I wish more people were blessed to experience
nature’s gentle side…
the peace and the tranquility
her mountains, trees…her lakes and oceans provide.
Having spent a lot of time in nature
It is my unmitigated belief…
that nature with her quiet beauty
will always help with stress relief.
Categories:
unmitigated, nature,
Form: Rhyme
Can anyone accuse you of pretence?
Are you inflicting pain for pain’s own sake?
So little can be said in your defence –
Unless you have some argument to make,
Apart from spitting venom like a snake.
Less culpable than you are snakes, I swear:
They do their damage, blithely unaware.
You knew precisely when, and where, and whence –
Or if you’d rather, planned the steps to take,
Fomenting consciously this pestilence –
You find my words too grand? You’ve got brain-ache?
Okay, let’s say you knew which bough to shake.
Unmitigated mayhem, deep despair
Results in calm. Today, there’s nothing there.
Considered as a love, it was immense.
Regarded as a person, you’re a fake.
Unusually, passionate, intense?
Exactly. So much bitterer the break.
Love blinded me. The thing was my mistake.
The fault was yours, of course. But, to be fair,
You’re not a psychopath. You just don’t care.
Categories:
unmitigated, lost love,
Form: Acrostic
“You got the goldfish interview, as asked?”
“I did, sir, but he lacked the wherewithal
to answer me coherently, I fear.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? The fishing section
is looking pretty thin. You showed up masked?”
“Of course I did. That goldfish flu’s no joke.
He said he’s scared of casual infection.”
“Your killer question, then? Your master stroke?”
“What is the capital of Senegal?
My curver, that one: it’s my knuckle-ball.”
“You got a cogent answer?” “Nowhere near.
He knew, he said, but couldn’t now recall.”
“His love life? Did you ask?” “He yelled, objection!
He said, that’s why he hates newspaper folk.”
“But that’s the very thing with which you’re tasked –
to get the sexy stuff! You think he’s *****?”
“He said he’d tell me after taking coke.
It seemed to me a little circumspection
might do the trick.” “Unmitigated gall
is what I call it. What I want to hear
is, if he’s in that witness thing – protection.”
“I got the feeling he was trying to stall –
I probed him, but he had no recollection.”
Categories:
unmitigated, fishing,
Form: Rhyme
Remember me when I'm not here
My love is always yours
Forever I am near
The power of my love for you
My love is always yours
Is hard to misconstrue
Unmitigated love so sheer
My love is always yours
Remained connection clear
Remember me when I'm not here
My love is always yours
Unmitigated love so sheer
Categories:
unmitigated, love, remember, together,
Form: Rhyme
Quite far we have traversed, in pursuit of goals we chose,
Through troubles and trepidations of seasons in throes;
Sometimes reveling sunshine, sometime in glum of shadows,
Always together~ on barren terrains, or verdant meadows.
In albums of yore, we ruminate now, turning pages of life,
Banishing anguish of feelings-forlorn, fuming in strife;
Reminiscing in moments passionate, of love sublime,
Treasured in memories-beloved, accumulated over time.
Harboring wisdom, inlaid in life’s waning phase, as we age,
In realms of reflections, insights-sapient, now we engage;
Learning from knowledge gained, from choices we made,
Accepting with grace, laments of secrets, as yet unsaid.
Regrets unmitigated, voice remorse of unuttered sigh,
Seeking empathy from goodwill of repentant goodbye;
As life tallies good versus bad, that introspections confide,
Eying a tranquil state of mind, devoid of hate and pride.
It’s time to reflect, it’s time to mend, it’s time to befriend,
As journey of life, beaming content, approaches its end;
Living final days in covenants revered, humbly we penned,
Elevating self, in peace of bliss, to heavens we shall ascend.
Categories:
unmitigated, introspection, life, memory,
Form: Rhyme
As Earth revolves in time and space,
We meet the future face-to-face.
While every soul tries to have their day,
Their nemeses try to block their way.
This causes decades when nothing significant happens,
Followed by months when panic and violence happen.
As society’s benign merry go ‘round spins faster around,
Its political operatives start stepping up and down.
What seeds of rancor did the radicals sow?
What was their purpose? Where does one go?
If culture binds our carousel’s spokes together,
Then how to these spokes is society tethered?
After our rogue merry go ‘round grinds to a halt,
People will point their fingers and not accept fault.
And then during months of calamitous chaos,
Thousands will ‘be disappeared’, die, or become lost.
Such Maoist days and Bolshevik nights,
Often lead to unmitigated chaos and fright.
Who amongst us will be cursed or blessed
Once this carousel of chaos comes to rest?
Apperceiving such anarchy makes us ponder,
How we’ll keep afloat once society founders.
Who will heal our emotional loss?
And will they do it at great personal cost?
Categories:
unmitigated, conflict, perspective, political, society,
Form: Rhyme
THE CHANGING WORLD
The age of chivalry and bravery has ended
That of sophistry, rivalry, upon us descended
Those with ability, to charm and talk, are commended
They are now indeed enemies, whom we once befriended
Where has all the love gone, hitherto, unlimited
The human greed for wealth remains unsatiated
For money, men unleash violence unabated
The rich and elite are highly ingratiated
The poor and forlorn man’s woes are unmitigated
Never were people so fearful, streets so deserted
Always under threat, somehow their lives will be disrupted
True, in Eve’s drawl and Adam’s fall, we have lamented
But Devil’s devious ways we have inherited
As peace-loving people, we too were once saluted
Today, hatred and revenge have left us demented
Categories:
unmitigated, age, change, character, emotions,
Form: Monorhyme
10/15/2023
Who ever declared you cannot?
Is a full blown, liar I promise you.
In their lives, they failed at some task.
And now?
The unmitigated gall, to drag you
into heartbreak row?
