Sweetness Ordained
Can you remember
a smell
or only a fact
Can a bakery
in passing
free a memory lapsed
A sensory
flashback
its sweetness ordained
Olfactory joy
surviving time
— and the flame
**
Breathing Closer
Death
I hear thee coming
but still see thee not
Death
your chilling shadow
Atropos casting lots
Death
breathing closer
inhaling my soul
Death
by day silent
— the darkness extols
**
Dark Symbiosis
You heard me whisper
I heard you cry
You tracked my footsteps
which bade goodbye
A star crossed tandem
in shared release
Dark symbiosis
— of love’s retreat
**
A New Calling
Don’t ever let life
deprive you
of what only
death can claim
Each day of excuse
and diverted
dreams
will lock your hope in chains
Only when final
divinely
inspired
and stepping through the wind
Toward a new
calling
and fresh paradigm
— are we blessed to rebegin
**
Where upon the earth do I acquaint new life?
A Spirit who scampers upon a banshee breeze,
Unsure—anxious thoughts taking aim, rife, unmoored
Focus unsharp—a fog on a mountain freeze—trees
Seek hope, its landing unannounced, high and lofty:
A child, clay-borne, raised by morning’s star,
and bearing the velocity of love
Untainted, untrodden, undaunted, unstifled—
What nurtures freedom in a nature made for freedom
Time clicks; a moment slips, forgotten.
Hallowed, sought, bought, fraught—a chiefdom
Berean, listening without ears of cotton
Whispering, churning, turning, burning—wind
A persiflage ingested as thunder rumbles, grumbles
Persistence, resistance—conscripted in sin
There, a cry for wisdom, yet stuck—fumbled
Who? A father, mother, sister, brother—kin?
Progeny, cacophony—perhaps fools on atolls
All, forgotten tenets in interplanetary space
The medicament—far-reaching, teaching bleeding souls
Contrary to prevailing belief: to show no grace
Yet responsible life-stewards, a virtuous gift extols
Greater, higher—hope, faith, and love proclaim the Ancient Scrolls
Thunderstruck
=======
Depression I can sense,
on the facial expressions of angst-ridden souls,
so immense
Yet hope has wings,
from those who treasure benign roles,
and sweet things
Blue mood
cures one extols
wooed
Depression I can sense,
from those who treasure benign roles,
wooed
from the news
A tomato met a non-tuber plant
sweet music
a birth to what is known
as potatoes, these days also called fries
Just think if the tomato had not
been so unfaithful trying it on with
any passing plant
What would our diet be like
without the beloved spud
I read this in a paper that extols the free press
With the mild hand of exceptions
These days, the paper has fallen on hard times
and had sold out to real estate
not the two-up and one bathroom
houses in the millionaire class, after all
One has to show class
This morning, an article about jellyfish, that
In my youth, there were plentiful along the coast
of Norway, some of them stung
Now we have to go to the Outer Hebrides to
Find one in shallow pools
What I took away from the morning paper
was of potatoes, tomatoes, and the selling
of posh houses
Hiding inside a box
While my rivers run wild
Gardens dance to my tunes
Songs sung in a voiceless mode
Eyes sparkle with shiny stars
Poems bleed on empty pages
Mundane structures matter not
Love, free, extols of itself
Suffering, once heavy, gets shed off
And a thousand moons illuminate the nights
Hiding inside a box
While my rivers run wild
Evergreen forests
Fairies' delight
Rainbows sparkle with gurgling laughter
Once humans
A God and a Goddess lose themselves in each other
Finding in each other,
Oceans yearning to be explored
Creatures seeking to be discovered
Hiding inside a box
A whole world thrives
Imagination plays games known to no one else
For Contest Pick-A-Title, Vol 50
Sponsored by: Edward Ibeh
Written on 12 April 2025
If one extols the beauty of your face,
Question their gaze—can they see your place?
You are far more than a fleeting glance;
A heart filled with purpose; a spirit’s dance;
Can they truly cherish your light?
Or judge your worth by just shimmering sight?
Greet the sanguine dawn’s mauve sunrise,
A crimson pizzaz blushing opaline skies
Where eagle flies questing higher highs
Thrilling endearing vibes of enamored eyes
In sparrow’s glance, in cardinal’s dance
In the call of passion, in trill of romance.
Feel the gentle tease of buoyant breeze
And rhythms lilting on blossoming trees
As resplendence extols nature’s appeal~
White-blooms scintillating magnolia’s zeal,
Blazing red-peonies, flaming gold-daffodils,
Glint panorama glistening verdant foothills.
It’s the bubbling spirit of burbling stream
It’s budding impulse of meadow’s dream
It’s passionate horizon of magenta gleam
It’s the dawning aspiration of sunlit beam
It’s colorful ballet of splendiferous theme
It’s heavenly spring of earthly daydream.
Hear sweet songs of love strumming air,
Seductive melodies wafting everywhere
As birds hop, waltz, frolic, sing, and play
Serenading welcome to a beauteous day
Warbling verse of joy, trilling “cheer, cheer”
Oh! the spring is here, the spring’s here!
