Long Contend Poems
Long Contend Poems. Below are the most popular long Contend by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Contend poems by poem length and keyword.
There, that is our secret: go to sleep!
You will wake, and remember, and understand
— Robert Browning (Evelyn Hope)
Forever Seems Forever Away
On her little pillow, pink and silk, spreads
her lovely brunette locks, locked
forever, as forever goes. Only God knows.
Forever turned and pointing, with a shock
of red hair, brother’s hand secured in mom’s.
A Rockwell brush masterpiece, if Norm stayed
on earth. Flying away, the mind is a bird
that lands and stays until I must turn away,
because forever seems, forever away.
Coffin’s shut up, too soon and solemn, She’s
carried out, not as in the celebration of birth,
but in youth, not forgotten. I Can Only Imagine
played as the crowd bowed and prayed. Parade
of mourners delivered to her final resting spot. Forever
ago, eighteen years seems so. Much has changed.
But the look in her eyes, before they crossed
over, and as she smiled at “what a pretty dress,”
before her parents had to let her “rest.”
Before and after seems forever-after-unhappily,
yet, happily the family must contend to love
all the more the three siblings without the fourth.
It is time for a new tale
About a man who life doth fail
He toils day and night, night and day
With the stomach a rumbling and no bed to lay
Before dawn he gets to work
To toil, and toil around the clock
Sweat like blood fall off his skin
But failure frame doth life to him deign
Until one night he sits alone
In pitch black dark, with no light he own
When two shadowy men dare to visit him
The man whom life hath failure deem
The man on white sat on his right
A striking light whose room didst bright
The other moved swift to his left
An aura so thick with moves so deft
Merging with the pitch black as he clings to the night
The man glanced hence with weary eyes
At the two fiery men in different guise
Of which he spake with a tired crack
"To whom do you seek in this dumply shack?"
The first spoke now, booming voice clear and true
" I am Light. I have come for you.
I am here to show you a brief reprieve
For I have seen you bleed to stay alive.
I have seen you kneel to ask for bread
Choosing a life of pain to another where you are dead."
"So I come to you, in this pitch black night
To this dumply shack in my fiery light
To ask that you think of the resolve you held for long
Instead of the act, where of men gone you would belong"
The other laughed, in whispers soft and low
Clad in pitch black and a gloomy glow
And thus he deemed it right to speak
With sharpened tone and words so bleak;
" I am the dark, the man whose hands doth bend
The wills of men, none didst contend.
I am the hunger in their empty gut
I am the aching in your weary joint"
" I am here to bring you to the brink
To deem it well to have a think
Of which path will you now take
The path of pain or the one I make?"
The battered man sat still like stone
Smoldered by the forces of the men all alone
To make the choice in that pitch black night
To walk through the dark or the part of light
And slowly, he stands and he closes his eyes
His mouth full of pills, then he swallows and cries
For he had made a choice that is devoid of pain
The bliss of closing his eyes, that was his only gain.
On the plains of Europe I contend for an empire.
On love's battlefields I have contended more for thee.
A stare from your rolling eyeballs consumes me like fire,
as I seek entrance to a world of just you and me.
Mademoiselle Josephine, you are truly my world's wonder.
What precious gem or treasure can I to thee render?
Not even Europe's plundered gold could my love equate
for the diamond damsel I ask for a lifetime's date.
What eloquent poetry could my words for thee describe,
and what tender words of mine could I on thine heart inscribe?
A thousand princes may indeed contend for thine heart,
each of them loves-truck with your magical Cupid's dart.
A thousand more princes may contend for thy dowry,
but relentless I'll be to see their love plans go awry.
This poem is CUBE16 which is a form I created several years ago. The poem is based on a scripture verse.
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? Jeremiah 12:5
Today seems hard
as chaos reigns.
Both fears and doubts
forge breakproof chains.
A time will come
when men will fear,
as danger lurks
and rushes near.
Travail draws close
and doubts beset,
as hearts perceive
a mortal threat.
Today perceives
that fearful time.
Approaching soon,
when dread will climb.
What shall we do?
What can we say?
We hope the fear
will rush away.
A look around
appeases not.
We covet cool,
but times are hot.
In Gilead
resides a balm,
remembering
delivers calm.
I call on God
requesting strength.
He steels my heart;
width, breadth, and length.
Principled or vile, honorable or depraved,
we all view the same stars,
suffer the same dread.
The richest minds among us were
all once bedwetters.
