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Best Poems Written by Mindi Madsen

Below are the all-time best Mindi Madsen poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Mindi Madsen Poem

Ruby and the dice

Ballad for Ruby and the Dice"

Angie, she whispered through cigarette haze,
The ghost of a name from my wilder days.
Under my thumb, I thought hearts would stay,
But wild winds never learn how to obey.

Paint it black, I told the sky that night,
When Ruby Tuesday danced out of sight.
She wore her sorrow like lipstick red,
And left my dreams tangled in the bed.

You can't always get what you want, they said,
So I drank to the dice and rolled love instead.
Tumblin’ dice down an old jukebox floor,
Each roll a prayer, or a closing door.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me back
To the innocence lost on that lonesome track.
Where honky tonk women sway and spin,
And hearts are traded like whiskey and sin.

Now I hum their names in the barroom light,
Angie, Ruby, and every midnight.
Chasing echoes in the songs they sung—
Still under my thumb, but forever young.

Let me know if you'd like it turned into a song or set to a blues rhythm!

Details | Mindi Madsen Poem

Turtle beach

The Ballad of the Endless Shell
An Epic Poem of Turtles

In the age when the world was newborn and bright,
Before sword or sorrow or firelight,
The Earth did stir with a breath so wide,
And turtles rose from the ocean's tide.

Old as mountains, calm as stone,
They bore the sky on backs alone.
With shells like shields from time and fear,
They moved through ages slow and clear.

Canto I: The First Journey

From coral palaces deep and green,
Where Neptune’s whispers can't be seen,
The eldest turtle, Grandmother Shell,
Heard the songs that stars would tell.

She gathered her kin with patient eyes,
And said, “The land beyond the sunrise
Holds sacred soil and stories lost—
We must bear them, no matter the cost.”

Through whirlpool wrath and storm-swept blue,
The turtle host, so brave and true,
Swam with silence, swam with grace,
With the ocean's pulse their measured pace.

Canto II: The War of Claws and Fire

But lo! Upon a smoking shore,
Where thunder cracked and eagles soar,
The lizards came with teeth and flame—
And mocked the turtles’ peaceful name.

“Slow-footed fools!” they cried with might,
“Your time has passed—flee from our sight!”
But turtles, though not built for war,
Stood firm upon the ashen shore.

With shells turned bright by morning’s gleam,
They formed a wall, a flowing stream
Of patient strength and ancient will—
And silence made the world go still.

Then lightning clashed and torrents bled,
But not a single turtle fled.
The lizards roared but could not break
The slow and steady tidal wake.

Canto III: The Wisdom of the Shell

When peace returned like dawn to sea,
The turtles built a sacred tree.
Its roots grew deep in molten ground,
Its leaves could catch the sky’s own sound.

There sages came from far and wide
To speak with those whose hearts were tied
To deeper time, to ancient breath—
For turtles knew both birth and death.

They taught the rhythm of the stars,
The purpose found in weathered scars.
How stillness beats the lightning’s race,
And all things find their destined place.

Canto IV: The Legacy Eternal

Now every sea and river bend
Still holds the turtle as a friend.
Through reefs and tides they slowly roam,
Their shell forever is their home.

They’ve seen the rise and fall of kings,
The crumbling of forgotten things.
Yet they endure, with quiet pride,
Like poems etched on the turning tide.

So if you see one in the foam—
A drifting fort, a mobile home—
Remember this: the world grew old,
But turtles made it wise and bold.

Epilogue: Blessing of the Shell

Blessed be the beast so slow,
Who watches as the tempests go.
For in her eyes the planets gleam—
The turtle is the Earth’s true dream.