If, as the saying goes,
'There's no smoke without fire,'
is it smarter to ignite a spark
(illumination causation)
than bedamn the dark,
and thereby induce a funeral pyre,
or, better yet, a safer bet,
to avoid gossip and accusations,
find the substantiated fact(s)
(true datum)
before you act
and land in sorry situations?
It's no joke, on soot you'll choke,
yet, on the greener side,
carry the torch for earth non-scorched
but best your light you hide,
(it may be life-transforming)
beneath an unburnt bush,
so as not to incur global warming.
Categories:
unburnt, earth, fire, fun, philosophy,
Form: Rhyme
Milk bottles we would rinse out and return.
Pop bottles take back to claim the tuppence.
Kellogg’s cartons collected for the kids
To cut and paste and learn creative art.
Unburnt cinders reclaim from last night’s fire
And add to burn again with today’s coals.
Rinsed food cans collected by rag-bone man.
Blue sugar-bag take back to the Coop
To be filled once more with weighed out sugar.
Cut up old clothes to use as cleaning rags.
Collect carthorse droppings for garden plants.
Newspapers take to chippy for free chips
Or use to roll and twist as fire-lighters.
Naught went to waste in those austere times.
Categories:
unburnt, life,
Form: Blank verse
fire everywhere with explosive volcano
one fire remained unburnt
echoing sad times of india
congregation selling child
it is sad times of india
fire everywhere with explosive volcano
one fire remained unburnt
echoing sad times of india
abandoned infant dying
vulture waiting for infant to die
it is sad times of india
fire everywhere with explosive volcano
one fire remained unburnt
echoing sad times of india
python snake swallowing child
it is sad times of india
fire everywhere with explosive volcano
one fire remained unburnt
echoing sad times of india
Categories:
unburnt, absence, dark, death, depression,
Form: Sonnet
I am introspective
I am extrospective
I am healing my ills
I am building my will
I narrate
I assimilate
I am making sound out of ink
I am settling a drifting idea till it sinks
I memorise
I picturise
I am hanging onto the past
And yet embracing the future
I am reciting
I am writing
I am burning the unburnt
I am learning the unlearnt
I am not a poet yet until I get
The will
To sink
Into the future
Weaponised by what I have learnt
Categories:
unburnt, perspective, philosophy, poems, poetess,
Form: Free verse
By the fire in the night
Fireside firelight
Feeding air the flaring flames
Glowing dimly of amber orange
Slowly charring smoke rising up
By the fire in the night hearing that slight pop
Snapping the licking of the flickering flame
Afterglow the yellow to the engulfing of new grain
Wood untouched unburnt not yet fueled
Creeps along the fire pit
Sparking sparingly with the wind
Firelight fireside burning brightly as I sit
Hearing the wisps of flick to feed a process
Creating the base ashes are left
Grey to black coals to red
The fireside lit night unfolds
Embers glare as glow worms in the center pit
Watching as the fire consumes what is within
Evening with a fire alone solo just me
Unless I see the life as voiceless company
Categories:
unburnt, culture, fire, imagery, light,
Form: Rhyme
Your Darkness Punishes But Does Not Win
Ravaging of Time- its sharp savage blades
Often minor cuts, blood spilled with no thought.
Hidden pains of lone, dark nights, midnight raids
From which no saving reprieve can be bought.
Clinging to that last old withering branch
With endurance built in bravest of souls.
Life holding out for its sad and last chance
Soon to embrace night, black as unburnt coals.
Death, thee hast come to do Time's last commands
With thy blades its servant, wicked with glee.
No power on earth, sends thee reprimands
As no power can drain Time's endless sea!
When innocent souls meet thy merciless blades
Mere mortals ponder, life's foolish escapades!
Robert J. Lindley, 2-06-2017
Syllables Per Line: 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 0 10 10 10 10 0 11 11
Total # Syllables: 142
Total # Words: 107
Note: Time and Death, twins that work to bring darkness, defeated only by the saving Light of a Doorway, when opened.
Categories:
unburnt, art, dark, death, farewell,
Form: Sonnet
Half a heart
If I am at work
or at leisure
with half a heart,
No echoes, no thrill ...
Like an unsung song
broken strings of piano,
Waiting no mend
dying slowly, forgotten.
Like endless nights
staying dark and cold,
Some unburnt coal
with embers, frozen.
