
Dark coal mouser’s prowl
in blue moon haunt, spooky screech
poor thing sees a ghost
Posted : April 5th 2022
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