A ship off the old dock
1869 launched on the Leven
named for an archaic Scottish short shirt
worn by a witch in a Robbie Burns poem
damaged by fire in 2007
a composite construction clipper
with George Moodie as 1st skipper
sailing 8 seasons in the China trade
on the whirling wind across the swirling sea
no they're not made
like that any more
she danced as a dervish carrying tea
then wool for ten years again and again
driving on in record time from Australia to Great Britain
and after all those ocean voyages
from her Dumbarton launch to end her days
a museum on the Thames in Greenwich
only 425 miles away
Nine Inch Nails play Handel’s Messiah
Gauguin paints Guernica bare chested
war poets fall in love with what never was
a Gingko tree blossoms at Hiroshima’s swords
into ploughshares condor legions into peace doves
cacophony synaesthesia proverbially composed
Do you have skeletons in your closet
I have a few in mine
They jingle and jangle ~ remind me
of my true composite
I want to be sedated
A substance not outdated
To be fully educated
My spirit unabated
For living in the clouds.
Perusing skies of endless
time-----I fly.
Nothing ventured,
everything explained.
The truth shan't set us free
Unless I wholly depart from me.
The mind is a terrible thing to waste
It's all a matter of time and taste.
Judge ye not, lest ye be
Judged in hasty, haughty haste.
The familiar is a trap
Decline that socio rap,
Experiential enterprise
Is the way to go
It's the only thing you'll forever, ever Know.
Patchwork pieces
stitched together
like Frankenstein’s monster
that I stare at in the mirror
every morning upon rising
preparing for another day
that will not differ
in any appreciable way
from the one that went before
Desperate to discern
in the person I see
which of them were forced on me
I suppose it doesn’t matter
I doubt they can be separated
just as in a photograph I once saw
of a bicycle that had been abandoned
in the crook of a tree by a young boy
who never returned to retrieve it
Over the decades since that day
the tree continued to grow
absorbing the alien object into itself
It had no choice but to do so
Horn Heuristic Composite Haiku
This consists of seven haiku combined
for a total of 21 lines. Both seven and
21 appear to be lucky for some reason
or another.
Heard it has been told
Your guess is as good as mine
Or someone else's.
That is my introductory haiku.
Was hard to measure
Also value of treasure
From perfect pleasure.
Appeared out of site
Infinite beyond belief
Somewhat ill-conceived.
Beaten to a pulp
Result of belligerence
Now not recognized.
Totally fruitless
Also inescapable
And no longer missed.
Hope it will be found
Along with what it pertained to
Gave up searching for.
Reason is unknown
Not sure what end product was
You to confiscate.
Voters did adjourn
Whole case was given up on
A total, lost cause.
(May sound familiar
A Presidential campaign
Complete oblivion.)
James Thesaurus Heuristic Horn
Retired Veteran and Poet
Jill and I still have terrible coughs
and headaches. Think we will skip
St. James Episcopal Church in
Shallotte, NC.
Car
crash,
melded
bodies meet.
Symbiotically joined,
Steel, bone, blood, oil, a maelstrom broth,
curdled by singing shrapnel of temporary hell.
Metal screams breaking the rhythm
of organic song.
Crow's lament
carries
lost
souls
Car
crash,
melded
bodies meet.
Symbiotically joined,
Steel, bone, blood, oil, a maelstrom broth,
curdled by singing shrapnel of temporary hell.
Metal screams breaking the rhythm
of organic song.
Crow's lament
carries
lost
souls
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.