Today the gratefulness I’m feeling
actually comes in two parts…
I’m grateful for the glasses I’ve worn since I was a child
and for being born with a hopeful heart…
Both of these work together in tandem…
helping me to see…
the multitude of miracles
stretched out in front of me
Categories:
stretched out, thanks,
Form: Rhyme
With a gentle hand, I led the way.
With a gentle hand, I soothed you.
With a gentle hand, I calmed your heart.
With a gentle hand, I healed you.
With my gentle hand stretched out to you
With abundant love, I care.
With my gentle hand, I made you strong.
I made known to you I was there.
Do not turn to other hands.
Mine are the safest to hold you.
If these gentle hands of mine seem firm
Be assured, they'll never scold you!
On these gentle hands you can depend
For they belong to your heavenly father
And friend.
If you lose your way, if you go astray,
If you fear you've lost your mind,
With a gentle hand I'll search for you
For these gentle hands of mine are kind.
With a gentle hand I guide you.
I give you purpose, comfort and hope.
I am here right beside you.
These gentle hands shape you to cope.
Categories:
stretched out, spiritual,
Form: List
A Ferris wheel, a magic show
And lots of games of skill,
Food trucks filled with fried or frozen
Fare were on the bill.
Exhibit halls with quilts and varied
Goods, all made by hand
And huge zucchinis shown
With other veggies from the land.
The rides and games and food, to me,
Held little in appeal,
But animals from local farms
Made it a worthwhile deal.
The cows and goats and pigs and sheep,
With every barnyard sound,
Were stretched out in their pens, relaxed
Or nibbling around.
They all looked clean and healthy
And quite fat (except the goats),
With ribbons on display they earned
By gaining judges’ votes.
As a New York City gal
I wasn’t dazzled by the fair,
But the chance to see those critters
Made me glad that I was there.
Categories:
stretched out, animal, farm,
Form: Rhyme
Her eyes are laden with drunken sleep,
Silhouetted by lank, tired hair flimsier
Than the spine of an elderly, broken night.
Tattered, it buries the horrors of night;
Braided, it creases the rows of black corn,
Sweeping swiftly south and downwards;
Ponytail ties the umbilical linking life
And skyline light.
Lissome, she traipses with no lamp,
Even when darkness confidently pitches its nightingale’s romance
To district judges seated on the kerb of the apothecary’s creed . . .
With her the night loses its potency,
Its sacredness,
Expelling flies that die out on their own willpower,
Like winged dinosaurs,
Through the age of decomposing summer.
It's all been analysed before?
The oneiric spell cast upon slow, difficult nights
When the breath smells like the anus of hell.
By the way, I drivel.
Not saliva.
Oh, no!
I drivel on about hissing nights that ought to be lonesome,
Stretched out, dark, and without rays borrowed
Earlier from a twerking twilight.
Restless nights, worn like silky cloaks, diaphanous,
Seeing through the naked veins of her sweet eyes.
Categories:
stretched out, tribute,
Form: Ode
A cat that’s tawny beige and white
And very fluffy fat
Appears from nowhere, just like
We’ve rolled out a welcome mat.
Either plopped down in the driveway
Or stretched out upon the deck,
The cat seems right at home
Although the collar on its neck
Tells me it belongs to someone;
It is not a random stray,
Yet I cannot understand why
It keeps wandering this way.
If I approach, it saunters off,
Quite haughty, like it knows
That there are better stops to make,
Or that’s what I suppose.
Categories:
stretched out, cat,
Form: Rhyme
When I was 17
I believed grief wore the face of death.
I thought it would come with wailing,
With wet cheeks and broken things.
But when it came,
It made no sound.
No storm,
No crash,
No fire.
It came like dust,
Settling in my chest,
In the hollow between my breaths,
In the quiet ache beneath my skin.
It took me to the floor,
And the floor didn’t mind.
It held me like it knew
What it meant to be quiet,
Still,
And tired
Of carrying things with no name,
No one to hold onto,
No one to blame.
There, in the hush,
I learned what silence knew
How something light as air
Can still
Crush you through and through.
They called it growing up
But I have my doubts.
It felt like learning to live
With things you can’t shout.
No bruises, no blame,
Just silence stretched out.
