Written: December 06, 2024
___________________________
We were born into tribes
cinctured by bonds and praxis
welded by ambits and dictums
an eyeless chasm.
But scope a sounder view
just under the shimmering surface
and the outcome will be luculent
our parallels often outshine our oddities.
Our blood is crimson
all of us slipshod weeps
all of us longing for love
all of us fail to face our fears.
Our zeal fashion fetching flow
our souls seek seraphic symbiosis
we all itch for a warm welcome
and achieve startling accolades.
But, we build walls,
and draw lines in the sand,
we judge hinged on appearance,
and ignore the outstretched hand.
But if we may just foresee,
beyond the color of our skin,
and the language we spree,
we may find kin.
Because in the recesses of our souls
within our deep cores
all of us are noxious
rhapsodic around finding fulfillment.
So let's slip away,
from the chains of tribalism,
and gasp our kinships,
with love and hope.
For only then,
can we for real unite,
and transcend our differences,
Into a world of light.
Categories:
kinships, analogy, humanity,
Form: Free verse
Written: Apri 28, 2024
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sibilant deceit indeed! with a goal to charm,
A melancholy girl fostered by her father.
Never incite with wisdom, pride, or harm,
I owe it to them; cruel deeds are improper.
I cycle as a moon, enthralled by its pure soul,
As it dances its dulcet arms over me, I scroll.
Explore the placid ocean of ripples in my heart,
I learnt to be sincere and abide flaws apart.
When I'm intrigued, my paradox falters,
I'm fascinated as moon rises and alters.
I'll gladly refill your cup once mine is dry,
I starve to rehydrate, but my soul is shy.
I will come back as soon as I decry a skim,
I am a network of kinships, not a whim.
I prize my solid, pure soul in a jocular state,
If my love is you, let my heart elect your fate.
Cherish gloom as pure serendipity in disarray,
I admire your serenity in a mellifluous display.
If you pick another path, I will wait to love you,
I'm a nemesis; you'll be in awe of my vast hue.
Categories:
kinships, analogy, love,
Form: Rhyme
youth, where imperfections trip upon each other
and opportunistic peers joyfully celebrate the folly
- glass tree houses be damned...
and - a spun bottle breaks blood brotherhoods
where fragile crevices expose truths and
welcome untested kinships to fill the void.
the leftover baggage - will it be burden or buoyant?
like Scrooge's chains, worked upon - idyllic dreams
dragged into reality.
we're told to pull ourselves together -
while drowning in emotional incontinence
like this stumbling poem, trying to balance
reason ... and sanity
then - tossed to time's tumult,
life's bitter tempering, yet -
gold in our veins
a vessel that can hold
all that is ladled in...
Categories:
kinships, life,
Form: Free verse
Virtues of reverent past no longer rhyme
With sense of now rushing through time
As troubled voice shudders in forlorn sigh
While remnants of yore earnestly decry
Vigor of life passing by, smiles gone awry,
Powerless to console tribulations of outcry.
Bankrupt of morality, of goodwill sublime,
Arresting freedoms, restricting path of life,
Streets and communities riddled in crime,
Echo bawl of grief, wailing indignance rife,
Imposed on tranquility perturbed in strife,
Since bells, benevolent, ceased to chime.
Sadness and anguish relentlessly bemoan
In solitude of feelings ~ impassive, all alone,
Dwelling in remorse, as memories replay
Friendships and kinships now gone astray;
Searching explanation, struggling to cope,
Saying a prayer, longing blessings of hope.
February 10, 2023
Placed 1st: Acquaintance and Neighborhood Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Soto Poet
Categories:
kinships, change,
Form: Rhyme
Conjuring anxiety, obstructing path of hope,
A quivering hesitation, frightened to cope;
Fear is omnipresent causing anguished moan
Agitating aspirations in distress of unknown.
Fear is darkness, a trepidation upon norm,
Worrisome, trembling, turbulent as storm;
An obstacle threatening progress of life,
A messenger of panic, an architect of strife.
Treacherous to audacity, fear is a cheat,
A betrayal to victories, fretting of defeat;
Fear is melancholy, an expression of gloom,
Hampering courage, perturbing in doom.
Fear is a loathsome impediment to goals,
Dashing endeavors of endearing souls;
Averse to commitment as love goes awry,
A remorseful cry, where lost kinships sigh.
Unwelcome emotion imprisoning ambition
Unleashing inaction of paranoid inhibition,
Fear immobilizes, as if, bird trapped in cage;
Paranoid, valor-less, upon life’s center stage.
January 21, 2023
Placed 1st: Fear Is Liar Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Sotto Poet
Categories:
kinships, angst, emotions, fear,
Form: Rhyme
The fleeting dawn has translucent crystal light
that shimmers and wrinkles my furrowed slack skin.
Then a temperate touch, my terrors ignite
as beneath my waves, dark currents surge within;
since time began, I have carried human kind;
but still I yearn to swallow a troubled mind.
From hell roaring creek, I was spawned and grew old,
before fur traders rafted over my rocks,
indian canoes laced through my eddies cold,
where bison roamed in the summer equinox.
My hidden weeds clutched at fractured settlers' limbs;
where battles fed all veins in death's pseudonyms.
