Train bypassing just over the rivers bend
Sturdiest and unpromising of bridges, carry my feet along your lumber
Steal away the time I should be an honorable member of society
Keep me as your own and offer me company as you do the passing trains
Just before the sunrise do your wood beams greet the world, before those of the sun can
Eerily so do your shadows beautifully haunt weary folk in moonlight
But I stand unafraid and I walk along you, most enchanting bridge of pure delight
Outstretched arms and heightened ground consume my presence
Perhaps I will greet the river below, blow a cherished kiss
And dream of flowing with her as the fish flow by and by
Greeting all the places along the way I've yet to see
Scheming of making way to connecting streams and many the woodsy place
It is solely me now, guided under constellations and starlight
One with nature you could say, and so then I am not alone
I have met the river and jumped aboard, no more dreaming now
Souring like a bird through endless currents of this waterway's love
Categories:
sturdiest, adventure, dream, nature, places,
Form: Free verse
What sort of life can one be expected to live
When forced independence is bestowed upon thee
Disowned and made to discern the world alone
Toughens up a woman beyond any measure
Beneath soft skin lies a frozen will
Cold blood that runs throughout the veins
A relentless desire to fight to the end
Even when the circumstances made death seem like mercy
Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute
Time moves on without slowing at all
A never-ending force that decides everything
And puts to a halt the most persistent energy
While eyes glaze over from all directions
Seeing the beauty portrayed over the surface
But within consists of fractures and cracks
That with pressure have turned into crystals
So as the moon changes with phases
Pulling the tides of our hearts
Waves crashing over and eroding us away
And only the sturdiest pieces remain
Categories:
sturdiest, anxiety, confidence, confusion, dark,
Form: Free verse
We used to have the sturdiest of houses,
standing alone atop the tallest mountain.
There were always earthquakes,
But they did not affect us so high up.
But slowly, the earthquakes started to shrink the mountain,
growing lower and lower to the earth.
The mountain once so tall was no more,
And our house now sat on shaky ground.
Without the mountain to protect us,
The earthquakes shook the house,
And eventually, it was torn in half.
The earthquakes split us as they did our house,
And we left the house,
Each going our separate way,
leaving it a token of what will be no more.
Categories:
sturdiest, goodbye, heartbreak, hurt, lost
Form: Free verse
lazy squirrel tries not to freeze
his claws feel cold and brittle
north wind is brisk
how much longer?
he remembers what his mother said
create the sturdiest nest you can
work on it when the leaves change colors
he wishes he had listened
Categories:
sturdiest, animal,
Form: Free verse
Squirrels are scampering over the back yard
Finding the stashes they missed during winter,
Looking very self-satisfied and accomplished
Tails shimmering, signs of mating energies.
Seems rather early to me, but they know
More than I about the approach of early spring,
And the necessities of early reproduction, while
Branches of the sycamore are bare and waiting,
While they seek out the sturdiest places
In the crotch of limbs where no cats dare climb.
Before they nest, I think they are holing up
In large pile of leaves I left along the fence row
This year because I heard they generate heat
For small animals during the cold winter nights.
FIRST PLACE WINNER
Brian Strand Contest
written February 27, 2022
Categories:
sturdiest, animal, spring,
Form: Free verse
As social political apathy begins to set in,
Truth becomes the enemy,
And lies become the bullets
Of the corrupted firing squad.
When immorality replaces decency,
Weak men become strong
Strong men become weak,
And the sturdiest of Oaks
Are splintered into firewood.
Apathy appears to be dangerous
For any civilization.
As the disappearance of reason
Is only silenced by ignorant ranting.
Stubborn, autocratic personalities,
Only an arrow point atop a straw shaft.
Never truly penetrating what's good,
But poking enough to be felt.
In a world
where everything is only temporary,
Even frustration will be,
For the most reasonable minded.
This apathy also will be shortlived.
Out of the chaos comes order,
But, how much longer until ?
