Chose a Title; Naïve Faith, Sponsor – Edward Ibeh – 8-27-25
Naïve synonyms: callow, guileless, innocent, pure, genuine, honest, simple, sincere
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naïve Faith
Callow faith walks with wide eyes
In playgrounds littered with stark cunning
When adorned innocence
Seeks to soar where angels fly
Not blinded by fool’s gold
Nor looted by evil’s glittery tinsel
Or minds darkened by drugs of ebony
That plagiarizes honesty
With rationalized temptations
In ravished glamour.
Artless faith, clothed by incorruptible purity,
Shivers when simplicity senses
A wrinkle in infinity -
Guileless belief skirts gullible’s traps
Clothed in a gift of sight.
When beastly motives
Try to sideswipe honesty
With glitz and jewels of paste
Dangling shiny promises with dark underbellies
Naive faith, clothed in discernment,
Sees with candid clarity.
The rose still blooms despite attacks
By mold or mildewed rust
The sun still wakes the dawn
Even when eclipsed
Crowned by a faultless corona
As stars refuse to enter black holes
Faith embraces the innocent.
Categories:
underbellies, faith,
Form: Free verse
Night thunder arrives. Occult spacecraft descend,
hurl giant underbellies of sound downward -
climactic events galvanize grouting and glass.
The next boom is distant, yet lightning streaks
across closed eyes.
Backyard bones are starkly illuminated,
perhaps even scorched?
An astral mythology shakes its bright spears.
Is that the crackling of flaming grasshoppers?
Then on the roof, a thud and flopping of metallic fins,
is it an alien craft or an armored coelacanth?
For an instant, minds are thrown out of their skins.
Parallel lines collide; pidgins drop, stunned
by a siren sky.
From an upturned trashcan lid, an electric Venus
is seen rising from her ancient scallop.
She is sexually charged and triumphantly aglow,
about her, the fallen twitch on.
Categories:
underbellies, poetry,
Form: Free verse
If my poetry were a place it would be Keenly Beanly Pumpkin Pie
There would be gootslangs, underbellies, and brazen cats that fly.
Trixie muse would be wearing a gold crown with emerald jewels round.
A more whimsical place could hardly hope to be found.
Adjectives and adverbs would be hanging out on Gumslopper trees.
A fire dragon would fly in on the hem of a Shlugwhopper’s knees.
I would be sitting in the corner, my hazel eyes looking up facts.
Highswallows and lowelvers would be making ridiculous pacts.
Keenly Beanly Pumpkin Pie would be full of new material for me.
Fibbermidgets and Ghostwormers would twirl until they are free.
Color is everywhere – orange, red, turquoise, purple and blue.
If you are outrageous enough, we might make room for you.
Categories:
underbellies, writing,
Form: Rhyme
Thunder arrives.
Occult spacecraft hurl giant underbellies of sound
downward -
galvanize grouting.
A thud on the roof,
broken feathers flop.
An electric pause,
time twitches on.
Categories:
underbellies, poetry,
Form: Free verse
They plead with us
manipulating
pain and hunger
between the segments
of broken merriment.
Beggars
paid big bucks
to raise funds
tearing at the tender
underbellies
tormenting the scorched souls
of the old and lonely.
Chastising us
in voices muted
by soft music
intimating that we
are all that is needed
to suture the wounds
of the world.
John G. Lawless
20/30/2020
Categories:
underbellies, christmas,
Form: Free verse
The Power of Rhythms and Rhymes
The power of one single voice. Words, like tender warriors, sent into tornadoes of chaos – healing – restoring. Revealed by inspiration. Renewing radiance. Highlighting love. Exposing dark underbellies. Racing to stars. Nature’s voice soaring. “Pretty, hell, poetry is life!” Wisdom’s legacy.
marrow of the core
breaths in rhythms and in rhymes ~
words sailing on wings.
6-16-20
Quote from American poet William Penn Warren
Categories:
underbellies, inspiration, poetry, power, wisdom,
Form: Haibun
Night thunder arrives. Occult spacecraft descend,
hurl giant underbellies of sound downward.
Climactic events galvanize grouting.
