07-24-2025, 10:45 PM
(05-06-2024, 04:18 AM)dukealien Wrote: Just entries I liked, with maybe reasons why...These are beautiful poems very lovely
Quote:14th, an acrostic, @TranquilityBase:
Beyond the realm of talking elephants
And devious crocodiles, listless in the sun
By the edge of a dense rainforest
A fly-ridden congress of rhinos whisper in the grasses
Rejoicing at the news of a tyrant’s downfall
Isacaron, Brother number one, lays out the revolution to come
Sings to the armorbacks grievances to stir their blood
Down with the chatter of unnatural elephants!
Each must pay for the rhinos repeated humilitations
All the elephant cities returned to the jungle, the trumpeters
Dispersed back to their herds once and for all.
All those lovely references - and but of course he is, otherwise how would Babar II reign?
Quote:19th, warn(ing), @Tiger The Lion:
Patriots
Break left,
break right.
The fighter jets
on your ass
engage your wife
and kids
this family night.
Your commander less,
your country less.
Break right
break left
this fighter jet
on your ass
ain't ever gonna let
some nobody find his way home.
and most appropriate, the 19th being Patriots' Day (old style).
Quote:7th, write about exile, @Quixilated:
I left unwillingly with empty hands
and unshod feet. Time ran his path
while I had been walking mine.
Foolishly, I hid my face in a basket,
but it spilled out along the way.
I am always goaded forward, onward,
never to look back, never to return.
I baked memories for the road,
wrapped carefully, for taste transcends time
and place. But the memories grew stale
and lost their flavor. I cannot go back,
not even in my mind. The door is locked
and the path is long since swept away.
It is time to move forward again,
the clock has grown spikes,
and my grip on this moment is failing.
I place my face in a basket and bake
memories to nibble on the way.
Futility never wins over hope.
the choice between looking back and looking forward
Quote:1st, write about loss of innocence, @RiverNotch:
Even when he would go out to the field
only to watch someone get shot
out of the sky, only to duck
when the older kids cried out:
They're getting low! my grandpa
did not lose his innocence.
The stories he heard of soldiers catching
babies with their bayonets
were only stories, at the time,
while his town was pretty smart
in hiding my great aunts,
or else they learned the art too late,
hiding instead their fear, their shame,
even well past judgment.
with all the other very fine work from RN, I keep coming back to this one for the implications.
Quote:10th, write about a heroic woman (and a fairy tale), @Mark A. Becker:
Though her body was smaller
than some of the village children
her voice was as big as the canyon
where kids would gather round
to her tales of wonder.
By the glow of a full moon
and the warmth of a fire
she would transfix them
with tales of deer with wings
or fish that walked on land
Long after she had passed on
those children now grown
would recount her tales
embroidering the old stories
with those of their own.
It is said that the original tale
is over two hundred years old
yet no one alive today knows
for sure when the stories started
or how far they go back.
Legend has it that a little woman
has been seen by fishermen walking
along the riverbank, with gills
instead of a mouth. Hunters spot her
with large antlers flying over the forest.
Still others claim that she had come
in a dream to warn of a massive black funnel
cloud that would destroy everything in its path.
Over 100 years all of the villgers managed
to escape before that terrible tornado struck.
The imagination and imagery is strong with this one!
Quote:12th, involving a bed, @WJames:
Compatible
We were sitting on the bed when she said
I won’t be seeing you anymore.
I said that’s ok, and she told me
that was why.
I asked her how I should have responded to that,
and she said don’t you want to know why?
I didn’t really want to know
but I asked her anyway.
She said you always ask
before you kiss me.
I nominate @WJames as most consistently excellent for the month.
Samantha K. Bandeen