Upon reflection, have you had a bittersweet experience of a powerful, brief connection?
Something so intense, meaningful, but ultimately temporary, that still left a lasting impression?
Impressions of sublime moments that burnt brightly and then suddenly disappeared.
Leaving behind only grief intermixed with happiness and reflection.
Title.
Ephemeral
(A lone voice whispers)
I met you like the thunderous rain meets wet leaves
Fast and so unexpectedly, that the rain grieves when it leaves
For soon nothing will remain when the sun comes out again
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
it's usually early
as day starts turning
over
when the air around is as heavy as
seas
in your chest
feelings are intermixed
between despair
and hope
like the sea
when your odds are in a bottle,
scribbled futilities tossed to the waves,
exit on the backside
of tides
until they resurface
with old whale stench
one out of water
tanning
under a hard sun
doves cry
in the shade
of mahogany trees
between noon and three
when my mother's mother's
roundabout
nonsense
lyrics
"Moses speak_God's word
Isaac too"
come fresh
to me
the doleful
doves
portend cardinality
begging adulterers
to repentance
"Feathery Prophets!"
grandmothers had spoken
that death will walk
into this village,
some house, any hour,
more sure than May rain,
taking stock
and mourners...
and choirs...
and pastors preach
and pray you well
while you sleep
later we'll all fall asleep
The sun had risen but could not be seen.
Still daylight was welcome in her studio.
She stood hunched with pain over her easel.
The landscape was not quite what she wanted.
She had decided to portray the joys of nature,
Lovely cerulean firmament with hazy clouds
Hovering in the background just beneath and around
The majestic mountains of her new abode.
Stately trees dotted the countryside and
Intermixed with cosy cabins, smoke curling
Into the sky because it was a cold and humid place.
Even inside her cabin, the air was irritating.
Outside, the continual grey rain would not stop.
She felt cold and coughed a lot, as well as chest congestion.
Darn, raining cats and mice today! She felt confused.
Cats and mice? Or dogs? What did it matter,
Once the foul inclement weather would not change?
to be concluded
Do you think I can save all ships in distress?
How wrong you are! Times when I sorely pressed,
Times when my beacon was snuffed out of its glory.
Oh, I can tell you many an adventurous story,
Exciting exploits on the tumultuous and stormy seas
High waves span all around me, ugly with a heavy breeze.
Still, there’s one I would sincerely like to show,
Although it happened a long time ago.
The Greyhound had a young master, rich and mean,
And he dared cross the sea, oh what a scene.
The winds were high and the sky was overcast
Waves were high and terrible. The ship could not last.
Aboard the vessel, I saw the master of the merchant ship,
Carrying slaves and other goods, was a doomed deplorable trip.
Above the dim of wicked waves, clangs of iron I heard,
And screams intermixed with every offensive word.
The man drenched held to the mast, knelt and prayed
Let them be saved, he would renounce his trade.
Years passed and the man gladly his faith he did embrace.
He vowed he’d fight slavery with his “Amazing Grace”.
Everywhere I go, you’re still there.
They say all’s fair in love and war
And before, I believed it,
But deception is a wake up call
And I’ve received it.
Love and hate,
How you manipulate the past to suit you.
I can’t even tell if what I remember is true
Because your lies and facts are so intermixed,
Like flowers and weeds in a dirty garden.
You’re a constant reminder that
Life offers no guarantee
And no happy ending.
You keep bending the story until
Even my friends don’t know what to think.
Tell me to come back
And I’d do it.
Swallow my pride-
No, wait,
I won’t put myself through it again.
You’re the cigarette left in the pack
After I quit.
The booze left in the bottle
After the liver’s gone to .
And now I’ve accepted it.
I am you, or are you me?
Are we truly who we’re meant to be?
Seemingly fluid, so unfixed
The facets defining, so intermixed
On the sweetest day in June
I am the Lilly you watch bloom
In the deep cold dead of winter
You are the darkness driven splinter
I shift my shape and you shift yours
We set off once again into the moors
But are you me? Or am I you?
It has always been just us two
You cannot see without my eyes
I cannot exist without your lies
I am blossoms, you are decay
I love you more than I’ll convey
We dance together wild and free
But am I you or are you me?
Our time together has no limit
Our bond, cosmically infinite
And as the ever-wandering drifter
We are one as the Shapeshifter
-J.A.
red and gold leaves sway
whirlwind in stores' parking lot....
papers of life stir
Contest: Fall Or Winter Holiday Haiku
Date: 11-14-21
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
Holiday day trip about the only holiday we can go on now. Got to eat out..In the parking lot were leaves intermixed with store receipts, chewing gum wrappers, and other small papers from customers.
1red and gold leaves sway 5
2whirlwind in stores' parking lot.... 7
3papers of life stir 5
Syllable Counter.Net
I met her at the lighthouse,
It was all love at first sight
A picture of great beauty
A memory of a sprite.
Each day I'm madly in love.
Each day I yearn much for you
Am I mostly sane or mad?
I cannot do without you.
We toured the place together
I held her hands lest she falls,
We peered out towards the sea,
Saw her pull tight her soft shawl.
Outside we found a quaint shop
And drank a hot cup of tea
We talked about sweet nothings,
Admired the great foaming sea.
Each day I'm madly in love,
Each day I yearn much for you
Am I mostly sane or mad?
