Mandrake Poems | Examples

Priority Prime

Priority, thy possession?
Primer, coat the prize?
Plight, blight, bane, ban, thy passion!
Pine trees? Fine eyries...

Ghoul in ancient armies?
He surely battle seeks?
Dole and duress, pass en prise!
Lentil, call the leeks...

Tumultuous tempest, toss!
Dynamite the dross!
O for painters without gloss!
Lyrics lament loss!

Folly? Well, gosh golly!
Blessed are the dead!
Hang high, Yule-rite holly!
Coffins line with lead!

Soul of wizard, thy blizzard!
Blossom, mandrake, here!

mandrake was not allowed to have fuzzy balls

Mandrake’s sisters had fuzzy balls
Green fuzzy balls on their roller skates
Red fuzzy balls on their ice skates
Purple and pink fuzzy balls on their backpacks

You cannot have fuzzy balls they told him
You are a boy
It would be silly for a boy to have fuzzy balls
So he grew up and made himself a fuzzy ball chair
He also stuck out his tongue at both sisters
Refusing to allow either of them to put their petootsies on it

Wholesome Beauteous Aroused-

So wholesome beauteous, bewitching;
Arousing, inviting, mature, provocative racy and seductive;

Vessel cave opening covered in brush;
Mound of majestic, smell of essence eucalyptus;
Mandrake allure ahh, me odor composite aroma;
Flushing tunnel moisten with the dew;

Sweeten view, vibrant hue;
Vessel cave entry in tunnel dark misty;
O' Epicurean, ahh! sybaritic yes voluptuary and dionysiac sexy;
Sweet are the tissue of her veins says he

O' Jubilee, caressed embraced shalt they so kiss, heavenly now blissed;
Mandrake, allure me odor composite aroma;
Mound of majestic, smell of essence eucalyptus
So whole some beauteous envisioned so delicious

Arousing, inviting, mature provocative graced and seductive

10/16/23
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2023

Who Wants My Spell Book

Who wants my spell book? Whisker witch asked her grands.
It was a mystical book held together by large rubber bands.
This book was different because it chastised your efforts to create and bake.
Calling you mean names like “loser, ignoramus, and stupid mandrake".

I will take it said her sister, who had grown up with the book.
The witch gave her the most horrible, awful, nastiest look.
The spell book picked up on Whisker witch’s cue.
And began calling her names that turned the air blue.

That’s okay, the sister said, holding back her tears.
As the spell book called gave her a raspberry among the jeers.
One of the grands grabbed it up and threw it into the fire.
Take that! She said, and we all clapped, her bravery glad to admire.

Beware the Mandrake

Beware the enticing purple mandrake
Thinking it will calm a lover’s worries
Its berries do not make a tasty shake
Beware the enticing purple mandrake.
Many suitors have made this mistake
With its lovely yellow-orange berries
Beware the enticing purple mandrake
Thinking it will calm a lover’s worries.

written July 26, 2021
FIRST PLACE WINNER
Brian Strand Contest on Poetry Soup

Better Not Mess With Mandrake

A gorilla asked for my stomach today
I could do without it, so I gave it away.
My family thought this was a huge mistake
Except for my gargoyle, his name is Mandrake.

Some of the relatives began to make fun of me.
Mandrake lovingly slipped arsenic into their tea.
No one bosses us around anymore.
Except maybe the once-healthy lion, who is dying next door.

Terrifying a Nine Year Old For Fun

Don’t look in the mirror I cautioned myself
As if a basilisk was going to paralyze me at any second
I have read of them, and they eat mammals.
I wondered if this one would have to cut me up first
I am pretty big to gulp in a few bites.
Or will his teeth chop me up in a satisfactorily way?
Give me that mandrake root, I told my nine year old cousin. Just in case.
He was terrified. He had just finished reading two Harry Potters.
I loved it that I could use his fear to keep him silent and compliant.
I am evil that way.

