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Best Poems Written by Ann Cantu

Below are the all-time best Ann Cantu poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Once More

Accept equality, admit to science 
That you always believed -
Why wouldn’t love be free?

San Franciscans and summer lovers 
Flocked here seeking illusion.
They saw pretty colors, but no truth.

I extended my hand, warmly 
You grasped it, looking onward 
To clover crowns and daisy chains.

There is no understanding of
The light in shaded eyes, or
Coy words slipped from tight lips.

Summers always end, she said. 
We sighed, nodding off to dream,
Once more before the apocalypse.


-ARCantu, 05/25/2023

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On the Page

Words don’t leap and dance.
They hobble, trip, and fall flat.
Turns of phrase lie dead.

-ARCantu
 06/17/2022

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A Nightmare

Erwin’s orange tabby isn’t dead.
You must open the box, 
Coax it to come out.
Stroke its poor neglected head.

Ivan was a good boy,
Yet he took a great fall,
Tumbled off the wall, struck his head, 
But he wasn’t dead.

Electric shocks until he bled,
He drooled and his belly leapt.
Couldn’t quite get his fill,
It was a curse, yet a thrill.

Cruel it is to let Julia beg,
In your hands her tired head-
She trembles, she isn’t dead,
Give her your dreams instead.


-ARCantu, 05/19/2023

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Daydream

Verses composed, daytime dreams,
Lounging in a languid breeze,
Letter by lazy letter they drop
Into the ether, never to be retrieved.

I sometimes long to feel, no,
I let that feeling go, far off, long ago.
It is all trite now, every thing alright,
As hummingbirds alight on thin branches above.

Why dream of love? It is here,
Swirling down in calls from mourning doves.
Each moment expected, projected,
Reserves a momentary morsel of surprise.

Unable to partake, I gaze, breathe in
Literary inspiration, a passing phrase.
Sacred nature, the supernatural in my veins.
It matters not you died; you are here today.


Ann R Cantu
04/26/2023

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Autonomic

Antelope graze the savanna,
Without a care in the world,
For literal lack of imagination. 
Languishing in a morning moment,
The herd simply enjoys its munching.

Something else wafts on air,
Some chemosignal delectably taboo.
Sweat beads trickle down his temples.
Savanna creatures pay no heed,
While mysterious molecules send and prime.

Stress triggers a downward spiral,
Hit as if hunted, not the hunter.
Amygdala on overdrive, panting,
Heart pumping to limbic arrhythmia.
Such dark surreal safari is unexpected.

Predator feared is no leopard, no cheetah.
May as well be his reflection in the mirror.
Elusive yet eventual, relentless - inevitable.
Calm now, as I elicit the parasympathetic.
I am a safe sacred space where you have come to rest.


-ARCantu, 05/22/2023

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Play On

I like a little rhyme but not too tight. 
Iambic steps fall short, too soft. 
Pentameter is nice, 
Still I prefer a looser vice.
Run fast and free with verse and don’t get caught.


-ARCantu
05/18/2023

Details | Ann Cantu Poem

Votive

I asked you for proof.
You turned it back on me,
Saying, proof is not what you need,
Nor is it mine to give.
Only that you believe,
That is all you need.

I wanted a gift 
To give my love.
He wants for nothing;
It’s merely for me,
Comfort for my disbelief.
Nothing seen, nowhere been,
Makes up for inhumation.

I asked what you learned
Beyond what’s accepted as real.
The answer is up to me.
Was yours imaginary?
I yearned they’d want and feel,
Fearing none I sensed was real.

You both surpassed mortality.
Such inquiry needn’t trouble me.
From base emotion I was free,
So long as I shunned poetry.
I cannot write nor read,
And hold intentions clean or free.


-ARCantu, 05/22/2023