February 24, 2022
Placed 1st: A Brian Strand 1091
Placed 1st: A Lovely Day Poetry Contest
Sponsor: BJ Legros Kelley
A brook cascades daintily extant
~ flowing gayly heart’s incited joy
Meandering, nestles on Peace
~ quivering restraints strain ‘n squirm
Breaking-bank, careens downwards
~ extols faith’s grim heart-bomb
Undulating, veering waves extrapolate
~ Yonder’s zooming blue-adieu
Sojourns, so-longs, traversing under veils
~ weathering wry extremes
Heart’s incessant journey keels love’s mainland
~ new opaque's reach...
(10/7/21 For 'Islands in the Stream' contest)
in the public square
you are not to be questioned
just admired
for your dark demonstrations
of being
the hanging black spider waves its life at you
perhaps the arachnid lover is demoralized
by your hidden beauty
hard to tell
you cringe under its radiant otherness
in the public museum
take the tour backwards
let the man with the megaphone mouth
spin his webs not from the center out
but outer to inner
inwardness opens windows in closed walls
be kind to the blank eyed watchers
here is a beautiful oil on canvas
there is a spider in the corner
that no one notices
for it has no frame
its eight legs tremble
The man in the bus-driver cap
extols her still not living attractions
the ugliness of the moment
is memorized by the whole gallery
only the Picasso remains free
of the taint of paint
A fat woman sighs into my face
threads exude
multiple silky spinnerets
droop from sticky glands
I want out
the way I came in
but am now too endangered
to weave my way out of this
carry out picture palace
Incarnations Of What Love's Blessed Paradise Extols
Soft and slow each rising tide that your sweetest loving bring
that lush hush and touch setting eager seeking hearts aflame,
those luscious lips that invite passion's hottest heated might
that resounding chorus as our rendezvous night time sings.
Sensual swells of joyous ardor in each breast waiting
for the mounting ecstasy of our heavenly romance
resplendent glory, the power of our eternal Love
treasures so far beyond compare in our teenage dating.
Pleasure surging when moans found unison in gushing glee
dearest of gems stored as love's majestic depths were explored
Into Love's virgin forests as we took that first deep plunge
more than enough, memories for life- our Love you and me.
Destiny! What gift was cast to such young and eager souls
Incarnations of what Love's blessed paradise extols.
Robert J. Lindley, March 19th, 1973
Sonnet, ( Romantic Rendezvous Under A Glowing Moonlit June Night )
Syllables Per Line:14 14 14 14 0 14 14 14 14 0 14 14 14 14 0 14 14
Total # Syllables:196
Total # Words:132
Note: 6-23-2020, Edited slightly to maintain a uniform syllable count.
They tell them the reality of yesterday is their tomorrow
Save the cries for different versions of sorrow
The world is hash but there is a God who is omnipotent
The world has abundance if they choose to be content
If their dwelling is a square foot, they should think about a refugee
If their bowls are empty they should fast, prayer is free
They traded their votes for hope and empty promises
Their offertory is a subscription enticed with a forebode blessing
They should not question their poverty, for religion extols it
They should not question the system, if they are patriotic
The system was designed for the poor to determine who rules
The system was designed for a few rich to rule over the poor
Their poverty gives the powerful power over them
Their ignorance raises few questions
Their starvation hungers for crumbs
The desperation of the governed inflates the egos of the government
Dwarfing the people into fear, inferiority complex and indoctrination
These are the bars of the gate of the prison of poverty
Tho' I am but the sparrow's twining strains
The palette and the pen of whisp'ring souls
I'm sweeter, still, if dashed upon the shoals
Or bleeding from the hem of day's remains
Tho' I may weep from all a scoundrel feigns
For what each soldier's dying breath extols
It's grander, even, morning's meadow rolls
As spindrift, tossed upon the grassy plains
Oh, I am found the coursing thru all things
As warm within your veins, as sunset's sky
My constancy, to love and swoon and hate
To stir in hopes or see what passion brings
So guard me, close, or open me and cry ...
I'll bound and thrum and patiently ... await.
~ 1st Place ~ in the "Open Me First" Poetry Contest, Craig Cornish, Judge & Sponsor.
Liz Warren AKA Pocahontas
Extols med coverage for all of us
No middle-class tax says she
We will have to wait and see
"Methinks she speaks with fork'ed tongue!", said Gus
You wore the blue in the mighty fight
For you knew how to hold up the right
And you will cry
Hallelujah, hallelujah, halle- lu-uuu-yah
And you knew at times for whom the bell tolls
When lives are lost in blood extols
Again you cry
Hallelujah, hallelujah, halle- lu-uuu-yah
On those days when things were bad
All you could see was so very sad
At the end all there is the mournful cry
Hallelujah, hallelujah, halle- lu-uuu-yah
Sometimes the call is left to you
To tell parents their child’s life is through
Wiping the tears they cry
Hallelujah, hallelujah, halle- lu-uuu-yah
And the years of facing all the fears
So you’re not able to hold back the tears
Cry out with all your might
Hallelujah, hallelujah, halle- lu-uuu-yah.
© Paul Warren Poetry
Asserting the Almighty as wisdom-Source
Biblical education is built upon and braced by God.
Christ-exalting, it extols the Saviour's precepts
Directing learners along virtuous beatitudes
Enlightening with His vital truth:
"Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge"*
Guiding against ignorance, doubts, and selfishness
Heralding genuine heart-transformation midst faith-fortification
Illumining mind for discretion-might...
Jesus, Lord is sought as Master Teacher!
*Proverbs 1:7
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