I cannot do without you.
The evening birds sang our song,
The breeze rustled through the trees.
We planned to meet the next day
Lord, how greatly I said “Please”.
Our love was not always smooth
But with reason always won
I proposed, and we married,
Gave me a gift of a son.
So life went on together,
Sadness and joy intermixed,
Life could not be happier
As all our problems we fixed.
Each day I'm madly in love,
Each day I yearn much for you
Am I mostly sane or mad?
I cannot do without you.
Swaddled by the warmth of your room,
I lay in your bed
absorbing
Earth tones intermixed with sweet scents.
They draw me into your sheets,
As if I’m chained,
I feel glued down.
I pull up your plush blanket.
It looks like fresh snow.
It almost tickles.
I lay in silence,
the airy whistle of breath escaping my lips fills the void,
I notice the taste of my own mouth: metallic.
The hip-hop poster covered walls
Now bare,
reveal pale plaster.
Lipgloss, makeup brushes, eyeliner, and rouge,
normally strewn across your counters
are nowhere to be seen.
Three knocks hit
your door,
echoing
through the room,
empty
but for your bed and I.
I sit up to fold your blanket and sheets
as tears roll.
We are the huddled masses
yearning to be free
but living in itself lay is often rose-colored glasses,
and remains quite the mystery.
We ache for freedom transfixed
some random yet open display
of races, children, braggarts, heroes, and cowards intermixed,
with declarations of straight, transgender and gay.
What does it really matter as we align
when each one of us live separate lives
barely marking time with impacts undefined
just giving everything in life a try to survive
We rarely know what we want or need,
buried deep lay the truths of who we are
shouldn't we be grateful that we are free to believe
that a god, kind and loving created dust from stars?
It doesn't matter if you're white, yellow, black or brown
or if you're straight or gay or a giant tree or mustard seed
each is creation of an unseen god pulling up when you fall down
god doesn't answer every prayer, god gives you what you need.
For Timothy Lee, the Best of Me
Since our first night, I have dreaded the last,
thus my passion tightly fashioned clasp.
You are my one safe harbor, my refuge,
my cure for stress overload and pressed blues.
No matter any day’s shatter and stews,
at night I am consoled right beside you
where your skin soothes me secure again
and our wrapped limbs re-thread joy’s ends.
Some tomorrow’s sorrowful horizon
scripts our final intermixed, heart snuggle.
I cannot help but hope that it is me
who first dies and avoids solitude's struggles.
Our bed of blessed satisfaction defined,
would uncover woe for the rest of time.
Come the end of nights molding with you,
comes the end of our love's active value.
Realities Unbound
Thru realities unbound and transfixed
Elders open gates of Temporal Time
Layering Multi-Verses intermixed
Portals welcoming the new paradigm
Angelic voices transport thru the mist
Forging fires in dimensional drift
Creations of desires that coexist
Nebulous clouds of lust squeeze thru the rift
Orbs of passion set the pretentious pace
Planets of pleasure align with their sun
Celestial beings watchers of their space
Serving emotions spherically spun
Divinities send us back with a shove
As we master the mysteries of Love.
Sept.15.2018
Beautiful mystery Poetry
Sponsored by: John Hamilton
Sonnet form only. Ten syllables per line
Placed 1'st Premiere Contest
Sept.26.2018
My ball, My rules
got ups next game,
kids can be cruel
call names, defame
you push, I push
we fight, and act!
More kids ambush
provoke attack!
You swing, I swing
but no contact
ding ding, bells sing
that fight was whack
Recess is done
Trouble we're in
argue who won
Teacher walks in
Explain our truths
he said, he said
we call a truce
shake hands, break bread
Good friends, we are
old friends let go,
schoolyard memoirs
the status quo
New day we play
the kids in cliques,
away we stay
avoid conflicts
The popular
get all the love
the commoner
get looks and shoves
Irrelevant
we've now become,
past main event
but now, humdrum
The geeks and freaks
gather to play
perceived as weak
perceived as gay
Play truth or dare
A first-time kiss,
My lips prepare
How could I miss?
In the schoolyard,
it's politics
A young vanguard
All intermixed
Written March 24, 2017, for the Schoolyard politics contest
Did you feel that moment?
That unexpected hum of heartbeat in your ears,
the rise of blush upon your cheeks,
the sudden ache within your breast and loins?
Was it merely physical
a chemical imbalance of love and lust intermixed,
of passion that ignited breath and heart and soul?
Wanting and needing you
that was all I needed to know.
Did you feel it
Do you feel it now?
Seize the moment and its passion
come closer
I'm but a breath away.
Lost Mayans
Ancients who lived long go
Living for the sun and waning moon
Some hoped to be living by noon
Children laughed in the maize fields
As elders struggled for the grasshoppers wisdoms
Life was simple
Daily toils and simple strife
Intermixed with love and social struggles
Lost Mayans
Sifting in my dreams
The ancients have had many a princess
As have I
We both are buried deep within our dreams
Longing for days when love kissed our salty lips
Wine flowed like riverbanks at their brink
Only when the waters ebbed did the sadness make the noon
Now the Mayans are but stories in a book
I often wonder
Who am I?
If not a line
In someone else’s story
Skeletons of love
Inside a burnt out heart
For I myself have nothing to tell
Being lost long ago
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