Cupid's arrow strikes at high noon,
chocolates melt 'neath the bright moon.
Our fate is sealed—a sweet typhoon,
its winds carrying us afar.
Our hearts danced through candle's warm glow,
scars hid pain, which we did not know.
Our souls cringed—a warning throe,
And yet here we are.
Written: August 07, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Mark Toney
***********
Corset of steel tightens—ratified pain,
Vestigial breath trapped in ischemia thrall.
The ductile hope failed to placate
This Pyrrhic ache, this woebegone gall.
A sojourn in the squalor of soul,
Where sylphlike dreams maunder, downcast.
Ogle the embers of the miraculous nexus—
A seraphic visage lost, quickly.
Vivacious once, now virile with woe,
Panacea tastes of pabulum, slipshod, and cold.
Tinkling memories coruscate as zeugma—
Bright, yet untoward, they never hold.
Quixotic penchant for connection,
Grasping too late the nebula beneath.
What puissance is this—this throe, this tumult—
When tulle-wrapped love meets a gyre of grief?
Ululation beneath pavonine skies,
Adumbrate every glance, every sigh.
Crimson weave keeps a skirt in place,
Valuable, stained, adorned, and slain.
Silence, like a glass thrown up in the air
Then exploding, its shards like a nagging echo
Raining on a heart, and it's so unfair
To bleed for love that is not there... Is there,
Through this weary way of silence, I must go.
I would turn around then I would not turn around,
Your smile and glances preserved in my mind,
And in my heart, reenacting in the sweetest sound,
The dreamed embrace, the joy missed, the love undefined
Through this weary way of silence, I would find.
With my eyes abandoned of you, fixed ahead
These weary feet, to nothingness may be led
But at least now with a direction to go,
One major burial, strange, a final song in my head
Through this weary way of silence, I know.
I've seen this before, a walk of nowhere to go
But perhaps, a bluer mojo rain shall fall for me
The road free, clearer, braver, kinder and timely,
Truth undenied, fear deposed, honesty not in throe
Through this weary way of silence, you know.
Some-Velvet-Briars/ May 25, 2025/ 2:51 AM
her ethereal gaze tucked me into nirvanic waves
tore me asunder amid quixotic abyss and seraphic throe
I harvest pearls from mollusks in swimming oysters
strip it in kaleidoscopic iris fiercely fleeced mote sand
pearls evolved into a sumptuous elixir necklace
a seashell conceals a jewel-like hair as dark as obsidian
pristine girl with a pearl necklet and mellifluous voice
with her smile flings delicate pearls
her eyebrows cling to me beckoning me near
abrim with tears cleansed her azure iris
I tidied her sylphlike trail some sobs stuffed a cup
It soaked roses threw daffodil pearls bit jujubes with hail
hence my previously sealed heart thawed
a phoenix in its zenith sweeps me to skies
In a cosmic splay studded with stars I dwell
her wispy eyelashes distract me from her gaze
she eviscerates dumbfounds me with dark detritus
may my love ram-raid and induce her to ponder again
Oh, how I long, day full of snow
When dawns in gelid breezes moan
And nights anguish in frozen glow,
Now that autumn has left its throne.
As dull and decay shroud meadow,
Oh, how I long, day full of snow,
To soothe malaise of dreary woe
Where blizzards frosty harshly blow.
On barren landscapes caught in throe
Trapped in demise of autumn's reign,
Oh, how I long, day full of snow
Gleaming hopes of dimming terrain.
When storms from north exact a toll
Where rivers freeze, struggle to flow,
And lifeless shivers gloomy knoll;
Oh, how I long, day full of snow.
“The silent song of the sighing breeze,”
In leafless demeanor of shuddering trees,
Whispered cries of a dismantled dream
Augmenting dissonance of broken theme,
A theme composed in the promise of yore
Avowing endearing passions evermore,
Of love eternal, enamoring core of soul,
Till its amorous glory, fate savagely stole.
Though zephyrs forlorn, still cruelly blow,
Wailing lovelorn woe of forgotten throe,
Despair is vanquished from song of sorrow,
For hymns of bliss sing of hopeful morro.
Pledges of today, foretell future of ardour,
Vying dreamscapes, musings-ecstatic adore,
Buoying tides of love to tomorrow’s shore,
Abandoning yesteryears memories abhor;
Of pensive sighs, spent-emotions decry,
Of dejection lamenting love gone awry,
Of nightmares trembling sleepless night,
Of allegories wistful, destiny’s hands write.
“The silent song of the sighing breeze,”
Now sings of love, from flowering trees,
Whispering melodies to a dulcet dream
Augmenting allure of lovesome theme.
Line #1
Be the star that brightens someone’s dark sky,
Be the light that illuminates a gloomy night,
Be the flame of compassion to life gone awry,
Even if you don’t think your candle is bright.
