Waves shape the sound of soaring sea
Ride the tides of what ought to be
Layer on layer out of reach
Breaking breakers bound on our beach
Stirring swirls make clear waters curl
Rolling rumblings leap to unfurl
Watery spritz that twist then sway
As bubbled foam pulls back away
Each wave differing grasping high
Trying to touch the spacious sky
Dreams drenched in schemes form a swell
A place where long lost droplets dwell
While watching waves we hear their call
Musing their constant rise and fall
This seen so many times before
Yet one yearns to see still once more
102 words couplet 16 lines 8/25
Colored Pencil Illustration by G.Gaul
.
'twere thuh rhetorical query
though i mind not
expound'n
"she looks at mine
all uv
mine"
hol'up hol'up
"deep
mine gaul
deep"
she callz me
"adom
bam" (thinx she meanz man ,)
'tiz thuh only
two werdz which we
agree
understand'n
whut
1969 MY FIRST GRADE FIELD TRIP TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN HOME SPRINGFIELD ILLINOIS TOMB MY FIRST GRADE CLASS CHIOR WAS INVITED TO SING CIVIL RIGHTS HYMNS MARIAN ANDERSEN HYMNS SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD THIS WAS AFTER MARTIN LUTHER KING ASSASSINATION SADLY MY IMPOSTER JAY TOWNSEND JOHNSON HENRY MY STALKER MY IDENTITY ATTEMPTED TO IMPERSONATE ME AFTER BREAKING IN MY HOME FOR GARGANO EXPOSED TO PARTS OF MY MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL GROWING IN CHICAGO DURING CIVIL RIGHTS RIOTS FIRST GRADE MY IMPOSTER WAS ACTUALLY BORN IN 1969 I WAS IN FIRST GRADE SINGING MY HEART OUT FOR FREEDOM IN AMERICA NO WAY A JAMAICAN STALKER COULD POSSIBLY BE ME I WAS SHOCKED AT HER GAUL HER OBSESSIONAL HATRED RAGE FOR ME AS A WRITER THIS BEGAN HER IMPERSONATING ME
While wandering across a forest floor
Through twists and turns of gnarled trunks of trees
See insights more than one was looking for
Images born by bending weathered breeze
There is a lover's embrace bound in bark
Maybe the most natural human thing
It reveals itself in songs of the lark
Listen clearly and hear the trees that sing
Music as if it's a love tune of time
Lies dormant in humans hard to define
Woven through the woods in a metered rhyme
Set in harmony by someone divine
Bow now and think of life's love adventure
Muse and marvel at nature's pure power
Avoid the mistake of common censure
Hold tight your love every moment and hour
rhyme 16 lines 118 words
Colored Pencil Illustration by G. Gaul
We want to watch dancing flowers
Locks up my mind for many hours
Watch their rhythm, which way they sway
Sets my mental path every day
Catch those trips that spin round the sun
Lots more twirls before they're done
For luckless those whose music stops
Flowers reel on like spinning tops
Little fair in this scheme of things
In random swirls of whirling rings
Applause in darkness lets light show
These dancers make enjoyment glow
Look through the petals, see the shade
Feel the difference they have made
Were it only that we could see
How beautiful all lives can be
couplet 16 lines 103 words
Colored Pencil & Ink illustration by G.Gaul
Try to write only one true thing
From within where siren songs sing
Something to which we all can cling
Imagine what joy they might bring
Others may bow to crown you king
Real wisdom shall forever ring
Feel the passion and pluck that string
So some will write just one true thing
53 words 8 lines monorhyme
Ernest Hemingway spoke this quote
to help writers starting compositions:
"All you have to do is write one true
sentence. Write the truest sentence
that you know."
