Grant me rest under your lissome stems
Let me hide from the raindrops — shiny globules
That drip with tropical hauteur,
Rain that harms the ribs with cold rebukes.
Welcome me within your greenish lair, from
Your cane roots to your starry leaves —I insist on visiting
In your prime, so fresh with dew and so green, like
The envy in the gritty eyes of singed composts,
When waving rays of the shifting sun
Bathe the narrow venues formed by adjoining stems
Up, up and up the stairs and dome of the jungle.
I pray to shoot up with you and befriend the skies.
Oh, such elevation!
Fill my gourd with green wine;
Make me drunk with the spewing colours of life.
My heart is open to receive light —from misty dawn to
Dusk crowned with your blessing.
Let it rain on, I pray.
My palms are spread out like your leaves — I borrow the
Innocence of your frondescence.
Carve me flutes from your nodes, and, from them
Raise the cadences for summons, to be accompanied by
Drums fashioned by hands greased by the gifts of
The forests. . . .
Raise the joy, the frenzy, the tone of the ceremony
Raise, raise . . . upheave them
To royal heights — such as yours.
Categories:
hauteur, africa, environment, life,
Form: Ode
She left at the yawn of dawn
Between fog-densed waking hour
And rain-soused grey morning.
Veiled, her image was laced in silhouette.
She stood behind the fog-rain, a dark
Painting, sketched in black crayons of
Languor.
Her breath, one streak of ink
Of a satanic fresco on a dingy subway.
And the breath of the rain was heavy,
Brewed in hauteur -
So was the world between us two,
Lame and proscribed.
She wandered through flighty directions.
Grouches filled her lugubrious lungs,
Blotches on the sludged track, echoing
Her slouch.
She was one mass of trembling grief.
I was one hulk of ruinous pain.
Between us, the funeral of love.
Threnodies held court on the once soft
Yolk of hugs that sensitized an ageing
Romance.
Dawn darkened with the pulse of grief
Rain pelted the senses held by solemn
Consternations, recreating a fruitless
Void of hollow trepidations.
She lurched and sidled towards the
Crag-lined route, towards earth’s drooling
Beck... and I knew the funeral
Was over.
Categories:
hauteur, love, romance, romantic love,
Form: Free verse
A dressing-down's full of hauteur
Persuasion comes not easily
Instead of rebuke, employ kinder reproof
a velvet hammer, wield congenially
Categories:
hauteur, conflict, peace,
Form: Rhyme
unanswered
perceptions
participation
in the
moment
nonchalance
infused
with the
elegant
natural
in
an embrace
of ego
with
hauteur
the eccentric
vehement
and
unspeakable
sensual
intuitive
notions
of
apperceptions
in
the
here
&
now
Categories:
hauteur, loneliness,
Form: Verse
You can't put a better bit of butter on your platter because a martyr did shatter the packet of your butter as it did welter in the gutter, but that waiter did cater you this later, muttering about an utter butter-hater from Gloucester with bitter hauteur.
Categories:
hauteur, fantasy,
Form: Alliteration
Jane's dad was a man of hauteur,
He employed a guard for his daughter.
But that bloke was her dream,
She eloped with him,
Her father didn't know this suitor!
Categories:
hauteur, father daughter,
Form: Limerick
KoKo Ameen, the Jewelry Queen
Designs her creations with a sheen,
Her bangles jingle-jangle as she
Tip-toes through the tangle
Of original designs that will be
Presented in her one-woman show,
Simply entitled, "KoKo Ameen Aglow."
Her originals are in demand by
The Fifth Avenue hauteur
Who frequent her shows for the mature
Lovers of jewelry who don't mind spending
Thousands of dollars for KoKo's blending
Of turquoise, silver, copper and gold,
Making statements that are very bold,
Wear it today, wear it forever,
Friends will become envious however,
When they know that the earrings and
Pins are designed by KoKo Ameen,
The Jewelry Queen.
November 3, 2016
Old Jewelry Contest
Categories:
hauteur, satire,
Form: Rhyme
Thank you for coming on short notice, sir.
A drink, perhaps, before we speak of her?
No? To bus’ness then. Ending civil strife
Requires me to move against my wife.
I trust that you will note I’m not to blame
When you have heard how I’ve been put to shame.
She scolds me when I’ve had too much to eat,
Objects when I explain my right to cheat,
Upbraids me when I sleep ‘til after noon,
Laughs at my goal to own the sun and moon,
Reproves me when I covet what is theirs,
Knocks my hauteur and all my “put-on airs.”
