The dark spill muddied my canvas:
Made its mess, dislocated light
And thoughtful lines to the edges
While it claimed the center for spite.
It seemed like all was wrecked.
The time I'd worked nightly
To craft something perfect
(Or at least not unsightly)
Laid to waist.
A vision erased.
But then, I spied a photo of the original.
I thought it would be pretty, as a picture.
Instead, I noticed flaws so visible
They would lead a critic to stricture.
It looked off-colored or drab in places.
Contrived and technically bad.
Downright mediocre and graceless.
My memory of the thing had
Rendered more precious and dear
The plainness this new light made clear.
An impression most unimpressive.
The thing once grieved not worth its mourning.
No longer the crafter obsessive
Or wracked with yearning.
What a stroke of luck!
Now on to scrape the surface
Or from a new layer construct
An entirely new interface.
The choice entirely my own
Blank space for the unknown…
With no room left for you.
Present Unwrapped
Plan for tomorrow
live for today
the moment redeeming
future caches
Say what you mean
do what you say
the circle enclosing
— truth on display
(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Palace Rules
No worse enemy
than an ex-friend
No better friend
— than an enemy turned
(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Empty Promises
Caring not much
for what I haven’t seen
Deaf to those voices
still trapped in between
Caring not much
for what I haven’t been
Each promise stays empty
— not kept from within
(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
White Buffalo
Can you …
Know
without thinking
Win
without beating
See
without judging
Cry
without pain
Speak
without stricture
Come
without staying
Wish
without hoping
Share
without claim
Hear
without language
Curse
without malice
Hunt
without preying
Rule
without reign
Fly
without plumage
Dance
without music
Love
without taking
Die
— without shame
(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)
Gravity is
and gravity isn’t
Based on who’s looking
perceptions command
Less for the physicist
more for the poet
Science self-serving
two feet in the sand
Pulling us forward
pushing us back
intrinsic within us
as natural as air
Inside each moment
the stricture forgotten
Transcendent surrender
—polarity spared
(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)
God rest ye merry gentleman
Thank the Lord that you are able
By devious manipulation to
Keep the turkey on the table;
All praise to those good bankers
Who in spite of committed fraud
Maintained the Status Quo
For which we thank thee Lord;
All hail to the Establishment
Who in spite of envious stricture
Have made it more possible
For the rich to get much richer;
Our blessing on the poor
At this blessed time of Yule
Long delayed may be the time
They cease being so easy to fool.
In humble display of
How sincere are our thanks
We’ll donate our table scraps
To a couple of food banks;
All hail the Brexit process
For nothing is more surer
The rich may not get much richer
But the poor will sure get poorer;
God Rest ye Merry Businessman
Vast profits may you display
All hail the secularisation
Of this Modern Christmas Day.
Amen
He was in love, deep, romantic love.
She was standoffish, aloof, above,
no need for pointless ideas thereof.
It was forbidden, like fox and dove.
His clay a gritty earthy mixture.
Hers a sweet creamy marble picture
of comfort, a permanent fixture.
His secret love a proscribed stricture.
So he sat at her feet each long day
writing the love words he could not say.
He greatly feared from her side to stray
lest someone come and take her away.
He searched for the same magic by night
that brought him to life and gave him sight.
Hoping that her stone wings would take flight
and sweep them from this piteous plight.
A million distinct lights fighting the obfuscating gloom
Distant stars blazing forever in a struggle against the velvet blackness forever doomed
Or perhaps myriad flickering candles, burning towards a red dawn
Who will notice if they wink out, flicker, die
Confined to this world, incarcerated by the stricture of vacuity
A null void, an abyss, annihilation as the very air steals breath
Soundless screams into the wind of the human phenomenon
Seeking, searching, stumbling into the desolation of existence
Rhythm pulsing inside an empty shell, nothingness remains
Open your eyes.
Inhale
my heartbeat slows,
blood sluggish
through stenotic vessels
unwilling to expand,
to breathe
to let blood flow
untenable, this suffocation
this dampening
it speaks of tired eyes,
of stolid limbs,
of stultified need
torpid blood,
when will you give up
your self-imposed stricture,
your closely guarded fear,
your wariness
and inhale
Earth bound soul went about it’s quest
Burdened by desires on his chest
Enmeshed in fears, by ego spawned
Dark despair, hoping to be blest
Before many gods, this soul fawned
Yet clear light of truth never dawned
Trapped by ritual and scripture
Felt wisdom for knowledge was pawned
Head and heart chasm, ego puncture
Widened by dos and don’ts stricture
Sound current ohm, amen, the word
Within heart, paints the true picture
Rebel, a nerd, followed not herd
Until bliss throb, within him stirred
Recognising God dwells within
Vaporised self, free like a bird
No sooner he chose to begin
Pilgrim felt rapture on his skin
Emanating from joyous heart
Luminous presence, free from sin
Voids filled when love added to cart
He saw all are one, none apart
Being by God Himself so breathed
Love and light His beauteous art
16-December-2021
Grace Of Beauty.
