A Thousand Words

Post your poems here. If you post a poem by another author, which is fine, please give the author's name if you know it.
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

Yin and Yang (Denturn)

The dark and cool of shadows cast
on fields of wheat already reaped,
the emptiness inside a glass,
the hue of tea leaves fully steeped,

deceleration, braking force,
completion by receptiveness,
such things exemplify the source
of feminine Yin's gracefulness;

while...

scorching heat and solar brightness
shining down on fields still bristling,
glasses full of milky whiteness,
rising steam from teapots whistling;

speeding force, acceleration
uncompleted in effluence
constitute the emanation
of Yang's masculine influence.


—Wricker (8/19/2017)


____________
Note: The Denturn is a new form created by British poet Dennis W. Turner. It consists of 4 quatrains in tetrameter, 2 in iambic verse and 2 in trochaic verse, separated at the 'turning point' by a stand alone line ("while..." in the example above).
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
SnowCat
Banned Member
Posts: 4744
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:29 am
Gender: Female
Location: The Spirals

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by SnowCat »

Very nice. Now I want a cup of tea. Maybe some nice fish and chips too.
Daughter of Sekhmet
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

"No man ever steps in the same river twice." — Heraclitus

--------------

Panta Rhei

Called "The Obscure" by those too blind to see
the genius of his core philosophy,
a man possessed of wisdom well beyond
the confines of accepted normalcy;

headmaster of the school of thought he spawned,
designer of its teacher-student bond,
his influence shines to this very day
in modern theses written to respond

to his unique endeavors to portray
the fundamental precept holding sway
on everything condemned to decompose
to each and every mortal man's dismay:

for as the ever-changing river shows,
The Universe itself forever flows.


—Wricker (9/19/2017)
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

Magickal Sam

Control is the key to the sorcerer's game
of secretive reason and rhyme,
enabling him to achieve his true aim
and master the "Spiral of Time".

He harnesses forces of nature unseen
by those he considers profane,
and conjures, by way of the internecine,
the lightning of pleasure and pain.

His studied approach is the product of schools
for students of well-preserved thought;
his teachers had long ago spelled out the rules
in lessons the forefathers taught.

His alchemy summons the power of God
to brandish the fires of Hell!
He leaves all observers wholeheartedly awed
by casting a Magickal spell!


—Wricker (9/22/2017)

_______________
Based on a fantasy image titled Espiral del Tiempo (Spiral of Time), which depicts a hatless Uncle Sam as a practitioner of the dark arts.
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

Our Evening Walk

Let's walk together hand-in-hand
between the chiseled stones
that loom as morbid monuments
to buried human bones.

Let's pause before the one that seems
the least of all of those,
a crumbling block atop the grave
for whom god only knows.

This sandstone marker has become
a porous chalky white;
its long-forgotten epitaph
has faded out of sight,

commemorating on its face
a poignant tragedy—
a person's life has been erased
from living memory!

Let's take the time to shed a tear
for this anonymous,
for one day there may be no-one
to shed a tear for us.


—Wricker (9/23/2017)
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

On Our Way to the Grand Canyon, Circa 1979

The summer vacation of '79
was something I'll never forget,
Although, for the most part, the roadtrip was fine,
we made a pit-stop we would quickly regret.

We'd pulled off the highway to grab a quick bite
at some greasy diner called "Mel's",
and found to the opposite of our delight
the air was infused with nefarious smells!

Dad ordered "the special", Mom got the grilled cheese,
my sisters and brother and I
had tuna-fish sandwiches, carrots and peas;
before we were done we all wanted to die!

Our waitress laid down an exorbitant bill,
bussed plates full of half-eaten bits,
examined her tip with a look that could kill,
and roared as we stood to depart, "KISS MY GRITS!".


—Wricker (9/26/2017)
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
SnowCat
Banned Member
Posts: 4744
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:29 am
Gender: Female
Location: The Spirals

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by SnowCat »

I remember watching Alice. Flo was quite fond of telling Mel to kiss her grits. I just never understood how Alice could raise a kid on what she made as a waitress.

