The
table spins
on a ferris wheel
of fortune, clicking nails
on a ferris wheel, roundabout
where favor is slick, slippery, fickle.
Today I ride ahead of the prancing throng
Tomorrow is uncertain as table turns again
for what can be, may not ever happen
and what may happen, may never be
better to let the wheel spin on
for any gambit is just another
spin and surge — let's go
round and round again
good trip, or bad
can't foretell
chance
Time singing sweet verse,
Many longed to know me well,
Time turning adverse,
I knew the world’s turning tail,
Knew, wheel of time’s turning tale.
______________________
Tanka (Senryu + Couplet) |22.09.2025| time, world
Contest Name and inspired by :
Darkside of Aquarius by Bruce Dickinson
Sponsored by: Robert James Liguori
__________________________________________
1st Verse:
Our wheel of fortune is ever present
We need to foresee all we resent
We must be our own saviour
At best with our behaviour
Tread lightly amongst greed and corruption
Dont let them be a disruption
Wisdom and bravery never condemn
always aim to illuminate them
Lies and violence bring us to war
Do we ever question what we're fighting for?
Chorus:
Keep the wheel of goodness turning,
Keep greed and deceit ever burning
over a flaming fire
not our funeral pier
Verse 2:
Move the wheel in the right direction
Feel the unity as we instigate correction
Overcome wrong doing as best we know
No waiting to be the one they call hero
March against evil, and tyranny
Eradicate corruption now you see
Create human dignity and kindness.
Honesty and goodness will end their blindness
Poison is spreading over the land
As they move the wheel lend a hand
Chorus:
Keep the wheel of goodness turning,
Keep greed and deceit ever burning
over a flaming fire
not our funeral pier
for Darkside Of Aquarius Poetry Contest-Sponsored by: Robert James Liguori
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darkness rides out of brimstones flames,
upon wild horses numbering four,
bringing forth the horrors of their war,
the golden path all theirs to exploit and claim.
the promises rode in chariots of fears,
as the archer shot his arrows of ills and pain,
so man cried with a flood of acid tears,
burning his lost soul-strangled in a binding chain.
poison rained down on the angel's land,
as man's sins grow from embryos,
the dragon breathes his lustful demand,
from his mountain top-high plateau.
from the east-a cooling wind will blow,
and a lotus will grow out of the burning sands,
thus starting a change inside the embryo,
casting all from the darkness covering the angels' lands.
the dragon's breath will hold no fear,
when you open the recesses of your mind,
the wizard becomes the inner seer,
as you listen to the silence-and the kind.
darkness strength weakens as it heals,
when you turn the ancient-wheels.
The Tower was engineered
by Monsieur Eiffel in Paris
the Wheel was favoured
by Mr. Ferris
Michelangelo in Rome
contributed St. Peter's Basilica dome
Eddystone Lighthouse the first
was constructed by Winstanley and
in St. Paul's Cathedral
Sir Christopher Wren had a hand
the seated Thinker
was carved out by Auguste Rodin
the Taj Mahal (Mumtaz') tomb
commissioned by Shah Jahan
all roads lead to the Colosseum
started by Emperor Vespasian
Borglum executed Mount Rushmore
while Hadrian gave us the Wall
and Ferdinand de Lesseps
secured the Suez Canal
in Byzantine Constantinople
Justinian I built the Hagia Sophia
in Italy Bonanno Pisano began
the (later leaning) Tower of Pisa
the Egyptian Pharaoh Khafre
inspired the Sphinx
but in Scotland who designed
the Musselburgh (golf) Links
Spinning to re-shape
on the lathe of misfortune
tools of memories
slice the old dead-wood away
shavings curling around feet
Round and round I go
ghostly hands remake my form
what I was, is gone
what I am, waits for pruning
severing grief from rough years
New clay on the wheel
trembling hands begin to mold
the shapeless mass pile
a new form slowly rises
shaped by daring, bold fingers
Painted ponies churn
straight road offers no answers
yet the circling does
we learn the truths we forgot
etched deep in the wheel's lament
Wood or clay spinning
hands caress, carve, and refine
as circle chants on
form and spirit are re-birthed
making a new beginning
Round and round I go—
shaped by the spinning
the rough falls away
a new form rises
in the clay, that's spun today,
-on the merry-go-round
-on the merry-go-round
Written: August 27, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Robert James Liguori
*********
They showed without trumpets,
but with teeth—
Four shadows galloping through
the marrow of time.
