Written: September 12, 2026, Not For Contest
I kindly request that everyone who read the poem offer a prayer for the world and attentively listen the lyrics in the video, to provide feedback on whether incorporating music into the poem would be useful or not, Thanks for your kindness.
*******************
Dear World, I bring no Banner—
No trumpet for the brave—
But only hands grown weary
Of teaching hands to wave—
Let every border soften
Where frightened hearts divide—
And may the stranger's sorrow
Find shelter at our side—
The Earth has borne our thunder
Through cities turned to flame—
Yet still She gives us harvests
And calls us each by Name—
So let us choose the gentler—
The mercy we withhold—
For Peace begins so quietly—
One Heart—then another—held.
INTUITIVE SENSES
purposed
source
of strength
in
consolation
enclosed
with
simultaneous
metaphors
incorporating
paradoxical
spatial themes
of
concentric
perspectives
circle
glittering
mysterious
symbolic
symbols
of mutual
familiarity
INTENTION TO RENDER THE VISIBLE-:-
translucent
crystalline
structures
deliberately
alongside
a STEP TO SELF-ORIENTATING
diagrammatic
elevated
imagery
constantly
illuminated
in SCHEMATIC FORMULATIONS
disconcerting
physical
reality
incorporating
syncretics
flexibility is my super power
I am a willing changeling
eager to hear other’s ideas
and often embrace them
I am perpetually learning new things
readily incorporating new knowledge into my schemata
of course, this new information must fit into my main norms
be helpful, kind, fair, and trustworthy
If the new ideas do not fit into these categories
you will not see my super power
I am only flexible to a certain degree
ART AS A GESTURE
a
zest
of
satisfaction
in
a
gusto
of
ultimate
certainty
deepens
with
intimacy
of
accidental
curiosity
inherent
perception
within
transposes
emotion
in
the
miracle
of
our
disparate
mind
unhindered
visible
audible
in
the
tangible
expressiveness
of
outgoing
energy
of
tactile
significance
consummated
&
uniquely
pervading
&
pervasive
internally
integrated
self concerned
in on-going
interplay
of
expression
incorporating
past
coherent
awareness
of
conceived
interactactions
berthed
in expressive
action
of
awakened
personal
pictorial
presentations
of
prior
experience
in
the
completely new
Impressionable immature imps imprint, improve, and improvise
Incorporating incredible indefatigable independence.
Infusing informed influential infallible infestation
Intensifying interception intermingling intimacy
Bringing branches with their trunks, they start their festival with glee
Swinging silent bells at the pearl sailing in the night sky
Flinging away darkness and dirt, for light to finally see
Singing pearls in the branches, pray to the divine up high
Praying to the ship of fourteen gates filled with splendorous light
Begging the pearl-gathering angels to help them ascend
Entreating the Maiden of Light to continue the long fight
Worshipping Jesus the Splendour, the lord and gleeful friend
Inspired by Pliny the Elder's account of elephants worshipinng the moon with branches, while incorporating Manichaean beliefs about the moon.
My own insecurities ruin everything I can have
I scroll and scroll until I have no energy left
I feel like I’m falling into a void of self-destruction
Everything I do comes to bite me in the end
Any connections are broken when I move to another state
I am in a constant state of self-loathing
My inner child can’t be healed at this point
I grew up in a time of screens
And cellphone cults
Watching our life getting sucked away by disease and electricity
I wish I were a true poet
Incorporating meaning into every line
My symbolism saying
The words I couldn't
But, I’m just a kid who has bitten off more than she can chew
The church says that I was picked by God himself
My father says that I was blessed with many qualities
My pastor says that I am special and my innocence needs to be protected
But how do you know?
I have to come face-to-face with the selfish parts of my heart
I have to meet my sinful counterpart
But I keep scrolling until I fall to the song of sleep
three
dimensioned
facade
incorporating
the
commonplace
flotsam
& detrius
of the
every day
brush
hand
&chisel
of
conscious
. manipulation
Some called the radio station demanding they throw them out of the studio.
Others called to brag about their talents, their arrangements, their sass.
Boswell sisters had been singing together since their Vaudeville days as teens.
Connee played sax and trombone,
Vet played banjo and guitar and Martha held down the piano.
They were popular in their hometown of New Orleans, playing with big bands.
Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman all knew them.
These sisters blended “blackness” and “whiteness”, natural for them.
They loved to rework and rearrange popular songs; they were musicians.
They appeared in a film with Bing Crosby and Cab Calloway.
This led to thirteen appearances on the Bing Crosby Show.
Ella Fitzgerald patterned her style after Connee Boswell.
As did the Andrew Sisters a few years later.
The Boswells had a profound effect; incorporating scat, jazz and swing.
Tweeting the Truth in Love
By Mark D. Stucky
We should be “speaking the truth in love,”*
posted Paul in Ephesians 4:15,
to speak and act out truth while filled
with self-sacrificial, unconditional love.
Not too-tough truth without compassion.
Not laissez-faire love without correction.
Certainly not rude comments
left on social media,
hidden from responsibility
by anonymity.
Certainly not tweeting lies with contempt,
insulting others with childish nicknames,
repeating falsehoods already debunked,
or disseminating self-serving distortions.
Paul didn’t excuse behavior so deplorable.
Why do so now?
*Note: Literally “truthing in love” in the original Greek text of the verse, incorporating both speech and actions.
(First published in Spirit Fire Review, 3 May 2022. See also my poems "The Art of the Devilish Deal," "Antisocial Media," and “What Would Jesus Tweet?")
(Image by Tina Nord on Pexels.com.)
He flew in from the east not ominous by itself, I will abide.
however, our fierce opponents in battle were terrified.
They had heard of the crow oldster, spread by my brothers.
His wing span was twenty-four feet they lied to others.
Screaming was heard from our enemy’s camp when he appeared.
“It is the crow oldster!” Many abandoned their army, so a ’feared.
Grandpa crow thought this was hilarious and threw out a loud caw.
Some of the ones going AWOL did not stop until they got to Omaha.
As leader of the red army, I was delighted to see this old fellow.
With his strut, his wiggle, his giggle, and his eyes full of yellow.
You are doing this right, I assured him, please keep it up.
He winked at me and took a swig from his corn whiskey cup.
“Crow Oldster!” we heard them yell out all night long.
Many of them were incorporating his rep into a new song.
I paid the crow and he flew back to the east through light showers.
We defeated what was left of their army in a couple of hours.
In but a few notes in the seventies, I recognized The Beach Boys
Little Ole Lady from Pasadena inspired me to push petal to the metal.
I had never wanted to be in California, and now I wanted to live there.
Thanks to Surfer Girl, Good Vibrations, Kokomo, Wouldn’t it be Nice?
I am singing along, with my windows down, my hair flying in the wind.
These boys keep the happy beat coming, incorporating a bit of jazz
California Dreamin, Surfin Safari, Dance, Dance, Dance.
I am surprised to notice I am going a hundred miles an hour now.
Brian, Dennis, Carl, Mike and Al should be paying for my speeding tickets
I still drive ninety miles an hour to Little Ole Lady from Pasadena.
Much I marveled lament a favorite kiss
The beautiful amity a beautiful bliss
And the embrace never-ending cuddling
That moment my soul grew laid
While I pondered wandered wonder romance and shade
What could there be more purely displayed?
Parade
And as lovebirds never coquetting, unbaiting
While we pondered worn and renegaded
You warned me about the shade (once more)
Deep into that finish darkness flaming
All impaired infatuation incorporating
As my whole soul within me shaming
How will I be claiming, proclaiming inflaming?
Love as natural
Compelling gave
Love is a
Parade
11/2/2022
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2022©
CONFIGURATIONS
excitment
in gestural
figurative
emotive
motifs
highlighted
moments
becoming
reasons
&
influences
of
existential
purposets
incorporating
themes
taking stock
events
in
polar
opposites
to ruminate
over
&
acknowledge
imagination
uncover
see
&remember
so
open
& free
a
collaborative
harmony
as a
starting point
punctuate
&
entrench
a
recurring
optical
effect
of
an
unknown
NOTE:THIS IS AN OPEN(organic) FORM VERSE using spaces&breaks without grammatical symbols ,the ' open' relies upon 'the one breath limitation' & so inherently requires the 'reader' (reciter) to input and responds thus making this enigmatic form a two way interplay & interpretatIon unique to the moment& changing according to mood is inherently variable.
Copyright © Brian Strand
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.