Long Lacing Poems

This foggy sky
darkly and relentlessly rains
especially for an early May morning.

He is not prepared for darkness
seeping through new-born leaves,
not yet full grown into this year's trunk-lacing dress,
soaking up from saturated soil,
slurping into his compassionately 
empathic...

Read More

 POTD 25 Nov 2020

Manage your Stress … a peeling faded poster boldly declares 
I do get it about advertising campaigns. 
Enough to know that,
‘strategically placed ads’ catching the eye, is huge. 
But this poster...

Read More

I went from ghetto living
And the ghetto kind of days
To being up out of it
And to seeing better days.
Now the truth stays 
And my mind plays,
in a blessed way
defying the lie defining me 
in my...

Read More

MY GRAND  AUNT
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


She is still as elegant as I dare remember
Those early springs: its now late december
She is sitting  with her back perfectly straight
I’m afraid she’ll chastise me for being late
She...

Read More

Written April 11, 2025, for Contest Sponsored by Edward Ibeh

Quote: 1/ “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ? Rumi

           2/ "Many...

Read More

It’s not even lyrics that I’m writing 
It’s the feelings that I’m fighting 
When they striking like lightning 
Nightmares so realistically frightening 
I’m struggling to wake up
I can’t wake up!
Oh God I can’t wake up!
I’m...

Read More

I used to steal to make a living
Now I catch those with horrible upbringings 

I was a legend in my neighborhood until high school 
Then I was taught that stealing and mischief was not cool...

Read More

Prompt :"A crimson sky breaks the distant shore"
Sponsor : Joseph May
Submitted: 20/5/25
Placed : 4th

 CRIMSON SKY  

A crimson Sky breaks the distant shore
stargates opened veils upon veils
portals portending lyrical lemon drops
or so it seemed...

Read More

Colures transposed orbits closed whence derive the rains of rose?
Across million mileage magic and magnitude are striding
O'er holistic horizon svelteness and smoothness are sliding
Meridian framed parallax tamed whither swash the rains of rose?
Spray by spray,...

Read More

Season of dream haze and arctic signpost.
Chill and chap brood whose scattered offspring plummet thermal values as welcome mat for “whiskered” chimney guest awash with bounty.
Thief of sun filled days without a twinge but that...

Read More

Souls entwined 

I want passion searing through my veins so wildly with a superior force, inevitable of who we are when we come together, firing like a blaze in the midst of our horizon.
The world...

Read More

There is anger raging in my heart. A stone lodged deep within my chest. Some days it swells into a boulder, others, it dwindles to a pebble. Yet I don’t know which is worse. It...

Read More

It’s always better to move on and not forget 
Why forget when you’ve been around so long
The future never shapes
It’s just some hope for the waste which is the past
I live in the moment and...

Read More

At the foot of the unknown soldier
I heard them speak about the past
The generation born after the war
I heard them sing of warfare
Like children recite rhymes 
I heard their threats of war 
Even from lands...

Read More

Armed with chainsaws in the field, two young men are shirtless guests
with shoulders bronzed by sun and sweat.
The timbre in the August sun has scattered birds and stirred unrest

   The tree they'll slay...

Read More

The perplexity of my complexion
Is a God given blessin’
But many have been stressin’
Life’s annoying lessons
That’s in need of correction
But in no need of perfection
Due to the detection
Of affection
In my isolated section,
The convection
Of my teachings
Is telling...

Read More

                         Mind Bound to form, 
     ...

Read More

I was born through the whispered wish 
of angel
purple clouds draped
my newborn sky
I tasted dreams
in chocolate ice-cream swirls 
the tender embrace of bruised knees 
and flushed cheeks 
guided me through childhood

I soared high 
on a...

Read More

By inclement seas, malevolent sands bob
Lashing atrociously in their cyclonic hurl
Assent to winds that beat wild, Oceania!

Can the derelict heart reclaim its pacific,
keeping latent hurts as a glossed wreck?

Pearling gloss spot-lights aversions to keep!
Embraced is...

Read More

Shadows of gray
Silhouettes so delicate
Lacing through the air I breathe 
In their hues of melancholy 
Mystery both dark and pensive 
Drinking in the stardust 
Shimmering light through 
Blackest night, alive
With beauty inside 
The blue hole,...

Read More

Too much, too much
Too much, perhaps -
The barren beauty of the steppes,
The fire lacing through the skies
Before the night draws down
Her jewels ignite through her Eternal locks

- As do the sparks within your hair, My...

Read More

In the world nurtured by pristine nature,  
in God’s own lavish land so divine, 
a child is born with an empty malleable mind, 
where budding beauty of purity finds a niche, 
encased within the...

Read More

I can go ahead and personify the ocean
As this pen has been granted the poetic license
To carve a soul from a still object-
And make the ocean take the form of man.

The soft sand shaking forth...

Read More

ered, just like I would be if I ever found myself in Gossip Girl’s contrived version of New York 
City’s upper east 
side on a (b)lust
ery day and I saw prettily-pressed preppy clothes clinging to...

Read More

DEVOID OF LOVE
________________

Dawn of your life, 
Sun doesn't rise.
Morning greets gloom.
Noon is a matter of grey.
Shadow lost its silhouette.

In hustle and bustle of life.
Standing in the crowded street. 
No one stops to stare.
At this ravaged...

Read More