Belinda is so happy she has found her wings
Now she can flitter and flutter and do other things
That young, pretty fairy nymphs are prone to do,
She can cover and hover over sweet flower cups
Like lilies of the valley and lonely johnny-jump-ups.
She can dive and drift with the hint of a breeze,
And hide from the birds in the tallest of trees.
Belinda is so happy she has found her wings,
All pink, purple, and yellowish spots in-betweens
Like transparent filigrees, as fragile as tatted lace
And if you like, she’ll give you a kiss on your face.
You’ll see her, a tiny butterfly, going about to and fro
But Belinda, the fairy, will be watching you grow.
FIRST PLACE WINNER
Written November 6, 2022
Submitted to "Be Creative" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Eve Roper
Categories:
filigrees, butterfly, childhood, fairy, metaphor,
Form: Rhyme
Time Like Crashing Waves
Time, like waves crashing on a smooth-faced sand,
Leaves imbedded ripples on shores of memory
And drop-offs marked with steep undertow warnings
In foamy filigrees etched on recollection
Of abandoned shells searching for lost pearls
Rogue of ever rolling thunder reveals
A pulsing tide of perpetual motion
A seething thrust in ebb and flow unstoppable
The hidden undercurrent of volcanic change
From dawn to dusk and through midnight
Rolling breakers storm the beachhead
In gyrating riptides rhyme and rhythm
In white caps dripping with sweet juices
To expose beauty hidden in the shallows
Veiled beneath blistered wild gales
Spindrift masks forgotten sandcastles
As flowing swells returns dreams
To the impatient pounding waves of decades
Elusive in the mists of unrelenting surges
Sinking into whirlpools, forgotten in new tides.
8-12-22
Contest: Simile
Sponsor: Hilo Poet
Categories:
filigrees, time,
Form: Free verse
Dainty lacy fingers of ice like crocheted filigrees
Are creeping across the cold, blue windowpane,
Like tri-mast ocean schooners on stormy seas
Dainty lacy fingers of ice like crocheted filigrees
A tiny spider is brought to its tiny fragile knees
Trying to find a bit of warmth, I’m afraid, in vain
Dainty lacy fingers of ice like crocheted filigrees
Are creeping across the cold, blue windowpane.
Written January 29, 2022
Categories:
filigrees, fantasy, winter,
Form: Triolet
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and struck,
as chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled feebler minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
connecting man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heroes mourned.
A man at odds with bland conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless
fostered with a dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
in its depths he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, writing, , In Memoriam,
Form: Quatrain
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and struck,
as chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled feebler minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
connecting man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heroes mourned.
A man at odds with bland conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless
fostered with a dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
in its depths he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, writing, , In Memoriam,
Form: Verse
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and struck,
as chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled feebler minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
connecting man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heroes mourned.
A man at odds with bland conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless
fostered with a dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
in its depths he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, dedication, writing, , In
Form: Quatrain
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and struck,
as chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled feebler minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
connecting man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heroes mourned.
A man at odds with bland conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless
fostered with a dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
in its depths he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, dedication, , In Memoriam,
Form: Quatrain
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and struck,
as chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled feebler minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
connecting man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heroes mourned.
A man at odds with bland conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless
fostered with a dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
in its depths he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, tribute, writing, , In
Form: Quatrain
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and struck,
as chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled feebler minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
connecting man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heroes mourned.
A man at odds with bland conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless
fostered with a dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
in its depths he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, dedication, , In Memoriam,
Form: Quatrain
Through hazy mirrors
A doxy appears to be doused
Within suicide languages
Hips bemoaning white filigrees
Caressed by a famine of beatitude
designed to elicit tragedy
Categories:
filigrees, lost love,
Form: Verse
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and beaten,
chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled feeble minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
connecting man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heros mourned.
A man at odds with bland conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless
fostered with a dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
in its depths he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, loss, sympathy, , In
Form: Quatrain
Cast the bridges that ply the bright seas
Sweeping proud ashes beneath its streams
They go past unnoticed with hazy bent wings
And cease not to lose their footing for the light they bring
Scalloped the fringes of silvered seas
Surging lace filigrees that unloose tight seams
Passing the marbled halls their veiled voice stays
And seals up all hallow canyons left by their waves
Loosed the moonbeams on all bare shores
Bringing new aligns to our poor peppered bites
By lingering light the heated wealth lies taken
And all peoples’ hoarded gain by revelation lies forsaken
Categories:
filigrees, sea, light, light,
Form: I do not know?
THE AIR-OCEAN’S PLANKTON
Snow falls like icy ocean-plankton. The air swarms
With their immense unsullied nebulae swirling in waves,
Tiny immaculate individuals in an innumerable host,
A silver-ivory myriad to be harvested.
Trees taking gulps of air-plankton, great chunks of airy snow,
Stretch lattices of arms and hands skyward to catch them,
Each numb finger and thumb laden to the very nail
With its neat impeccable pile of alabaster fishlets.
Sky-net filigrees, their great interstices seafoamed,
Filled with unblemished air-fish, blank white plankton:
The trees overfill every empty arm with the light white host:
Like women grasp fleamarket bargain necklaces of pearls.
Categories:
filigrees, allegory
Form: Free verse
...for Hart Crane - In Memoriam - (1899-1932)
Words of purpose, carved and beaten,
chipped from granite's cold confines,
fashioned into filigrees
that shocked and startled simpler minds.
The Bridge, that span of subtle magic,
metaphor of time and space,
stretching skyward, swooping low,
conjoining man to style and grace.
Letters of sophistication
sent to those who praised and scorned,
ever striving for perfection,
friends were used and heros mourned.
A man at odds with stale conventions,
drunk, debauched, yet tried and true,
companionship oft cold and faithless,
he would court the dockside crew.
On a ship, confused and homeless,
wandering, he yearned for ease,
the ocean summoned this poor vagrant,
sinking deep he found his peace.
Categories:
filigrees, deathin memoriam,
Form: Quatrain