Stiffened Poems

In the bustling inn

In the bustling inn
Most patrons are smoking 
I offered you one
Your eyes stiffened 

I laid before you 
A map of Hollywood 
Electricity at each step 
You looked unyielding 

Maybe you prefer 
Ripples of the river 
Just a gentle shiver 
From the tips of fingers 

Very well, my dear 
Please choose your own spring

Splash of the Wave

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.

Thank You For Your Service

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

The Wind Denied the Sun

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

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

Come November

A wind, sharp and cold
Leaves the trees shaven,
Of such colors bold
Yet, in my mind are graven

Come November days
Less sunlight remains, 
Where it stayed and plays
Filtering, as it drains

Through amber waves
Leaving my heart warm,
In my memory saves
Before the first snowstorm 

Be it white by morning 
No more gold and red,
Be it winter's warning 
That autumn is almost dead

Come November nights 
Stiffened by the chill,
The dappled sunlights 
Cling to my soul still.

Rose Bush

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

Creepy

The night was deep I could not sleep
The body was hot and so were my clothes
 With my mind in a whirl, I stretched out my foot, when I felt a hand curl
Over it.

Every hair on my body began to rise, so did my eyes
In reflex I pulled my leg back inside, my heart pounding I nearly died 
With fright.

Mind racing, what should I do? Then the mattress from underneath moved too.
My body stiffened as it pushed up, then down
I felt a swelling in my throat and a scream tore from me into the dark.

Simultaneously I threw the covers back, tumbled and fell into the black
Then the laughing began, low and growling, my head was spinning 
I slammed into the door, then a body slid out from the floor 

And my kid brother was led there grinning.

Fading

- - - Fading - - -

 The mighty oak once standing strong
   Now lying still upon the giving ground.
 It’s leaves in wind, they carried song.
   Of which, of this, no longer found.

 The facial hairs have turned to gray.
   Hair frizzing up and turning white.
 Joints commanded ‘move’ but stiffened stay.
   Eyes and mind now search Eternal Night.

 Common sense – a gift through learning.
   Truth once held its weight in Gold.
  Love by test through time - not through yearning.
    Wisdom gone with the dead-grown-old.

 The lie now truth - wrong is right.
   Forgery now changes dark to day.
 A belligerent mouth holds strength and might.
   Suddenly, seems, we've lost our way.

 Hard to sleep so close to death.
   Must hold fast to the original Me.
 Arguing Evils muddle with each wheezing breath.
   Must wake as whole – as was born to be.

 The brutality of Life continues on.
   Nothing now is what it seems.
 All the ‘knowing’ - - dying – gone.
   Life fades to whispers – Chaos screams.

               Shadow Seeker     March 2023

A Plea To Thee

A PLEA TO THEE

Hung down,
Open
To bleed my spirit 
Forth.
My life 
Continues
In shocks of pain like
Fire striking
Feet up through limbs 
   And spine to a screaming
Brain,
A cursing anger procedes,
Followed by my guilt-
Ridden soul regretting
My voice lacking gratitude
For the trial
— this one after
   all those others —
For God’s mysterious ‘tho righteous
Reasons
On this path I am passing through…
While given His grace of strength
To endure…Withstand the jolts as 
They keep coming humbling, blessing me,
And stiffened, shocked weak,
I plead, “Lord have mercy.   
Christ have mercy, please. Please.”



——————————————————————————————————————-
(c) sally Young Eslinger 2/25/23
Thanks be to God
An update blog about my health  to follow this.

The Fall of Rome

It was the Emperor's birthday. 
The Coliseum was sold out.
All over the Cityyou could hear  
The people laughs and shout. 
First came on the animals 
In the early evening heat' 
Not much fun once They’d had
enough Christians to eat. 

The came on the gladiators 
All dressed up to thrill, 
Because it was Caesar's birthday 
They weren't allowed to kill. 
Then came the speciality act, 
The deflowering of a hundred  maids 
All tastefully laidout
Under transparent sunshades. 

Out strode the proud Nubian 
Dressed In G string and sarong 
Eager to get started at 
The clash of the gong.  
First three dispatched with ease 
He stiffened, clasped his head 
And without further ado 
Fell down stone deaded dead. 

In the stunned silence 
The promoters was heard to stay 
He was fine at dress rehearsal 
Earlier on today. 
It being a little early 
To send the crowd home 
They had a little riot 
And they burned down Rome.
 
The Emperor got excited 
And quickly joined 
Swaying to the flames as  
He played his violin.
That's how the Empire ended 
By contemporary description; 
How different it could have been 
With Viagara on prescription.

Rest Well Weary Stranger

3 Feb 2023 5:46 AM

Burried in the poplar grove along the wandering creek
A man alone in his grave a soul in deaths dark sleep

Traveling the prairie plane he stopped for the night
As he slept he passed away warmed by the fire light

He lay there peacefully in his sleeping bag
Until another poor traveler came riding by in rags

He looked upon the stiffened man and bowed his head and prayed
He checked his horse tied to a tree and gave him water and feed

Taking the deads own shovel he started his solem task
Digging the prairie bed for the man who breathed his last

He sang a durge as he dug and shed a tear for him
Then laid him in his earthen room  then with earth he closed him in

He said a prayer and at his head he rolled a large stone he found
And scatched the words upon it "God bless this man in the ground"

Straight On

“To die … will be an awfully big adventure.”
       - J.M. Barrie
      
           ~

grown gray, had I, with stiffened bones
the pains and aches that old age owns
yet I could still dredge up that vow …
(the one I’d made long years from now)
to cheat the reaper’s blade … somehow

I swore that I should not then roam -
that second star, far-flung from home
and yet, the hope that wrote my chart
(from hopes mere flesh did not impart)
that quest - to save my childish heart

so, twice to starboard, sextant free
I set course through a dream or three
to leave that mortal world behind …
(and mortals, quite the dearest kind)
for Neverland … deep in my mind …

for … Neverland!







Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, January 18, 2023

This Quiet It Crackles

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.

Autumn's Death-

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©

The Stiffened Streams

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 .

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