Yon I see a stream
That dancing down dwells in now
And all my thoughts seem
To beauty of Nature bow
And flow with the flow of Tao.
____________________
Tanka |20.03.2025| Nature
Note: Woo-Wei: Taoist philosophy meaning non-action or refraining from acting contrary to Nature and dwelling in now. It is going against the grain of things.
Categories:
refraining, beauty, nature, spiritual,
Form: Tanka
song
musical, a cappella
jamming, appealing, refraining
chorus, melody, choreography, waltz
whirling, jiving, bebopping
footwork, movement
dance
Categories:
refraining, creation, poetry, words,
Form: Diamante
The world maybe bitter and dull,
to some without a meaning,
bright the eye of heaven shall shine on a day with no complaining.
Hope does fade away sometimes
on days that are restraining,
and blessed our lives can be,
content without refraining.
Life can be difficult sometimes
when ground you’re hardly gaining,
but if you walk a righteous path
good deeds you are attaining.
Prominent you may be,
in a life you are sustaining,
but no pedigree shall save your soul
in a world where all are waning.
In time of death we shall not brag
of deeds that are beshaming,
equal we are when deceased
in a world of no explaining,
no mortal soul will hear your call from the grave if you are complaining.
Saleh Ben Saleh
Categories:
refraining, age, death, farewell, fate,
Form: Rhyme
He likes the unlit night.
A dark room with not a single glimmer.
He knows why he is always tired,
his mind must look at a thousand faces a day,
and never flinch away,
but gaze at all the hope and misery
time has written upon them.
Some, the young and beautiful,
bereft of body,
float now in the refraining orbit of memory,
and yet, even they seem to grow old
in this inked over space
He bathes in the darkness,
as yesterday's faces slowly fade,
melting away one by one.
Only his face is left now
to roam across
a pitch of stygian obscurity,
until he cannot even recall
his own reflection,
for all the mirrors in the world
have hidden his features.
At last, he can let go
of all these ever changing
images of humanity,
and with a wordless prayer
light only one small candle
behind his eyes.
Categories:
refraining, poetry,
Form: Free verse
A demon’s playing
but no one’s listening
Black whirlwind coming
tomorrow hissing
The moment christened
in dark despair
Entrapping vision
beyond repair
A mantra chanting
its rhythm waning
Despoiled virtue
with time refraining
Unmasking Hoder
in blind respite
The god of darkness
—and lost delight
(Dreamsleep: August, 2023)
Categories:
refraining, dark, god, violence,
Form: Rhyme
The balcony bows like a bridge unmaintained.
Song birds are silent, their hearts uninspired.
Grape vines hunker down as if never trained.
Scarlet petals fall, their fragrance expired.
Shattered is the night sky like sharp glass shards.
Sparks, once in our eyes, liquify the ground.
Minstrels are mute in abandoned courtyards.
Pitter-patter is the refraining sound.
Masquerade faces can no longer hide
from the truth that beauty departs with death.
A dagger divides a young groom and bride;
lamenting cries consume their final breath.
The script is flipped over like clover in mud.
Misconstrued love poisons life-giving blood.
8-15-2022
Categories:
refraining, death, grief, loss, lost
Form: Sonnet
Complaining, complaining
That is all you do!
Refraining, refraining
From the flow of negativity!
You have caused a river of pessimism
To enhance the essence of your life
The alignment of your words to the circumstances of life
Will shelter an unbearable image
That will put you in a cage!
The mire of murmuring
Has created a wire around your life!
Negative circumstances stab you like a knife
And all you have is the concept of complaining!
Break free and sing a new song
This is the hour to be strong
You have the power to rise
So put away the banner of negativity
And change the manner in which you see things!
You are beyond the negativity
So ignore self-pity and
Let your life be filled with a level of positivity!
Mark Frank
Copyright 2022
Categories:
refraining, anger, depression, education, language,
Form: Didactic
It is love,
That gets out of a warm bed in the middle of the night,
Because the child had a bad dream.
It is Love
That traipses up the hill with feet that are light,
To be by the sick bed of someone not well liked.
It is Love,
That shifts the worm to the right,
To avoid a lonely death on the concrete.
It is Love,
That though looking a fright,
Turns up for the school concert.
It is Love,
That ensures a clean fight,
When two children have a friendship to win.
