coronavirus -
in self isolation
a fragile flower
Categories:
crannied, flower,
Form: Haiku
It’s just like an intellectuallist
to tear creation from its little nest of stone,
thinking only if it rests in his hand,
if he can see all its white veins
will he grasp its mysteries.
Maybe this is why he knows
Death
so well,
and God so little.
Who, wanting a lover, seizes it out of life,
and lays its corpse in a tender repose,
trying to fathom the truth of what it means to smile?
The smile the autopsy leaves is no mystery.
A flower in a crannied wall
is a mystery
no more for the taking
than laughter.
Posted March 4, 2020
For Craig’s Flower in the Crannied Wall contest
Categories:
crannied, art,
Form: I do not know?
Flower in the crannied wall,
the seed and wind have brought
about your karmic destiny,
a tiny part of the larger all
that somehow came to be.
Humankind is like you, flower
a tiny part of a larger all
in the universal whole.
Everybody has their hour and
purpose to uphold.
In your beauty little flower
is the beauty of the world.
Brick, stone or rock cannot rob
a tiny part of the larger all
in a spot on a crannied wall.
3/4/20
'STRAND CHOICE D
Brian Strand, Sponsor
Categories:
crannied, beauty, humanity, metaphor,
Form: Free verse
Oh, flower in this crannied wall,
how did your roots prevail and sprawl
from seed that landed in a crack-
so shallow, small, in woods set back
from warm sun rays, to grow in shade
with vines about you- old and frayed?
Your blossom glows a vibrant red;
you stand out bright among the dread
of tangled sprays and dried-out brush.
Your velvet petals boldly blush
just like a ruby- precious stone-
shines on a tarnished ring, alone.
My Cinderella, come with me-
this fine glass jar- your slipper be;
a perfect fit, it shields your foot
of roots now clean of forest soot.
Soon, fertile soil you'll thrive upon-
a princess rose on my green lawn,
beside a prince who grew so tall-
and too was rescued, roots and all.
---------------------------------
February 5, 2023
2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL Placement Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Categories:
crannied, flower, metaphor, princess,
Form: Couplet
FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL
I tower above the crumbling ruins
Of a once majestic tower,
Flag and pennant proudly proclaimed
Pompous claim of pelf and power.
Yet all the boast and bombast,
In crumbling silence relates,
Of transient tenebrous things,
Of fickle times, of fickler fates!
Filigreed fronds in gentle sway,
Butterfly-hued my petals smile,
Delicate poise, yet firmly gripped
By roots who’ve been awhile.
So here I sit so up on high
Exuding sweet allure,
Biding time in changing climes
To wilt and die for sure.
But then, again, I’ll never die!
My seed will traverse to distant land
In nurturing avian gut to drop
In crag or cranny - to make its stand.
(And phoenix-like I'll rise again!)
Categories:
crannied, endurance, flower, imagery, loneliness,
Form: Verse
Nature is wondrous
It is all around
Everywhere we look
It's beauty abounds
Flowers are so pretty
I think the same of weeds
Weeds are flowers too
Both grown from seeds
Mother Nature doesn't need garden tools
She is too wise for that
She has a simple way
That she has got off pat
All the birds and bees
Are kept busy every day
Bees pollinating flowers
Droppings from the birds
Making sure the plants stay
Everything living has a purpose
Without any fuss at all
You may even find a flower
In a crannied wall
Categories:
crannied, 10th grade,
Form: Rhyme
They cling, these city dwellers,
to crannied city walls
dusted with the exhaled indifference
of a blindly passing world.
Gasping in the fetid urban exhale
longing for the touch of errant bee.
Escapees of discarded flower pots
surviving on sporadic a/c drips
stretch to catch a glimpse of sunrise.
Rooted in their dreams of being free.
2/18/2020
Categories:
crannied, city, life,
Form: Free verse