My fury at this treatment you must see;
I need your legal skills to set me free.
1/31/2016
Categories:
hauteur, irony, vanity,
Form: Dramatic Monologue
Once more, treading the boulevard of dreams
Only the sun's glint on the corroded surface gleams
Shangri La's gate no longer in the distance beams
Steamy, foggy haze around each mile marker streams
Grand plans, lofty designs are buried deep in impermeable seams
Over once solid foundation, thinly-veiled paper reams
But bleary-eyed traveler not only his final destination deems
Sullied road with visions of grandeur, hauteur challenges teems
Once strapping lad, gilded the horizon with fairy tail themes
As fantasizing teen, the world's bounty covetous eyes did esteem
Becoming young adult, with self-patented talents did scheme
Now in ripe old age, seeking only striding memories to redeem
Looking back, the shiny, smooth road no longer appealing seems
From the rough, re-finished surface, golden dreams no longer scream
Categories:
hauteur, adventure, career,
Form: Rhyme
Hauteur brigand bound for gratuitous strand
Knows not he is country's chattel, enemy's contraband
As gallant marauders o'er ages spanned
His quest for glory fate will countermand
Gleeful lad starting out on quick, definitive errand
Becoming grizzled veteran in war that will opportunistically expand
Raw recruit ready to fight for: family, honor, land
Feted for trivial pursuits, political ends; on mission clandestined
Tailored uniform, coiffed hat, shiny ordinand
Destined to be sullied by the designs of ruthless marksman
In ritual parade of arms on regal, stately stand
Unaware of his wistful foe's unremitting hand
With loyal comrades bivouacked in tidy
band
Soon to be in raucous tumult marked with a beastly brand
Dutiful, diligent soldier always firing on demand
In the heat of battle, only self preservation will command
Pre-war sprawling tenements; deprivations can withstand
Later, in squalid camp morphing into looting, pillaging firebrand
Vital piece in war game carefully mapped, planned
Innocuous pawn anonymously falling in unmarked, lowland.
Categories:
hauteur, adventure, confusion, war, war,
Form: Rhyme
Nestled deep in the tawny, drab woodland
Sedate cottage neither haughty nor grand
Sparse hovel of unassuming, itinerant brigand
Martial decor of detached highwayman starkly bland
The etched path sculpted by intemperate hand
No manicured garden on the scrubby strand
Briers and brambles errant straggler must withstand
Thatched clapboards stable his stallion firebrand
Unruly swine garnish acorns from scraggly wasteland
Buried deep in his cellar pilfered contraband
Per chance drifter did the terrain assay
And chose that toilsome, forsaken way
A spartan welcome hauteur did convey
No lodgings, accoutrements could sway
If for grace, mercy they did pray
Only a cold shoulder he did relay
If they tested his temperance and sued for trite parley
He reconnoitered their belongings through wordplay
If no net value they were beguiled to betray
Their worthless lives he did indignantly slay
Categories:
hauteur, adventure, courage, dark,
Form: Rhyme
Peruse the literary discourse; illusion from reality divorce
Objective criticism with conscientious rigor your tour de force
Educate yourself on each antiquated style and archaic source
Train your enterprising eyes, every truism endorse and apt allegory reinforce
Recon the lexicon for cultural anomalies and idiosyncratic expressions
Your probity use to underscore trite confessions and trivial regressions
Peel away each banal artifice; to the arrogant that hauteur grant no concessions
Audit the amateur-shadow poets, showering disapproval on their indiscretions
Lacquer and emboss the verses that with creativity and innovation bridge the generational divide
Attentively nourish the nuances and imbibe the endearing witicisms that will abide
Careen through the light poems; cavort through each limerick; caress every soliloquy in stride
Enshrine the masterpieces with laudatory epilogues; let their inspiration your literary path forever guide
Categories:
hauteur, on writing and words
Form: Acrostic
Mysterious mime or calculating creature
Misanthropic recluse or doting benefactor
Shallow Charlatan or discerning teacher
Obstinate hauteur or modest beseecher
Erudite miser or innovative vizier
Bridled subordinate or confident mentor
Repressed miscreant or extroverted courtier
Natural predator or nurtured fancier
Meager cipher or extravagant couture
Perennial malcontent or persistent pacifier
Venal provocateur or unremitting stabilizer
Wavering transient or steadfast accompanier
Pessimistic mentality or positive reinforcer
Incessant doubter or faithful believer
Opportunistic voyeur or resolute lover
Impulsive actor or objective personifier
Categories:
hauteur, introspection
Form: Quatrain