This or That, Vol 30 Poetry Contest
Edward Ibeh
As soon as my eyes cleared from the tears
I could see that his body and soul were long gone
He layed frozen in time
Lifeless, naked and sorry
Where the songbirds in his eyes
Lost forever in the morning storm
Still the sun peaked thru our bedroom
It's long rays covering the bed
Comforting, consoling and calling
And lending its hand in my time of need
In the background I could hear and feel the doom
As the ominous sound of the ambulance closed in
Only to confirm what I already knew
Where this validation tore at my heart
And this punctuation and pronouncement
Bringing a flood of unstoppable tears
For this was real
And a defining moment and turn in my life
From that point on
My mind was etched in tears
Where the montages of my husband's death played on
To his past voice whispering and echoing in my head
"Honey I had to leave on the night of a full moon"
It resonated, etching it's way in large block letters
For the mourning, and that morning never ended
I kept his secret seventeen years later
... now in the depths of a grieving heart
And in my eyes, where the black ravens keep multiplying
Our precocious President pronounces,
in patent ad hominem attack,
that those deplorable disagreeables
are notably Neanderthal.
He might be technically correct;
nasty Neanderthals existentially exist
in DNA models of most modern hominid incarnations~
even in the Commander-in-Chief!
And [God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth...Acts 17:26 NKJV
The corn maze full in October,
“As the misty moon rides high.”
Nighttime makes occasion sober,
Still laughter lingers, is not shy.
Headless, the hopeful, scans the crowd.
The high and mighty on his list.
With black stallion, his shrieking loud.
Like judge’s gavel shakes his fist.
One by one the kids are captured.
A pronouncement made with thumb thrust.
They share the hijinks, enraptured.
Price worth ticket - fear was robust!
(4)
I don't regret I got it
This small tattoo of mine
An everlasting love note
In permanence of kind
I look at it and smile
It doesn't make me sad
It represents the moment
Where ink on the scratchpad
Became a lasting statement
I knew just what it was
I did when I had done it
My heart was all abuzz
Excited and emphatic
In color it did state
A pronouncement for my lifetime
Not too early, not too late
But still there's one thing missing
The statement's not complete
Until another figure
Alights and takes her seat
A tiny little bluebird
Standing o'er the strings
I'll carry her forever
To where forever brings
It's not the proper moment
To add her there right now
Her nest is not quite ready
But I hope someday, somehow
I'll sit there in the artist's chair
And watch his skillful hand
Create my little bluebird
Atop my heart she'll stand
A sure ear-bursting announcement:
It shall walls vibrate: pronouncement
A knight’s last-hour confession:
Banging the pregnant profession…
“I can’t. I will not! Where is he?
Don’t even mention any fee
May be, The Vicar should do so
Here’s the microphone as I go…”
“Who feels fine hanging on a tree
What makes Conscience cease to be free.
Recovery I see damned slow,
Numbness from a meeting with snow.”
“Master of Ceremony’s Trap!
Thank God, I always keep my map.
Yet, after today I’ve resigned
To have The Ambushed reassigned.”
a sadness seeps into the soul
where sanctity is living
caused by the heart's fondest desire
for human love
not given
a dance on passion's summer night
in bonded moves preciseness
with risk of life in full moonlight
by drunk hands fools are driven
final pronouncement of demise
departure and defeat
makes salt-rivers of dry eyes
whose agony it seeks
and in a voiceless, muted cry
of unrequited pain
will ne’er be heard in loud disturb
as silent pride maintains
a hopeful stance,
another chance to cleanse
the drunken stain
12/2/2022
12/15/2022
2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 23 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Mark Toney
Please stand by for this important announcement
Of news you’ll most assuredly not want to miss
A newsworthy, earth-shaking pronouncement
More startling than your first unexpected kiss.
Your favorite television program is interrupted
Just when you’re about to watch Final Jeopardy,
You’d think the U.S. government was bankrupted
By the sound of the announcer’s anxious perfidy.
Instead, there’s a tennis player who’s deported
From Australia, his name you never heard before
Seems his lack of a vaccine he too openly sported
Forever, hereafter, he’ll never again be obscure.
