Crystal ball, thy spirit.
Cast thee a mighty spell.
Vision sacred, let's hear it.
Voice of mine, pell-mell.
Tress and trawler, set thy hooks.
River bed to dredge.
Recipes we learned in books?
Formation, wild wedge.
Coal, control, bell toll, sail, soul.
Down the delta wide.
Wasteland, when you set a goal.
Woe, when you betide.
Chicken farm, thy tender.
Politics, tough thy game.
Doubtless, O defender.
Katabothron, quay, claim.
Current, channel. Atmosphere.
Particles, spread out.
Cloud cover, sere or severe?
Cannibal, red rout!
Trickle, stickleback. Code crack.
Fortresses, thy stack.
Under attack? Dinner pack.
Flak ahead? Shellac.
Yawndrift, yucca, yellow eyes.
Oceanic rift.
Circumspect the council's cries?
Petrify, wood. Gift.
Bank, holding of money.
Tornado, spinning fast.
Clown, well, life is funny.
Mead honey, my good ghast?
Black cinder carpet
Laid across fiery coalfields
Skirting infernos
Sun in His Bare Hands
A boy walks bare feet through hot street
With balloons like sun he holds with pride
His hands are cracked, the summer burns
Through hot street, bare feet, the boy walks
The summer burns, his skin like coal
His hands are cracked, the summer burns
He waits for coins, eyes calm and gold
With skin like coal, the summer burns
He waits for coins, eyes calm and gold
With sad balloons, he stands alone
His heart is pearl no dust can soil
Eyes calm and gold, for coins he waits
His heart is pearl no dust can soil
Across the road his thin feet roam
One day he’ll rise above the thorn
No dust can soil, the pearl of heart
she looks so young and pure and kind sitting there
sharing her bright blue eyes and her lovely blonde hair
But what is she selling? They kind of give me pause.
I wonder if she will receive coal from Santa Claus.
She is surrounded by hideously ugly skulls of orange and white.
Did she make these grotesque things? They need to be out of sight.
She is lucky she has two months to redeem herself, I think.
She should hide these monstrosities or tear them up in the sink.
Saint Nick's russet-haired elf who loved garlic
Besought all the fair fairies to frolic.
They dissed his Christmas kisses,
Dumped as coal, without blisses
Except with his poodle named Alaric.
coal cracked the snow globe-turning merry to sinister, in vogue.
The darkness that follows, a shadow on my name, creeps beyond the door of my brains frame.
Within the silent cave were my pain may sleep, a violent volcano and my heart it keeps.
The bubbling lava waiting to erupt, an escape from this world I see as corrupt.
My words may seem empty to a hollowed soul, so I shall remain in my home of coal.
In the belly of Enugu’s coal-dark earth,
Men toiled beneath for all they were worth.
Sweat and silence, pickaxe and pain,
Digging riches, yet bound by chain.
No crown they wore, though kings they stood,
Their hands were scarred, their hearts were good.
But when they rose with voices loud,
The empire answered with gun and shroud.
November wept in forty-nine,
As rifles cracked a crimson line.
Twenty-one fell, dreams undone,
Beneath the unforgiving sun.
They asked for bread, were given lead,
By those whose flags in silence bled.
Their only crime? To dare to stand,
For justice on their native land.
The coal was black, but deeper still,
Was British greed and iron will.
Yet from that grave, a fire grew,
A cry for freedom, strong and true.
Oh Iva Valley, sacred ground,
Where martyr’s blood still speaks profound.
Not just a tale of loss and dust,
But how the broken found their trust.
Their names may fade from pages read,
But history walks where they once bled.
And every step toward liberty’s light
Was paved by those who dared to fight.
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.
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