I'm what fuels anxiety's climb,
stocking silence, shrouded in shadow.
Around since the primordial slime:
the more you feed me, the more I grow
morphing into terror, over time.
I'm what makes you shiver in the dark:
no persona is darker than mine.
I'm the stare, in the eyes of a shark,
that icy chill that runs up your spine:
whenever I'm in charge, life seems stark.
I'm the phantom lurking in the night;
who razes the short hairs on your neck.
I can paralyze with crippling fright;
and make people pause, and double-check,
fueling feelings of fight or flight.
I am a sound that summons a tear:
the creaking footsteps walking up stairs.
And panic occurs when I appear,
for I am the boogie man, who scares
people of all ages: I am Fear.
Categories:
razes, angst, anxiety, emotions, fear,
Form: Quintain (Sicilian)
We stand still as stone, hold our shape over time
Watchers of the mosque, we watch as masks walk
Each passing stride a new universe of re-re-redesign
Every step under us, on the same curve of cold rock
Carved from the whole, statues with earth-turning toes
Clay feet on a cobbled road, yet we continue
Seeing the still-captured unease of being alone
Static herd, sighing hive, we eye worlds within you
Still, we'll spill your secrets when a wrong wind hits us
Whether from heaven's breath or heathen sent
Neither faith nor time nor bombs colliding play favorites,
All of it razes all of us, to a gatherless disorientation
Mere dust, trading memories of your faces from the belly of what's left,
The plastic bottle; an eternal hourglass, immune to time’s theft
Categories:
razes, endurance, extended metaphor, humanity,
Form: Sonnet
Maybe I seek meaning in the press of sympathetic eyes
Maybe within me resides a cancerous longing to shatter into a million tiny pieces
Maybe I will finally matter once tragedy razes the last vestiges of normalcy
Maybe I am a broken creature in a broken world, desperate to feel anything
I am an insomniac in the moonless night, plotting the end of my universe
I am a flightless bird careening from the top of a skyscraper
I am a suicidal survival guide to the purgatory of my own mind
I am what I've been made, a pale, pathetic being stillborn from the ashes of society
If I but had the courage to run eastward toward the dawn
If I could whitewash the blackened, soot-stained edges of my soul
If I had a blind man's courage, a dancer's grace, a mourner's strength
If sunrise brought resurrection from the death in darkness
So I wait, watching the wolves that prowl on the edges of my consciousness
So I dream, of flame and pain, of death and doom, of rain and sorrow
So I watch as life brushes past me, a stranger in the parkinglot
So I live, awaiting the devastation I know will befall me
Categories:
razes, depression, sorrow, words,
Form: Free verse
The church bell chimes in charming tone,
but watering the blooming rose plants
the cardinal is late for the evening Mass.
As he runs in haste in the squally wind,
his red Zucchetto takes a flight.
A cardinal then flies in the crimson sky,
in mid-air the Zucchetto wraps it around,
and turns into its red wings,
fluttering with blazing avian rhythm
in the floating fragrance of red rose.
The cardinal is allured by the red beauty,
flushed by the film of fiery patina,
harmonized with its own color.
In trance of love it swirls around the rose,
the tender petals fall scattered on the ground.
The spinning dance of the stimulated bird
inadvertently razes the frail flower,
that blossomed specially for the Lord,
but its cardinal sin is condoned,
for the cardinal is blind in love with the rose.
______________
January 14, 2023
Contest : The Cardinal And The Rose
Sponsored by : Craig Cornish
Categories:
razes, analogy, bird, red, rose,
Form: Free verse
Corona inflamed
red sun, wan in a smoked haze
Invisible algal bloom
marine, now airborne
searing land as it takes off
on fevered wings around Earth
Noxious fumes surround…
This culmination of deeds
ill-human-seeded...
Death razes a cleansing cull -
Ecology is avenged
(8/22/2020: ’90 Bayliner 3888; DMS)
Categories:
razes, environment,
Form: Choka
The daze of the gaze in a haze amazes the craze
In a series of streams and reams that raze
The wall between my fall and the wall
That screams no more to any tyranny should I crawl or entrall.
The daze of the gaze in a haze phases out the phrase
In a series of streams and reams that blaze
Trails, nails and pails teeming with tears I cry
When it dawns on you’ll never belong to me no matter how much I try.