It is Love,
That refrains from getting tight,
If a sober driver is needed.
It is Love,
That helps mend the Kite,
Instead of watching the big game on TV.
It is love,
That keeps things light,
By refraining to pay back in kind.
It is Love,
That cures the blight,
We catch from letting hate in.
Categories:
refraining, baptism, beautiful, care, celebration,
Form: Personification
There's a poet gun-shy 'bout limericks
He sure wants to get over that right quick
So he's penning these lines
He's refraining from whines
Hoping that his good intentions will stick
Categories:
refraining, how i feel, motivation,
Form: Limerick
Autumn has sprung; a rebirth of the seasons.
Crunchy, brown leaves falling all around.
Around this hot, ill weathered town.
Cooler temps to ease the pain.
Refraining from the dreadful heat.
In which some were slayed.
Categories:
refraining, environment, seasons,
Form: Free verse
---------------
Tonight, here in this bed, he lies alone
Half open windows catch the smell of grass
The clock emits a soft electric drone
and minutes stretch to hours, as they pass
He'd lain his head upon the pillow late,
tonight. Here in this bed, he lies. Alone
with beating pain he cannot mitigate,
repeating thoughts refraining on their own
The woman who had been his cornerstone,
sleeps underneath another lovers roof,
tonight. Here in this bed, he lies alone,
down deep beneath the covers with the truth
She didn't know that she could live with how
he hid the part of him he should have shown
Though he would give his life to show her now,
tonight, here in this bed, he lies alone...
---------------
Categories:
refraining, allah, loneliness, love hurts,
Form: Quatern
When
I
thought
of
more
You promised less
You warned me about my mentor
My co-collaborator
More
The principal patient palling
Do you like score?
You closed the book
More
notes more pitch
Paraphrasing did I mention
In my mind there stepped a shorter song
I crave the pop, primal poem
Less
I discovered the footnotes
It threw its ghost against the sidebars
I heard an even, steeper singing
As of someone gently slinging, slinging
The ripping rating refraining, more, more, more
The slice of melodies whispering to me
never abstaining less
What could there be more purely entertaining?
I crave the more than, melodious motivator
I write this poem, this song I am saying
More
2/9/21
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2021©
Categories:
refraining, analogy, appreciation, longing, missing,
Form: Free verse
A parody of “The Last Waltz” song written by: Barry Mason and Les Reed
One Last Ode
I wondered if I’d write ever again
Inklings of my heart that flow through my pen
Then words came cascading from sky up above
Freewheelin’ mystic glimmers of love.
I wrote one last ode for you
Two lonesome dreamers together
Head o'er heels were we two
One last ode to last forever.
‘Twas balladry kept us going strong
Through the ups and downs we got along
Until there was a parting of the tide
And the gap between us became ocean wide.
I wrote one last ode for you
Two lonesome dreamers together
Head o'er heels were we two
One last ode to last forever.
Love’s never gone, memories linger on
Sweet souvenirs of passions refraining...
Tra la la la la la tra la la
Tra la la la la la tra la la
I wrote one last ode for you
Two lonesome dreamers together
Head o'er heels were we two
One last ode to last forever.
Tra la la la la la tra la La
* * *
27th December 2020
Categories:
refraining, parody, sad love, song,
Form: Lyric
The bridge was once a purple hue;
There’s just a trace remaining.
It should be freshened up, but seems
The city is refraining.
Of course, it’s low priority
Compared to needs more pressing
Like sanitation, safety, schools
And other ones worth stressing.
Yet when I saw that purple bridge,
The opposite of boring,
It made me smile and surely set
So many spirits soaring.
Perhaps one day, if things return
To life as we once knew it,
Some painters will show up
With purple paint and get right to it.
Categories:
refraining, purple,
Form: Rhyme
Once I sat upon your throne
to visit a familiar chair
I am the Empress overthrown
I no longer rule or scare
My face is in the picture
since 1968
There is no kind of stricture
I'm sitting at the gate
I stand for birth and promise
of a new dawn seeping in
and of gifts awmous
refraining from any sin
So lay out the cards of ink my friends
and see me sitting there
you need not for to make amends
I'll grant your wishes fair.
Categories:
refraining, mythology, spiritual,
Form: Rhyme
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