Written: January 05, 2023
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As a river beckons
and brittle stripes
of soaring reeds swell,
with a faint breeze
and a sturdy hedge,
the ebb and flow
of a loving swarm,
who humbly trickle
on an emerald ledge,
my spirit quivers
at sight of your hasty
adrift in vehemence,
full of enthusiasm,
fledgling, foolish scent.
aerial zephyrs are said,
to breathe a divine dream
upon receiving,
award of merit.
Can you pinpoint
every detail in
a seamless swerve
swaying stygian splits
in crystalline water
convey radiance
or a wispy, hazy veil
wrapped in gnomes
rhythm,
dance and chant
as twigs protrude
from swaying rims,
suave souls supplied
a haven while time invades
wrests wonted words
as sapphire scrap.
epitome of sighs.
It's time for seraphic zeal
in gauzy garments
and lunar anguish,
beseeching you with
a supple, soft cuddle
to bestow her boon,
pureness excites her.
to the brink of rapture,
leading lips to quiver
she merely dodges it,
as her grasp seeks to yield
a tender kiss, and
a loving curl of her lips.
5th place contest winner
Categories:
wrests, analogy, appreciation, dream, first
Form: Free verse
Delay by Him has taken its toll,
Waves of doubt rollover the soul,
Despair extinguished the Spirit,
Wax-filled ears would not hear it.
"Listen, you have left My way!
Wait for My providence and pray.
Change of direction is needed."
But His correction went unheeded.
The restless spirit wrests control,
God's will is no longer the goal,
The anxious heart is not ideal,
So, failing eyes, meet banana peel.
Seeking refuge in my enemy's camp,
I was turned into a foolish scamp,
Philistine mouths were agape.
So, I feigned madness to escape.
That was dumb, I'm ashamed to say,
Letting fear and doubt cloud my way.
The Lord's shelter never fails,
His faithful acts tell the tales.
Keep seeking the Lord in a trial,
Relying on Him is worthwhile.
Instead of becoming milquetoast-
In Him, a reason to boast.
"Come children and listen to Me.
Fear of the Lord will set you free!
Wait for Me to settle the score,
David teaches in Psalm thirty-four."
Categories:
wrests, anxiety, bible, faith, fear,
Form: Rhyme
Despite the noise of harsh and loud debate
Rhyme nor reason quells the argument
Nor breaks the smothery sounds of temper flair,
And dares dispute the platform proudly sworn
By proof he wrests the premise by degrees
The scholar wins the highest trophy earned.
Entered in "All Yours" Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand
February 24, 2021
Categories:
wrests, conflict, education, school,
Form: Blank verse
My eyes unleash upon the world before me,
where Heaven wrests all darkness from its reign
These sights my fortune gladly spent on freedom,
to rise and fall as sun and moon both share
The seasons press their head and tail foreclosure,
to trail the one in front and lead the back
As cousins of the changing time indenture,
the same but separate lost within themselves
(Villanova On Avon: October, 2019)
Categories:
wrests, seasons,
Form: Free verse
Your suicide
Wrests the act from the hand
So that fire can envelop the bottle
And skyward
And bright
And living
Technicolour dances in extremes.
We effervesce and burst
We rise up and with a fury
A million or more
We wilt back onto the vine
Waiting to be harvested and
Transformed into feed for machinery
The blocks and the slabs and
The blocs and the Slavs
And the pointed jagged teeth
Of a rusted saw three thousand times the size of the moon
We jigsaw and puzzle and pile up
And bric-a-brac away the inheritance
Of dead men coming into dead men’s fortunes
We store up and cascade
And chisel
At the face of a dam
As a plague of locusts descends
Within the imagery of Uncle Sam
We shoot in succession
And with twenty-eight barrels
We could split the world to pieces
And commit
Several of the greater nations
Turn and shoot and all goes black
As the litter is circulated
In samizdat and under purple cloth.
Categories:
wrests, allegory, anxiety, conflict, fate,
Form: Free verse
In the dance of life the river cries its soul,
From the teardrops collecting in mountainous ravines,
To the icy floes which melt on sunless days,
What falls from heaven in folded sheets of misting rain,
Wrests from the river its bitter pain.
The seasons pass as the aged bark of a deadening tree,
With the memories of a lonely stalk against the grain,
The heart of the river begins to flow and echoes down below,
Every droplet weary of the long winding pathway,
And in heaven the clouds gather to bring a refreshing rain.
At the bank of the river flow its hopes and dreams,
Of what could have been,
Of what will be,
Every travesty cast upon the waters,
And the rainfall sent by heaven fills the river anew.
Through every storm and every passing season,
Comes a swelling of memories which rise to the surface,
But the heart of the river must remain pure,
For every turbulent mile of its distance was known,
And heaven weeps for its mightiest rivers.
Categories:
wrests, encouraging, god, nature, river,
Form: Free verse
Rise up, Scion of La Mancha.
Destiny orbited all that you were
and encompassed all that you possessed.
Windmills stood ten-fold to the fore
when you readied your lance
and saddled your barn nag.
Its whipped hide and ungulated
hoofs cantering towards betrayal
and unfinished vows.
Your voice was virtuous in timbre
against the manifest threat of cruel
malfeasance that roamed the lands
of bogus hills and rampant mountains
charging towards the crest of your
enlightened honour.
Now, these burning candles about
your casket hold the truth
of your quests until, like you,
they peter out and die.
And then, recitations of your Quixotic
trials shall be cleaved from history.
Such is the eye of irony that wrests
away your conquests.
So, rise up Scion of La Mancha and challenge
the lies. Ride abroad with purpose once more.
Or lay where you rest and let time become
a biased judge to your well laid intentions.
Categories:
wrests, eulogy,
Form: Free verse
Mother mine,
Makes me like a child again
How well could grace possess a mortal
And make almost an angel like?
Fond friend,
Swells in me a spring of sweet smiles
How well could I deserve such delight?
Dainty Damsel,
Draws me to delightsome daylight dreams
How well would you ever leave off my thoughts?
Sweet sister,
Soothes my soul with sprightly sayings
How well could one love a man more?
Charming chum
Calms my spirit like cooling stream
How well would I ever cease a prayer for you?
Wonderful wife to be
Wrests my restlessness with your soft spirit
How well would I a grateful heart to God maintain?
Categories:
wrests, appreciation, girl, i love
Form: Free verse
With bravado, during a bayamo,
A bashful barbudo
with a propensity for dissentiousness
Flits bottomward, toward a sand encrusted crusado
A crusado, mayhap, wellaway once possessed by
A seafaring hildalgo skittering
Over cirulean crests
What wry musing must the esurient bashful
barbudo mull
While it wends it way to the wayworn crusado?
Once and now tantalized, the fearnought barbudo,
Now disappointed over a once thought commestible
Now ponders
An omen? An augur? A delitescent apocalypse--of doom, or
Delight?
Oh, bashful barbudo, unmew this encrusted crusado: expugate it!
Expurgate it form its extant niche
Release its' recondite spectres anon, without cunctation
What tales may it portend with a tactile congress?
Wend not to your shoals yet; shun the skates importuning
Now before a malevolent maelstrom wrests the soothsayer's crusado
Away
Vocabulary: barbudo-species polydactylus virginicus; crusado-Spanish coin;
esurient-hungry,greedy
Categories:
wrests, adventure,
Form: Free verse