Pink hue flamingo it must be due to all
the carotenoid pigments feasted on
algae and crustaceans
An elongated neck spirals
and filters such sensations
Sharing color is Okinawa salmon sushi,
bolster lobster and shrimp scrimp
Graceful qualifiers primp poised tropical dwellers
balancing effortlessly on one outstretched leg,
A ballerina’s pirouette in fuchsia tutus’
Statuesque stillness in shallow water
Rosette feathers flair flamboyance
Passionate plumage, blushing boas
Webbed feet tap and stamp below,
an aquatic burlesque show
The flamenco dance named after you
Rose-tinted creature tranquil, wader
Hook-billed blackened lamellae
sieved nobly, an intense look in a print
Cluster buster of pink with lengthy legs that sprint
Death comes to all like a great shadow,
servant of reality when the truth of it sinks
in leaving the experience embedded on
one’s soul. Milt, given to remembrance
in his lifetime, moments flashing by, when
the congregation gathered to celebrate his
time on earth. But in the book of scrolls
winter is definite in which age must give way
to the new, one, he’d readily give for
the sprinkling of innocence created to start
life’s process all over again, with perpetual
regularity. He would, from behind the thin
veil of Ionna, bless and comfort the unfortunate,
the depressed, the lame of an earthly lifetime in
songs of praise. Leave a recipe for a foregone
conclusion. Auf wiedersehen, we will meet again!
February 6th 2023/ 2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers Final
Placement Poetry Contest.
Sponsor Mark Toney.
Mark Toney.
time standing stlll
arrested
moments revealed
in stimulations
of the mind
revealed lluminations
of the past yesterdays
becoming today
tomorrow's postponed
memory
past pictures live again
momento mori in hypereality
as monuments
to past existence
from shadows of transience
sentient touchstones
in memorials of perception
aesthetic sublimations
of immersive
spontaneity
fascinating expectations
in a visual genesis
of suspended animation
still distant
now living again
February 5, 2023 / 2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL Placement Poetry Contest / Sponsor: Mark Toney
Still bodies piling in spooky dress
longing for last touch of sweet caress.
On the street are young hearts lying lifeless.
Shouting joy at this point and time is heartless.
In the blink of eye, hopeful souls faded away.
The clear horizon suddenly turned to a mist of gray.
What some could do was to drop their knees and pray
but muttered words were all that they could say.
May such misfortune in such dusk of time not happen again
for the orphaned hearts hardly find a way to take the pain.
May God bless the souls of the hearts that were slain
so the lives they lived will not fall on the hands of vain.
One could hardly think that time would give birth to an ache like this.
May the faded souls find a way to climb the hills of bliss
so the mourning love will not ache so much for the hearts they miss.
May the lips of rapture greet the weeping evening with a calming kiss.
October 31, 2022
2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 19 Contest (1st place)
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Judged: November 11, 2022
February 6, 2023
2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' Final Placement Poetry Contest (24th place overall, from 267 days and 945 poems)
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Golden paint drips from diaphanous air,
beneath the opalescent autumn blue sky,
jade foliage enfolds full-bloomed flowers,
I fly my heart like a bird over the canopy.
The canopy of your allure so beguiling
takes me to the enticing height of ecstasy.
The nest we build in the cleft of boughs
glistens in love-laced moonshine night.
Night of strife surged as wrecking storm,
the nest is demolished to debris of despair.
You drift away to the sunny sky obscure,
leave me to languish in the spasm of winter.
Winter frost slithers with the north wind
to desolateness of the defoliated boughs.
I feel my love freeze within the arctic heart
amid the serrated shadow of broken wings.
_______________
Written : August 10, 2022
February 6, 2023
2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL
Placement Poetry Contest
Sponsored : Mark Toney
Hope dwells in us,
It’s a lighted splinter,
Waiting to be rekindled.
Hope is latent in us,
It comes to the fore
through us and by us.
Hope is that shadow that walks with us,
The lesser the light,
More it's readily available.
Hope sits in the dark with us,
It holds the periscope,
Encouraging us to look through.
Hope is a bird,
Its wings are strengthened
as we take strides.
The makings of hope,
Resides in us,
The emancipation of hope,
It’s our bidding.
July 3, 2022,
Mark Toney,
2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 6 Poetry Contest.
August 30, 2022.
Free Verse - Old or New Poetry Contest,
Joseph May.
February 6, 2023.
Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL Placement Poetry,
Mark Toney.
mesmerized mesmers
quantified qualifiers
nomad nomalies
(Mike stern is a good guitar player
and was the catalyst for this song.)
i wake
my heart racing
with thoughts of you
freshly torn
from my dreams
AP: Honorable Mention 2021
Submitted on February 5, 2023 for contest 2022 POETRY MARATHON QUALIFIERS' FINAL PLACEMENT POETRY sponsored by Mark Toney - Honorable Mention
and June 20, 2022 for contest 2022 POETRY MARATHON MILE 4 sponsored by MARK TONEY - RANKED 3RD
Posted on October 17, 2021
Quit thinking it's oh so
Quaint I'm good 'for my age'
Question is, why not? to
Quip, this old gray mare ain't
Quite what she used to be~
Quicker of will, I'm still
Quintessentially me.
4/15/21
Oh, flower in this crannied wall,
how did your roots prevail and sprawl
from seed that landed in a crack-
so shallow, small, in woods set back
from warm sun rays, to grow in shade
with vines about you- old and frayed?
Your blossom glows a vibrant red;
you stand out bright among the dread
of tangled sprays and dried-out brush.
Your velvet petals boldly blush
just like a ruby- precious stone-
shines on a tarnished ring, alone.
My Cinderella, come with me-
this fine glass jar- your slipper be;
a perfect fit, it shields your foot
of roots now clean of forest soot.
Soon, fertile soil you'll thrive upon-
a princess rose on my green lawn,
beside a prince who grew so tall-
and too was rescued, roots and all.
---------------------------------
February 5, 2023
2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL Placement Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
My aorta beats in golden poppies,
pulsing down slopes to pool
in a bruise of purple sage.
Though my eyes gleam
with lemon marigolds
snow caps of porcelain lupine
melt on my lashes,
undulating in a quiet tempest
of periwinkle asters.
Beneath a bluebell sky
the sun colors my cheeks
with the blush of primroses
as monarchs lilt
like birds of paradise
among velvet morning glories
and a shy alyssum breeze
caresses my emerald cloak.
3/26/19
Marathon Qualifiers Contest
Mark Toney
You may ask anything in my name,
And I will do it.
A quote from Jesus recorded in the bible:
No requirements.
No qualifiers.
No restrictions given.
No request forbidden.
A simple promise.
Too bad it seldom works.
Royal blue sky scattered sapphire clouds
On horizon embroidered in navy blue attire
Summoned by the onset of marigold sun
Emitting amber gold on tuscan yellow fire
Where tapestry of fluffy lavender floats
Decorating patterns of designs periwinkle
Mosaic of colors then spray-paint the water
Spreading a layer of golden yellow cover
Shimmering gold dust on twilight ripples
Abutting brushstrokes of dark blue egyptian
I saw you briefly where first time we met
On the lonely bridge that extends into bay
But as the dark landmass peeked its head
And the lifeless vegetation glinted despair
The tangerine breeze announced your exit
Quivering our aura beneath glittering riffle
For you refused to witness impending flame--
Broken vows ablaze in last breath of sunset
Written: August 4, 2018
Submitted on February 6, 2023 to:
2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL Placement Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Submitted on December 7, 2022 To:
Placed 3rd: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 22 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Poem of the day on August 7, 2018
Placed first in standard contest #180 by Brian Strand
Dutiful dawn awaits the radiant sun
Clothed in her mantle daubed with streaks of light.
And faithful to the course which life must run,
Receives the baton from retreating night.
Remote yet not alone, for down below
Creation is preparing to rejoice.
Faint silhouettes of trees begin to show,
And birdsong swells to greet her in full voice.
The precious golden orb will soon arise
And dawn prepares to slowly slip away.
A blush of pink expands across the skies;
The sun cuts through at last - a brand new day.
This gift of new beginnings should impart
A sense of awe in every human heart.
'2019 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL Placement': sponsored by Mark Toney
submitted on April 1st 2019
April 2019 Premier 6,Any Form ,Any Theme ,Upto A Max Of 14( F O U R T E E N) Lines Poetry Contest : sponsored by Brian Strand
Plunging, lifting, plunging -as wind blew ashes all around -
the shovels' blades incised the cold and black encrusted ground.
Attached to shovel handles were the arms of skeletons - of men,
who pausing, hacked and wheezed; then bent and smote the dirt again.
With bruised decrepit bodies - and coerced - they struggled on
beneath a sky from which the sun for them had long withdrawn.
And seeping into nostrils came that too familiar stench
when shrieking had died out, and still - they toiled at the trench.
Perhaps they dreamed of tunnels; that the cracks within the earth
inflicted by their shovels formed a path to their rebirth.
What horror in the knowing there were no more tears to cry
or that their bodies - shoeless - might, in graves they’d dug, soon lie.
First posted 5/6/10
Entered in the '2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 8' Poetry Contest of Mark Toney
Entered Feb. 5, 2023
for 2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' Final Placement Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
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