.
Her effervescent summer sunshine smile
Could melt the polar ice and snow
The molecular stricture of the air around her
And her grace of presence
Radiates an ambient glow
.
Such devine beauty as this
Colours this monochrome world
With lush vibrant hues
She is as a breath taking awe struck
Stunning mountain view
That delights one’s eye
And heart smile
With utmost earnest gratitude
.
The most beautiscious angel
Among a myriad of countless angels
The brightest nebula star
Separating other celestial lights by light years
So distant so far
A sparkling diamond light
Set upon the velvet cushion
Of a hear surrendering enchanted night
.
Only such a child of nature
A paragon of outstanding beauty
Could be sent upon immaculate angels wings
From the heavenly gates high above
Could conceive such an ordained gilded gift
To shine her light upon a dark world
And furnish it with unpolluted love.
.
Peter Dome©2021.
Once I sat upon your throne
to visit a familiar chair
I am the Empress overthrown
I no longer rule or scare
My face is in the picture
since 1968
There is no kind of stricture
I'm sitting at the gate
I stand for birth and promise
of a new dawn seeping in
and of gifts awmous
refraining from any sin
So lay out the cards of ink my friends
and see me sitting there
you need not for to make amends
I'll grant your wishes fair.
Swiftly faltering, the fabric that bonds
Bovarism intrudes, with stealth it hides
Conjuring depraved for all to bear oath
Longing for days past, dignity and pride
Severance now square, local youth here wage
Declining in part, our moral picture
Sheltering family with bitter cost
As decay increases so does stricture
September 22, 2020
Writing Challenge – Decay – Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
Is your greatness unendorsed
by godly symbols old and new
Is your strength contained and held within,
as broth begets the stew
Is your message clear with no defense,
either martial or sublime
With freedom at your beck and call
—all stricture cast aside
(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2019)
Wrestling with time,
an illusion supreme
Its trinity empiric,
three masks to deceive
Past, future, and present,
our dreams undefined
Outside of their stricture,
new presence unrhymed
Rejecting convention,
short sighted and slight
Imprisoning our vision,
with capture and fright
In seizing this instant,
its moment sublime
All truth flowing freely
—unfrozen in time
(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2019)
Love in its majesty and spendour
Visits hearts kind and unkind
Waxing her odour and ardour
To help the love-lost to find
Little spaces, loving faces
Enamoured enough
To rise from surfaces
Where disappointment tough and rough
Lampoons discomfiture
Inflicted in the name
Of a culture whose stricture
Makes the lost lame
With heartbreaks
Torrents of tears
Ruing mistakes
Made as fears
Sprang on the lost the illusion
Baked in their soft centre
In reaction to the disaffection and delusion
That feelings may never enter
Into contests
Where the ruthless inflict maximum pain
Under pretexts
A go at love in the main
Signifies a journey on the back of futility
Backed up by contrary advice
Veering towards the volatility
Love tags along in every slice
Love snaps on suitors
Mad
Enough to pose as imitators
Of sad
Hearts that cried
Once smitten
To the core when they tried
To tame love forgotten
Into the dustbin of history
Replete with burnt fingers
Whose mixed blessing story
Singe many Cupid singers.
Frozen Engagement
by Mark Miller © 12/08/2014
Dream's sound bites carry formed fright of curse delusions invite
Strewed sight stricture void of heart waits failed either roams red light picture
Tearing out my eyes mock the moons shamed stationed high height
Worn cold trees blow their blinding snow of mindless lecture
Beyond the travel spiral spared condition sanctioned position
Loss of self to beauty street horizons drawn holes emptied pleasure
Visions beyond galaxy's pulsar awaits Princess held antidote apparition
Captured heresy deceives innocence ways formulas mathematical decay
Terminus terminal haunts my every dawn belonging down in sleeps deprivation
Powder paid deliverance script last remains identity drowned a cast-away
Halls of penciled ink clock torn born hours tricks treat the deaden ticks
Light steal being glisten rabble ashen gray child's life astray left glow blue-jay
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