What darkness now heaves and hauls the river's wave?
you wait to board the last ferry's creaking ship;
its gas light might shine, but I still cling and crave
as every mortal must its dark pilot tip.
Then leave all kinships behind and seek to sleep
in lethe, sunken down yet so darkly deep.
Categories:
kinships, nature,
Form: Lento
And so it begins
the endless montage of words amid hugs and kisses,
struggling to express untethered euphoric blisses,
the joy, the laughter, the fully embraced elation
in attendance at the family celebrations.
A reunion of bloodlines stretched
recalling memories old and blessed
for our ninety-six-year-old friend
knowing and accepting he is near life's end
gladdened familiar exhilaration visible on their aging faces.
The food was good, maybe just so-so
but the gathering was better than we could know
cousins, great-grandchildren nieces, nephews abound
distant loved ones from out of town
counting connecting kinships to astound.
In this twenty-first century of dispersed family
we reconnect remembering individual humanity
where bonds were once too easily broken
mother daughter, father-son, sister brother words misspoken
and for a moment fleeting as it might be
the healing possibilities exist
and so it begins.
for Line Gauthier's contest
And so it begins
2/12/19
Categories:
kinships, age, family, forgiveness,
Form: Rhyme
So many loved ones and friends lost it seems
Their faces frequent visitors to our nightly dreams
For those of us left behind we search for ways to carry on
Ever seeking elusive answers from dusk until dawn
Life is a gift that we should cherish every single day
But we find that loss and grief often get in the way
With little choice but to continue to ever forge ahead
We rely on fleeting memories embedded in a tangled web
Sometimes clear, sometimes faint they give us hope
As if peering through a mystic kaleidoscope
We pass this way but once and if lucky kinships are formed
Realizing nothing lasts forever as the scriptures forewarn
Categories:
kinships, life, loss,
Form: Rhyme
Fall's colorful leaves are most appealing to me,
Gilding the hillsides with gold, touching every tree.
Hay rides on a wagon bed add to Halloween fun,
Impossible not to enjoy the painted setting sun.
Jack O' Lanterns carved from pumpkins collected.
Kinships are kindled by new friendships connected.
Leaves keep drifting down in a soft familiar way.
Memories flood back in sweet years of yesterday.
Neighbors sipping cider with the affection of friends
Offering to help each other before the season ends.
Prayers said together keep those tornadoes at bay
Quelling any fears that severe weather storms will stay.
Rain adds a heavenly petrichor refreshment to the fall
Sustaining earth to give rebirth, reviving one and all.
Trees greet autumn sun as they kiss leaves goodbye
Until cold north winds usher snowflakes from the sky.
Veils of frost begin to turn the landscape snowy white.
Winter waves her magic wand bringing dazzling delight.
© Connie Marcum Wong
9-5-16
Alphabet Soup Poetry Contest
Sponsor Kim Merryman
Categories:
kinships, autumn, friendship, life,
Form: Rhyme
Another burial....
... condolences,
deep emotional feelings
grieving hearts imbue jeweled kinships,
lasting memories,
needing obituaries
peace, quietude, rest
succumb to undertaker
vestiges withered
'xpired, yielded.
zeroed
Categories:
kinships, death,
Form: ABC
What is oration --? To the speechless
As poet the pallet's still whet,
a quill in hand, her word reaches,
surely the rebel is not dead.
Some thought -- lost was the speechless
tongue,
And must now beseech her pardon ...
The Artist, lent voice through their eyes
As silent oration un-guised
Traveling in painted words for them,
Reaching the core, feeding it;
Her pages spoke in volumes heard,
Another mind opens and turned
The canto is quite atractive,
in comparison's blended prose
Within hearts, as kinships now rose...
Categories:
kinships, life, on writing and
Form: Free verse
Timetravel reading diaries
of distant relatives' lives once mysteries
become souvinir memories of vanished places
lost loves and estranged freidships
Travel the changing world
kindred neighbors move,visit old home towns
aging treasures where dreams are born
Relatives trading stories of new family ties
perfect marriages
Passing lovers seiance romantic
Grandchildren raise children
play in flowered fields once playgrounds
Familiar questions echo our own childhood curiosity
Wiser with age,kinder hearts with experience
Parents are keepers of children's forgotten memories
Past photographs keep memories alive
Sacred kinships end
Fond memories and promises could never mend
Find new passions,new love,new life begins
Categories:
kinships, family, introspection, life, love,
Form: Narrative
Light leavens leaden doors.
Genealogies of genocide are lost
in long night rides through thistled trees,
dark reunions of distant blood.
Kinships are recounted, mantras murmured
of summer savory and sorrel flaxseed
like scars on wrists, a sparrow grass of needles.
We are immutable, terra cotta with wild glints
of sea-flecked eyes--
a mask of freedom, a final submission.
Origami moths mime legends in tallow lights,
stigmata their small dyings with rites of regeneration:
bleeding dim faiths, sealing silent sins
with the infection of sky.
We become insane shadows, cloistered cousins
of a dark, moist marrow
mythological as opaque men in pale pearled sheets,
chiaroscuro faces written in a white rage of worms.
Categories:
kinships, angst, childhood, death, faith,
Form: Free verse