Do not buy losers' stories!!
To those with fortitude and gall ~
Comes an entirely, different story!
One where there was loss and
then came great glory.
I have experienced this myself
and know the joys of victory.
Odds are many poets are just like me.
Not weeping over lost loves with
a handkerchief under an old tree.
But finding new love, better than
they ever dreamed would be.
Their lives exceeded their original
schemes.
They go on and envision new dreams
Their truest friends stand by them
whilst their phony friends stroll so
casually and heartlessly away.
But, dear friends, know, please.
The dreamers will out do you in every way
With joy and greatest possible ease!
GO DREAMERS!
Categories:
unmitigated, dream, encouraging, how i
Form: Verse
Treacly sweet is the juice of summer berries,
enervating me to anticipate it upon my lips.
Savoring the confection of melted chocolate
is a delicious flavor to lick from my fingertips.
Intoxicating my palate, is a decadent wine.
Ripened grapes leave me in a euphoric state.
Bacchus would claim, "It's simply divine!"
To slake my thirst, I'd not choose to abate.
But there are other flavors, not so appealing...
salty tears that have coursed from my eyes
or the taste of goodbye from a lover's kiss.
Bitter is the sapidity of a soul's sorrowful cries.
After tasting pure honey of unmitigated love,
there can be no substitute for the syrupy mead.
When sipped from lips, once tenderly kissed,
the desire for more becomes an obsessive need.
Categories:
unmitigated, senses,
Form: Rhyme
The political storm is gathering
Election fever is at its highest pitch
As Nigerians head to the polls
To exercise their franchise
In the mother of all elections
The most crucial ever
Since the birthing of uninterrupted
Democracy in our dear father land
This would be an election like no other
Coming at a time Nigerians
Have their backs to the walls
Victims of unmitigated misery
Kidnapping, banditry and general insecurity
Victims of multi-dimensional poverty
In the midst of affluence
Proverbially living near the river
But washing their hands daily with spittle
The time of reckoning is here
Chickens have finally come home to roost
A Daniel has come to judgment
This is the time for Nigerians
To speak with one voice
That would echo and re-echo
For a long time to come
Categories:
unmitigated, allusion, encouraging, evil, grief,
Form: Free verse
the all-consuming dread
beneath a veneer
of equanimity,
impenetrable
by eyes of keen observers.
by all appearances,
all is copacetic,
but under his smiling mask,
unmitigated disarray.
a cauldron of caged anguish
simmer
without boiling over.
his screams of helplessness,
muffled;
registering below
a whisper.
he's at his wit's end;
a beast of burden
with his world of troubles
sagging d
o
w
n his shoulders.
a victim of circumstances
beyond his control,
yet treats his helplessness
with utter indifference.
heaven only knows...
why.
You Select Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand
Date written: 01/21/2023
Categories:
unmitigated, analogy, dark, endurance, feelings,
Form: Free verse
I must confess unmitigated disdain
For those allowing jealousy a place,
An emotion from which I abstain
I must confess unmitigated disdain,
My brain simply will not sustain
This drain upon my cerebral space,
I must confess unmitigated disdain
For those allowing jealousy a place.
Written September 2, 2022
Categories:
unmitigated, how i feel, jealousy,
Form: Triolet
Herman heard me,
The howl of a nation.
Scourged! I was usurped,
And I was atomized!
Toivo came, a solemn tide
He contrived the paradiddle
That led to my autonomy.
Toivo, the inexorable current
That ringed a contrasting atoll.
Archracist criminalized him
Yet Herman endured unmitigated,
His heart never inuring to my cry.
His oratorical showers watered
The long rocky road to M21.
A sower of the seeds of hope
Andimba dispersed his ardour
Deep in the hearts of men
Ensuring the brave do not contort.
And when I was amorphous,
His sagacious parlance
Was perceived across oceans.
Toivo extolled my unsung features
And with his bellicose
He lit my torch of sovereignty.
Today, I am the Land of the Brave,
Because Herman heard me.
Categories:
unmitigated, africa, appreciation, dedication, father,
Form: Free verse
When the bluster and champion of words bleeds
from the flue,
quite unintentionally, with seeds…
The whirlwind of contrast and opposing creeds
turns one blue,
when the bluster and champion of words bleeds.
Spur of the moment spat of dandelion weeds
without a clue,
quite unintentionally with seeds.
A test dummy with mouth and lip speeds
seems so frou-frou,*
when the bluster and champion of words bleeds.
Delightful time but for tilt of raw deeds -
a daft wind blew,
quite unintentionally with seeds.
When unmitigated passion and escalation leads,
bad blood breaks through…
when the bluster and champion of words bleeds
quite unintentionally with seeds.
2/26/2022
AN ORIGINAL VILLANELLE
L Milton Hankins
*Frou-Frou — silly
Categories:
unmitigated, angst,
Form: Villanelle
The Most Fragile on Earth are we,
The creative brains, forever enslaved
By the jealous mistress, the Muse.
We’re the folk Fortune never embraced.
Emotions wide open, tears on the ready,
A fetish to embrace the senseless pain
Of all humanity. We end up most often
With angina, the sweet angst that kills.
Are we mad, are we magnificent,
Neither we nor our readers know.
We flaunt not our work, its beauty
Keeps us safe and forever on course.
From one setback to another,
We sail past disaster and honor
Our peers who defied misfortune
Their poems are of enduring glory.
Theirs were the heroic lives
Of unmitigated suffering:
Long years of want, unmerited
Persecution, insults and taunt.
We honor them, the poets of our past,
Their sacrifices indeed were not in vain.
We’ve learnt from them and their work
The undying beauty of enduring pain.
Categories:
unmitigated, emotions, feelings, introspection, perspective,
Form: Rhyme
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