Heavenly hyacinths in ruby red
Lure hovering hummingbirds to sip sweet nectar
With wonderful colorful costumes
They daintily dance from flower to flower
So swift, their beautiful ballet
Presenting pretty hues, having their dish
A Hibiscus has enticed them to dine
As a child,
Like a grown up, you would put on my make-up,
In my heels you'd stumble trying to stand up.
As a child,
Knowingly, you played at 'mothers' with your friends
Each one using grown up language in pretends.
As a child,
Many times you would not do as you were told,
Capricious, stubborn as any eight-year-old.
As a child,
Already knowing that you wanted to be
A loving mother, exactly, just like me.
As a child,
Peas in a pod, we went through it together
Daintily dancing through all kinds of weather.
Time has passed, and even though you're grown up now
Admit, you can't hide sometimes stumbling somehow
like a child.
Popping out from under time's ruffled sun
a regally vested, chit-chatty Robin.
Cheerily navigating the lemon lime grass.
Perhaps looking for a beetle or crumb.
He daintily hip-hopped into my ring
on legs of beige twigs and lute strings.
Gently tilting a Tiffany-kissed beak.
Offering a daisy chain of silvery peeps.
I thought him just another avian busker
hustling up a mate and something to eat.
I'd little to offer and vigorously apologized.
He just glanced toward his robin egg sky.
Then offered me, in pastels, a Basho haiku.
I volleyed back with crayon-streaked senryu.
Before gliding off to sweet memory land,
he gifted an orange gem from his regal vest.
I considered this day to be impeccably blessed
by Lord Robin of the lemon-lime grass.
A True Story
Written: April 29, 2026, for a contest sponsored by Constance La France
**************
"Quote: True beauty is a ray that springs from the sacred depths of the soul, and illuminates the body, just as life springs from the kernel of a stone and gives colour and scent to a flower. By Rumi"
***************
The springtime voice moves daintily in the air,
A silver sigh like dawnlight through the trees,
That wakes earth from winter's silent prayer.
It lures the buds with dazzling, perplexed breeze,
A mystic murmur, attractive as a rhyme,
that wanders down the meadows, talking to the bees.
Each seed now stirs, as though it recalls time—
a sleeping spark beneath the melting loam,
standing like hope in some forgotten clime
The hills grow warm; wandering winds bring home
The flocks of petals, gentle as falling snow,
Their hues light up every meadow and dome.
O Spirit Spring, whose translucent streams glow,
restore the earth—let every heartbeat grow.
We fairies of frailty dream in the daintily dazed daytime,
We fairies of frailty surely shalln’t awaken to the morning shine,
Alight with the grace that surely shalln’t be mine.
Sleep to surmise a break to the eventide
To but breathe mine worries into the shallow moonlight
Say this can’t last forever when your stomach harrumphs like the rolling thunder
“So is life, and life is so”
We seem to spake the stars with a snarl,
And await a timely death beneath the growing snow.
“So is life, and life is so”
So one shall recover, to discover in the morrow,
The morning glow.
21//1//2026
sun has baked the metal arm of this chair
I may have a third degree burn now
it is easy to ignore the pain
vitamin D uplifts and refreshes me
a dragonfly daintily flies toward me
is that a locust? no another dragonfly
I sit on this sun porch soaking up rays
it is a calm hot August day
I spy three more dragonflies
for the first time realize how colorful my shirt is
oranges, turquoise, blues, purples and pinks
they probably think I am a giant flower
Today her silks scatter crackling arabesques in the shimmering air
today she’ll dazzle the casual eye with her sweet metallic gleam
today she waddles, awkward as a cow
today she packs a punch like a fresh shot arrow
today she reverses polarity
today she groans in a furrow, slick with sweat
today she daintily steps through a violet mist
today she sloughs off gummy stuff
today her laughter is quicksilver
today she’s a clammy grey rubbery stone with bristles
today her waterfall hair sheds intoxicating unguents
today she dances without knowing it
today the beauty peels from her face to reveal a hatchet
----------------------------------------
We are the nouns, the mighty tidy nouns
house cat, mouse, bat, zebras, elephants and gowns
you’re nothing without us, the verbs smirk, laugh and say
twirling, whirling, dancing, singing, along the way
the adjectives and adverbs laugh at these arrogant two
You might be the wood and concrete, but we are the glue
without us you cannot be mammoth, tiny, cold or blue
this was from a frustrated adjective named McGrue.
or dance daintily or prettily said an arrogant adverb
thinking you are all that without the others is kind of absurd
a peacekeeping preposition tried to make a pact,looking at each side.
over, under, upside down, around and through, his name was McBride.