Despair not in a world gripped in jaws of woe
For beyond hills of grief dwells halo of hope,
Be the spring that rises through wintry throe,
Even when struggling in laments hard to cope.
Be the forest that grows through ashes of fire,
Be the dream that assuages angst of nightmare,
Be the angel of goodwill when times are dire,
Even when fate, callously, ignores your prayer.
Be not pain of misery, be not voice of dismay,
From goals of life revered, you must not stray,
Wish not for anyone, horizons shrouded gray,
Even while a storm drenches your sunny day.
O season of amber tulips, of yellow daffodils,
Of grinning verdant prairies, of cheery hills,
Of giggling, burbling streams rushing to seas,
Of fragrant breeze rustling passions of trees;
How scintillating is the glance of your smile,
O grandeur of beauty, how jovial is your style!
O vibrance of growth, of avid nascent moods,
Emerging anew boasting budding attitudes,
Stimulating twigs of maple, oak, sycamore,
Preening aura of leaves now brought to fore;
How rhythmically you sway melodies of spring
Attuning to love themes, fervid robins sing.
O inspiring season, how you thrill meadow,
Reviving glee, from demise of wintry throe
As vibes of romance in mating songs tiptoe
Echoing birds’ frolic, rekindling barren knoll,
Nesting in realms memories of yore cajole,
Where chirps of hatchlings your glory extol.
O season colorful, abloom in showy flowers,
How gaily you tap-dance with April showers
Buoying ardent dreams of bees, butterflies,
Luring spirits romantic of daydreaming eyes
Fixated mirthfully on picturesque springtime
Lauding in awe of your magnificence sublime.
February 25, 2023
Placed 2nd: In Bloom Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Joseph May
The hourglass becomes resplendently empty
As the sand flows through with their kempty
Grains, dry as a corn shuck, flow
Seemingly they know
Time's reduced
Woe!
Earth lost boost
It's feeling the throe
Of miseries which will show
Drawing to close times where there's plenty
The hourglass becomes resplendently empty
Made up form: Andaree
Life, a fleeting dream, warbling on meadows:
A season of spring and season of snows;
Sometimes in sunshine, sometimes in shadows,
Joy of autumns and woes of wintry throes.
And it journeys on, vying gleam of dawn
Only to confront grief of fate forlorn:
Of conquests lost, trepidations bygone,
Of nightmares roiling reveries of morn;
Lamenting goodwill that yesterdays tossed
And despairs of hardships hurdles doled out
Until bridge of life triumphant steps crossed,
Where blossoms of success its prairies sprout.
Where fruits of life on trees of acclaim grow
Claiming winsome now, defeating sorrow,
Lauding bliss sublime, free of grieving throe,
Cherishing today and dreams of morrow.
July 16, 2022
Placed 1st: It’s All About Three Q’s Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Constance La France
Theme: Life
Rhymes: abab, cdcd, efef, ghgh
(Rhymezone)
Syllables: 10 per line (HMS.com)
Wary, cunning wanderer
Winding through the icy pines
Whispered paws on crunchy snow
Wielding stealth with silent step
Watchful eyes of golden glow
Wrapping innocence of prey
Within unsuspecting throe
03/12/2022
Hopeless and battered a tear is shred
A pierce deeper than a coal bath in a furnace as settled in mourns of grief
Upon a time in a destitute;
The dreams and hope of the yesteryears has the vacuum swell
None a friend, though an embrace a warm bath to freshen the disquiet and throe;
A smooching is all but a tickle
Far from reality,
The fermented tomb crisps the dear whom
Our heart held in esteem not to cleanse like decay
It stinks!
To the dear soul none rather than an adventure in long
At the perks of expectations a heart thought to pummel and a soul comforted
Night dime shall scare for a candle lite in find---
And more thousand tears rolled in scripts for ceaseless winds of the memorials to carry along
Either sought Shan`t breathe the gone a life
To stray our hallucination.
John B. Curtis put the chew in the gum *
Three Stooges put the 'nyuk' in the 'nyum' **
Little Jack Horner stuck his thumb into plum
~ Now who snuck the rum into thrum ***
_____________________________________
* 1848, the date
**Ha, ha! I'm not sure either
*** 'sneaked,' according to pedagogues and
grammar gods...
Woe,
My throe,
You cannot
Supply needed
Minute nor can you
Add a single second
To prolong my borrowed life.
Instead, you are there to bother
My mind in order to have worries.
So why would I let you be here with me?
Observe, deep laugh lines run
Obligingly around
Obedient to years
Of smiles upon her face.
Overlook her awful
Obviously painful
Ongoing constant throe
Date: 04/04/2021
Contest: Pleiades O
Sponsor: Kim Merryman
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