Late autumn’s wind
screeches like a banshee
and the sky is an angry ashen gray.
Our old tree -
stooped over and skeletal -
seems to convulse violently
as if in shocking fright
as its leafless limbs
eerily scrape the side
of our house
nearest to our bedroom,
tap – tap- tapping fiercely
against our window pane.
The wind recedes
and snow begins to drift down
from pewter-painted clouds.
The skeleton in our backyard
turns slowly through the night
into a grim reaper
wearing a robe of white.
Written: June 30th, 2026 for a contest sponsored by Seth Pina
Underneath a veil of midnight choke,
A peaceful recluse is drifting loose.
Hungry roots in ghostly boots,
As blood-red clay morphs to gray
The winter cries from weeping skies,
Heavy prayers distilled tears.
A gleam in moonlight, a dream in sight,
The stars have bled where breath is dead.
Its sinewed trunk is deeply sunk,
Through ruined soil where shadows coil.
Raw winds can snap a broken jaw,
As trees run deep to hide a sleep.
Most sorrow a faded ghost now,
Reach out and touch a dead shore.
Underneath this clay of black decay,
Lost bones will scream and sigh.
A dying pulse makes night convulse,
Where fading sparks collapse to dark.
A requiem blows low with icy glow,
As blood seeping scars mock the stars.
Confess your sins where spoil begins,
For wood can hold the bitter cold.
Its trapped voice leaves no choice,
When winter’s wind proclaims it sinned.
In the mystical land
Where Orchids dream...
The secrets of the soul lay bare.
Take hold of my hand
And I'll lead you to the stream
To see your souls secrets reflected there.
The water sighs
"I am the asylum of your ache"
The mists whisper to soothe your pain.
The secrets never lie
Hence they hide for ones own sake
As part of ones growth they must remain.
As you stare in to that stream
In the land where Orchids dream
You feel alive in your secret desires.
In the asylum of your ache
You recall every mistake
Wishing such memories would expire.
You feel trapped in your pulse
Restricted and contained
With a longing to break free.
Your efforts convulse
And you feel detained
In a lonesome melancholy.
We are verses in the Ash
When our chips we cash,
But the end is not in sight.
The choices we make now
Are the pathway to how
Our secret souls can bring delight.
The clouds were moving swiftly
across the darkened sky
The howling wind raced through the trees
the leaves were flying by
His heart was beating like a drum
that pounded in his chest
Trying to release the demon
long ago at rest
His body started to convulse
it shook without control
In one more minute he would lose
the last part of his soul
Transformed into a savage
with no logic and no reason
A cursed abomination
he is doomed through every season
Now the man is gone
and in his place there stands a beast
The darkest part inside of him
once hidden, now released
The creature howled out at the moon
a tear was in his eye
Because inside the monster
lives a man who still can cry
The moment lasted a while,
uncertain how long
Thunder and lightning
in wild confusion
- flashed with sabre rays
and powerful thunder sound
Interrupted by hail
first as peas - then tennis balls
Nature's curse,
brought the evil man closer
When all its elements convulse
trembling with disturbed power
acknowledges its status
On the horizon's edge
sun finally appeared
As traces of inscriptions
- beauty achieved
Like the stray dogs that bark at the elegant elephant
The pessimists taunted you with matters irrelevant
They expounded your wonders as works of the head of Satan.
Did they not know that their hearts were brim-filled with frustration?
Will kingdoms that rise against each other survive? You asked.
You knew, like a house divided, their thoughts were venom-massed.
Did they not know that the finger of Abba was with you?
Didn't destructive thoughts, like hemlock, in them always brew?
Do not turn you, you said, into snakes that secrete poison.
When seas of evil engulf you, you'll find no horizon.
With one evil, you mess many. Isn't this your impulse?
Within you, with your inner self, doesn't your soul convulse?
You crushed the evils that bound the minds and healed everyone.
Did the closed minds know, for the optimists, spring had begun?
Floral fragrance
Fizzes
Nasal nostalgia
Nuzzles
Pristine passion
Persuades
Testing
Tempting
Lips-lust
Lingers
Hypnotized heart
Heaves
Cosmos
Countermands
First time?
Full-tilt fast-time?
Kissing
Kindling
Cardiovessels
Convulse
Hedonism
Haunts
Hearts
Harmonize
In the hot A-Ga-Ming night
My wife and I skip the July 4th fireworks
At the sandbar down south on long Torch Lake
Start our own shoreline fire
Count the red electrified dorsal fins
Of the motorboat salmon swimming upstream
Migrating home from the explosions in the sky
20, 50, 80 a hundred 200 in an hour
Rainbow tsunami
Our dock leans rickety to the covenant
Lake soothes its wrinkles when the madness is over
Our souls sit back in decrescendo
Take a deep breath
To the cows mooing
Pastures away on Cairn Highway
Like foghorns from the lighthouse perched on the moon
While picking machines convulse in the cherry orchards
Tree by tree to trampolines
Whining mosquitoes if our ears were the hills
Moon slips behind the blueberry clouds
Campfire snaps its fingers for attention
A cricket chirps just outside our circle of radiant rocks
I planted decades ago
Every year he’s here too
Chirping
Chirping
To the embers of the universe
Until he isn’t.