The next boom is distant,
other places are scorched or illuminated
by quixotic hosts -
you never know with astral mythology.
The crackling of flaming grasshoppers,
then on the roof, a thud and flopping of fins,
as armored coelacanth are thrown out of their skins.
Only the menstrual blood of virgins
can ward off showers of frogs.
Parallel lines collide; stunned pigeons drop
from the darkness.
From upturned trashcan lids, Venus is seen
rising from her scallop.
She is sexually charged, triumphantly aglow.
About her, the fallen twitch.
Categories:
underbellies, poetry,
Form: Free verse
The snowy mountaintops at the distance
Long trodden ways criss-crossing my momentary dreams
I perch upon the wings of poetry, my engrossing passion
I reach there Edmund, Tenzing Norgay smiling at me
Days after day I trudge along
The paths of reality, hundred hands raised towards me
Caressing me like thirsty leeches
Stripping me of all soothing loneliness
My loneliness set in a distressing trajectory
I run and run to grab it, to hold it close to my bosom
Yet it escapes my outstretched arms, an imp
Grinning mischievously at my weary soul
My dream sets me on a misty hike
The forests ferny floor, the towering trees
I leap and bound over peaks after peaks
I clutch at soft underbellies of a cloudlet
I stand on a white sunny snowcapped peak
My wings feel a strong urge to soar and soar and soar
My entity finally gives in to my Casanova solitude
Categories:
underbellies, dream, fantasy, heaven,
Form: Lyric
i can hear the wet street
under brilliant white walls
black underbellies pressing
themselves softly
against the white lines
the sound of the wheels turning
the rustle of the trees as we pass
a road trip to the infinite
i can reach the reverie here on the highway
a road within a road riding all day with the lights on
a sphinx behind the wheel of a Lincoln Town car
a nipple for the spirit babes to suckle
we go about our days
polishing the dark wood
praying faces into tomorrow as they
drive
drive
drive
Categories:
underbellies, adventure,
Form: Free verse
They poke small heads out from
their moms’ underbellies.
Feeling chilled, they retreat
to their parents’ safe spot.
Receiving nourishment,
the chicks grow and adapt.
One day, left alone,
beckoned by the sea,
they take the plunge. and
for five years, they play,
chasing waters’ flow!
Grown and full, they
emerge on land,
swollen stomachs
sliding on ice.
Facing storms,
determined. . .
they waddle
trekking
for miles
home.
Based on information from the documentary "March of the Penguins"
and for David Williams' Contest:True Diminishing Hexaverse.
Categories:
underbellies, animals,
Form: Diminished Hexaverse
(These are 2 etheree I put together to form a double etheree.
They were inspired by the marvelous
documentary movie "March of the Penguins.")
In the Empire of the Ice:
“The Plunge” & “When Childhood Ends”
They poke small heads out from underbellies;
feeling chill, retreat; and shivering,
remain a while longer where it’s
safe. Nourished by both parents,
the chicks adapt. One day
they’re left alone, but
Sea soon beckons
them, and . . . they
take the
plunge.
Five
years they
play, chase warm
waters’ flow and grow
with stomachs always full
before black heads emerge from
sea. . . Swollen bellies slide on ice.
Upright, they resolutely waddle
miles home. . . fierce winter storms not prevailing.
Categories:
underbellies, animals
Form: Etheree
Dying rays of silent stream into a silent room
It’s golden beams dancing
Light in animate motion
Its master is soon to sink below horizon’s velvet hills
Cornflower, tangerine and crimson stain the sky
Clouds drift…their feathered underbellies glowing bright
Anticipating Dusk’s end, the first pair of paragon eyes appear
Twinkling…
Light in animate motion
A matchstick strikes!
Its orange tongue licks the gathering darkness
A candle’s lit!
The wax melts off the darkened wick
It hisses from the water of last night’s rain
Light floods the room halfway through
Its finger reaching out to the shadows
Light… in animate motion
It soaks the curtains and chairs
Light in Animate motion
The silver disk begins to wax
Soon the dark is filled with silver tridents
Ceres!
She dances through the fields
Light in animate motion
Categories:
underbellies, imagination, silver,
Form: Free verse