I dreamed Svengali came to me by night.
His yellow teeth, which were so revolting
and his black popping eyes gave me such fright,
that from my dream I wished to be bolting.
Yet still he stayed there, and I felt as if
my will was being sucked up out of me.
Night-terrorized and paralyzed – so stiff -
in agony I lay there. I could not flee.
His laugh most hideous was a crow’s caw
deriding me. How could I make him leave?
Was I being choked? Breath I could not draw!
But then I screamed. To this day I believe
the shriek I managed -sharper than a knife -
had jolted me awake and saved my life!
Frigid temperatures filled the square
Rigid opponents chilled the air
Deriding him a radical socialist
Unbridling the race to get him off a ballot list
The city was arm in arm, in protest daily
Whites, Blacks, Arab and Israeli
and what came up to all’s surprise
Mayor elect—Mamdani’s rise
Along came the 112th Mayor elect
Strong spent are the people who'd select
Lines stretched around doters
Awaiting hours were his voters
Indulges in a city reborn it’s bagels and lox
Sworn in over the subway station docks
Hand upon Islam’s holy text
A marvel of a man who’ll govern next
Swearing words of conviction and not of pity
I swear, to bolster and defend this dynamic city
Mayor Mamdani
promises New York City ~
a hopeful journey
New Year's Day
1/1/26
In the wee hours mansions where hushed glooms sneak flesh
Flesh that gossips furtive malice in minds' natural breath
Breath that stimulates crooked cravings inside the disappearing doom
Doom slopes upon the feeling’s ending, perverted plea
Plea shades its crimson mantle around the nocturnal mind.
Mind inspired by secret wrath below a pastel skin
Skin that fleeces a monster whose faintness shams piety sin
Sin that buds in plagiarized hilarity, deriding deadly impasse
Impasse on a land of walking humans in skins yet inner evils.
Poem by N. Mugisho
I can’t rid of the bags under my eyes
The crowfeet despise, all were lies,
Conjured was an illusion of you
Throughout my groping confusion
evasive, flimsy
A-m-o-r-p-h-i-c, innuendos
I was subjected to your derision
dissing me relentlessly
deriding my appearance,
disparaging my intellect
as I stumbled and fell into the abyss
Mocking doesn’t suit my countenance
My lips desert dry, thirsty, parched
An amazon no longer beats its drum
My buoyant nature now laden with coarsened shroud
Leaving a cardboard moon deprived of its shine
Stars like candles blown out one by one
No use waiting for the rising Sun
The end of world does come,
stopped spinning neath heavy ebon clouds
Expectations unreal
All zeal gone, listless is my spirit
along with my illumination
Now you see me
unmasked in raw anguish
I d
r
o
o
p
jowls hang from endless
torment endured
like the drenched and cold, wounded hawk
taken flight, eagle-eyed, a warrioress
more determined and bold, traveling on
with unlimited range
and self-esteemed
This bird,
you
c
a
n
n
o
t c h a n g e
Now, seriously, folks
we're taking it a bit too far
to call Elon Musk's
vehicles "Swasticars".
The brand-new Tesla SS
could be the fastest, fascist car, I guess,
and I know that what he says is spurious,
but that's no reason to make him fuhrerious.
With his advisors, he should've had a conference,
as he clearly did nazi the consequence
and the total, utter shock
of a serious drop in Tesla stock.
I know his stiff-arm gesture is in dispute,
but it was just an "innocent Roman salute".
Clearly, things have gotten really bizarre,
so let's stop deriding the Naz...
the guy who makes Swasticars.
In the archaic anchorage of the wayward mind,
isolated from the righteous roots of inviolability
by the dislodging drive of the deriding desires,
untamed instincts shroud the senses in disdain abyss.
Under the sensual surface of corporeal discernment,
tapered thoughts transitorily profile intrinsic images
on the fleeting screen of the sprouting awareness
within the unique quintessence of universal reality.
The stimulant inner window on enlightenment vista
lets inside rousing sunshine of impetuous actuality,
radiates the impulsive impression of awakened psyche,
enhances the defining strength of the cathartic spirit.
As immanent emotions unfold in spontaneity space,
the soul contained latent in the cauldron of vacuity,
finds freedom, merges inspired with consciousness
of divine oneness in the realm of absolute supreme.
