Mozart had a canary that would sing to him
which he loved.
He also had a wise old starling.
When close to death
he asked Constanza to take the canary away
for the high notes of the bird now hurt his ears.
He commenced to compose his requiem
though he had to die before its completion.
The starling could have helped to compose
the requiems ending, yet it kept silent.
Unlike the Canary, it had not forgotten
that birds are the decedents of dinosaurs,
that extinction
will always be the last song.
Fireflies in my bourbon
(PART 4 OF 10)
The bar looks haunted today,
Jukebox playing requiems as long songs,
Cigarette smoke suffocating air in between inhalations,A man knows he needs air to fill his lungs.Yet here i am bending knee so you don't leave my lungs ,however I'm gasping for air as if I'm drowning in words such as you are my world.
Your name keep slipping out of my mouth as that last prayer of a man who lived recklessly without care, your eyes are Fireflies I vowed to follow in my darkest hour, however what do I do when the Firefly fell into a glass of bourbon .
Now I'm hankering a place for my staggering feet, for darkness is a firefly now
Every step a scotching flame to remind my soul what happens when a moth flies closer to the light.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow. " ~ Shakespeare
As fragments of the stars abandoned
the sage of night, my kohl heart bleeds
beside your trembling tombstone,
while soul aches to seize the
fading scents within
the iris of
auroras,
leaving
dreams
and
I, lost
like the speed
of shooting sparks,
twirling above ghosts
in the cemetery
of wild corpse roses, whistling
moonless requiems to ravens
blind to the truth etched in lithium...
House Wrens in the Cottonwoods trill
Sonorous requiems ringing out as poetry
In sullen streams of languid silence-
A eulogy of bereft love
Wistful woeful clouds scuddle
Across the somnolent heavens
As the fading of your footsteps once more
Have found their rhythm in my memory
Your eyes, your face, your arms
Lie surrendered in my enchantment
Haunted by this ritual of melancholy
This final ‘Good-Bye’, this 'Last Dance'
You walked away long ago
To not remember that love never leaves
Those who know its eternal clock
Those who kept the flower and watered it
May 12, 2023
Anatomy of Melancholy Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Craig Cornish
Crosscheck with An Honest Magazine
Price of liter of kerosene:
What it costs to upload ten poems,
I hate: Thief!” leading to requiems,
Poet to freely leave Cybercafé,
And at home drink Calming Nescafe…
So, I’ve started using firewood,
Where piles of Good Ones stand have I stood:
On this day the Twenty-First-August
No shame asking Ant to be My Guest…
But-Gosh!-Cruel Smoke for Unprepared Lungs
Please, pray, I don’t start speaking in tongues!
I walk the stars beyond my shadowed dreams.
Not cognizant, the mortal dim of eyes -
On twilight’s breast, my coalescent seams.
Kids’ adorn’d my hair - my birthday crown, beams.
No strength to snuff the light…I see the skies.
I walk the stars beyond my shadowed dreams.
Too young, yet old…what now…too late for schemes.
I’m in the nest, grieving…oh how time flies!
On twilight’s breast, my coalescent seams.
In sorrow’s weep, bereft kiss of moonbeams.
As nighttime falls, time to say our goodbyes.
I walk the stars beyond my shadowed dreams.
The solemn room grows loud with requiems.
This poignant temp’ral tick - my mom’s-heart’ cries.
On twilight’s breast, my coalescent seams.
Beyond horizon, ageless pleasant streams.
Forth flowing peace of God…the last sunrise.
I walk the stars beyond my shadowed dreams.
Earth’s solemn breast - death’s coalescent seams.
8/8/2022
FIRST PERSON VILLANELLE
Sponsor: L. Milton Hankins
Used howmanysyllables and rhymezone
Line of inquiry - Ego shorn, here now reborn.
Unselfish Heart
The glow of the unselfish heart
Decorates emptiness with candles
While scattered relics of garden purity
Re-light votives in Babylon
In the gleam of selfless candelas
Nascent tapers breathe new oxygen
In the eternal fire of the Samaritan heart
Lanterns revive requiems for still born joy
As sunrise glimmers of the merciful spirit
Leave tealights in newborn cradles
When icy enigmatic self-adorations
Flee before incandescent revelations of humility
The glow of the unselfish heart
Decorates new naked selves with candles
Swaddled in the first shy blush
Of tingling flambeaus for new butterflies.
