Short Splay Poems

dawn’s barbed talons
slowly splay a sleepless night…
            crimson scars

     daybreak’s ruby blouse
softly drapes a diamond skirt…
             morning dew...

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Like a ravished maiden 
pale, forlorn and ashen
the birch lay in the still pond.
Dreams of Ophelia evoke nostalgia, 
as golden tresses move on,
splay upon the water
feast upon our daughter
a beautiful vagabond....

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The quiet peace where webs of sleep enrapture,
in twilight thought - the precipice of dreaming.
It's there, the unmapped thresholds of conception
begin to splay within a sultry slumber
the embryos of covert premonitions......

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One day I’ll play in the Chesapeake Bay
On a boat I’ll lay soaking up sun rays
Sunscreen I’ll spray U.V. rays turn away
Catch a fish I’ll pray possibly display
A fish mouth I’ll splay possibly filet
A good day I’ll say in Chesapeake Bay...

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Melancholy winds 
Adding froth to frigid rain 
Robins splay their wings 
Caterers scramble inside 
Her ivory dress - a mess 

March Into April - Tankacrostic Poetry Contest 
28 Mar 2023 
Sponsored by: Andrea Dietrich...

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Into the shadow
Of the
Midnight tree
Passing lights
A complicated
Play
Splay of Silhouettes
Upon the mist
There briefly be
Tricking creek
An
Midnight fire
Planets align
As do
Dark clouds
Of war
An rain -ing
Death
Blocking
The midnight
Heavens...

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The death eaters flew
onyx agate eyes,
prince’s of darkness
pall bearers of morn,
they flew…..

Between rivers of tar
onto islands of emerald
in mated pairs
they flew….

Beak and talon gore
blind sided by entropy
pinioned pirates
black holes of caw cophony.

Serpent tongues splay
shredding the cosmos
they flew………...

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No one but you can ignite the slumber.
Ashes encasing burning ember.
where my thoughts bend and splay.
Only you can castle my turmoil at the bay.
And I love the truth that I am infallible.
It satisfies my lawful need for the affable.
Connection with alveolus.
From your snug daffodil luteolous.

Written: November 09, 2022...

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I can do my job while sleep
and bishops splay 
and angels weep
tears of fears of
home made stewin'
nine eleven coffee brewin'
discontent and fox news spewin'
hatred that's ungood.

There's no sense in poverty
of coupla billion folks like me
who have no interest in the sheen
propagated by an instinct mean
ingless.  When ya see the entire scene
it seems
that's how it goes....

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so says the wise man
that we should know a
leopard by its spots
a liar by his plots
and the poor man by his lots
we know a dog
by his bark
a fighter by his bite
and a bitter man by his spite
so we know an ass
by his stubborn ways
we see lame men's legs splay
the price the rich man pays
to asssume superiority
but do we know a good man
or just blindly bow to authority?...

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Books are our friends hey!
Don’t throw them away;
Keeping ourselves array
So that we be at assay
With books positively lay
For scrutiny at a ballet.
They – best pals – do say:
Read lavishly and do play,
Or in bright sunshine splay.
All healthy tips; no betray,
No deceiving, no astray.
Hence be ready to little pay
And be free as that jay
And soar up in the airway
Knowledge and wisdom to flay....

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The indents and lines upon the Earth
From snow melting, has written its fluid song of rebirth.
The sky, cold blue, wars with the sharp heating sun.
This moment of exclamation says Springtime's begun

Splats of snow lie beneath cliff's high rook.
They splay like asterisks on the pages of a book.
A hiker on foot notes the changes in spring airs,
While the snow under the cliff sheds the last of its tears....

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In dusk's umbral mist
phantoms hover 
across August's white embers,
humming their pale lilac chant
through bare trees
chiming with fledgling icicles.

Fields of vestal amethyst
splay past frozen fences
and sepia skeletons
of summer grass.

I listen
to diaphanous lyrics 
of a mauve moon
from my gelid porch,
throwing coffee
from my hot cup
to watch it freeze
in mid air
and fall like rhinestones
on the waiting ground....

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I broke a window in 
winter.

The surly warmonger is 
released into the wild, and
though it was bred in captivity itself, 
Meiosis still appears to be its primary form of 
propogation.

See this. 

A plume of hatred rising through the ether only to
impact the bright face of the white watcher.

Rays splay every which way
Eclipse! 
Eclipse!
Detritus and decay!

Farbeit from us to shed tears when Luna suffocates the day!...

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What can be said
That hasn't been said?
This: The newness of experience
Of every sentient searcher
In their inability, their complete futility,
Of  "staying in"
With the magma buzz beyond the window,
The heat and expanse
Beckoning the poet's aching heart
In the coldest month of Manhattan.
February in New York.
All desires derivative of a single step.
We arrive and splay outward the reckless fit of our passion
As we love and learn
New York....