Colored Pencil Illustration by G. Gaul
2024
Human hands and hawks have worked well together
Five thousand year record for falconry
An eternal bond of flesh and feather
Shows us how epic hawk hunting can be
As raptors light upon a gloved fist
Freed from handler's hoods hawks wing on high
See this dim lit tale through thicket and mist
Think how hawks think in the chase as they fly
These predators soar into human hearts
Seek nature's balance between bird and prey
Fiercely their talons grasp the killing arts
Pouncing and crushing victims every way
Returns to the glove are acts to behold
By the hands of man see nature unfold
105 words Sonnet 14 lines
Colored Pencil illustration by G. Gaul
He took risks you might not have
Thinking that he deserved to beat the odds
Flames like heated fiery thorns
Eat through his flesh numbing as they go
In pain, he swirls, his muscles roil
He wishes, Oh he wishes it would end, be over
His burning enthusiasm is consumed and charred
Blackened by the flames of false expectations
Reducing now into a smoldering heap
After all, he did set himself on fire
Believing the illusions, the lies he told
For power, more power, grasping for it
As the dark smoke fills his lungs
Choking his life's last breath
Scoffing at man's inhumanity to man
Inhaling humankind's immolation
As if were not his fault at all
This man on fire could be you
And so, the soul crinkles up into a ball inside
What's left of you has no place to hide
145 words free verse
Colored Pencil illustration G.Gaul 2024
Once there were sisters in duet
a pair that were tough to forget
Their tap dancing was entwined
as their two lives always aligned
Rat a tat tat, rat a tat tat
kinda sounded something like that
Shuffle ball change, shuffle ball change
shuffling shuffles hard to arrange
First it was toys, then became boys
dance routines turning into noise
Decades spun by, twisted in beat
well worn tunes that seem to repeat
Life with children, illness and pain
plays out its old classic refrain
Tapping toe to heel, heel to toe
sharing small joys, letting them go
If life is a matter of fate
staying in step is no debate
Sense those feelings between sisters
see all the passion it still stirs
Couplet 123 Words 20 Lines
Colored pencil and ink illustration by G.Gaul
A NOTE FROM MALCOLM
My advice is free, and time’s not billable
Try speaking French and I will soon know
Don’t claim a local or a provincial accent
It really does not sound as if heaven-sent
Nor a comment heard such as il fait beau
As the accent is always on the last syllable
As a teacher, these things do really matter
One must develop that Gallic look as well
Sometimes that simple shrug just says it all
From Southern Pyrenees up North to Gaul
Whether from Paris or le Midi, one can tell
In some regions, the vowels do sound fatter
So, let us practice the deep grunting sounds
And don’t forget all those hand gestures too
But accents can apply to letters when written
Cedillas, acute or grave never seen in Britain
Where just the plain and simple words will do
Whilst pretty perfume accents do the rounds
No other people has endured the constant persecution
3,330 years of constant suffering
From the Egyptian Pharaohs' enslavement and buffeting
down through 20th and 21st century executions
Yet we Jews are still here, still strong in our faith
Where are the Egyptians with their pyramids tall
The Babylonians and Romans, not to mention Gaul
We've outlasted them somehow, survived them all
Our secret is the Torah, given at Sinai to Moses
We chose Him, so He chose us ~
over those who oppose us
inhale the world's woes
that's where the love goes
June Bugs start to fly
clouds fall from the sky
light becomes the peace
cares shrink down and cease
moments in the breeze
try to touch the trees
rays burst from the sun
melt joys into one
white doves land nearby
angels know just why
breathe out deep held love
turn to gaze above
Couplet 63 words 6/30/23
Meditation dream imagery featuring
Seigaiha wave graphic (Kanagawa),
white doves and a Tibetan monk
Colored pencil illustration by G. Gaul
Clowns cackle at the purple plume
the global order is so unsteady.
Others only see coming doom
yet most think it's too late already.
Two bombs were dropped on Japan
humans always take things too far -
laughing at acts one can't explain
denying what fools they truly are.
People are swayed by illusions
heard howling at a crescent moon,
fear drives them to false conclusions
all too often and all too soon.
Who knows when the third bomb will fall
testing the odds against world war?
Certainly it would end us all -
we want clear heads to do much more.
Up To 20 Lines Contest
5/1/23
Sotto Sponsor
100 words 16 lines rhyme
Illustration by G. Gaul
Through these lips
sorrows pass
bound to slip
seldom last.
Behind smiles
secrets said
all the while
kept in red.
Whisper cries
from the heart
tender ties
love may start.
Lipstick likes
to make marks
takes all types
to send sparks.
Touch these lips
don't dare miss
passing ships
with a kiss.
50 words rhyme 3/10/23
Colored pencil illustration G. Gaul
(Hyperrealistic)
Sing standing atop this rolling blue ball
little that we ever hear stays the same.
Spirits of life sound in the wind for all
there is no one else to ignite this flame.
Earth connects with each single living thing
deep within dwells the soylent shaft to strive.
So this truth can universally ring,
sing its song out loudly and feel alive.
Sense our world's center core, pent-up, stone heat;
when will it irrupt, we cannot be sure -
piercing through the crust down below our feet.
By our letting go, we shall all endure.
Learn the turnings of spirit globally
be the balance to be forever free.
108 words 14 lines Sonnet 2/7/23
Tribute to "Spirit of Life", Unitarian hymn.
References made to Buddhist principles of
"oneness", "letting go" and "impermanence"
in the text. Mention of the phrase "Soylent
Shaft" refers to the 1973 movie Soylent Green.
Illustration in colored pencil by G. Gaul
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