polysemy
protrudes, prodding power
letting chiasma
churn and curdle
ply poet-marriage:
an anankean lockless key—a dower
set upon a
dorseless tower
I eat my crow,
drowned in chowder
time sealed in
the wicking willow wood
—CODA—
I don’t want to
be solved
I want to be
inhabited
working in
dream-logic
surrealist
disjunctive fissures
places where
contradictions coexist
that is—
precisely
pointless
=======
One among many, a leaf in a wood
All together forming a verdant shade
Where lovers meet to be gently wooed
Sweetened by birdsong in that leafy glade
One among many ,a tree in a forest
All together providing for wildlife
Where its creatures can find food and take rest
Their calm pierced by infrequent bouts of strife
All among so many , they breathe out joy
For those who revel in their wholesome scent
Such is the great pleasure of those so coy
Forests are intended to be so meant
Those palaces of nature formed by God
Are places where we should worship our Lord
god's crafted beauty
rooted in earths soil
recycled by us
Beside the beaten track
The woodpecker went tapping on,
To the bird that's like a piece of wood.
The soldier bird got very cross -- it wasn't her;
The spurwing plover had to stab with a spur:
The jackass laughed,
I take to stripping bark.
Then all the birds for miles around came in to lend a hand;
They perched upon a broken limb as thick as they could stand,
And just as old man eaglehawk prepared to have his say
A portion of the broken limb got up and flew away.
The boobook owl -- he squats himself along a broken limb,
And pokes his beak up like a stick;
Can you tell which is boobook owl and which is broken bough.
his nest a bunch of sticks across a fork;
A cuckoo wouldn't use his nest, but what's the odds to him --
A bird that tries to imitate a piece of leaning limb!"
(Blackout of Camouflage by Andrew Barton Paterson)
Saw it coming
Started running
Through the woods
As fast as I could
Evil in the mist
Making sinister hiss
Sound
Translating freedom 'going down'
Beautiful mirage arrived
No fear of going to die
Equipped with answers
From club dancers
Chit chatting away
Screaming about pay
"Ammunition I will fire
Since you seemed to of tired
Do not fear
I have a long neck beer "
Siren made clear
I watched her work
Popped the bubbly cork
After expressing wedding vows
Complementing our moonlight howls
Saw it coming
Started running
Through woods
As fast as I could
Beautiful mirage arrived
Not going to die
Equipped with answers
From club dancers
"Do not fear
I have a long neck beer"
I watched her work
Popped the bubbly cork
After expressing wedding vows
Complementing our moonlight howls
It is much like pulling teeth
Getting a grip on technology
I feel like a wooden relic in time
Learning new ways with old mind
Fruit like green oranges,
Small leaf-shedding thorny tree,
And sticky wood pulp.
No one eats Osage.
No one tastes these hedge apples.
The thorns make barbed wire.
By this eye
Can tell I
Receptive, besides, to my
Quaint genus
Dim, down-bent
Frailly leant
Lower still, to it what's sent:
Smiles o'erplus!
Bloom, minute.
Snowdrop cute.
Others? For his sake stay mute!
Each scent suss!
.
ooops
i would
meant
i did i did
mhm
in same
thuh
context mindyuh
ohyeah
fersure
Wood nymph, goddess of the trees,
how splendid! couched in loveliness
no creature may fully behold!
Yet I have, on particular mornings,
in crepuscular radiance seen,
(O brightest eyes!) flitting light,
recognition that love was born
here on the restless, unseeing ground
that we might occasionally recall:
life was meant for something
more than living and doing,
but breathlessly witnessing
angel presence in our midst,
wonder of the morning,
herald of the light,
comfort of dawn,
swan of day,
loveliest
sight.
Christopher M. Swan, “Song of Susan,” 2008
X=Xylophones of wood make lovely music.
A=Around every hill and every
V=Valley filled with pretty wildflowers.
I=I love the sweet sounds,
E=Each ear is enjoying.
R=Rhythm that sooths the very soul.
And those forever on the run,
Vain like rain ‘pon a verdant wood
Lush with leafy weeds wildly grown.
Or early morning’s fog in haze,
Gossamer gauze in its sheer mood
That vanish in lingering laze.
Or take a sun, rising nigh late
From behind tall hills like a hood,
That sets, ere entering my gate
Imagine a mid-summer’s breeze
Bare before I have had it good,
And faces doldrums’ sudden freeze.
Poems all, I was pregnant with
Once ‘pon a time, but now to brood
And miscarried nigh oh like a myth.
_______________________
Reflections |12.03.2026| breeze/wind, fog, sun, woods/weeds, tercet
A pine cone falls
on a silvan carpet
and transmutes
into jade, crystalline gems
shot through with stars
and moonflower smiles
in the fairy carousel
by fevered candlelight
of reverie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dust swirls where sandals
once pressed into thirsty earth~
now footprints vanish.
A voice whispers through the fig:
Child, why search among the dead?
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.