In silhouette of fervor hovering
That meanders vivid upon the night
The hum of music from so long ago
Romances the air... a twirl, a lyric
While tunes of mist stir of rhapsody
Along the harbor to fling and gently play,
A rhythm of craving beats, as lips intone
love's silent quiver, still as secret whisper;
From this earnest heart deepened by time
When dulcet songs of wind now fondle
Breaths' charmed trails gushing on- and on--
And words become an impassioned call
Deepening my hymnal interludes;
As our mellow kiss jangles like chime of bells
Slithering like a windblown mantra
....Luring my beloved at sea to come home.
I do not have the time to write a tome
I’ve just too much to do right here at home
I dread the thing that calls with vapid tone
That distant idle chirping of my phone
And yet I must abide and scan the screen
Perhaps it’s something I have never seen
Or worse an urgent message from a teen
Saying the Irish whiskey turned him green
And yet my fingers love the keyboard dance
My mind in fevered harness longs to prance
Upon the snow cap whiteness take a chance
Somehow the empty pages to enhance
Yet I am stuck at home a wingless drone
Resembling the forests aging crone
Subject to a curse turned youth to stone
A voice of cryptic curses to intone
Thus do ancient fingers keyboard dance
The challenge always there to take a chance
Put on your dancing shoes and boldly prance
To hell with those who say “you’re old…you can’t”
Ask me not to sing
of happiness, love, and pretty things
of freedom, justice, equality,
of wealth, even of friends’ loyalty.
Doubt me not. Like you
I have desired these, too,
but their lyrics elude me,
or, I haven’t had my share
of whatever joy they bring.
Thus, try as I want,
I cannot compel my heart
to sing of things it hasn’t known
or it might go off-key
for attempting too foreign a tune.
Let me sing instead
of cloudy skies and violent winds,
of poverty, loneliness, cruelty,
of hunger, cold, and misery.
Believe me, these I am familiar with,
their notes embedded deeply
in the very fabric of my soul.
I can compose an aria
based on them which, when sung,
can bind the arena
in a spell, and my heart need not be
impelled to do what it is most willing
to intone. Yes, of these things,
allow me to sing.
“birds care not for whom they sing” - Silent One
Birds are blessed apparently
They visit sublime landscapes
Enjoy nature with gusto
They intone without interval
Bother not for any approval
Lounge in the thick foliage
Make dins inviting mates
Their bliss reverberates in spring
Their jargons resonate at midnight
They keep alive the music of Nature
They are independent by nature
Bona fide melody masters in Nature
Place: 3 rd
The docile ducks toddle out in the sunny morn,
being in the winding file they are never forlorn.
In fluffy random rows the downy ducklings trail,
their frisky frolics aren’t ever listless and stale.
In curly webbed feet ducks scamper to a pond,
where the dancing lilac lilies they find so fond.
In the sunburst dulcet dawn under the sky blue
they slide with the symphony of the spring hue.
Sparkle of gold and emerald splashes all around,
the wrinkled reflections in crystal water abound,
performing in concert with the playful duck pack
on the sound track of their synchronized quack.
In chorus they intone the duck song of harmony,
resonating in the rhythmic reeds swaying in glee.
The rows of the fashioned feathers slickly swing
in the lilt of rippling zephyr of serenading spring.
A Japanese stone garden
brass wind chimes,
little birds feeding,
fountain tinkling - the whole works.
I sit, empty my mind,
intone a low pitched Buddhist hymn
which scares the birds away.
The wind picks up,
chimes no longer tinkle -but loudly clang.
The fountain sprays itself
into my frowning face.
Frustrated,
now I can hardly hear myself
not-thinking.
When you say, 'I've been there'
I know better
You never listened
you didn't hear
As you intone, 'I feel your pain'
I bite my tongue
You can't hurt in your mind
when you don't have a brain
O, that you'd listen to everything I have to say
O, that you'd analyze the details my way
You have two sound eyes, a pair of good ears too
~ Yet none are for me, they're only for you
winter serenade
winter serenade
frozen crystal melodies ~
red cardinal chants
leafless boughs sing out
arias of roaring storms ~
snowdrops harmonize
blasts of icy frost
chanting plaintive elegies ~
daphne flowers bloom
short days intone night
with a solstice lullaby ~
fir trees wear white stoles
shadows of springtime
creep into amber twilights ~
bears snore rhythmic dreams
1-18-23
Syllables checked with www.howmanysyllables
An old man awaits
The promise of a new day
Slow fading away
Failing memories embrace
Cold embers of distant flames
Warming an old soul
As idle snow men shiver
Carolers intone
t’is the night before Christmas
©12/14/2022
Triple New Charlieku Poetry Contest
575 - 775 - 757
A mottled crab scuppers its sea legs
in fluorescent foam.
Blue pods rattle on green tides.
