Here, but for the grace of God
Tormented within my vessel,
To walk on burning coal,
To hear the cries of my hungry spirit,
To eat from an empty bowl.
To journey on without hope,
I stagger around and not through,
Given mouth, teeth and tongue,
Yet no bone to chew.
Given wisdom to make change,
Strength to see it done,
Slow is the pace I run this race-
Given bullets, but no gun.
I have knees that stay bent,
I have hands that stay in a clasp,
Words I’ve been given to say,
Their meaning I have yet to grasp.
Where is this valley,
This shadow of death,
This life I must get through
Before I can be given breath?
What deed to fortune must I take?
What many words must I spew?
What more torture to withstand,
To be given a seat in the pew?
Given the Shroud of Turin,
my symbolic flag of relenting
To lift my head towards the heavens-
And to begin, my repenting
She looked prettier than your average child
with full curly hair and big brown eyes
she had an unassuming smile, was a tad bit wild
confident like her mother, no surprise
she challenged me to a snowball fight
It did not feel fair, did not feel right
You might be sorry, I said to this darling girl
Come on! She said, Aren’t you my Aunt Pearl?
Relenting, I decided to do a little snowball fight play
Quickly creating a fancy snowball, I gave it a frosty hurl
Sixteen relatives with snowball buckets joined the fray
I was very sorry I had ever said yes to this darling girl
I can feel the whine inside fermenting,
maybe it is time to cash in my chips.
A sure sign of cornucopia? Swollen lips.
All at once my self restraint is relenting.
The contour of those toned shoulders,
it’s enough to make my mouth water.
When you’re near my skin gets hotter,
dewdrops gush as my face smolders.
My chest has now begun to undulate,
dizzy and damp I’m left light headed.
Intimate spaces suddenly reddened,
hunger makes it hard to concentrate.
This bruised fist has turned blue-black,
now it’s my turn for a little bit of fun.
I know you know what you have done,
owning my ornery I can’t hold it back.
Overflowing with need I must submit,
I’m going to take what I need from you.
I have no choice but to do what I do.
Jibber-jabber? Let’s just cut through it.
Poetry soupris
Soupris being French for sighs
And we all breathe them
At different times in our lives
We breathe them in relief
And maybe in our sleep
Exhaled after we've railed
Against the nightly thief
Poetry soupris
Potato soupris served cold
Alphabet soupris
Spelled out in the bowl
Sighs of relief
Sighs that matter
Sighs of release
In thoughts that scatter
(Carole Landis
"The sigh heard round the world"
Only Twenty-nine
When we lost "your baby" girl)
Sorrowed soupris
During suffering endured
Godly suffering
Soupris when your cured
Soupris relenting
Served during your sentence
The sighs, the soupris
As we seethe through repentance
Now that the war is over
And you have traveled home
Awaiting and waiting
To breathe out this soupris poem
Let the soupris fly away
And all things al dente (to the tooth)
If this were the Seventies
I’d hope your needle finds its groove
Concentrate
So you can penetrate
Through that concrete
Which are obstacles, denials and more
Into your concealed dreams or visions
Without deviating from your mission.
Focus and keep looking ahead
So you don't loose guard
Then fall back or resent
That's what a coward does
Relenting or forfeiting dreams.
Distraction is an enemy
That steals your glory
Gain victory over you
If you ain't focus or curious
So; concentrate on what's ahead of you
Concentrate on the necessities
Forget about the naysayers
People always have something to talk.
Webs of a certain color
The wheels of dancing
Silk under the stark stars
Love unwitting
Hatred spinning
Filling the night with choices
A black rustle of her mind
Challenging the corners
Where pets play and music sifts
Jovial matters in witting the ring
Towering the shake of debate
Anchoring the blood of soon
The relenting attack a fever still
Touring the measure
Her eyes, opiates
Her bread wrecking
The siren in her well
Love, her lease
Hatred her paw
Among the misunderstanding
Arthritis dictates much of what I do,
Relenting sometimes, though. Then I will be
Elated as I feel my strength renew,
Take walks pain-free and do, with energy,
Housework without completely wearing out.
Each week I see more wrinkles and gray hair.
Sometimes my mirror makes me want to shout~~
Enough complaints! At least, my head’s not bare.
My bathroom trips are more than in the past.
Young people, I know you don’t understand!
Glad my home’s small, so I can get there fast.
On outings, restrooms are in high demand.
Last year the doc increased my BP med.
Decaf might help, but caffeine’s such a good
Elixer. It clears cobwebs from my head.
NO caffeine makes folks eat more than they should!
***********************
Year’s end approaches. Thoughts of coming days
Excite me. More than ever, love of friends
And family sustains me. God, I praise.
Redeemed, I’m Heaven-bound when life here ends.
So, I conclude there’s GOLD in life’s late phase.
