Rankled Poems

List of New Poems

PM	Poem Title	Poet	Form	Form	Categories
	Soul Ink	Chantelle Anne Cooke	Alliteration	Alliteration	rankled, addiction, corruption, moon, recovery
	Pshaw	Rhona McFerran	Free verse	Free verse	rankled, emotions, feelings, grandmother, humor,
	Failure Fuel, Part II	David Welch	Narrative	Narrative	rankled, desire, dream, life, music,
	Here here please define quantum mechanics for second dummy	matthew harris	Elegiac Lyric	Elegiac Lyric	rankled, 10th grade, 11th grade,
	Prospector	roseann geiger	Free verse	Free verse	rankled, abuse, imagery,
	In The Ink of Tears	colin mitchell williams	Free verse	Free verse	rankled, forgiveness, sorrow,
	Nostril damn mess	matthew harris	Light Verse	Light Verse	rankled, angst, anxiety, conflict, creation,
	Light On the Devil's Chord - Day 7	Laura Breidenthal	Free verse	Free verse	rankled, abuse, adventure, allusion, anger,
	Love's Rose	Faye Gibson	Narrative	Narrative	rankled, fantasy, love,
	INIQUITY	Kim van Breda	Rhyme	Rhyme	rankled, forgiveness,
	We aborted the Lamb and Cursed it to Hell	Gerald Nforche	Blank verse	Blank verse	rankled, death, funeral, hope, life,
	Blessing Star	Ndaba Sibanda	Rhyme	Rhyme	rankled, dedication, love, song-uplifting,
	PRETTY KITTY	daver austin	Tanka	Tanka	rankled, animals, , cute,
	A sailing I Didn't Go	Mandy Tams The Golden Girl	Narrative	Narrative	rankled, recovery from..., me, old,
	Life and Death in the Ladies League	Val Moffatt	Couplet	Couplet	rankled, funnywoman,
	The Photograph	Helen J Radford	Free verse	Free verse	rankled, lost love, emotions,
	Play in Water	Shishir Gupta	Free verse	Free verse	rankled, inspirational, life, philosophy,
	Invaluable Diamonds	Shishir Gupta	Free verse	Free verse	rankled, inspirational, life, philosophy,

Rankled Poem Example

Light On the Devil's Chord - Day 7

I…breathe again…
Meditating on flowers of my pasture, plucked with my eyes,
Resting…open, like buds blooming, and resting…

“Take me…” he said weakly, so softly in my ear…

I greeted the demon with the warmth in my eyes, 
Upon opening them to its crippled form before me,
It was shivering, shackled, face caved in, razor teeth broken
All night I had heard his screaming, his pains, and his revitalizing hurt

As the Devil crouched near, 
His hands clenched in the blood of his minion...
He turned his head grimacing, 
Shrewdly interested in the exchange

The sad, sniveling creature touched my hand and squeezed it,
His breathing more hoarse and heavy
Bloodied tears and muck falling upon me liberally

“Do not be afraid of the light, 
As your brothers hide cries shuffling in their fight,
The touch of deliverance is often strewn with thorns,
And to the onlookers, the dominants, scorned…

Rest your weary head upon my shoulders,
For there I shall sooth your devastating tremors,
Your rough skin upon the softness of sympathy,
Your eyes burning in the pains of my empathy…

Rest on this day from the indulgences you have absorbed,
From the faces of the damned, the bruised, the abhorred,
His antagonism over your life has weakened your will,
Bleeding hearts still beat, as his stubborn mind goes still…

The Sabbath day shines against the garish evil,
To reveal the good that remains in the slaves of suffering…”

Our Prince spat the ground in fury, 
Cracking his neck from left to right

“The Sabbath day, resting in lies, rankled in syrupy mess, 
Believing is deceiving all this feral trash we call friends,
His happiness upon a time that mocks all those who stray,
Those who dare to bash the head of a pompous, polished day
May I shove each heart into the rash-spent furies of my consternation,
To rest assured, all that the day soon brings is the madness of insanity’s ascension
Never was there one as sickening, as the one who stabs us in foolish hope,
Into nothings who can never attain joy, who only scramble to appease…and mope…”

My eyes, which were so focused on the miserable demon,
Who had finally fallen asleep in my arms,
Color returning to his acquiescent form,
Averted once again to the demoralizing Devil, with severe pain and with severe love

“The sleeper, the slave, his submissive energy you crave,
Though you do not think you deserve the ease of his save,
Rest is in your ability to submit,
Not to prove, or prevalently profit,
Merely to observe where happiness must grow,
The heart recalls the blessings beyond what we think we know…” 

And to that, he sang with me, tension and rawness in his bravado…

“We in this realm shall cultivate each other,
In the strange company of one another,
To sing desperately with passions unrest,
So that in separate ways we may perceive our test
This demon sleeps in the arms of love,
It knows not the smiles and cares from above,
Let us be challengers for challenge’s sake,
In secret endeavors, this art supreme we make
Drifting darkness will always subsist and applause,
One who struggles to yield, for the relief of this pause…”

Singing on, he crushed my voice with the deep recesses of his own -
“A war awaits as long as these duets fail to defy…
As long as my meaning is subjective to your flair…”

His dark eyes, like black trenches, impasses of despair
Stayed irrepressibly open, staring into my motionless soul
I breathe…to stay alive . . .

Poem Copyright © Laura Breidenthal