Dreams Deferred
My Dreams have always been to travel around the globe.
Dreams Deferred? Perhaps
My dream is to possibly become an author, second-guessing and duped. Dreams Deferred? Perhaps
Unguarded decisions, false evidence appears real. Dreams
Deferred? Perhaps
Guilty by association, recognized toxic faces, unaccustomed places, I'm at a crossroads. Dreams
Deferred? Perhaps
Trust shattered yet my heart has not desensitized. Dreams
Deferred? Perhaps
It is night's first light — evening
The world thinks through my mind
The echoes of a bittersweet day whisper
My ears twitch, my heart pricks
A pressed edge leans forward
Shouldering the offices of the earth
A desire to just surmount the hurdles
Like an infant falls yet learns to walk
The one weary of deferred hope
The other elated 'bout a filled cup
The one broken to a love unrequited, at least lost
The other happy, healed at finding love
Life's but a parody of exhilarations
A gnome ignited by fiery undergoings
The man, an eloquent stammerer
Profiting and lossing to antiquity
Love, life, life and love — there's no life or love without wins
Pa, ma, lad and lass — you have no family without wins
Works, rest, rest from works — there's no rest without wins
Wisdom, wits and will will wither — to live is to first die
Muffled dialogue ennui sequestered intimacy so distant,
smothered in ebbing surreptitious fantasy.
Musing how close is close?
Possess the land of your heart
For cares of the world can cause
Our hearts to become compact!
Don't let hope be deferred
It's time to plow our hearts
And let the dormant seeds
Grow and flourish once again!
This is a precious time
Time is cyclic, take a step back
Look at the situation, see your part
Walk circumspectly and align with time
Let time work for you, redeem the time
Then you'll see your vision come to life!
How will my household chores get done?
They're just no fun.
I'd rather write
about this plight.
Great piles of clothes and dishes hope
for cleansing soap.
Another time,
I'll banish grime.
Today a "Minute" calls my name.
This prompt's to blame
for undone work
I had to shirk!
received NA in an open-choice contest on April 10, 2022
September 17, 2022
entered in the Your Second Chance 2nd Submission: Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Sotto Poet
I want to know joy,
But I am afraid
This is not how I am made
Grief is a constant friend
My heart is warm,
Eyes are keen,
I see others,
Still,I feel unseen
I play too small
Do not know why
Insightful, sensitive, reluctant to cry
Need time alone
To hear my heart,
Answers are there,
Painful to start
My body is wise,
it does not lie
Must learn to listen,
And not deny,
Only then
Fear aside
Time to enjoy
My elusive joy
All Dreams Deferred
By Sy Roth
Bilious, they lay there in a somnolent heap
Dreams imprisoned.
Langston toed them, and lethargically they wiggled
But could not rise from the ashes of their sadness.
The dreams that once took residence
Wallow now in unfilled, charmless trifles
Like an uncapped bottle of cheap champagne
Its bubbles let loose into the ether--
A flat, unquenching drink.
Is there yet a miracle in terra infirma---
A thorned crown, stigmata of pierced palms.
Speared middle
To awaken dreams from the icy prisons?
It’s a drain to function
In an eclectic world where all spread a pall over everything,
Hums sad tunes, funeral dirges to dead friends,
Dying in inches
Toward inevitable endings,
Wishing only for a tranquil pass around the Inferno
Only to end up
A wheelchair-bound lump of decaying flesh
With Nordic icy beaches
A hirsute blanket for eternity
Listening to the song of the worms
As they paddle their way through the soil and you
Ingesting your dreams.
What happens when rotten strange fruit…
Hanging from trees of auction block wood
Become stinking pieces of black flesh…
Dried blood putrefying in murderous streets…?
When crystallized tears of remorse…Laden and
Loaded with explosive grief…Flow down weary
Faces wrinkled by time’s trials, tribulations and
Treacherousness and neglect of freedom, justice
And equality, all become like inconsequential
Sunned raisins and festering sores…?