What the Poet Sees

What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer 
~~~underwater~~~
watching the shoreline blur
sees through his breath's weightless bubbles:
both worlds grow obscure.

Originally published by Mandrake Poetry Review

Still Life Still Death

still the same
still holding séances in batholes
still thrumming
and still drumming on my tinderbox

still letting the copycat days
kill themselves over and over
the angels are on strike
all over the Mandrake Mountain

still the dawn
is covered with cobwebs
of cold marine graveyards
still the dusk
is X-Rayed through our bones

still I exist
even though it feels I don’t
painted on the mouldy wall
just a part of a still life scenery

Your Love

I'm not sure if I should cherish you
I'm not even sure if I should care for you
But one thing I'm certain about is that I love you

I fell for you with  pain but got healed by your beauty
oh yes it healed my swollen bruises 

I thought I'll never love again
loving you isn't a mistake
nor is it mandrake

I know I've built a home in your heart 
a white gold that's how I define your love
goosebumps is what I get when you smile
tears evaporate when I look into your eyes
my worries fade away when you laugh

your love helped me to grow
it also made a star to glow
I just went with the flow
without realize you have flaws
but every beauty got scars and it ain't your fault

I now know,I should cherish your love
I now know,I should mend my broken heart 
for your true naked love

your love is appreciated

Samuel Rosenstock

someone rapped on the window
in the evening
it was a star and it was bleeding
and it brough some strange parcel
with a note:
"Mandrake and an armoured elephant, for You."
 - Samuel Rosenstock
after which there were fireworks in the bedroom
and that’s how the dreams are born, if I’m right.

The Bulls Got Lucky

The roosters are clamoring for attention again, big, bold, mannish and bad.
Putting up such a male ruckus, all about themselves, the hens are mad.
The hens form a Baby-Making Brigade, everyone joins, that was ever sad.
Even Trixie Doo-Everybody Hen who’s never been particular who is her dad.

They lined up quickly, organized, wearing aprons and cat hats with cat ears, all pink
They marched to the pond, around the barn, and to the Farmer’s wife’s pretty blue kitchen sink.
They  yelled, and they cursed every bad word they knew, then they stomped and they shouted all in sync.
The male sheep thought it was super hilarious, until their wives joined, wearing mink.
Hats out of fur, dyed pink, really made those judging sheep husbands sit up straighter and blink.
Ain’t gonna be any fun-loving action in the chicken coop tonight, is what we all think.
We  big bad, bulls wisely kept our mouths shut after Head Cow raced around to tell us what was up.
We were the only animals in the barn that night who had any fun, except Mandrake a Pup.

,

Villanelle: Everything Takes Time: Take Not Time By the Forelock

Villanelle:  Everything takes time: take not time by the forelock

Everything takes time: take not time by the forelock
Whether in deference to the past’s foiled efforts
The tingling ergot fires our desires do unlock

Rye clavicus purpurea our joints dislock
Till the soil of our conscience deeper than roots
Everything takes time: take not time by the forelock

Eastern sky pyrotechnics rude rockets won’t mock
In deference to witches’ brews sharp mandrake roots
The tingling ergot fires our desires do unlock

Infernal fires rage on in limbs of mad rock
Gargled warnings in the larvae spouting cheroots 
Everything takes time: take not time by the forelock

Is that Bosch who will St Anthony’s fall not baulk
Memories of charred instant byres turned to soots
The tingling ergot fires our desires do unlock

Took thirteen point eight billion years to make a lark
How many to buy back twenty-one eight trillion debts
Everything takes time: take not time by the forelock
The tingling ergot fires our desires do unlock

(c) T. Wignesan - Paris,  2017

Vogelperspektive

(Bird's-eye view)

My heart is about 
to leave, ready to ascend 
then hover away 

on the dusked wings of
her before my woe-hardened
rib cage could shatter

her. An exodus
of the chosen damned is her
new purpose to find 

peace in the embrace,
the horizon's snowy clouds.
I would go after 

her, but I'm rooted 
here; this mandrake soil does not 
let me depart, so 

I let her set sail
and ask to be the very 
sight of me; just to

watch over you while
you're about to blaze the new 
path... From here, her bird's-eye view.

Dawn of Light

THROUGH COOLING ROWS OF MIRRORS
The frozen cheeks of children spoon the air
With mandrake callings
Grim intracted products breaking
Membranes off the waves.

ANOTHER DAY IS COMING
Through the breeze electric blueness
Once and forever
Daughter of the stone tomb
Bearer of man the womb choosing
Misty swirl – blossom of morning light
Lunge in the cave of day.

MIST OF SPIDER-BLEACHING SHADOWS
Parade of the flower-bed veils
Drop of ancient autumn
Mistress of the pilot’s eye
Spinning messages through trees.

GRASP IT. GRASP IT
Be seen above the bee’s quick turnings
Make gold the apple’s greenness
Silent churchyards in the blue and graying town
Through peoples’ eyes the seven dreams come leaping
A shadow of a letter from a friend’s dismembered hands
Unbroken by the voicing of his echoes.

• Short Mandrake Poems
• Famous Mandrake Poems
• Best Mandrake Poems
• Read Mandrake Poems
• Long Mandrake Poems
• Mandrake Quotes