The puerile erect walls like Trump’s fortification,
they imagine iron and concrete impervious to the
ghosts of culture and language,
never recognizing the absurd futility,
never once realizing their enslavement
to their own defenses.
Here we are conjoined,
the tormented with their tormentors,
the marginalized with the entitled
awash in the night long freezing rain
culminating in a new morning light
where we yearn to find new hope.
No one has reformed.
No one is converted
and yet, no one is the same.
The pages of days flip past.
We find great promise discarding
our malignancy of mind,
the dark ages we left behind.
We see a future as we climb free
from our climate of abhorrence, the
mind games of conspiracy,
though we still contend with our bigotry,
our racism, our dogmatism, paradoxically,
we also find our capacity to love unconditionally.
What makes us sluggish, unable to get moving
It's something to do with low pressure
Known to cause problems in migraine sufferers
Unavoidable, can't change the weather
Happily I can say I'm not one of those sufferers
But I sure can sympathize, my friends
Other than a few minor muscle aches and pains
With this ailment I don't have to contend
Throughout my life I've been free of major ailments
My ten fingers and ten toes are all crossed
Whatever's ahead I'll have a hard time accepting
Must be brave and strong at all costs
It's never been a topic we like to discuss
When we're young and our life's on a roll
But lately the subject's been foremost on my mind
Guess my age is finally taking it's toll
As the old saying goes, “what will be will be”
The time frame is not usually up to us
Unless we determine we can't take it any more
And decide we've had quite enough
I don't recommend taking the cowards way out
Hang in there and see the thing through
Perhaps Nicole Kidman wants to feel your body
And show you her hidden tattoo!!!
© Jack Ellison 2015
In a clash of burgers and biryani,
Manchurian with Russian fares so many,
All else that watch the fun
From fence with just bread-bun…
To guess who’ll lose, who’ll win,
It’s too early a scene,
Seems, burgers might lose their ‘reserved’ penny.
______________________________
Happenings |04.09.2025| humour, world, war
Note: A proxy war is going on in the world, the western developed countries versus the so-called south, call it a global power and the pretender hopeful, or NATO, QUAD and BRICS, SCO. Obviously in this ditty, burgers, biryani…., represent their countries. And then there are some fence-sitters. It seems, USA today has to contend with its President more than anyone else.
Reflection, relaxation around the bend
Long work week careening to dead end
Hard work's gratuities in rear view portend
A brief sabbatical our inflated value to pretend
Week's rat race with slower pace will amend
All unnecessary pursuits from mind rend
With less tedious chores gladly contend
Forced hand, mental strain not extend
Only pent-up energy limbs will expend
Trivial pursuits, television deserved dividend
A new book, movie, that mind's eye did recommend
A new restaurant our acquiring tastes to commend
Friends, family to hearth's door hungrily descend
Grilled burgers, hot dogs to nominal appetites append
Haute cuisine, to our genteel friends a stipend
At day's end, on creaky, front porch swing addled bodies suspend
With Nature's slower rhythms, contented minds blend
At midnight a stiff tonic still lingering cares to fend
Staggering to bed senses too dulled life to comprehend
Into deep, requiting sleep, missed week's. hours addend
Alarm clock slumbers on and rested bodies wake at ten
To a frothy cappuccino morn's hangover to promptly mend
We loved to traverse the dense forest,
Where birds continued as they chorused,
Admiring on one side the tall pines,
Breathing their best fragrance from their vines.
On the other side of the pathway,
A thousand of maples made my day.
Gold leaves fluttered slowly to the ground,
A whiff of breeze, the path would be drowned.
At the edge of the wood was our friend,
Where with his food we had to contend.
Sausages, bacon, eggs and coffee,
Heard his lovely repeated story.
He lent us his barn where we could sleep.
Outside a river so wide and deep,
Winded its weary way through vast plains,
It would fill more with October rains.
Clouds gathered above the horizon.
What pleased us was a rainbow rising.
We went inside the warm cosy shed
Where all was clean, and straw which we spread.
We slept like angels on that sweet bed.
Fought my battles on my own
Always felt so all alone
In your arms I was so warm
You're my shelter from the storm
You never once asked me why
Never said I made you cry
I guess I swam against the tide
You were always at my side
Times were tough, I wasn't strong
Didn't know where it all went wrong
But when I was down and feeling blue
I could always count on you
With my own war I had to contend
Seems the fight would never end
I was drained, no lessons learned
You crossed the bridges I thought I burned
While I was kneeling, crying in the rain
You calmed my fears and eased my pain
You made me stand again and fight
And turned my darkness into light.