I wish for a simple death, yet I cannot help but consider the battlefield or hospital. Whenever I gaze deeply into your eyes, it may only mean that I will die once more.
Despite our combined efforts, as we labored together as one long ago, my illness has caused me to become weaker. Some may see me as less than what I once was, and this is a natural effect of aging.
We reminisce about how things have changed, including the grey bandages and gentle squeezes. As you watch me, now pale and yellow, I convulse and jerk uncontrollably. However, you hold me still until I am at rest, and although grateful, I do not wish to die in this manner.
If the roles were reversed, would you allow me to suffer? Each time you bring me back from the edge, I face my fate alone, and I can see the surprise in your eyes.
I feel the warmth of the sun briefly before my life slips away, and you hold on tightly until the end. It is only when the bright light dawns on you that you realize what I have become.
Laying brick by brick, with stickum in between.
A stone on top of another: dream quest and scene,
erected diligently, with a blueprint at the ready.
Each dot and line progression is sure and steady.
Despite storms, hurdles, and limited funding
With slow but steady aims, slanted rashly cunning,
with optimism, sharing in God's dream design.
Adversity shapes us to strive rather than repine.
God's will is a bunker, so every lesson is a brick
His word is final, and the walls of the friary are thick
Our foundation is the cornerstone of our existence
Lord God, the ruler of men, smooths the essence.
I savor being amazed; trust my full autonomy.
A heart full of hope gives way to honesty.
It's optimistic, soul-strengthening, and simple.
We stir up lies, and our ignorance is sinful.
Our love shrinks our hatred with each pulse.
It's tough to stay aside; must veins convulse?
I'm not sure what they'll do if we meet to shine.
Our passion for each other will be closer to fine.
Written: February 16, 2023
Closer To Fine Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Kai Michael Neumann
sitting in front of the toilet throwing up
everything is spinning
everything is throbbing
when i get up, i feel like my body has bricks instead of bones
i go to lay down, but the pain, the nausea, and the dizziness has me all messed up
i begin to convulse again
i then jump up and zoom back to the bathroom
i made it just in time
this time the contents are all clear
this too is not good
i buckle down and drive to the emergency room
i find out that i have some type of contagious stomach bug
it all has me wanting to swallow a flyswatter
instead i head home and follow the doctor's orders
it is a good thing that i am off for the next three days
my bed is gonna be my bestest friend
my phone will be resting right along with me
all curtains will be closed
all knocks on my door will be intentionally ignored
i am determined to get my rest to wellness
--- Illusion ---
Meet your guest! I am your friend.
Together - We - until the End.
I am your mind! 'Control' I send.
It’s Me - not You – the shamans blend.
I control your arm – your feet – your hand.
The path of which you think you’ve planned.
Pre-ordained by Me is where you’ll land.
In sky - on ground - in sea – on sand.
You stumble through your programmed day
With little doubt ‘twas all your way
While ‘I’ – in here – do make the play.
‘I’ control your actions night through day.
You’re rejecting this – thinking false?
Try reaching down. Feel my pulse.
‘Tis I – the this – the other – else.
‘I’ - not You – would cause convulse.
Who causes flinch when you get burned?
While you’re asleep life’s my concern.
Why must resist what’s being learned?
My place within I think I’ve earned!
It’s Me! ‘I’ beat the heart - expel the pee.
The poop of what you should-not-be.
It is ‘I’ - the senses four – plus see.
Be sure to capitalize the ‘I’ in Me!
2015
I'm fond of the canary
and its singing,
of the lark the
charm in
purest emotion ...
When I hear the chime
I convulse and flow,
I move outside and inside ...
I admire the tuning
of well-toned corals,
the classics well conducted.
I feel the flow of sensation
when the music starts ...
I appreciate touching music
that makes the heart vibrate ...!
Reapers visit
Warm salty tears dripping down my reddened cheeks.
Sadness and depression fill my barely beating heart, thudding so slowly I can't feel my own pulse.
Told I now Repulse, causes me to convulse tremoring violently, retch so much nothing but anger and disillusion come out, just a disgrace.
An entire life I have had happiness love and joy till my love my life twinflame died holding in bed sometime during the night.
Chest compressions only caused black blood to splatter my face.
The cold stiffness that once was warm and soft his red skin now blue and lifeless this more than a crisis. Our love always limitless that once armored us licit love replaced with bitterness and bereavement.
Bestfriend died.
Suddenly taken away
Forever
sponsor
Regina Riddle
LOVE ENTERS THROUGH THE EYES- as an American Doublet
When desires meet and emotions convulse
Fixation unties that inner impulse.
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