Categories:
sturdiest, change, social,
Form: Free verse
the truest of friends
are the sturdiest of trees
with roots undying
April 24, 2018 for Mick Talbot's 'haiku' poetry contest
Theme: 'Human Nature'
Categories:
sturdiest, friendship,
Form: Haiku
A barn southwest of Central Butte
Could be seen for miles around
Upon a hill, and that was how
The Mattus place was found
A big and very well used barn
With lots of stock and feed
Pride of the Prairie West Winds Farms
A sentinel indeed
In the big bad wind of seventy-six
The Mattus place was rocked
Left Jean and Joan without a home
With John and Loretta shocked
And so the plans for their new shop
Became a barn instead
A stately straight white structure
Instead of plain old red
The big new barn soon came to know
The routine of the old
With dances held up on the loft
More shelter from the cold
An insulated calving room
New tack room ‘neath the stairs
With many new adjusting pens
Real forward thinking there
The new barn has served for many years
Just like the old one had
Still in the Mattus family
With Sheldon, Ron’s first lad
While other barns are leaning now
And threaten to fall down
The Mattus barn is straight and tall
The sturdiest around
That barn southwest of Central Butte
Can be seen for miles around
Upon a hill, it still is how
The Mattus place is found
Written by Jan Berger adapted for music by Mike Martin
Categories:
sturdiest, family, farm,
Form: Ballad
Lo the gentleness of your gesture
makes the spring leaves harmonized whistles
waving arms of the sturdiest of stump (and thistles)
If there were a thump (supposed)
who would know- which way it goes
the sound an old riddle play
or if a fury creature lay
his clump in a natural way
Many have sought and not found
answers to life's questions
both silly and profound
Categories:
sturdiest, cheer up, encouraging, funny,
Form: I do not know?
Archers in the cold rain
Holding their bows steady
Ready to strike at will
Warriors, the sturdiest
Women of holy peace
Protecting the innocent
Seen in the skies today
Watching over the pure
Keeping the weak safe
Archers of light and hope
Women warriors of heart
Timeless beings secured
Russell Sivey
Categories:
sturdiest, life,
Form: Senryu
Kulaks never acquisced* Stalin's regime of hierarchical Russia,
for it made them very prosperous growing grains for brewing Vodka,
and because of the prosperity, they seemed extremely rambanctious*...
unlikely the poorer peasants who we were less loyal and ambitious.
Lenin, he fearless archaist, rose to power to build an atheist empire,
where no religion of any kind was tolerated and thus the persecution
of Christians and Jews began...including the laughing and defying hooligan*;
had he mandated religious freedom, there wouldn't have been unrest and dire!
Stalin wasn't as tall as in sculpture, but was terribly feared in all Europe,
not even Hitler with his powerful war machines could defeat him without hindsight*;
like Mussolini's regime, it came to an abrupt halt: his statue torn down in daylight...
jubilant civilians revenged his cruel government by using the sturdiest rope!
Categories:
sturdiest, death, fear, people, political,
Form: Rhyme
If you take Iraqi sand
And you mix it with some water
It will soften like the land
Spilled with blood of sons and daughters..
Now take it in your hand
Hold it gently in the sunlight
It will shapen at command
When the temperature is just right..
Make a place in which you set it
On the sturdiest foundation
It will strengthen if you let it
Into the mightiest of nations..
You see a house that's built by many
Can withstand the test of one
But if you choose to omit any
That can slowly be undone..
Categories:
sturdiest, devotion, faith, friendship, peace,
Form: I do not know?
i mean...
she loved him up
something awful
rare poignant flower
stagnate above seaweed
leveled bottom feeders
he scooped her quick
cupping her in his hands
once able now crippled
investing in her salve
rubbing and stretching them
loving him up something fierce
he closed his eyes feeling
hypnotized invaded
by the tampering scent of her
over come seized by her petals
fixed steady from the stem
nor wilting to bruises
took full advantage of
seeds protruding middle
with ability to heal
bringing to his knees the
sturdiest man with it’s therapy
he murmured of tedium
once raiment sleeves
turned sand stained yellow film
grew dingy and grim
luster wasn’t plain no more
straightening his collar he
stepped saying she got nothing
more
she got no potion left
her spirit concealed
exhilarated jubilation as
wide as a canyon she wasn’t wronged
after loving him up strong
she still loved that man up strong
Categories:
sturdiest, forgiveness, happiness, lost love,
Form: Free verse