You feel the whispers slither down the long corridor,
each murmur coiling around your thoughts like hungry vines.
They scratch at your calm, sharp as claws unseen,
and fracture your resolve until your heart cannot stay silent.
You sense the walls themselves lean, curious and burdened,
their cracks breathing echoes of every stolen word.
Even the chairs groan beneath an invisible weight,
worn by secrets that slide across the floor like restless ghosts.
You watch as daylight winnows through frosty windows,
afraid to face the truth those whispers carry.
Driven by iron tongues that drip with accusation,
you remain—a flicker of light defying their hush.
You are planted in this room, roots deep in purpose,
a silent sentinel despite the whispers’ might.
And though whispers may rise, their reign will fall to dust—
when your truth, at last, breaks free and echoes with light.
Categories:
winnows, discrimination,
Form: Personification
In sports as life a missing extra inch
That winnows winners from whiners of fate--
Faced with no way forward, those who’d not flinch,
The rest of chaff gets stuck whilst at the gate.
Easy never comes even tiny pinch,
A seed on its own sprouts, but not sans care,
An inch of care and life is a sure cinch,
Take care of inches, and miles never dare.
Come, Extra Inch, I wish to kiss thy soul,
Miles of long journey’s too far from my heart,
An inch at a time takes me close to goal,
An inch apart today is worlds apart.
An inch separates a halo from noose,
Pinch thyself twice before that inch ye choose.
___________________________
Sonnet |09.04.04, revised Jan 2025| endeavour
Categories:
winnows, symbolism,
Form: Sonnet
During
your
twirling
soliloquy
&
throbbing
zeal
for
endless
dalliance
beckon
me
will
come
again
&
again
to
your
eyrie
on
rainy days
on
frosty darks
exacerbating
flames
of
queasy
symptoms
wren
winnows
mesquite
ambiance
magnifies
relish
crave
&
devotee
shake
leaves
nodding
piano
&
softer
cuddle
drums
memorabilia
weary
in
perky
straits
Written: November 18, 2022
A Brian Strand Premiere Choice Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
NOTE:THIS IS AN OPEN(organic) FORM VERSE using spaces&breaks without grammatical symbols ,the ' open' relies upon 'the one breath limitation' & so inherently requires the 'reader' (reciter) to input and responds thus making this enigmatic form a two way interplay & interpretatIon unique to the moment& changing according to mood is inherently variable.
Categories:
winnows, analogy, appreciation, beauty, cute
Form: Other
"The end is near," the short-wave said.
"Before midnight, all will be dead."
I aim to leave my baggage here.
For my warted nose should I fear?
April fifteen and taxes due
Can I afford to be so lax
As to ignore my yearly tax?
Pinch me, pinch me, I hope ‘tis true.
Will my love share claret and cheese
Before God winnows wheat from chaff?
With a glass of wine can we laugh
Watching thundering grim gray seas
Cast wild waves on our forlorn shore
Until the devil gets his due?
Or will we stand in line as two
To learn sheep or goat is our score?
Eternal gates are drawing near,
Ajar, for us to wail or cheer.
2005
Categories:
winnows, animal, god, love, sea,
Form: Rhyme
These woods are like a mother
putting all embers out.
Sweet wind winnows me out of
all secret worries.
As I dip myself into the woody stream,
tension termites disappear.
Throats of birds broadcast unceasing songs
like our FM station.
When a tribesman squeezes a honey-comb, I
ride my tongue up the palm.
My mind convalesces slowly here
under the foliage.
Fireflies fly out through the windows
of my skull.
Fresh thoughts are cooked in the seclusion
of the woods.
Shoots of dreams reappear, breaking the dried
pods of my memory.
I see the fossils of a paradise, which we had lost
under the past.
First printed in Poetry Nook Magazine, US.
Categories:
winnows, inspirational, nature,
Form: Free verse
I find myself in a dark silent vacuum,
A place where nothing could be
Seen, heard or felt.
My soul grieves in agony,
My sole feels no lifewithin,
My heart feels a pain-stained hollow,
I wondered off by myself,
I sigh--
God help me!
I find myself in a very deep ravine,
Enveloped by memento of the beast I was;
A retribution of my years.
My heart feels the heaviness of an iron,
My heart winnows away
With a momentous of deep rooted guilt feeling
Like a pregnant woman that wants freedom.
In retrospect, I should have done right.
But I pray–
The world forgive me.
Categories:
winnows, anti bullying, anxiety,
Form: Dramatic Monologue
E L E P H A N T!
The king of the thick Jungle,
Of five-
Not height but senses,
With-
A long nose like pounder,
Ears like winnows,
Legs like mortars,
All in all like a walking black rock,
Be possible to train to dance by a human,
How goes the human beyond?
Categories:
winnows, animal,
Form: Free verse
Wind winnows in every supernatural tree
Is being there man kind’s destiny?
Words twine their beauty is simplicity
Forces at work have mesmerizing majesty
It starts by a simple word phrase
Yet if magic can make thought real this phrase
Even the greatest mage can amaze
It can set the very soul ablaze
No opposite reaction is at the low base
Beyond soul magic what physics equation in hand can place
Beyond abstract of beyond abstract travels through idea’s space
The simple phrase opens gate to last abstract, last fundamental place
Categories:
winnows, fantasy,
Form: Rhyme
Short of help, but still of staff
the headache from the neck does last
the evenness of time in cache
lies dormant, so disbursed, abashed!
Though waiting, justice is enmassed
to some fond hill, its wearied bast
has tempered not the day's full cast
and sleeps in kinship, life's repast!
Forgiveness lacking, lacks in class
so metered to repeating's lash
like some huge wail, the wave's do splash
first beaten ~ then to mercies crass!
Deliverance of lieing's stake
the game goes on of win and take,
the overpowering of land's sake
do drink and drink its servile cask!
That greed and garrison of task
nor common sense can so express
the doing's done in overt haste,
this burgeoning of time erased!
That filtered sleeve of compromise
should pinch the air to realize,
we've done it, winnows out our eyes
while change redundant hypnotized ~
. . . becomes incumbent with the skies!
Categories:
winnows, science, space, timedrink, time,
Form: Light Verse
Revered indoctrination, filling space
as bridal hold seems documented trace
and grace consoled, invigorating base
examines its contention to invade.
As vagrant apathy winnows enfold
and channels it suggestion to bring scold,
how sweetness lies within this verse, my mold
to love thee furthering confines discord.
While smoldering to an empty hope cajoled
no sureness of intent does merit rolled.
As certain as the scourge that envies bold
so I am waiting for a moment told ~
When thee and I are fully His ~ extolled!
Categories:
winnows, hope,
Form: Rhyme
Jealousy is the rage of a man,
Whose passion unyielding as the grave
Burns like flames of blazing fire, whose fan
In his hand winnows success from death's plan.
Love goes awry for his fugitive slave.
The king's enemy the rest of his days,
He provokes anger and the fear of threat;
Behaving wisely in all his ways,
Escaping the throes, betimes, he prays.
How useless in full view to spread a net!
Yet bearing the olive branch, he kept
(When once he drank from royal fountains-
Beyond flew arrows and two souls wept)
His faith still, twice, as his master slept;
He was as a partridge in the mountains.
Now, over the house mounted on wings,
As waylayers waylay their own souls
Beneath the tree by bows, swords and slings;
The servant shepherd is lord of kings,
And jealous bones are only heaps of coals.
Categories:
winnows, adventure, inspirational, visionary,
Form: Rhyme