Triptych 8-20-25 Sponsor: John Anderson
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sun and storm song
eerie storm warning
light swallowed by ebony
banshee ballads rise
in mantras of humid breaths
atonal whirlwinds unleashed
downbeats of thunder
lightning rakes holes in the sky
tempest dirge rumbles
curtains of raindrops descend
plainchants of torrential rain
sun and storm collide
colors rise from light and mist
drenched in neon tears
sunbows arch in harmonies
orchestration of rainbows
Categories:
downbeats, rainbow, song, storm,
Form: Tanka
Jazz on a billboard,
a flash of notes,
Urgent beats, syncopation, improvisation,
and impromptu solos but why jazz on a billboard?
What’s the hap’s on that?
Man, what is the impact of the word jazz on a billboard anyway?
Syncopation is alive,
solos breaking free,
and a temporary show,
but is jazz here to stay?
Does a billboard for Jazz tell us about all the arranging, playing, composing
finding a paying gig, radio spins, music reviews,
band members quitting to get out of the jazz life?
Cars whiz by, faces turned,
who cares about the sound of jazz anyway
The tenor horn says
"Listen up, Listen here
Jazz is everywhere,
and like nowhere to be found
So, dig this
Every jazz note,
every gig, every miss,
and every jazz player who lives jazz behind
Jazz shapes your life with a heartbreaking rhythm.
So, here’s to the journey,
to hip beats and downbeats
Jazz is life on a billboard,
is hip for some passers-by to see
to feel, to groove, to feel where you're at
To come alive, jazz is for real
and that's my dance in life
Categories:
downbeats, music, spoken word,
Form: Spoken Word
Song of the Four Seasons 2-16-24
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Song of the Four Seasons
Jagged steel gray skies
Compose barren bough sculptures
Midnight days, Orion nights
White fire crystal symphonies.
Spring wriggles adagio toes,
Sunbeams thaw tuneless meadows,
Daffodils dream yellow melodies
Blossoms burst fragrant ballads.
Downbeats of summer rainstorms
Silver sonatas of moonlight
Heat rises in crescendos,
Cool waves soothe sunburns.
Scarlet scatters leafy notes,
Crisp sapphire skies motifs,
Harvest chorales of harmonies
Harbingers in orange transitions.
Categories:
downbeats, autumn, seasons, song, spring,
Form: Free verse
Summer Minstrels and Songsters
Crickets
Summer songsters
Music of the night
Back porch lullabies, serenade
Singers
Newborn
Cicadas buzz
Yawn and stretch in warm sun
Bright eyes see magnolia trees
Minstrels
Summer
Fireflies twinkle
Magic song of stars
Like suspended bits of glitter
Flash Dance
Buzzing
Grasshopper tunes
Vibrate like a drumline
Invites lovers to sing along
Duets
Chirping
Katydids trill
Rhythmic beats of improv
In pulsating choruses
Of blues
Whirr of
Dragonfly wings
Soft downbeats
Solstice troubadours sing alto
Crooners
Categories:
downbeats, song, sound, summer,
Form: Cinquain
Song of My Heart
Heart song,
Midsummer dream,
Intones sweet poetry,
Love notes resolve in harmonies -
Vespers
Music,
Weaves themes of joy,
Transposes dawn and dusk
Tableaus of half-notes bind lost chords -
In tune
Verses
Winsome lyrics
Tempos sing in duets,
My song breathes in stanzas of sighs
On key
Refrains,
Heart arias,
Beat with mercy’s cadence
Laughter chants a prelude to peace -
Pure pitch
Heartbeats
Sing like love songs
Strummed upon taut heartstrings
Breathless choruses of downbeats -
Heart songs
5-15-23
Contest: Song of My Heart
Sponsor: JCB Burl
Syllables checked with www.howmanysyllables
Categories:
downbeats, heart, music, song,
Form: Cinquain
rhythmic
melody flows
downbeats my emotions
murmuring purrs within my soul
heart felt
Categories:
downbeats, heart, music, nostalgia, rap,
Form: Cinquain
Mystical labyrinth of twisting harmonic warnings
Gazing into infinity’s composing handiwork –
Moonbeams in silver sung sonatas –
Ivory hued cantatas resolved from heart pacing crescendos
Spring’s soothing birdcalls after tympanic thunder.
Measured tempos of rhythms search for their time signature
As aching melodies in moveable feasts of swans
Search for resolutions in atonal firebird tango ballads
Through classical dusty suites of western legends
Not losing pitch or tripping over downbeats.
