Short Stiffened Poems

frost covers aged rose 
petals stiffened by falls chill 
sun makes it like glass...

Read More

Once I thought I made a joke.
The audience blinked.
I tried to explain it.
The audience stiffened up.
That's my joke on my joke!...

Read More

I hear the flags whisper
Stiffened by a free wind
Blowing across a memory
Of friendship, of valor
Of sacrifice
Of freedom
...

Read More

Ice stiffened limbs
Reaching out
No saviors about

Snow flakes in the wind
I reached and reached and reached
Towards deaths cold hands...

Read More

Tight lips no more to say
Closed eyes needn't to see more
Stiffened limbs had lengthy walks
Clasped fingers knew love and hate
Still body 
Found peace craving for...

Read More

  The wind denied the sun
     a gift, to caress soft cheeks... 

  Unwelcome gusts stiffened up their gaits, 
     through fearsome clouds sun no more peeked
...

Read More

Vive La France - visual #4

Weeping
half staff – full heart
stiffened - resilient 
proudly applauding freedoms voice
she speaks.



1/14/2015

For Andrea Dietrich – An American Beauty Poetry contest...

Read More

Stale, summer
Heat. 

Boiling in this
Skin bath
Are you and I. 

An obsession, 
Now a memento
Of dark complexion, 
Stiffened surprises. 

I burrow into the 
Pill case now
With no more than 
An ant farm
In my pocket....

Read More

The stiffened 
 star strummed streams
of half hummed hopes 
and dismally 
dismantled dreams.
Wistfully washing 
through the 
withering woodlands 
of the worldly 
wandering truth
 to what this
 life really means ....

Read More

Icy branches
Crack in rhythm
Snap, pop, pop.
Laughing limbs swing
Unawares.
Hate strikes.
Bodies 
Lie crumpled.
Eagles soar
Then dive.
Stiffened wings are
Vultures carrion.
Bodies lie
Trampled,
Insides torn outside....

Read More

This quiet it crackles
Under our feet!
Leaf-rusty, nutty;
Not so discreet!

With all these mutenesses
Treed hereabouts
Autumn's shocked, stiffened
Bird, its song-bouts

Clearer heard, heart-echoed
Expressed twixt us
That harmonized for
Love's own chorus....

Read More

With his Arms 

With grasping shovel parts 
he clasped her stiffened frame
with piston arms locked upon
a body shocked through love
Tenderness approached and won
and soon her will was broken
his chest so firm was stroked
as unsaid words were passed
with bed sheets holding secrets 
of one night lovers reign...

Read More

WE WORN A RACE

Sited around the fading fire
With broken wills and glowing shame
They walk the  darkness
Burden with stiffened hopes 
They trudge ahead 
With a shorten vision
They soon lost the sun
With no dazzling rays 
And no mingling heat
They settled in a long struggle
Amidst so much trouble
They miss the days’ future...

Read More

The bitter taste of unascertained guilt
A snapshot stopped the motion of a wave
It stiffened in a moment at full tilt 
And vaguely I remember to press save
Splash of the wave remains in time and space
A year after it comes back at the same day
With the same sun that shines upon your face
You smiled at me, and I smile back today....

Read More

Mr. Fear

Hello, my old "friend," Mr. Fear,

I see you’ve brought your butterflies;

You have stiffened the stomach

And tightened taut the eyes.


What will I find in the reaches of my mind,

Some mystery mean of the unanswerable kind?

The goodness of God  is very near.

A prayerful petition will securely you bind.
...

Read More

The roses are dead;
Its autumn air has stiffened them;
Dandelions yet blossoms;
Squirrels hide their winter kernel achene;
Scrambling, gathering storm stores for winters crest;
Birds seeking sanctuary heading south and west;
Sitting in buildings eves, roofs and arches covering rest;

10/30/22
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2022©...

Read More

My heart raged like a black sea over shore;
 then anchored he in the depths of an unsure land,
a bleak morrow trickling from the neck of an hour-glass
unto the bottom of a slave - ship. 

I breathe in the stench of whipped pride,
at sun set beyond the Atlantic, 
as breeze of pines and autumn birches
 flog nostril hairs; and stiffened gazes,
trod the white screens day and night...

Read More

Capitulating to the wild, random and fickle.
  Sigils weaved from nothing, we digest,
   divide amongst our kin,
    our hands stiffened and hastily fragmented,
     our eyes on the sun,
      we are all wrapped in cellophane,
       falling in place, as the holy crown for man, our Lord and Savior.
        
Man forbid thou escape his grip today!
Even so, he will surely find thee later....

Read More

Before morning, there was moaning
Smearing the innocence of the night,
With two bodies entwined,
To cause havoc
Absent conscience,
Absent worries,
No thoughts,
Just sounds,
Gasps,
And then snaps
Coming together in harmony
With shivering waists,
Stiffened necks
Determined legs,
No regards to shame.
The night just couldn’t wait.
For the coming of the morning
Is around the corner,
Too....

Read More

White like the snow

Ice stiffened limbs
Reaching out
No saviors about

Snow flakes in the wind
I reached and reached and reached
Towards deaths cold hands

Never to see her again
I looked down
Wine of bloods holocaust

Flowing from my hands
Unto the devils abode
Whitest of Pyrenees days

I died beside her departure
Railroad tracks empty
Bloodless heart
Ashes black
Butterfly born...

Read More

When you truly know that life is worth living
When you truly feel that love is for giving
To die is a beautiful thing.

When you truly feel that hate is forbidden
When you truly know that death is worth heeding
To try is a beautiful thing.

Fate then becomes no more than a brief sweet moment,
Hanging upon anyone’s stiffened husky throat,
Waiting for our merciful God’s healing,
To release it in: 
One 
Last 
Breath....

Read More

The mighty centenarian marches
slowly uphill across the level ground
through viscous air, stiffened by time’s starches,
fighting a viral foe this time around
allied with the Hippocratic Oath bound.
A metallic steed shod with rubber wheels
bears his regal frame. His campaign reveals
greater power than any sword or spear.
He raised a sum for the army that heals
and warmed our hearts in a chilling cold year....

Read More

You can be mistaken
You may never get it right
You might be at the wrong fence
You could be the one caught in the web

Her heart might still be lonely
She could still be in the cold
My seat could still be empty in there
She might still be wandering without a compass

Yet, like my name 
I stiffened my mind
Not bothered about the real why
Alas! I say to myself “Find out why”


Alayande Stephen T.
6.18 pm
22th October, 2007....

Read More

Spring night -- an odd attraction to this alley. Dark shadows -- something lurking in that corner. Soft breeze -- a weird paralysis in my legs.  

softly breezes blow:
hair fluttering fled, disarrayed
what: distraction

eyes blinking wildly --
stiff deadened toes shivered
body slow --- stiffened

Nothing heard --
within non-sounds: darkness rose
eventide swoons

spring night 
moonbeam bright
bumping jumping slithering crawling...

Read More

When you're burgling, awareness is best;
When he saw her, he thought 'twas in jest.
Forgetting the shih tzu,
Or Granny's jujitsu,
Both his shirt and some charges were pressed.

Theft and laundering just do not pay,
Not when Granny is holding the spray.
Got starched for his error,
He stiffened in terror;
Slapped with irons, they took him away.

----------

for the Limerick Poetry Contest
sponsored by Lisa YY
written on 07/15/2022...

Read More