Short Warily Poems

smooth sunlit water
lily pads shade predators
fry swim warily...

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violin strings sing
      flutes trill merrily

    gray skies recede ~
      fawn peeks out warily...

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Sun Conures

Brazilian blue bliss
from hot savannah rise these
squealing screechers then 
land so near me peering through 
whited eye rings warily.
...

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A tiny bug landed on Dumbo's nose
Eyed him warily, then stuck in a rose
   Dumbo brushed it away
   The bug wanted to stay
Dumbo loaded bug spray into 'his hose'...

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Warily watching, panning.
One meercat sharply scanning,
Gallantly guarding buddies
From all the big bad hoodies.
Falcons flying, cats hunting,
sneaky snakes, wild boars grunting.
Duty done, feeding time fun!...

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what cottagers miss

summer guests are gone from the street, 
fall approaches warily.       
old man fox returns in silence,
soon his vixen will follow. 
time slows to watch the geese fly by,
their bugles chase the weather....

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My bewilderment warily moves 

Near the spidery trails of indecision 

Over cold shadowed peaks of unanswered query 

Pulses surge well within the valley of a spirit lost 

Where roots ever forge toward the fiery heart of Mother Earth...

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Leo living large
Lion lying in his lair
Big belly bloated

Zebra and Zebu
Warily watching, worried
Ready to run

Fatigued full feline 
Snoozes in the savannah
Animals amble


For Chris D. "Aechtner's Alliterative" Haiku contest....

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None more than she will greet the warming sun.
The winter's storms have chilled her to the bone.
Now coloured signs of summer have begun
She sits atop a transient gilded throne.
As fickle sun will shine but sparingly
She knows full well she must gang warily....

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The early evening sky billowed
with smoke colored clouds,
smoldering above the burnt sugar brown
remnants of the October forest.

Ashen rain fell upon the dirty sheets of tar.
Spruce and pine protrude warily into
the foreboding firmament
piercing the night....

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high above an early fog
atop the township’s home and shop
stepping warily over the eve

a cough from a smokestack choking
sooty steadfast grip to the bricks
and a winter’s worth to clear

following after the sun
black hand prints, the only signs
of a lonely climb...

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Wolves wander warily 
Warring strength in moonlight
Watching warm skinned bodies
Weakened with chilling sight 
Waging teeth, mouths water
Wakening woeful fright
Mortal wounds with death’s bite 


March 20, 2022
In Search of Prey Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Joseph May...

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I drift
into this quiet place
the river silenced
by the shade of trees.
The Blue Heron
knows not of my presence,
a doe and fawn
sip warily,
a hawk waits
high in the pines.
Adrift
I find my quiet place
in the midst of theirs.

©7/16/2022

A QUIET PLACE Poetry Contest...

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There was a calm to the sadness
rueful rustlings of passing leaves
paying homage to listless limbs.
A feral-cat-like silence stalking
warily watching the wind
smooth away life’s traces.
Doves cooing in a tower
overseeing a sunset’s tears
promising a too late peace.


John G. Lawless
©1/4/2019...

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Seven Savvy Sirens
formed a formidable fraternity
of pure-passion purpose
for female fatales.

Murder-minded maids
promised patient pursuit
of tensile tangled truth
while warily watching
crafty crook's coup.

But, busted and bested,
dames drink despair
like lambs laid lame
in trickster's thorny trap....

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A
Beautifully
Curious
Darling
Enthusiastic dog
Felt
Genuinely
Happy
In
Jumpy
Kitten’s
Luxurious
Mane.
Never
Outstandingly smart
Puppy
Quizzed
Roaring
Smelly
Tiger
Until
Violence
Warily anticipated by the other animals and fully 
X-pected erupted, when 
Young
Zebra intervened and saved puppy....

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Red cardinal makes her way to the nest
Swooping down carefully in a soft way
Checking her babies on this brisk new day
Her little birds are simply the best

Blue jay watches from his perch on the tree
As mom makes her way to peek in her nest
He watches warily from his oak rest
Checking on his favorite cardinal family...

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Seven savvy sirens
formed a formidable fraternity
of pure-passion purpose
for female fatales.

Murder-minded maids
promised patient pursuit
of tattered, tortured truth
while warily watching
crafty crook’s clever con.

But, bested and busted,
dames drink dark despair
like lambs laid lame
in trickster's tensile trap....

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Red cardinal makes her way to the nest
Swooping down carefully in a soft way
Checking her babies on this brisk new day
Her little birds are simply the best.

Blue jay watches from his perch on the tree.
As mom makes her way to peek in her nest.
He watches warily, nowhere near rest.
Checking on his favorite cardinal family....

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They’ve closed the schools, they’ve stopped the trains;
They’ve shuttered up the gym.
Evacuations are in place;
The outlook’s kind of grim.

The stores are mobbed, the traffic light,
The grills all brought inside.
The TV stations tell us
Readiness should be our guide.

With bottled water on the shelf
And AA’s up to date,
We gaze out windows, watch the wind
And warily, we wait....

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Is it a crime
To pry apart rhyme
Stitch lines, unhitched
From native consequence

To warily marry
Unmetered time
By forced remorse
Unrehearsed
In patchwork verse

In my malaise
My daydreams ablaze
I long for eloquence...

     to drip, untripped

From my lips


The devil rides
my prideful hide
Chastise with whip and spur
Damning the span 
Between who I am
And who I wish I were.

3/6/20...

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A life recovered from Stygian depths
tainted by the horrors of dark abyss.
He falters as he takes one thousand steps, 
		a life recovered.

Pale sunlight stippling through with warming bliss, 
luminescence he warily accepts,
burning too brightly after his darkness. 

There is a shortening of his sharp breaths 	 
as stark reality he soon percepts
that forces him from his grim regrets,
		a life recovered....

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and so it begins…

I lay here dormant
playing possum
peeking warily
and wearily
beneath the rotted leaves
of Autumn’s glory
testing the air
with a daring shoot
telescopically assessing
the tenor of the wind.

Oh, how I long for her
time’s temptress
warm breath
tantalizing my need
beckoning me
come forth my darling
all is well.

©2/7/2019

And So It Begins Poetry Contest
Line Gauthier - sponsor...

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The Fifth of July

The noise is over now
celebrants nurse their foolishness
a small dog peeks out from under a bed
children sleep fitfully above.
Ah, the Fifth of July
battle strewn lawns show evidence
of our independence.
The acrid scent of fireworks lingers
mingled in wisps of fading smoke.
Birds warily peek from the trees.
“The Spirit of Seventy Six”
awakening from freedom’s festival.


John G. Lawless
©7/5/2019...

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Listen to poem:

The seas today were not a short, sharp chop
but were syrupy soggy soft like black treacle, 
clinging to the hull like on a spoon, clutching and sticky.
Warily I sailed on, aware of the tenuous tug
and drag of deception in the compliant welcoming.
I, as an alien in the wetness of sea,
knew that the warm softness of the seas's clutch and cuddle
may belie a hidden tumult,
a change of face
on the whim 
of a mere breath
of wind....

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