Categories:
stretched out, change, confusion, grief, introspection,
Form: Free verse
Feeling corny
By the sea
Stretched out baby
Please look at me
I got on my shades
Do you think I’m hot
This yellow tan baby
It ain’t store bought
Rub in that butter
Slather me up
If you rub deeply
I’m bound to pop
Sun kissed towels
Baby you and me
Both feeling corny
down by the sea.
Mystic Rose’s Choose one image poetry prompt contest.
Image number one.
Categories:
stretched out, beach, character, cute love,
Form: Quatrain
Parity e y e s, potency f l i p s!
String bean was asked about his lips,
Stretched out for drink of cool water.
The desert wind, so hot, brought her -
“Long Tall Sally,” with spikes of glass;
With blue skies, standing in the grass.
He strums the strings of Summer sun.
Short rays of envy track the fun.
Categories:
stretched out, girl, jealousy,
Form: Lay
The pain in his face spoke loudly
a look of anger and betrayal
"I'm sorry," tearfully said
A pounding echo rang in his heart
"Please! Forgive me!"
His eyes slowly lifted, with a deep breath of quiet
She stretched out her trembling hand
feeling shame
He silently turned and walked away
Categories:
stretched out, betrayal,
Form: Free verse
My dog is on his back
His legs high in the air
His body is stretched out like a ruler
His contentment amuses me
Nine months ago, he had never had a home
Now he is the king of ours
Categories:
stretched out, dog,
Form: Free verse
Eternal Pain
Raped, beaten and taken from me
Body stretched out, hand and knee.
Blood on the door, blood on the wall
Eyes open wide, but nobody saw.
One life, two lives denied,
A second soul, awaking inside.
A son, a legacy, and things unseen
My hope, my soul, and my dream.
Two lifeless bodies, one slain soul
One dark heart, black as coal.
He’ll never know, just what he took
Closed casket, closed life, and closed book.
Her last night, nothing to gain
My ball, my chain, my eternal pain.
Categories:
stretched out, death, pain,
Form: Rhyme
I wonder why everybody felt the need,
to express their opinions so openly,
about this man who had the misfortune to die.
I watched them slowly strolling past the casket,
like they were shopping for fruit at the market,
I wondered why some of them felt the need to cry..
There were a few folks braver than the rest,
who touched his hand or patted him on the chest,
whispering that now he is in a better place.
Doesn’t he look nice and so peaceful.” they all said,
one lady even kissed him on his forehead,
he looks so natural with that smile on his face.
When it came my turn to look over the side,
my excitement faded and to my surprise,
because to me the old codger just looked dead.
When your stretched out in your casket I suppose.
that’s probably the way that it always goes,
too look like you’re sound asleep at home in your bed.
Categories:
stretched out, poetry,
Form: Rhyme
There is art in everything
It can be beautiful
It can be ugly
It can be silly
Or it can make you say WTF
It can be on paper
On stretched out canvas
Or carved from a large stone
But it always comes from someone’s heart
Even if someone tears up a sidewalk
Then lays down colorful stones
It comes from their heart
And it becomes a priceless piece of art
Something for everyone to look at and admire
All they have to do is look
© Poem – XXVIII/I/MMXXV
LRET
Categories:
stretched out, art, creation,
Form: Free verse
The dog of my life
This is not an evening when one feels jubilant
When I look out of the window, I see a few cars going up and down the road till they reach the roundabout and drive back past my window
There is nothing to be surprised about in this town, dramatic car crashes happen in America
Where Hollywood is afire
When I lived in the countryside and had a dog
We walked in the forest and there were always new things to discover, often we stood still and listened to the silence, we could hear trees Coming home I lit the wood stove while the dog
Oh, so lazy stretched out on the sofa, feeling
while I was in the kitchen preparing her food
I had given up telling her to eat slowly
Contentment never lasts, we had twelve years
Together what’s left is a wonderful memory
Categories:
stretched out, absence, angel, child,
Form: ABC
Stretched out under the snow
a dead seagull, wings spread.
I must have seen a dead seagull before,
but if I did it was not a snow burial,
not in Kentucky, not in my backyard.
By late afternoon
a weak sun had thawed the carcass,
as I eased a shovel under it,
a sharp wind lifted one stiff wing
as if to fly.
Land locked from any shore.
I dearly wished that both of us
could see the ocean from here.
Categories:
stretched out, poetry,
Form: Free verse
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