Yes, I’m a Poet,
but I refuse to be conscripted
I refuse to be a victim,
my words made out of stone
I refuse to bleed my heart out,
on a page of blank simpatico
I refuse to give you weakness,
knowing strength you have disowned
Yes, I’m a Poet,
but my sword is sharp and pointed
My shield is scarred and colored
with the blood of firebrands
My breath won’t plead while shouting,
every name a future conquest
My pen in hand, a weapon sure
—its ink the truth commands
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Categories:
firebrands, poetry,
Form: Rhyme
Seething skies like bloodshot eyes,
wailing gales assailing through canyon ~
weeping fits, ember storm cries
bristling tears with random abandon.
East to west, unwanted guests,
downsloping dire breeds with fire
fueling fest of fiery crests
aborning hells of unholy spire.
Santa Ana merciless winds breathing
capricious firebrands kindle tinder teething.
Susan Ashley
December 26, 2017
~ Tenth Place ~
10 Lines, 5 Words: Rhyme - Premiere Contest
Laura Loo - Sponsor
Categories:
firebrands, fire, nature, wind,
Form: Rhyme
Yes, I’m a Poet,
but I refuse to be tormented
I refuse to be a victim,
with my words made out of stone
I refuse to bleed my heart out,
on a page of blank simpatico
I refuse to give you weakness,
knowing strength you have disowned
Yes, I’m a Poet,
but my sword is sharp and pointed
My shield is scarred and colored
with the blood of firebrands
My breath won’t plead while shouting,
every name a future conquest
My pen in hand, a weapon sure,
—its ink the truth commands
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2016)
Categories:
firebrands, words,
Form: Rhyme
The Incorrigible Gods
Thunder Rain Storm Earthquake Tsunami
We the Gods are angry with mankind!
Noah, build an arc and save the species!
Oh Gods why destroy if to be built again?
We want to see your will power and creativity
Bored are we of the same routine.
Attack Fire Shoot Blast Blow Up
We the Gods are angry with your peace!
Jesus Mohammed Buddha Krishna Nanak go!
Oh Gods was it necessary to wipe out civilisations?
Spread peace teach the world to sacrifice and love
We want more firebrands more fire in souls for salvation
Poverty Grief Illness Homeless Abandoned
We the Gods are restless if we are inactive!
Mother Teresa Bhagat Puran Singh serve!
Oh Gods why create such situations in the first place?
You make and break, create and destroy. Manufacturing defect?
Please upgrade your software before we all go crazy!
December 31, 2015
Contest: The Gods Must Be Crazy
Sponsor: John Lawless
Categories:
firebrands, anger, bible, creation, god,
Form: Free verse
A war was on,
(psychological)
to transgress the unwritten line.
Me, stranded on the
sands of time.
Day after day
shaven heads in protest
erupt in fury.
Firebrands join like
ducks to water.
In camera, you
open the folds of mystery.
As we start reading script,
the wounds were mine,
and you were the sounds.
On the table, I put my
eyes, ears and my
father’s shoes. I come
out in open, to take
a shower of abuses.
Satish Verma
Categories:
firebrands, art,
Form: ABC
Do not remove the hyphens.
The stars were trekking
on foot.
All that was a mirage.
A hot rood was leading
to a watershed.
The wholeness splatters
on the bank. The water,
takes all the dots and dashes.
The black tree was stark
naked. No leaves, no fruits.
Only the singed wood.
You cannot make the
matchsticks. You will have
to rub your hands to start the fire.
Satish Verma
Categories:
firebrands, art,
Form: ABC
The Practical Joker
By Elton Camp
Joe, by a paving contractor, was employed
Practical jokes were what he most enjoyed
When an extra pair of boots he spied
Another of his inane tricks he tried
With paving he covered the tops well
And then with panic Joe began to yell
“Somebody help!” is what he cried
“It looks like a workman has died!”
“His poor body I have just located.
With paving he’s been suffocated!”
The foreman ran from the construction shack
At the horrible sight he was taken aback
He suddenly said, “I don’t feel very well.”
Clutching his chest, to his knees he fell
This was the last practical joke Joe tried
Due to his stupidity, the foreman died
Proverbs 26: 18, 19 – “As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows and death,
So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?”
Categories:
firebrands, angst,
Form: Rhyme
I
saw
them,a
pair
of
furious
hen;hauling
stones
and
throwing
firebrands
and
I
winked
at
the
ominious
exchange
for
it
was
in
the
dry
season.
I
heard
the
horrow
from
the
annals
how
blood
spewed
ghastly
like
geysers
and
turned
our
clan
to
a
ghost
town;and
seeing
their
altercation
load,my
knees
wobbled.
I
sighed
and
nearly
sanked
as
the
scuffle
poke
their
cheeks
in
the
littering
of
dry
foilage
and
then
brother
james
grafitti
on
my
flushed
face
flashed.
My
ears
heard
wheels
of
running
chariots
and
the
boom
boom
of
war
and
my
hand
moved
to
nip
the
budding
inferno.
Categories:
firebrands, war
Form: Free verse
And so it came to pass
as I raised a bourbon glass
and tossed a bolt of fire down my throat;
the ash from cigarettes
glowed as dying suffragettes,
chained to wrists of every weeping, wailing ghost.
A thirst I could not slake
was just icing on the cake,
as the closing bells resounded in the night;
every thought was dank and weary,
every eye was red and bleary,
every virgin born again without a blight.
Transistors crackled sound
from a cavern in the ground,
satisfaction blaring tinny and distorted;
time expanded then it shrank
with every mouthful that I drank
and the womb of reason shrivelled and aborted.
How transmissions swelled and swam
through the downing of each dram,
until the floor lay as a most inviting bed;
how I loved her very bones
and how I loved the rolling stones,
how I loved the old gods who were almost dead.
Sat here in the Gwesty Bach
with rock and roll and Mrs Plath
wielding firebrands of culture round my head,
how I loved her I admit,
every semblance, every bit,
how I loved the old gods who were almost dead.
Categories:
firebrands, art, death, life, loss,
Form: Verse