7-2-22
Contest: Ego Shorn, here now reborn
Sponsor: Unseeking Seeker
Eighty-eight keys of ivory
Create the story of history
From requiems and waltzes
To rhythm and blues,
From dirges and ballads
To pop and rock,
How amazing! What stories are told
By gifted musicians and eighty-eight keys.
In our music room
Eighty-eight keys are played
When I am happy
When I am sad
When I am melancholy
When I am bored
When the holidays approach
And on days that are lonely.
Listen closely to the music
And imagine the story
Unraveling through the notes
Light and lively, slow and trudging
Creating a visual of the colors and climate,
Thoughts and feelings,
Life and loss of the musician
And her eighty-eight keys.
2022 Marathon Mile 5 Poetry Contest
Mark Toney
June 15, 2022
Let us at Risk-Taking Dave
Lengthily rave
For choosing to live in a cave
Also, The Choice of a Gorilla
That could demolish a stout slave
And wrestling Victory not release to a Godzilla …
To Risk-Courting Dave
Now in Echoing Cave
To improve on His high Octave
Mention that he’s risking an early grave
For not being The Muscularly Brave
That termites his fresh corpse shall crave
As he deigns to ways for it pave …
The soonest of requiems in a nave
For his life he never could save
With pleas Gorillas aside wave.
No pardoning of graveyard bones;
I have my head been shaking at those of the late Jones.
A sinner falls asleep and God withdraws His interest
Whether in the East domiciled or in the West;
Always disdaining our intercessory prayers
And their supposedly anointed Sayers
The lifeless bundle on a stretched out bier
I myself would look at but still mind my beer;
All supplications before their voicing already meaningless
If the lived life of the late was an emptiness
All requiems on its behalf to bump against heaven’s shut doors:
Every priest a mere comedian while begging God on all fours.
Vivaldi in every season https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/vivaldi_presto_1146945
Satie minimalist music https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/contrarian_chords_another_satie_tribute_1169333
Cage piano happenings https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/happening_poem_1_ear_candy_988004
Brubeck-& all that jazz https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/happening_no_4_ear_candy_998687
Haley rock 'n roll https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/footle-around_the_clock_141264
Elvis Always on my mind https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/it_seems_like_yesterday_120657
Mahler the majestic https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/happening_no_8_ear_candy_1002335
Christian hymnody https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/an_easter_hymnody_215744
Requiems many&varied https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/requiem_468371
Worship music https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLxZEU02uI
Death-strong! This scourge asphyxiating Earth;
Graves, flames, requiems and urns, these rites in dearth,
Corpses as sheaves, scythe trails bloodless casualties;
Time knells the toll and grimly mocks to pleas,
Shame born in guise of chaos for strong no more –
These pillars and halls until there be cure,
Lock-down! Proximity - The arch-enemy,
Scorn plays plaque, splitting lives in society.
Yet life now shows that all was a facade,
The fateful are as scared as the ill clad.
Caustic we as a cataclysmic raze -
Wrought warfare into love for human race,
Togetherness awakens the teeming throng,
Seven billion plus, we cannot be wrong.
The misty sky above,
shelters the trees with its unforgiving grip.
The wind sings requiems unheard,
and tells tales long untold.
Leaves lay interwoven,
surrounding me.
Singes of ash from a fire so warm,
a fire in which I bathed not too long ago.
Autumn is a season like no other,
and cold is its sombre song.
As my soul withers away,
no longer tethered and trapped.
I laugh with glee,
"Oh! I see I am free"
The play of the night
Upon which we speak
Opens the evening with delight
And create a positive spin
She saves her heartache
For the master of night
Where the moonlight
Penetrates the heart
And allows the pain to depart
Through sleeves of trains
Of whistles and borrowers
Of words, there are stars
That elicit another realm
Of dominance where she can’t
Escape, but filters the heartache
Into pieces of manageable
Parts, where the night
Opens into soft requiems
And the moon delivers
Its peace once again
Russell Sivey
world raw in anguish
titans warring and mortals
dying powerless
to change or choosing, knowing
choices bring grave requiems
Date: September 29, 2016
Poetry Contest: Lament A Tanka
Sponsor: Rick Parise
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