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Ragged thoughts marching like stoned centipedes.
To the slag heap of the lost.
Intertwined with eternity's brine.
Waiting to reunite with meaning.

A lightning strike- mind o fire.
Insomnia rapes the dream.
Splay the centipedes across the page.
Like autumn leaves o'er vampire graves
or twitching feet in a gyrus maze.


The destiny of brilliant beams 
is the outback of the furthest ... reach...
Sadistic magicians pulling diamonds
back into centipedes....

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Stiff pleated fronds in concert rise
to wax under the April sun 
and trill their canticles begun
in verses jade that they comprise.

Chartreuse of thorny branches splay
a tumult to belie the grace
that on display they interlace
like rose stems on a breezeless day.

Atop the thatched denuded bole
gush fountains cast in cardamom,
an opalescent diadem
that glistens on the mossy knoll.

In thus exuberant array 
do cloistered peacocks mime ballet.

1/20/18...

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Exfoliative sycamore
Limbs splay low above the water
like giraffe's drinking from the shore
at some silty, placid river.
Where once their arthritic branches
at the mercy of winters winds
it’s springs meliorative changes
that bring green budding knobby limbs.
Here I sit astride a boulder
overlooking the riverbank
awestruck by springs natural wonders
recurrent offerings enchant
me like a mesmerizer’s spell:
enthralled, hypnotized, compelled....

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Butterflies flying so high
Beyond the realm of sky 
Fluttering in front of my face
Butterflies flying 
Behind the realm of space

Better fly the chase 
Take wing and fly  higher
Flutter my stomach 
On a swing higher
Again against my face

Softness of the wing against
My cheek  fly higher on
The other side of space
Splay your wings 
With your butterfly family

Where is that place they 
Fly to that place, 
Fly away 
Beyond .....that....
Realm.... Your home...

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there is inspiration afoot!
come! see the photons splay
come! here the waves arc
inhaling smokin' oaken memory

walk the shoes of your life
brush hard into the wind
lean into it...and into me
before the mast's salt spray

crampons push to higher views
amass the scenes and scents
musty, the book's words billow
into your imaginative face

fill your trinketed pockets
with candies, screws, and cameos
handfuls cast to the crowds
giving the taking...is living

© Goode Guy 2011-12-25...

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Scattered the droplets splay 
a sheen not really seen 
soft shades of blue filter 
from the form that is you 

azure streaks of summertime bliss 
electrifying my sky 

a mere twining in your eye 
accentuates and erupts 
feining the sun 

I've come undone 
as the strings untie 
the past 

waves wash over our fears 
bravely admonished to lie near 

trailing footprints traverse 
holding on to an outstreched hand 
farther never felt so close...

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There'll be no rain the forecast said
til January's wounded pride
erupts upon the bloomless beds
and weeps a pewter morning tide.

There'll be no rain for many weeks,
just plenitudes of overcast
that burn away as daylight peaks,
when noon's anemic sun is cast.

There'll be no rain, no wet respite
to irrigate depleted earth,
just flaxen grass in withered plight
that dampens all my yuletide mirth.

There'll be no rain this Christmas Day,
just arid hillsides' umber splay....

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I know you hate having me around 
I feel your fear, the angst, ‘cause
I am a sign of weakness 
even though I bring hope at times, 
other times a brighter day 
a new perspective on a foggy splay… 

Let me help you get past the hurt, 
Let me help you deal with the loneliness
Take me with you on this journey,
Turn your frown into a smile
As I trickle down your beautiful face
Let me cleanse you and take the pain away… 

Inspired by the contest “Personify A Tear”
by Wilma N. Neels

9th Place...

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SOUL

you  and  I
we have a tie
I want to be in 
the place your head lives
I want to feel the surges
of your heart
to take your face
cup it in my hands
stare into your eyes
and perhaps …cry
together
I want to touch your lips
just a soft brush
with mine
then gauge the
reaction and respond
honestly
I want to smell you
your hair… your chest
splay my hands over
the core of you
with perception
I want you to
love me 




© Kim van Breda—14 December 2015...

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under guise
of drenching rain and despair  
she harbors me  
a lighthouse in the fog
drawing me into her soul
an attraction I cannot control
her splay attached across my whole
 
I can't help but come to her
to follow her current
circulating throughout my senses
driving me senseless
as forces fill up our air
 
I enter into her wake  
laying down at the foot of admiration
eye to eye with the open sea
held taught in a place of contentment  
where only a true soul shall breathe...

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