Short Totem Poems

Concrete plane foresight
Polyrhythmic totem stalk
Waterfalls upward...

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I am just a grass beacon

A totem tall rize to the sky

One tiny voice

Clearing fields...

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Unique
Like dogs
Totem 
Of owl
Sees through the veil of psychic darkness
And eavesdrops upon the silent moon...

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Remember when you set your goal
You can't rise up a totem pole!
Avoid the chafe
And play it safe
Inside your cozy pigeonhole!...

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Stock-still statues
  Bucolic totem-poles
    Munching fly-swatters 
      Lazily grazing ... 

Invisible to driverless cars...

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a ghostly figure swooped down into the night
I got my vision goggles out to see what I could
a bird flying? an omen? a native american totem?
knew not....

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BEFORE the initiator’s blade I stand 
Before me a circle of floury totem 
On my lap and lip the future rests
Found in legend the call and tradition
And I 
Must fulfill and depart...

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A basketball player named Odom
Wants to dribble the balls in his scrotum
   He tries to bounce them
   Hardwood boards renounce them
Odom can't put 'em back ~ has to tote 'em!...

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just a symbol
just an empty thing
meant for one task after another
once used, never loved

no rhyme can explain it well
the facts are fact
until there is no purpose
this totem lingers on...

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There was a farm hand named Tommy Totem
Who went out to the garden and hoe’d ‘em
But that implement
Was useless since bent
So he used the tool next to his scrotum


For Bawdy Limerick two contest
July 1, 2014...

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Hue and cry roadmap
totem sign or lachrymose 
knee-deep self compass
wading bird  of psychic lull
being is a misty quest
that oblong pointer centred
on some phantom bridge

Date created and posted : 9 th August 2021...

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He Was The Music Man


Mr Pankridge
was a totem pole,
red-haired, blue-mouthed militant,
Six-foot, tip-toeing, tangle-footed trip hazard.
“The Music Wizard”
or “Hanky Panky” if he’s grumpy.
He could spit Mussorgsky
across a classroom like a cherry stone....

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After hours, Maud, ginger cat,
Goes through O in fence:
No nonsense. 

Goes to roundabout, 
And sits there on still car.
Becomes calm...

Tail around, 
She does not study her environment.
She is like a totem as she waits for silver dawn.





3/20/2015...

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Native artists gave the spirit world voice
Gods of nature speak though their art
Wings steadily raised in supplication
The spirit world and man not far apart



Written in 2011 for the Totem contest sponsored by Francine Roberts.
Original title "Let The Rain Come"...

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George Flying Eagle wowed the Navajo with his wisdom
He was a natural eagle dancer, honoring his spirit totem.
Showing a free spirit, and a love for his people
We watched him dance, enthralled, not fully understanding
But feeling honored and revered that he brought his gift to us....

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navaho rainbow owl
appear to me in my dreams
show me my intended paths

bring the people I need into my life
you are my totem, my rock, my strength
you bring me my power and my wealth

I am intrigued by you
also grateful to the sky father
for sending you tonight in my hour of need...

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**Haiku**

bitter wind blows stout
pelting icy snow crystals….
cold winter’s harsh thoughts

**Senryu**

treed primate postures
like Indian totem pole….
new politician

Copyright © 2011 By Caryl S. Muzzey

Second Place Winner ~ "Natural and Beyond” Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: John Freeman
Sept 22, 2011...

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Goddess of night
Oh! Raven 
Of elder forest
Swoop down from your totem
Take me under your black wings

Fly me into the darkness
Desolate 
Isolation
Enter me into oblivion

Rest me in the heavens 
To shine back down 
On those I leave

Illuminating 
The night
For all to look up at
And believe...

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With the wisdom of your power animal
It is time to face the shadows
Be fearless without nocturnal fears
Seek wisdom in silence, as your totem, owl
Your truth is parading in the dark.
To reach your highest self
You will become an owl
Wisely soaring past the highest trees
Opening doorways to higher realms...

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Fox queens battle way into the night
Beauty of fight is a terrifying sight
Each has power that fox totem might
Do not dismiss them, they are quite right

If we join them in this glorious fight
I will take ebony, you may take white.
Whoever takes red will not last the night
I was given this wisdom by my angel bright....

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I saw a jack-o-lantern totem in the field across the street.
Three faces smiling at me. Their attitude could not be beat.
The top one was the smallest, and gray which was odd.
The bottom jack was black. She gave me a sassy nod.
The middle jack-o-lantern looked like one I made one day.
I watched these merry jacks, and I felt joyful and so gay!...

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Wyandotte princess sent her favored owl out to the camps
she trusted his council, he would come back with a plan
a link between her ancestors and her offspring,
an ancient wise entity, in the form of a hoot owl
he would be full of ideas,
she allowed herself to dream
knowing this is how he would convey
the plan to save her tribe from the marauders...

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You'd inspire a fanciful thread for a poem,
You are analogous to each discrete totem,
And, precisely, like every preceding being,
You are quirky; no other soul is apt to tying,
You become entangled in the customary,
And, an emphasis entails the precursory. 

Written; February 19, 2022

Bite Size Poem No.37 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Line Gauthier...

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Lovers gather, yelling "carpe diem"
Lovers kiss, living with totem
Lovers fall, counting walls
Lovers forget, crushing falls.

Love birds chirping as one
Under a tree skipping one by one
Above the bassinet where cuckoos nests
Below the cradle are loving breasts.

Rush to me and sail with me
On a gondola in Venice we flee
Gaping romanticism in idealism
Dying dualism without ostracism....

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He waits in a sylvan wood
mentor cloaked in
orange and black;
courage is the lesson
of this spirit of prey.

Empirical justice is
the swords he wields;
a traveler of astral light; 
journeyman of the stars.

Daughter of Artemus,
and lifelong totem
hunting ethereal woodlands
sustenance of my soul;
silken-furred guide,
I melt into your gentility...
teach me.
...

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