Bladder wrack, Mermaid’s Hair
washing tangled ankles.
There are voices in my open mouth,
they roll over a briny tongue,
intone words from the breath
of spray and brume.
Where the sky hangs, gull beaks open
to scoop the bones of a shoaling surf.
My heart is booming
in a hollow seashell.
This is the Church of a God
disrobed of human thought.
This is the roofless house
of the sun and moon,
a place consecrated to the storm,
to the depths of darkness;
to the bright blades
of the suns daggering rays.
This night the rough
tussles with the calm
and they dance at the edge
of a clashing chaos.
Mother, father, stranger,
we are all here speaking
through a whirlpool’s gullet,
yet who has gone ahead of us
to express this sea-glow
and hat surfaces at the edge
of our own shores?
Autumn Yawns
Autumn yawns – early darkness stunts her days
Eventide wrapped in golden umber tones
Bands of autumn hues swaddle mellow haze
Sunset sundrops sweet serenades intone.
Twilight dozes ‘neath the harvest’s birthstone
Autumn savors new frost in early dusk
Scarlet scents, aphrodisiac cologne,
Festoon icy crystals - autumnal musk.
Vesper rondeaus rustle in dry cornhusks
Scents of spice float in the warm afterglow
Autumn tastes nursery rhymes like sweet rusks
Stars keep watch in astral autumn meadows
She slips into the mellow midnight’s glow
Drowsy barcarolles bid Autumn goodnight
Harvest hectic days through cradle songs slow
Lullabies wait to croon in faded lights
Drowsy barcarolles bid Autumn goodnight
Bands of autumn hues swaddle mellow haze
Lullabies wait to croon in faded lights
Autumn yawns – early darkness stunts her days.
10-219-22
Contest: Autumn Pandoum
Sponsor: Caren Krutsinger
Rhymes checked with www.rhymezone
Syllables checked with www.howmany syllables
Haunted Mansion – Beware!
Abandoned mansion cries in loud creaks and groans
From deep within the dark cellar ghostly moans
Attic lights flicker...then suddenly turn off
By unseen hands of haunted souls castoff.
Windows rattle, winds intone incantations
Of tangled webs to strangle all sensations
Hallways echo spectral chants as terror flows
Reeling rhythms - eerie haunted vertigo.
Deep in vaults dark plots of midnight roses grow
Thorny canes drip with poisons like black snow
Chalice filled with toxic brews from blighted petals
Touches lips in a toast of stinging nettles.
All doors and windows tightly locked and chained
Only unheard shrieking prayers still remain
Foreboding fears smothers like a phantom kiss
When screams free fall into a bottomless abyss
10-13-22
Contest: 12-16 Lines of Scary Halloween Rhyme
Sponsor: Tania Kitchen
Rhymes checked with www.rhymezone
fall serenade
serenade of fall
nor'easters and southerlies ~
bittersweet in bloom
leaves sing with the winds
arias of rising gales ~
pumpkins harmonize
bare branches in tune
thrum rhythms of autumn ~
acorn symphonies
blast of icy frost
elegies for summer air ~
rainbow hued harvest
hues of country roads
chant scarlet, gold, umber notes ~
wheat fields intone fall
draughts herald autumn
fall ruffles and flourishes ~
corn stalks beat in time
autumn song resounds
carols of butterfly bush ~
chimes float on flurries
10-4-22
Syllables checked with www.howmanysyllables
Merriam Webster spells nor'easters with punctuation.
Somewhere within the words, between the lines
overshadowed by the towering pines
trails meander through meadows of meaning
skirt the edges, trees twisted and leaning
for in the distance of hovering moons
wolves stop to listen to whispering loons
trapped in the echo of future and past
knowing the shadows of full moon won’t last
the owls, the crickets, the bullfrogs intone
we all play a part, can’t do it alone
deep in the sound if you listen you’ll hear
within each moment, the edge of its fear
Somewhere within the words, between the lines
overshadowed by the towering pines
John G. Lawless
©8/15/2022
Living Truth
Ancient guides of venerated truth
Stumble through numb spiritual graveyards
Where truth casts its shadow in chiseled words,
A signature of affection,
On moss bathed alabaster stones that once
Gleamed in treasures of veracity,
Autographed insights of the ancient sages
Screams out the litany of wisdom
Then begs, like balm, the insomniac unconscious heart
To intone a resurrection,
A living trove of living verbs in action
Breaking from the bondage of a chrysalis redecorated
With raw promises to shake off stagnation,
Relight the lantern star of the eternal spring’s veracity
Springing into actions that rise from stone inertia
Insight’s revelation releases a new song of songs
Truth that lives anew –
That propels the quest of new a-ha’s
That plants new reasons for renewed actions
In the waiting heart embraced.
5-3-22
Contest: Our Truth
Sponsor: Unseeking Seeker
1st Place Our Truth
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