My eyes swerved to someone
magnified my attention,
mesmerized in hyponsis,
felt like popping of faries bubbles down my mind,
couple of ladders to my comprehension,
I'm sliding smooth but hasty,
like adrenalin,
caught off guard.
Smelting of this cold layers on my motion,
lays softness to my curiosity
Thought future was fate determined,
yet this here shreded my expectations,
I don't know whether
I'm falling or drowning,
just can't seem to be landing,
I'm gobbling on gusts of my breath,
choking but in looping sequences,
sudden sinking to my understanding.
Can someone turn off this heat,
this wave burning and
pealing only in my presence,
just way beyond for me to contain.
Wish I could paint this image for the universe eye
but I'm without paint and brush,
in me is just some catastrophic
of epic proportions
#Poetic_Ink
On a fateful night of darkness and gloom,
I lay flat upon my bed.
She took me by the hand, led me to the sky,
and this is what she said.
Good to see you. We've been waiting for you.
May I have this dance?
But she didn't give me time to answer.
She didn't give me a chance.
In the clouds, I saw my dear departed -
mother, father, teachers, friends,
and their parents and grandparents,
all, who had met their ends.
They got down to the twist and charleston.
A headless woman swirled a minuet.
They stepped to square dances and waltzes.
...wait, was that Marie Antoinette?
I was welcomed cheerfully by all,
but I said, "for Heaven's sake",
and then a man with a notebook said,
"There must be some mistake".
Everyone was gracious as they said "goodbye -
we'll see you when it's time",
and I woke up to the glorious sound of
a church bell's pealing chimes.
I don't know whether I should call it
a dream or a nightmare.
It seems like a nice destination,
but I ain't yet ready to go there.
I remember the two nights
You we’re up on the stage
With your handheld Mike
I was up but it was you
With your handheld Mike
We swayed herkie jerky
Yes I enjoyed the way you moved on stage
It was your motion
My delight was your sleight
Your sleight of hand
And as the dance was about to end
You caught the bouquet in
and with your handheld Mike in hand
You also caught the Mike stand
This is dedicated to my Belle
Into Mike’s mic sing girl sing
Remembering those two nights
Hearing Belle's pealing
Pleasingly plump
Appealing appellation?
Por favor, senor ~
Propose its purgation
Bells
Solitary heart, newborn in brooding silence,
Steps on a cluttered path
Through elms and boughs of broken limbs,
In a pungent, evergreen hush
Absent of astral cacophony
That falls like mute pennies from wishes,
No buzz nor whirling wings
Disturbs the tacit spell
Until a faint and far-off chime
Brushes against my startled heart
Like the flutter of a butterfly kiss
For at my feet coral bells harmonize
With snowdrops in strings of chimes
Awakened by the breath of angel wings -
Music born of stardust carried on wind chimes
Banishes black spells in lyrical pinwheels,
Melodic whirligigs ringing in silvery silk jingles
Like crystal icicles brushed by soft winds -
A carillon of the winter angelus
Pealing in effervescent tiptoes to remain.
Moral confection
is like facial complexion
that changes
with exposure to weather
like it or not
we are our elements
sweetly pimpled
when saturated
dried and cracked
and pealing
for deprived of
right feeling
and creams and lotions
are only physical motions
getting us spiritually nowhere
Shop bells tinkling from eight 'til late
queuing customers having to wait;
Thursday,closing at noon
opportunity to court and spoon.
Collection boxes built into walls,
gossiping ladies in their shawls;
Bells pealing on the hour,
drays pulled by one horse power.
Factory hooters' blowing
Morning cockrels' crowing;
Cycle bells a-ringing,
Provisions from vans' a-bringing.
The ice-cold sun was hid
Behind a bank of clouds that came unbid,
Ugly freezing winds blew
Birds felt it all and flew
No place to rest, they knew.
The black cypress did their shelter forbid.
Beneath, lanes clearly showed
All tombs and snow covered the dead's abode.
Alas, their days were timed,
Their heavy hurdles climbed,
Their dirges were long chimed,
In heaven's eternity, they now rode.
Despite all I hunted,
The one tomb where peace and my love were granted.
I knew the number and lane,
Cold wind numbed not the pain,
Bereaved from my love was not a pleasant feeling
Especially when I heard the dirge bells pealing.
Saw her lovely photo,
Her sweet pale smile, and eyes were soft like a doe.
On the old tomb, I saw
A plaque, I stared in awe,
Her writing, without flaw:
That she loved me always, she had to show.