Breathless sighs, soft
Dreams awakened, stirred
To life by smokey gasps, air
Cutting, biting… bitter
Blustery cold, like the heart
After a dismal divorce
From someone who knows
Every sorrow, each fear…
All the dreams forbidden,
Like the silence of the dawn
Who is blanketed by white, snow
Falling overnight, reminding
Each puffing prayer that there is
Gusting winds of change,
Laughing through the flakes
In quiet waves of inspiration, soothing
Away the melancholic fright
As night is erased by a sun reflecting
Flurries raging between the pages
Day and night – the moments
Connecting silence and sound,
Stormy weather and the moon’s
Shimmering pleasures, singing
Music in notes of turbulent
Relenting into the breathlessness
Raging, furious storms
Relinquishing the silence
Through the explosion of a blizzard
Who reminds us all…
Historically, we’re all merely
Fragments, dust – a snowflake
Melting beneath the warmth of the Son
WINTER STORM Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Kim Rodrigues
December 23, 2022
venting
you instill your trust in me
relenting
you pour all of the tears out of your heart and mind
i never mind listening to you
for no one did it for me
at times you have to stop thinking about yourself and devote a listening ear to others
for you are not the only one, and you can learn something as well
being quiet
i become your diary as well as your journal
causing no riot
i become your the pages within as well as your sounding board
i do not mind
Because I Am Proud To Be The Friend That You Turn To
Manhattan
By LoLa
The neverending cascade of looming city skylines
Towering strangers captures her gaze and her hands
Attempts to lift the veil from abandoned timelines
Leaves her breathless where A Phantom Hurricane stands
Relenting to the light from the cracks in her heart
Beating to frequencies of screams in the city
A lifeless stare where frenetic signals depart
Swelling with the blood of lost souls in harmony
Expressing a love lost through the pain in her eyes
A thousand miles away, lie stories of their past
Approaching lights of distant shores will ask her, "WHY"?
Why memories and matching tattoos never seem to last
Forgotten daydreams of nameless faces in the crowd
Forgetting days when She lost her grip on the wheel
Stranded in streets where silent thoughts were not allowed
Breathing in the weight of grief She has yet to feel
As waves of rain proceed sunshine profanities
Honest words lie, with false displays of bravado
Smouldering signal fires revealing fallacy
Moments where they’re free from confines of pine below
As the sun fades behind the horizon
Relenting it's hold on the nation,
Darkness, with steady steps and might
Clutches in and set to fright
The gloves that holds my peace,
Shattering them, piece, by piece.
Laying the mind bare,
For a thousand thoughts to run in despair.
The silence of nature entwining
With the Owl's hooting shattering
The ominous silence,
Tells of another invisible presence
That sends the shivers down the spine
Unraveling thoughts of man and Divine.
The cockerel's shouts prepares the way
For all creatures home and away
And me clinging to my soul in desperation
To prepare for a new vibration.
As the new light emerges and I cut off the rope,
I smiled, for with the light, comes hope
© Temajung Michael T.
Life can be compared to a cunning fox,
We often need to cogitate out of box;
Showcasing our cleverness.
Death can be compared to gloomy songs,
We need to surrender as the time bongs;
Accepting with braveness.
Life and death are non-identical entities,
We need to agnize, there aren't immortalities;
Relenting sheer earnestness.
28-5-2020
~DEEPA~
Third place in the contest.
Note:Triple Stanza Couplet Tail-Rhyme Poetry Contest
Sponsor:Charles Messina
Dear stranger,
pouring those capsules
into relenting palms,
ready to down
the pain away -
don't do it.
Dear stranger,
testing that edge
against naked skin,
hoping to cut
away the hopelessness -
don't do it.
Dear stranger,
trying a knot
with desperate fingers,
believing it will clutch
away the loneliness -
don't do it.
Dear stranger,
reading these lines,
consumed with despair,
don't let a moment
become your definition -
you're stronger, my friend.
Long ago, when he was young
Just learning every path leads to new adventures
When Jordan flowed with finer things
He turned about and took the long way home
Time would mock him along a longer way
What was he thinking just to see some scenery?
But the tug on that irresistible summer day
More about feeling than a 3D destiny
Shy and wonderful, he willed to wander
The bending of another will for an instant relenting
Shackles swiftly disappearing at his feet
Opening a soul to draw the heart to a place uncharted
No hope to make a legacy today
Flowing follows steps of two most trusty feet
Spirit of youth, such innocence cannot be distilled
Set to the wind, the vapor moves from one’s free will
Soon he found the new way exciting
Set the pace a run along the path through now~here
Finding freedom an essence greater than any destiny
A perfect lesson on a perfect summer day
Arriving slightly winded to a place to call a home
Compliance leads to comfort from the wilder-ness
Yet his fondness glows about that other route
The memory of a moment turned a light inside his heart
In a kingdom full of small;
Filled with relentless humans;
I sat engaged and unrelenting;
Upon a midnight hardhearted;
you are...
HEARTLESS
Once upon a midnight hardhearted;
^Suddenly, I heard something snap,
the paranoid brought such sorrow;
You warned me about the map;
And so you came gently flapping;
you are...
HEARTLESS
With such a passion for sapping;
Bored, I choose to sleep;
Bored, I’m napping;
Still engaged in relenting schemes;
While searching for my dreams;
Lo’ so foreign my heart you shall not keep;
you are...
HEARTLESS
You were ever so cold to me
Emotionless, you froze me
So thoughtless and uncaring…
So far you are. Ever so
Heartless
11/20/19
Written word by James Edward Lee Sr. ©2019
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