All you wanted to know was who won Jeopardy
You had waited all day long for today’s show,
For you faithfully watch your program daily
To see the champion trivia winner’s earnings grow.
written January 18, 2022
In the Doctor’s Office
A poetess, sits and waits.
Wondering his pronouncement
on her future fate.
I realize at times, other poets, this
process, you have endured.
The tension, the mystery, one
feels as a sentenced Moor.
Please do call my name, i beg, do
let me go!
This morning in icy cold, Sacramento!
12/9/2021
Having done what I consider right
I plead to rescue me from oppression
those that seek my harm always
keep me safe from every tension
Please as your servant find good
may I know peace and your presence
so that God's salvation be in me
looking to the Lord for His essence
Cast your love upon me, please
tell me fully your holy law
so to fulfill all your righteousness
this makes me truly stand in awe
As your servant I want understanding
so I learn that you are true
in due time trust, you'll act
seeing sin judgment is due
Gold real shining fine gold
describes your holy commandment
so right are all of your law
hating all sin is my pronouncement
(This is my " Psalm 119 project" which I began to write a couple of years ago, so this is the sixteenth poem of twenty-two poems I've written over that time to cover all of Psalm 119.)
I would predict a landslide (Blue!)
Without a hint of déjà vu
But superstition rears its head
And warns me to shut up instead
Or else I would absorb the blame
If vic’try came to What’s-His-Name.
The reason why might give you pause –
A kinnehura*’d be the cause.
*a pronouncement indicating good fortune
which should not be uttered for fear of
attracting the “evil eye.” (Yiddish)
Our backsides don’t see the stars
the seeds of our eyes hypnotized
mesmerized suspenser
on the flapping sheet
etchings of a classic
flick moths flutter and cling
seeing shadows drawing ever nearer
on the grassy knoll
sunflower eyes expand
as the sea explodes
and Brody’s one hundredth pronouncement
stunned and slow backwards tow
“We’re gonna need a bigger boat…”
7/8/2019
My Hero my Pride
Love is natural just like hatred, Heart of compassion not in every one. The sense of thinking right not just a gift, but a deliberate act of over looking weaknesses of others. Accepting others to be part of us, an act done by many. Treating them like our very own, an act done by few. My Hero my pride.
Emotions! Most time misleading. Giving them up for a better focus though painful, a sure way forward. Success not for everyone even thus desired by all; Sacrifice given in exchange. Facing reality against odds and even, the heart of a hero. Clothed by fantasies in desires met by pronouncement; A Reason for better aspiration than the source. Success guaranteed the reason for our gathering! My mentor! My heart desire! My strength! My hero! My pride.
In a meadow, long ago,
sheep and shepherd came to know
the magic of that starlight night.
One brilliant star shone very bright;
lighting the meadow with a flood of light.
Angelic choir of heavenly sound
diffused the stillness all around.
Until every eye and every ear
responded to the angels near,
who proclaimed unto the gathered flock
the grand pronouncement.
And the shock gave way to joyful praise.
The Savior had been born nearby.
"Let's go and see," was their reply.
Leaving sheep and guided by the brilliant star;
they found the manger in which lay
the infant, Jesus, in the hay.
About That Certain Thing Called Nonsense
Nonsense is that certain symbolic communication form
that oft pervades our human space with its absurdity!
All of us from time-to-time have had to deal with some
people who revel and rave in it to provoke a response.
Making sense and communicating in an intelligent fashion,
reflects a spirit of human decency that’s so needed at times.
“Nonsense!” used as an exclamatory pronouncement inheres
a necessary tone of disagreement to stop boorish behavior.
“Nonsense” in a whimsical use can tickle one’s funny bone,
whilst creating, at times, a much-needed spirit of amusement!
And so, “Nonsense” as part of our grand human condition,
may not be all bad, except when some choose to be naughty!
Nonsense is an important part of life because it brings us to
a certain view, which should be of no surprise: C’est la vie!
Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 9, 2018 (Couplet)
Hiding within the rhyme
lies a melody of pronouncement
lifting the words up off the page
Its liberation spoken freely
within times expanding moment
giving and taking—beginning to end
(Villanova Pennsylvania: November, 2019)
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