Too many notes squeeze into four square spaces
When magic flutes songs soar over seraglio dreams
Imperial marches set imprisoned phrasing free with fanfares
And close encounters of key notes discard dissonance
Seeking rhapsody in hues of blue.
Plaintive and joyful - hopeful and merciful -
Healing rhythms inspired from the eternal melody,
A lost chord to haunt then heal the midnight heart
All arranged in one accord from the Master’s apprentices
To rest in finality of one trailing echo of waltzing river.
Categories:
downbeats, music,
Form: Free verse
spring songs
eerie storm warnings
mistrals turn new leaves silver ~
baby eaglets hatch
banshee ballads rise
ice frosted meadows shiver ~
pineapple express
rain hums sad lyrics
in mantras of humid breaths ~
sleepy snowdrops wake
plaintive wind oboes
pensive gusts of sad flute songs ~
raindrops pound downbeats
spring songs come in waves
misty descants of plainchant ~
parched earth drinks deeply
3-16-23
Categories:
downbeats, song, spring, storm,
Form: Haiku
Melodrama Tears of Purple Passion
Tears of purple passion rend the cloak of my soul in a sob act as
Sobbing rain rips apart the sinuous threads of my blubbering broken heart
I beat my chest in abandoned weeping lamentation, crying out in vain.
Oh that the trampled, wailing, crying rose of love
Could gather together her sobbing scattered petals again -
Feel again her glow crushed by winter's maudlin weeping in heliotropic hues
Oh that distress teardrops shed here in sobbing souls of rending grief
On this windswept barren path would grow flowers in their footsteps
Weeping no more, crying for joy in their miraculous transformation.
Oh let Goblin slowly beat drums of broken sorrow in sobbing rising surges
Waterworks of downbeats in pulsing litanies of crying blackest blackness
Yet gather moaning cries as newborn jewels, treasure born of indigo Tears.
7-27-21
Sponsor: Jack Webster
Contest: The Goblins Jewel Box 1
Categories:
downbeats, angst, crazy, irony, passion,
Form: Free verse
Time
Time’s steady stoic countenance
Takes predetermined steps in ordered measures
Leaving no footprint hint of its presence
In the ceaseless rhythmic perpetuation,
Drumbeats of clicking perpetual movement
Without impassioned downbeats,
Never dragging chains of captured illusions,
No seconds given sanction to linger in joy
Nor cling to moments chiseled into stone milestones -
Neither consent to linger in chaotic wrenching stresses –
Face focused forward
Counting measures of the sun’s journey to dawn –
The moon’s questing for revolving skies –
Never lost in the labyrinth of déjà vu
To slip through fingers yearning to hold its heartbeat
Always clings to the noble quest serving
Past, present and future unbidden epoch
Smooth flowing unruffled tempo tread
Halted only when infinity’s eternal architect
Returns
Inviting time to rest enfolded in a mantle of grace.
5-27-21
Contest: Time
Sponsor: Chantelle Anne Cooke
Categories:
downbeats, time,
Form: Free verse
MUSIC IN THE LISTENING LAB
Notes! Notes of music
Bouncing
Off of walls – off of chairs
Off of ceilings and off the floors
Running down the hall in half steps
Flooding every inch of space
In atonal tangos - rhythms searching for their time.
Notes! Notes of music
Bumping
Up against each other
Up against the lines of scores
Vibrating tension pushing hard
Against a measured tempo -
Shrilling to be heard - only now to lose their pitch.
Notes! Notes of music
Crawling over one another
Trying to find harmony
Trying to discard the dissonance
Jamming in, losing sight of their rest,
They squeeze into the space -
With no resolution, unseen voices in a crowd.
Notes! Notes of music
Tripping over downbeats
Tripping over cadence
Falling flat upon their sharps
Phrasing key notes rise again
In soaring sound tracks arranged in one accord.
N/A 3/21/20
Categories:
downbeats, men, music, poetry, sound,
Form: Free verse
first impression was great.
wonderful smile, enthusiastic,
glad to be hired, upbeat and positive.
second impression, more of the same.
fantastically caring, kind. Gets along with
all of the like-minded staff members.
third impression – friendly, honest, willing to
pitch in and do without much direction.
rumors swirled. She’s uppity; she thinks she
is all that; she is too confident.
TOO confident? I could not stop laughing.
When she thanked me for standing up
to the nay-sayers, I knew I was right.
rumors died a natural death of course
as there are more upbeats here than
downbeats.
because the downbeats are the loudest
does not mean they win.
Categories:
downbeats, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form: Free verse