Snow
Daughter of Sekhmet
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

SnowCat wrote:I remember watching Alice. Flo was quite fond of telling Mel to kiss her grits. I just never understood how Alice could raise a kid on what she made as a waitress.

Snow
Haha! I knew someone around here would be old enough to get the references.

They shared a one-bedroom flat and Alice slept on a pull-out sofa bed. Hard times.
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”—Albert Einstein

E=mc2”—Albert Einstein

------------------

Applied Physics

If energy and mass are different forms
(diverse expressions) of a single thing,
could we steal thunder from celestial storms
whose power causes mortal hands to wring?

Can we not stand inside the placid eyes
of hurricanes and deconstruct their walls,
converting energy into supplies
to be dispersed where true compassion calls?

Could we conversely fashion into Will
the strongest iron flames have ever wrought,
converting mass by metallurgic skill
into the energy of human thought?

What good is knowledge of eternal laws,
unless applied to propagate our cause?


—Wricker (9/28/2017)
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

Image

Initiation

This ancient rune transcends a person's disabilities,
to spark the Phoenix's clandestine ways;
by esoteric force of change its runic Magick frees
the blind man from his cynical malaise.

Applied to human nature it is symbolized by flight
above the ordinary ebb and flow,
in order to attain a broader vision of the Light
whose thousand points of luminescence glow!

It is the heart's Initiation unto depth untold
—the deepest stratum of the human mind—
back to the granite bedrock from which destiny unfolds
to manifest the promise of mankind.


—Wricker (9/29/2017)


___________
PERTHRO - P
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

The American Rebel: Myth or Reality?

A golden-buckled separatist in modest black attire,
I am a pilgrim struggling to find my Plymouth Rock
three thousand miles removed from all the Church of England's ire,
a righteous rebel seeking refuge from the chopping block.

Or am I clad in deerskin with a cozy raccoon cap,
trailblazing in the footsteps of the fearless Daniel Boone;
defiant of the dangers pushing west without a map,
determined not to fall by dagger, bow or musketoon?

Or dare I chew with wooden teeth and wear a powdered wig,
the bane of father's cherry tree (I cannot tell a lie);
then cross the frigid Delaware in order to renege
on foolish rules of conduct (lining up in rows to die)?

Perhaps I am a black man proudly dressed in Union blues,
a "rebel" whose rebellion far outshines the southern cause,
a soldier in the war for freedom from their stunted views
on slavery, secession, sovereignty and rightful laws.

MayBE my face is painted like a native warrior
(Geronimo-like), tomahawk now menacingly raised,
whose tales of battle terrify (there are none gorier),
a model of resistance that is screaming to be praised!

Or could it be I'm decked-out in my cream bellbottomed jeans,
complete with crescent moons sewn on to make the pockets pop,
a hippie with a peace sign on my mystery machine,
protesting in the hope the war in Vietnam will stop?

Or is it fair to say that we are every one of them,
if only in the spirit of resistance to the wrong
committed by oppressors we collectively condemn
with bitter lyrics penned in scarlet for The Rebel's Song?


—Wricker (11/1/2017

___________________
Written for an AP contest
Order of the Virg♂
User avatar
Wricker Dreadtemper
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:37 pm
Gender: Male

Re: A Thousand Words

Post by Wricker Dreadtemper »

Burn It Down

My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.”—Kristen Jongen

------------------

It stood for generations as it served its purpose well
and weathered many growing seasons fine,
yet stood for prohibition as a looming sentinel
outside her bedroom window just beyond the Kudzu vine.

Its silhouetted frame would rise, as heavy eyelids closed,
to cast a lengthy shadow on her dreams,
suggestive of the gentle light behind it as she dozed
denied the hidden silver of those luminary beams.

Last night she went to bed to find an unobstructed view
of all the years she'd slumbered in the dark.
That barn had burned to ash and cinder right out of the blue,
“As if”, she mused, “ignited by my own internal spark?”.


—Wricker (11/4/2017)
Order of the Virg♂
Post Reply

Return to “Poetry”