When visions of deferred dreams become blurred
Realities,
Fogged by the steam of volcanic anger…Pray tell…
What happens?
Pray tell…what happens? And then what?—Please,
Pray tell?!
*with due apologies to the late, great Langston Hughes*
What happens to a dream deferred?
Me? Defer a dream?
Nah, I ain't that mighty a fool!
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Raisins! Mmm, I love me some raisins...
on oatmeal, on cookies, the works!
Or fester like a sore?
Yikes! the imagery on human skin!
And then run?
If dreams run, I got legs
I'd give chase!
Does it stink like rotten meat?
If so I'd toss it
while holding my nose!
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Oh, I sure hope it does
coz I'm a sweet tooth, baby!
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Hey, there's a Camel for that!
Or does it explode?
Whoa! An exploding dream?
I'd stay 500 paces away from this one!
Parody Of A Famous Poem Poetry Contest
Sponsored by L MILTON HANKINS
Date written: 12/22/2020
Beauty
Aesthetic grace
Is muted for a time
Weary eyes searching the darkness
New dawn..
Absence makes these eyes grow fonder
Beethoven's sonata
Comes to a close
Sunrise
(Apropos of Hughes’s Proverbial Question)
What happens when rotten strange fruit…
Hanging from trees of auction block wood
Become stinking pieces of black flesh…dried blood
Putrefying in murderous streets…?
When crystallized tears of remorse…Laden and loaded
With explosive grief…flow down weary faces
Wrinkled by time’s trials, tribulations…treacherousness—
And neglect of freedom, justice and equality
All become like inconsequential sunned raisins and festering sores…?
When visions of deferred dreams become blurred realities—
Fogged by the steam of volcanic anger—Pray tell…What happens?
Pray tell…What happens? And then what?—Pray tell!
MY HEART
IS A WOUNDED BIRD
WINGS QUIVERING
IN SILENT PAIN
WITH STIFLED BREATH
UNABLE TO FLY
PALED FROM BATTLE
MY HEART
IS AN ICEBERG
WEIGHED HEAVY
IN MY CHEST
FOGGING MY THOUGHT
WITH COLD MIST
RAINING DOWN
MY SKIN, INSIDE.
AUGUST 2000
How long was I asleep like a proud bug
deep in her nest? All of my life was ease
and wealth until I became a bit smug—
and all about was hunger, dearth, and disease!
So cozy was life that I was content,
snug, self-assured, sure, and self-satisfied
without awareness of my confident
pride and the fact that I was gratified.
Crash! Why is my world so swiftly shattered?
My hopes and dreams quake, rattle, and quiver!
Clattering are my hands; my luggage tattered!
Collision strikes as I now shake and shiver.
From above—life goals now reveal with brute force:
I'll forge ahead anon without remorse!
The grapes are crushed and trodden,
winnowed the golden grain;
if winter comes tomorrow
my heart shall not complain.
Richer this tardy harvest
than one could ever dream
who has known the taste of famine
and drank a drought extreme.
Copyright, 7-19-2014
Faye Lanham Gibson
Dreams Deferred - Gone with the Wind
Dreams deferred:
Placed on hold
Like unwelcomed telephone calls
Relegated to being bench warmers
Like second-rate baseball players
Put out to pasture
Like useless cattle past their prime
Displayed on a shelf
Like tarnished antiques collecting dust
Stored in an old medicine cabinet
Like expired drugs that have lost their potency
Stashed away in a hope chest in the attic
Like old lace and forgotten memories
Discarded on a beach
Like trash washed away with outgoing tides
Left adrift in open seas
Like a rudderless ship with no destination
Set aflame
Like rejected love letters
Then suddenly - Puff!
Like cold, grey ashes from a funeral pyre
Dreams deferred are blown away -
Gone with the wind!
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