It's almost half past three
time to cosy up for tea
kettle's on the boil to brew
tea for two me and you
with egg and cress or
cucumber sandwiches
with nary a single crust
(they were all donated
to the National Trust)
it's after forty to four
shall I be Mother and pour
I know you know Pekoe
the table's set quite daintily
two for tea you and me
and we can sing my song
'Lapsang Souchong'
I LONG
YOU LONG
WE ALL LONG
FOR OOLONG
unless you're feeling more Darjeeling
the blushing bride of summer sunset
dances daintily with the wistful wind
forgetting sorrow brought by bitter winter
drying tears tossed by those who sinned
A sea of roses graced the local park
Swaying to the sweet singing of a lark
Sensual ambience those roses made
Supported by stems of majestic jade.
The roses danced like waves upon the sea
To gentle wind caressing them softly
Enjoying the motion, most daintily
Back and forth, side to side elegantly.
Sunlight glimmered o’er their rosy faces
As they performed with delightful graces
To an audience that was mesmerised
By the scene being played before their eyes.
Roses of every colour one can name
Petals owning their unique claim to fame
Roses, the epitome of romance
Inciting hearts to race and feet to dance.
Every rose has its own special splendour
That is, that was and will be for ever
A sea of roses waving on the breeze
Is a stupendous sight that's sure to please.
I am waxing poetic
And hope I’m not straining
Credulity saying
My talent’s not waning.
It may be eclipsed by
Those poets ascendant
Whose words are celestial,
Deep and resplendent.
Yet tides keep on turning
And orbits expanding,
While moonbeams drift down,
Oh, so daintily landing.
The galaxy’s bursting
With work that amazes
And room for all poets
In all of their phases.
buttery morning
light
licks
there are daintily cupped blooms
small white weeds
that no one can name
the sun has spread its table
green rippled gardens
garner
flecks of gold
an old groundhog
a basket of hedgerow twigs
baby footed clouds
blue dingle
between eggshell
vales
run along
all those that can leap a fence
or skitter under it
go
for the light is everywhere
new arriving
let the rooted behold
even if this domain
stops its clement rolling
even so
feathered …
moony beams daub your lips -
the irregularities
shaping little cornflower thorns
but oh, how supple the
pliant press of those luscious fruits
(savored like honey) …
I touch them delicately with the
back of my finger
then move lower to your
daintily-dimpled chin, and down …
I follow the blue beams
with my fingertips
dancing across your surfaces as
little bumps form and
your flesh jumps here-and-there
telling me I’ve found the
sweetest spots,
though I’m winding my way to
an even dearer dermis
and warmer intent …
what is the enchantment of
these moments -
this magic of moonlight that
makes me want you so?
there is a mad mystery to why such
time stops and waits for us,
and were it not for
the responsibilities of morning,
we would hold this moment forever -
painted in dreamy shafts of blue
trading touches like truths
swimming the rill of each other’s soul
and haunting a wonder-world -
whimsical, immortal
and ours …
alone.
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden
In the shadow of sunlight where dreams dance daintily
Forgotten memories flicker and fade into frozen fragments
Slivers of soft light illumine the dappled canopy of leaves
The luminescence of son et lumiere is lavish in its lustre
The phosphorescence of photons creates a phantasmagoria
Scenes of silver silence resurrect sonorous solace
The forest glade flits and flirts with frolicking fading light
Burnished beams of bright sunrays ballet in between birches
In the shade, shafts of sunshine shatter, scatter into sparkling specks
Hazel Helios hovers high up in the heavenly hemisphere
The gigantic globule gleams golden as it gives its greetings to gloaming
Surrounded by surreal saffron setting in the shadow of sunlight
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