The clamor heard
In the urgently raucous awakening of Spring
Slowly dies down
During the lethargic sibilance of Summer,
But quickly revives
With the crunchy tanginess of Fall,
Only to be subdued again
By the crackling brittleness of Winter.
I was lost, thoroughly lost and sat brooding.
Dejected and desperate with no one to share,
Withdrew into the dark caverns of my own shell,
Snapping all connections with the outside world.
Trapped in the piercing claws of despair,
I waited around the bend for the sharp jaws to unhinge.
Did I hear a gentle whisper in my ears,
Like the soft sibilance of dancing waves?
“Arise, Awake, bolster your spirit” Did someone say?
It was like a gentle breeze tousling my hair.
It passed caressing my cheeks and my whole being.
It lifted my spirit above all chaos,
Burnt the blues of every hue outright.
I felt the feathery touch of love,
Granting me the grace to forgive and forget.
A beacon of light was seen in the night sky.
Guiding me and exhorting me to wake up,
Unveiling new paths for me to tread on,
Gifting me with a new sense of worth,
Kindling resilience, unhooking all knots of gloom.
Kissed by the passing breeze of this awakening,
I emerge into a new being, empowered and ready,
To take on life anew, with no chains and no cage.
I feel my wings opening out and the vast sky sprawling above.
Soft sibilance departed a while past now;
lost in family, familiarity,
an indiscretion.
Soulless silence interposes churlish crows.
The weightiness of strangled screams hangs heavy
deafening the two.
Whisper; wounded, slain.
This or That, Vol 18 Poetry Contest: Wounded Whisper
Sponsored by: Edward Ibeh
Date written: 24th May 2023
How I wish to scuttle alone,
over a gentle river,
from bank to bank,
in a small boat,
rowed with a bamboo pole.
The call of the wild is an irresistible call,
to venture into the silken waters,
to feel the wind and look at the blue sky
with nimbus clouds drawing strange patterns,
when seagulls’ fly, shrieking over my head,
and sense the misty spray of water
when weary hours shall sink to blend
with the soothing sibilance of the river,
winding its way through woods and plains!
October. 23.2022
~Placed Eighth~
POEM OF THE DAY
A Brian Strand Premiere Choice Poetry Contest
over the sky
sun opens
his third eye
red tint spreads
clouds float high-
fluffy white.
birds fly high,
feast to the eye.
one can feel the calm sibilance,
of a blue tranquil lake,
making the mind at peace.
the world stirs back to life-
time to wake up from ease.
wind flies on filmy wings,
the brown leaves, they release.
greet the day dawning in silence!
Sept.15.2022
~Placed Second~
Charlie New-Ku Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Charles Messina
Out in the sea, sailing on a stormy night
With the wind sweeping in fury all around
The racing clouds veiling the moon from sight
Leaving the land for Darkness to surround
The soft sibilance of waves
Growing into a tumultuous roar
The rising tides touching heaven’s seams
And the foamy surf breaking in wild uproar
No beacon to brighten up the gloom
Nor a brave soul around to seek for aid
Face to face with imminent doom
He struggled to wrench through dreads’ ugly hold
On a Benign force, his faith strongly lain
With hope newly springing in his manly chest
Braving the tides and routing the pain
He pushed the oars and paddled to the coast.
July 26, 2022
~ Placed Third~
Sailing Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Julia Ward
Staying by the sea, now at sunset
With the light slowly fading into greyness
And the waters lying quiet
A peace fills me as never before
Dismal fears barred entry into the soul
Mind freed of all disquietude.
Through the soft whisper of waves,
A low sweet melody finds its way.
Listening to the gentle sibilance of the sea,
A new insight suddenly dawns on me~
None but we are to blame
For all our angry bickering
With all swirls and whirls underneath,
Is an abstruse calm in the deep.
In this continuum of flux
Is a permanence – abiding and perpetual.
Staying by the sea at sunset
With its still waters glimmering in twilight
And the stray clouds straggling in the sky,
My soul undulates with the slow rhythm of waves
And in me fills a calm submerging all vexations
And breaks a light, luminous and clear
A glimpse of a scintillating radiance – ethereal!
July.22.2022
Submitted for 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile.9.Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Mark Toney
'Baby, you taste like chocolate,
You and me we'd make a great rhyming couplet.
A.K.A a grinding couplet.'
'You can get on top of me like enjambment.'
'I can show you some wild imagery,
Me on you, you on me.'
'Metaphor stands for meet-at-four,
We'll get it on till the break of dawn.'
'Damn, could you BE anymore sexual?' -an example of a rhetorical question you could include...
'S-s-s-s-s-SEX!'- an example of sibilance you could use (and probably will).
'Annotate me honey, and together we can achieve a deeper meaning.'
As the breath fills our hallowed chest with life
and heart beats upon drum of anch’ring bone
so prayerful meditation eases strife,
through dance and strum, we know, we’re not alone.
Our mantras swell, their sibilance alive…
with searching sounds we join here to atone
the flute will call, the rattle then will shake
our prana joins, we finally wake.
Contest: Music and Meditation
Poet: Debbie Guzzi
*Thanks Syd ;)
An Irish Gathering
Thomas said
you can’t go home again
but I did for my sister
and the christening of her first.
Everyone, on folding chairs, against
the whitewashed basement walls, was there
for ham and beef and beer, the better
bourbons, music, argument and talk.
Maura came; she hadn’t married.
Paddy, fist around a beer, declared
I owed my family the sight
of me more often.
Hannah, thickset now,
gray and apronless,
rose beside the furnace,
wolverined me to the coal bin door
and asked me in the face,
with sibilance and spittle,
who or what it was
that kept me anywhere,
everywhere, but there.
Donal Mahoney