The daze of the gaze in a haze tazes the maze
In a series of streams and reams that prunes the phrase
‘I surrender to no one’ from my vocabulary and estuary
To ensure I enjoy pure cure in feelings I foster in February.
The daze of the gaze in a haze razes the phase
In a series of streams and reams that graze
The pasture and posture that portray pusillanimity
In my endeavor and flavor to fly you into propinquity and proximity.
Categories:
razes, poems,
Form: Free verse
A sickly kid comes unto the world
He will not die right away
But calling him healthy is living in dream world
It’s hard to decide let him go to school or for his soul to prey
But as years pass by new strength lives in a child
He grows strong and tall
He is rather settle only sometimes wild
And he coughs every fall
But that passes too
Only a teacher calls him sick
And how to pronounce his name has no clue
But she does not realize what bomb in the guy she made tick
He tries to make his mark on the world
But does not have a chance
He lives in his own world
And his name is hard to pronounce
He dies alone and forgotten
Democracy to him is a lie
When they put down his coffin
His eyes look to the sky
But as they write his name on the casket
They make a mistake
They don’t give him a sonnet
But mistake is more than his soul can take
From the grave he raises
And his enemies he razes
He becomes eater of worlds and master of time
And his spirit by his own hand is in the place very sublime
Categories:
razes, anger,
Form: Couplet
Deep in ocean near the coast,
slicks black-oil-slime’s terminal ghost.
Man’s ultimate deadly mistake,
razes abundant life in its wake.
Grim offing visions fiercely hold,
dismal lust for this liquid gold.
Thick black muck that stifles breath,
drags live water’s eventual death.
Black sludge a cloak of despair,
choking its vein to complete repair.
Time will tell of the spoils done,
before mankind, reverts to none…
Copyright © 2010 By Caryl S. Muzzey
Fifth Place Winner ~ "Gulf Oil Spill” Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Team PoetrySoup
July 4, 2010
Categories:
razes, life, loss
Form: Rhyme
I can smell the aroma of food cooking on the grill
Briefly awakening my memory of the childhood fun
Alive with flavor as I touch the grass, barefoot
The leaves travel in tepid summer breezes
Busy bumblebees droning by
And now as I engulf in the razes of heaven
Sweet sunlight engage my skin
The lingering bouquet of suntan lotion under my nose
Garden flowers yodeling the praises of a sunbath
Swinging on a hammock
A new chapter, a new love story
A cool drink of lemonade and yes-
I will fumble with my little umbrella
And I’m on my way to a tropical bliss
Now somewhere in the distant echoes
I hear children playing, ringing laughter, and noisily alive
The sounds are reminiscent of summers past
To the joys of sheer human contentment
All on an abundantly fervent July day
Written for John Heck's contest!
Categories:
razes, seasons
Form: Free verse
Aries Soul
Mischievous flint spark
razes lethargy’s prison
igniting joy’s fuse.
Leo Soul
Rich roaring campfire
radiant warmth draws attention
confidence blazing.
Sagittarius Soul
Long-tended embers
spawn dazzling wisdom flashes
endlessly glowing
Capricorn Soul
White gleaming marble
proud solid stability
structural beauty.
Taurus Soul
Lavish lilac shrub
broadcasting sensual delight
exudes comfort.
Virgo Soul
Majestic maple
limbs' crimson remnants swept clean
prepared for new growth.
Libra Soul
Sleeping lover’s breath
passion’s rhythm synchronized
harmony complete.
Aquarius Soul
Fresh pine-mountain air
clears celestial vision
connections revealed
Gemini Soul
Frolicsome breeze
swirling dance unencumbered
transports wisdom’s seeds
Cancer Soul
Soft persistent rain
quenches fragile seedling’s thirst
nurtures flowering
Scorpio Soul
Ancient cavern pool
envelops secret demons
guards Pandora’s box
Pisces Soul
Still midnight lagoon
shimmers cosmic buoyancy
atop deep pure peace.
Categories:
razes, imagination, introspection, life, sensual,
Form: Haiku
Mischievous flint spark
razes lethargy’s prison
igniting joy’s fuse.
Majestic maple
sheds summer’s scarlet dreams
naked but for hope
Frolicsome breeze
unencumbered by custom
transports wisdom’s seeds
Still morning lagoon
shimmers cosmic buoyancy
atop deep pure peace.
Categories:
razes, introspection, life,
Form: Haiku