February 22 Praises to God Bible Meditations Based on Numbers 26-27
Key Verse– Numbers 26:1 And it came to pass after the plague, that the LORD spake unto Moses…
PRAISE BE TO GOD WHO SHIELDS US FROM PLAGUES
Praise be to God for shielding us from plagues as we:
Confess our sinfulness, pleading sincerely
Commit our lives to Him, pleasing Him along our service
Converse to Him in prayer with our supplication
Choose to praise Him midst sanctification
Cling to Him and His powerful strength
Numbers 26:9 Praise be to the Lord for admonishing us
not to strive against Him by:
Displeasing Him with our perversions
Defying His precepts
Doubting His promises
Deriding His providence
Downgrading His provisions
Numbers 27:14 Praise be to the Saviour Who checks us
so we should not rebel against His commandments while:
Complaining about our situation
Cursing our status
Clamoring for self-sufficiency
Craving along selfishness
Continuing in our slothfulness. Amen.
February 22, 2024
Their clueless inane fangs of reed
Strive to bite what's made of steel;
Deriding the stronger sinew of virtue
They cling onto feeble foibles untrue.
To headache more reasonable head
Is the very principal aim they're bred...
These pithy bothersome numbskulls
Coined with dimmest grasp that lulls.
Hurtful words followed by deriding deeds.
There is no escape, there is not an out.
How to handle the necessary needs?
I fear for our sanity, I have doubt.
Moods swinging from serene to confusion.
There is no escape, there is not an out.
Moments remembered, then self-delusion.
Cherish the memories, and times lucid.
Moods swinging from serene to confusion.
Conversing in language not pellucid,
a notion there is something important.
Cherish the memories, and times lucid.
Kindness offsets the often discordant.
Compassion and patience oft rewarded,
a notion there is something important.
Recognition a blessing awarded.
A cruel disease within humankind.
Compassion and patience oft rewarded.
Jeckyll and Hyde terrorizing a mind.
The Unforetold Truth
The Truce unclaimed is yearning
The Halo surrounded is hatful
The treasure unfound is slothful
The ink unused is fading
The forces unchallenged are daring
The stakes untaken are dilapidating
The cross unbeard is rightful
The characteristics unfeatured are deriding
The Chances non-formed are regretful
What do all these culminate to produce?
The Unforetold Truth
The knowledge present in everyday felicitations and adventures reborn
The Unforetold truce present in the lie conquered and disseminated
Where there is strength in bold and overridden fear
With success in the wind.
Can I thank you in passing for helping 'me'
for easing 'my way' into the Presidency
*******
Bush Jr. might have thanked Clinton for an economy
that produced a budget surplus, amazingly
But he focused on his own alleged decency
deriding his predecessor's public immorality
Mr. Obama didn't thank Mr. Bush for his fight against terror
instead castigating George W. for his economic errors
And Mr Trump declined to give Mr. Obama his due
for steady job growth, a comeback in stock prices too
Now Mr. Biden touts his own 'magnificent job' on vaccinations
ignoring Mr. Trump's Operation Warp Speed, the true causation
*******
The elites lecture us: We have to be more civil, more polite
When the simplest of thank-you's they can't even get right
Baking, broiling, blindingly bright, blistering sun,
Super scorching, sweltering, sizzling sand
The kabob that is my body skewered, searing
Deceptively blue skies devoid of any deliverance
No cavalry of clouds coming to convey compassion
Rising balloon-like bubbles of hot air
Causing distant objects to ripple and dance
Shimmering in the atmospheric boil
Falling to my knees, I detect in the distance
Glimmering patches of blue and green—Mirage!
A maniacal mime of molten mockery
Deriding my dreadful demise
Potatoes
drink beer after beer
slouch on couches
formulating bad breath opinions
second guessing
deriding
insinuating
opinionating
whining
baby crying
except for Trump
and variable other
con artists
most
bankrupt
or poor
yet
they know what's best
do this
and don't do that
you are a fool
can you not spell they say
dyslexic millionaires
don't really care
sending poetry into space
There is a house divided in large and small corridors.
Rolling, whirling, raging flames pushing at every door.
Flames of the past and today caused sorrow
There is a fan blowing, pushing flames even at tomorrow.
It conjures up the buttress to empower the flames,
While deriding erring souls of rest from pain.
I've sequestered from these crazy times or
Will I retrieve what's left behind.
Must this fan continue to turn?
War and peace, good and bad
A testament of life's struggle, we all have.
Flames of tyranny so severe, depicting
The past, future and everywhere.
Trump Should Be Hiding
What Trump should do is be hiding;
Not taunting Kim and him deriding;
Word massacre,
It may occur;
Into pieces our country is dividing.
Jim Horn
Sub Categories
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.