One wore famine such as a crown,
another cloaked in fire’s deceit.
The third preached war
in the brother’s tongue,
and the fourth laughed
as the stars forgot their names.
The wheel spun—
not to teach,
but to tremble,
Dharma cracked beneath the weight
of poisoned promises
We raised shrines from
the threads of logic,
We offered them our views
and named it veridically raw.
Yet in some distant spot,
A silver surfer glides through
the endless expanse
carrying no blade,
Just a memory— a soft whisper
of who we once were,
Here the shadows fell
laid claim to our light.
In Atlantis,
we were not star-gazers—
we were time engineers.
The constellations were gates,
breathing frequencies
into the bones of man.
The stars are not above us,
I whispered to my students,
they are the memories within us.
To us,
the zodiac was not prediction,
but remembrance—
a wheel of origins
spinning in our veins.
Our Lemurian brothers
did not chart the heavens—
they felt them,
as sacred tones in the waters,
as songs trembling
in the heart’s tide.
We, the Atlanteans,
cut the skies with mind,
sharpened by precision,
hungry to master
what should only be served.
Aries—fire of the first incarnation.
Scorpio—the keeper of endings,
death and return.
Virgo—the servant
of divine design.
Aquarius—blueprint
of the cosmic mind.
But knowledge turned sword.
The wheel we built for healing
was stolen by the elites,
its power bent,
its harmony undone.
And so Atlantis fell,
and Lemuria drowned,
and the zodiac we once lived by
was scattered—
like broken stars
across the sea of forgetting.
Catch them when they're young
and shape their tiny minds
by telling them to colour
inside the lines
kids are our precious resource
nurture their dreams for the future
break them on the wheel of control
and kill the spirit destroy the soul
conditioned at an early age
they'll be at a loss
when they're told to think
outside the box
complicit in your conspiracy
avoiding confrontation
it's not a guiding hand
it's manipulation
you can't squeeze a square
peg into a round hole
they are who they
are it is what it is
can't pound a square peg
into a round pigeon hole
let them be and mind your own biz
For useful words, the word wheel I will spin.
I anxiously wait for which words I’ll win.
How many sentences will they complete?
Rhyming the end words will be quite a feat.
A noun or a verb, I commonly win,
While over and over I’ll spin and spin.
Adjectives, articles, pronouns for sure,
And other types to add to the allure.
Prepositions, adverbs, I'll win those too.
I'll likely need more, maybe just a few.
It will take one more spin and then I'm done.
I'll put them together and have some fun.
All that’s left is to decide where each goes,
It's what allows me new poems to compose.
I sometimes feel
if JC had been broken on the wheel
instead of impaled and nailed to a cross
would Catholics be at a loss
or wave their hand
reeling in a circular motion
in front of themselves
when 'wheeling'
as opposed to 'crossing' themselves
while Trinity words were spoken
and if so clockwise or counter
my best guess is the former
as 'tho sacrificed
counter would imply
(oh no)
the anti-Christ
Bold claim,
that kiss was just for fun.
Right now you are to blame.
Lips like a loaded gun,
who taught you how to aim?
Whispers
cocked in automatic,
you gave me the shivers.
Caught up in your static,
perhass we're both givers.
One night,
you said it was a test.
With the prose I recite,
turned out I was the best.
You love the way I bite.
I sometimes wonder if I’m meant to be a third wheeler
In friendships, romance, and in the world
Standing on the sidelines always dreaming
I notice them siting together
Her arm wrapped around him; they both smile carefree
I close my eyes and wish I was them
Written: June 08, 2025 for contest by Brian Strand
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Life requires adventures sometimes
So that we can gain courage all along
I'm telling you, slide down from here
And your troubles will disappear then
Come and try it, it will be interesting
It's better than being alone at home
With your thoughts and being bored
It's good being childish sometimes
Recall the old fun play hide and seek
Than facing the world in matured form
Life so serious when facing the world
My face is grown likely into a full man
But heart feels still when in my twenties
Age is number and is biological too
The younger eat and drink sweets
The older eat meat and drink hard
This makes sense as life grow colder
I miss the time when body get tired
And the mind admit his daydreaming
Now the body is reacting to aching
This is how life is grinding like wheels
While the mind think with complexity.
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