Placed 1
27 January 2023
Writing Challenge - B Word Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Constance La France
* It’s been three years, Dad, and it hurts like yesterday … I don’t know why I was the one to walk you home, but it will forever be my bittersweet blessing, and an honor I didn’t deserve. I miss you very much. *
~
( 9.18.26 - 10.27.19 )
for that bright rose of his honor
those edged thorns of sacrifice
to the steeds he’d left unbroken
and the chimes, a-pealing thrice
to the statues, still in marbled earth
countless draughts thus never spilt
to that knight left rusting in the rain
the steadfast bridges that he’d built
to the jester in his dancing court
the somber conscript left behind
for his queen midst her devotions
and his swords of heart and mind
for the master, mate and martyr
who we laud now with our breath
and the God he loved with graces
who has grieved us with his death
may we wear his garland shining
with the charms that he’d impart
and ne’er let his laurels wilt there
but bloom bright within our heart.
son, brother, husband, father, friend ...
kanpai.
Copyright (10/27/20) © Gregory R Barden, rewrite, October 27, 2022
A train went by in the distance
and I could hear it passing
every few hours or so from the back
bedroom of my grandfather’s house
My room, when mom came home
after she and dad derailed, but the
train out back was always certain to its track....
no burden that I needed to understand.
My room, and commuter’s haven in college,
and mom felt so much better
with me moved back in the house
in case the old man fell.
And when she fell first,
the spill shut down the town
and the Train roared into that long
awake night out in the back.
Still my room when I moved away
with the years, and understood
that home is more of a time
than a place, both slipped
beyond the great reclaim. You
were there once, and I’m sure
the train went by that night but
neither one of us heard the roll.
Years later, my sister and I sold
the house, and I slept the closing
eve in that room out back
the farewell caravan
pealing on by the foot board--
moving on with the moving on,
it’s boxcar back always open
to the hobo---up for a jump.
A glint of sunlight from its prismed face
Catches the eye of the weary beholder,
For years occupying a hallowed space
The old tower clock still chimes bolder,
Stolid guardian marking time and place
As hours pass slowly in the marketplace.
It clearly tolls and lonely, too, at midnight
When townfolks are at home sound asleep,
Year after year its appointed hour’s respite
A time to live, a time to die, tolling complete
Seeming to know the proper tonality
When pealing for one's funereal finality.
Written September 20, 2022
Clear crystals eat iron voices.
The wind dies; its bones rattle on.
A stealing wind moves many loose tongues, but where?
"Where' is not the question but a movement,
a rapport pealing from somewhere.
When wind is silent, wind chimes listen.
Speech goes deaf when the wind rings.
A snow laden sky sings under our feet.
Icicles chime in the sunlight.
Tinkling is the light.
A Sunday morning clear and fair
My heart with gladness filled,
I walked to yon churchyard there
The breeze was calm and stilled.
Suddenly from the tower above
The pealing of an ancient hymn
A song about the Savior’s love,
I whispered the words of the gem.
The parson greeted me at the door,
Shook my hand and bid me well
From the apse above oaken floor
Notes from an old organ welled,
As I began to feel a certain peace
Needed here in pure grace to dwell,
This place of perfect stress release
I felt the Doxology began to swell.
Written July 1, 2022
*Image of Purple Vanda Orchids Floral & Lei by EFC & Sziv.
Prolix Pageantry
Pulsations of veinuous royalty
courtesies yond the proverbial realm.
Majestic interludes flamboyantly
acquired vesper's affections, overwhelm.
Cupid cedes ecliptic earth's lauded star,
hauling affianced light neath golden rays.
Purple Vanda orchids in gild's wake are
velvety mosaic succeeding phase.
Proxy promises bonny lavenders
pealing gingerly as princely petals
induce a princesses verbs. Challengers
submit an amethyst crown ... all settles.
Hawaii's champ, amaranthine Vandas
laurel leis, like Purple Heart's ... lifespan 'twas.
2022 June 01
*2nd Place*
Purple Flowers
~~Nayda Ivette Negron Flores: Judged 2022 June 25
*HMS: 10 syllables per x 14 lines = 140 syllables
RZ: RhymeScheme; abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
Remarkable how brass bells will chime
~~Reminding us to be on time.
ring the bells in appropriate weather
iron bells crack, if abused
protect historic bells.
Hear the pealing of the chapel bell
News that a respected one has died?
They toll for all, so, who can foretell,
This time tolling for a blushing bride.
birds fleeing pealing
fly high above vibrations
time to find new roost
[CRYSTALINE: 17 syllables in two lines; end rhyme
syllables checked with HMS; rhyme checked with RhymeZone
KIMO: three lines, syllables 10-7-6 checked with HMS; no rhyme
QUATRAIN: four lines, 9 syllables each, checked with HMS; rhymes
checked with RhymeZone
HAIKU: three lines, 5-7-5 syllables checked with RhymeZone.
nature-oriented, no caps, no punctuation, no rhymes]
Written March 17, 2022
especially for "Poetry Forms" poetry contest
sponsored by Emile Pinet
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