Like flute immersed in water
as no air enters or leaves,
Descend deeper, unblown,
unkissed, drowning.
Like a stone at the shore
I wait for a new sun
A wave, give me shake,
to make afloat, alive.
Else let tsunami engulf
or repatriate my bubbly half.
Written Jan 7th, 2016
For contest "Free verse extravaganza"
Sponsor- Catie Lindsay
Categories:
unburnt, heartbroken,
Form: Free verse
Some of the benefits of life
are to be able to use what we have learnt
stuffed full of knowledge so rife
some of which when we find usage get us burnt
Although most of us will encounter some strife
a few lucky ones choose wisely remaining unburnt
treasuring the wildlife while avoiding the lowlife
once a wife is chosen things have to be relearnt
One night to be awoken to cries of go get the midwife
eight miles I ran as it was dark I did not get sunburnt
I fetched the midwife who bent my ear with her strife
said by now I should be wise and why had I not learnt
Safely home the wails grew in pitch and were so rife
I was living in fear that things that should be weren't
and deadly aware of what could go wrong ushering in afterlife
so now my life I have revalued learning all that needs to be relearnt
once again spelling are British English which often differ from American English
Categories:
unburnt, life,
Form: Rhyme
The Elasticity of Love.
Truth. Lies,
in-between,
teeming mindscapes,
arrhythmic heartscapes,
wildly cacophonous soulscapes,
all the while as truth slips through the cracks,
on time's wrinkled face.
How easy it is to sew the heart up,
extinguishing the embers crackling in a soul,
dousing the fires of yearning when memories bubble up.
How hard to euthanise such fickle whispers,
cremating unburnt passages of loose-leaf verse,
delving deep into a core once pure, and now rotten.
Shunning pleas,
ignoring plaintive cries,
sewing up the cocoon,
I want to rest in dead space,
As I,
slip inside private nightmares,
awakening long dormant fears,
eliciting a flood of tears,
Till I,
find that belonging,
that peace,
solace,
not much, merely a trace,
of belonging,
in a far-off inaccessible place.
Categories:
unburnt, dedication, depression, dream, grief,
Form: I do not know?
Friendship floats freely like waterfalls,
Falling down from on high. They spray
Welcoming mist, we breathe into our lungs.
Friends are like tides rolling in, receding again.
Letting us breathe a peaceful solitude, if that is
Our mood and stories are shared without
Judgement, ridicule or rules of engagement.
Our defense against a sometimes cold, cruel world.
Friends part freely, crossing our unburnt bridges
With gates left open. Invisible sign says
"Please Come Again".
Categories:
unburnt, friendship
Form: Free verse
For you
I am walking on rocks
holding unburnt match sticks,
you want me to throw them
behind me.
To step down in lake
for washing sins
from the snuffed out
skylights.
Between green and blue I climb on leaves.
Remained pygmies
till end,
in frail human relationships.
All that we saw, was only for ourselves
in questions and replies.
Wasting shine of titles,
followed by empty looks.
Nothing remained to be said.
Food was left on the plate
untouched.
SATISH VERMA
Categories:
unburnt, lost love, love, mother,
Form: ABC
Pathways have no boundaries,
thinker was without a thought.
Hostile mind refuses to believe
truth was missing from life.
From depth to depth measurement had failed.
God does not know his creation now.
Foolish flesh now burns in thudding bangs
of dry butter. I want you to touch the
opaque eyes of eternity. In captivity of
sighs and groans. You ought to understand
who was original. There had been free
invitation to become unfaithful.
There were masks, gene shifts and longevity.
This evening a drama will be enacted in sky
by unburnt bras and a black hole. There will
be thrill. It was easy to bury the skulls among
floating names. The wreath will be placed
on the transitional edge of sweetness.
Which never was.
SATISH VERMA
Categories:
unburnt, passion, pets, philosophy, places,
Form: ABC
Oh my friendly flames
Flicker, fade and dance
Lash out at the this night sky
Singe my regrets of yesterday
And make ashes of my broken promises
Leaven unburnt only the inflammable truth
Let the embers simmer and raise up like a phoenix
Spread your wings and scorch narrow a trail of hope
That i may follow to its end where i shall falter and fall
And at that time i will call again upon you to flicker, fade and dance against my night skies
Categories:
unburnt, life, loss, passion, night,
Form: I do not know?