Come to me, you wild beast, You whirling storm of beauty Battered, scarred, bruised and teased You grew beyond majesty Wide, cold skies weep for you In pain, relief and sorrow Rage rumbles, deep and true No gods will reign tomorrow Nor hold you trapped in caves Where man’s faithless, dank pride grips Where the ceaseless lie staves Off a small apocalypse Come, fly free, fly stronger You’ve broken stone and cruel fate Breed your courage longer Your kind, for you, yet await Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - 2020 Prompt 6 - 2pm EST Prompt #6: Picture Prompt
Category: Poetry Marathon
No Pressure
Relaxation (i remind myself) is the key to Beauty timed tests and pressures might create infinite diamonds (but only over time) fissures cracks flaws (We must realize) are the inevitable result of TOO MUCH TOO FAST TOO SOON There are bromides for everything Fences sat upon in great uncertainty As winds or breezes, ice or snow rain or sunshine fall As the sense of infinite plausibility wends round-and-round A fence to guard A carousel A barrier for safety or for holding back wishes? Draw strength from your uncertainty embrace the miasmic Nonsense that wakes you stalls you shields you and realize that in the exchange - in the embrace - in the reverse lifestyle (from all you’ve been urged) YOU DEVOTE YOUR LIFE TO BEAUTY Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - 2020 Prompt 5 - 1pm EST Prompt #5: Use at least 8 (or all) of the following words in your poem: fence, uncertainty, devote, ice, draw, reverse, nonsense, exchange, infinite, relaxation, wind, bathtub, lifestyle, guitar, realize
Blue-and-Red
Blue sand underfoot
Chilled children’s drinks drain away
Boiling crabs blush bright red
Quarter Crazy Marathon
Quarter 3 - 2020
Prompt 4 - 12pm EST
Prompt #4: Write a poem about blue sand and red crabs
**This prompt came from Writerswrite.com
Silver Linings
There were so many moments shared with you Long walks through Montreal, Toronto, too Night drives on cobbled streets in Buffalo And never, then, did others know of you I shirk to show the bruises, faded, old And gone from view; so much I never told ‘A silver lining,’ ‘True Love Conquers’ - so I lived, trusted your eyes of em’rald-gold I trusted in your reason and your mind, Expected love - but never love maligned The whirlwind I became to remain free Upheld, punished - still, through all, I was blind A silver lining brightened every day But not from you and that tumult’ous play The brightness, love existed but in me Your bitter words spawned with me dark affray We should have parted, been no more than friends If but we wished to find harmon’ous ends Yet, all I have now is a memory Devoid of hopes to, one day, make amends With no way back, with truth, I move ahead Peek back proves I, that silver lining led And I, my own responsibility Free from the man I wish I’d never wed Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - 2020 Prompt 3 - 11am EST Music Prompt - Response to My Silver Lining by First Aid Kit Photo credit: Pexels Free Photos
A Sonnet in Pink
’Tis true, I never thought to think, to dream, To find the words while crafting this, midstream; And yet, t’was but one color that did seem To reach, inspire, set my mind agleam: Soft, cotton-candy clouds in summer skies; The bright, exotic skin that dragons prize; The flesh that lovers yearn to tantalize; A sweet explosion calls to butterflies - All wild, soft or misty gleam is theirs. How can one dare to own, when the world shares, When all of femininity are heirs, When cyan, tangerine burst fiercer flares? And still, I find I cannot double-think The myriad, effluent hue of pink.
Quarter Crazy Marathon Quarter 3 - August 15, 2020 Prompt 2 - 10am EST Write a Sonnet Photo credit: Pexels Free Photos
numbers divided
five days ago i wrote to you wishing I’d hear from you three weeks ago you wrote to me but, one word will never do nine years ago we scened but once i fell so hard for you eight years age-difference seemed zero there was none one could do in all that time and all these years i never wished from you to part and i will say this honestly: i couldn’t muster a fresh start t'was hardly fair to you or me - what rules a lover’s heart? when memories, day-terrors shook, took hold, our mind and lives we thwart and dismay now is lasting grief so little left, have we to show from years of love of dreams dreamt well shoved into corners, urged to grow this madness left of why we split of i insisting that you’d go was spawned of love for, split we were now, negative is all i know
Quarter Crazy Marathon
Quarter 3 – Saturday, August 15, 2020
Prompt 1 – 9am EST
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Acquaintanceships by Night and by Day
I have been one acquainted with the night. I have been lost in the depths of a vast universe, Lost beyond the reaches of his highest height - And whence his words rippled from kindly to terse - Where were you? Where were all of you who feel cause to judge Whilst I searched the covens of all space and time, Whilst I sloughed off all that you all begrudge, Whilst I delved into depths of my heart and mind? I have become one with the night, Taking fireflies and monsters to become my friends, Learning from cats to see with a feline's sight That my soul and my heart could see my paths' ends - And where were you? Were you shielding rays As family, friends, children from far and wide Came to embrace you in light of day Whilst you did hold to your ego's pride? I have become acquainted with the night, With the darkness of my soul, and with others' too That I may face with a whole heart my fright, That I may learn to forgive and to love even you Who judge. Where were you when my soul was alone? Did you come to my aide? Did you reason to give? Or did you only miss what was given, well-known? Did you think to reach out, give me reason to live? I have become one with the night and the day Breaking reasons, unfettered by common restraints, That I may find reason to live well, as I may; That I may find life without common complaints - And where, pray tell, where do your judgements lead us Whist I, on my own - my heart oft torn asunder, My life and my mind leaving you in nonplus? I find myself, day and night, filled naught but with wonder — For I have become acquainted well with the night, And I break, at last, into dawning of days; And I find I shan't run, though my wings take to flight As I find myself, now, understanding your ways.
(First line borrowed from “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost, http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems-and-performance/poems/detail/47548 )
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Fire & Water
Fire at your fingertips Fire that leaps from your perfect lips Fire that heats all of what I am Fire that burns in your epigram At length, you and I are endlessly drawn You of the sun and I of the sea Slipping through sunsets and rising at dawn Flames crave to be quenched only by me Water drips from my eyes every night Water cleanses each burning, every harm, every slight Water connects me to all beings that are Water surrounds us, no matter how far Roil and boil in our yearning to grasp Groping to touch as hearts at distance clasp Fire and water barely meeting, and then Into the ether, we rise again Fire at your fingertips Fire that leaps from your perfect lips Fire that heats all of what I am Fire that burns in your epigram As soft as I am when I wash over you As hard as I come when my fury's released I fall every day as the morning dew Wash back again, back again, passion unceased Water drips from my eyes every night Water cleanses each burning, every harm, every slight Water connects all the beings that are Water surrounds us, no matter how far Can you claim what is mine with all your soul's heat? Can a sun claim an ocean and neither retreat? Can two beings so strong make a life that will last? Can two such hearts meet, make a love unsurpassed? Fire at your fingertips Fire that leaps from your perfect lips Fire that heats all of what I am Fire that burns in your epigram Heat me, embrace me with fires that burn I'll cool you with kisses, none sweeter than mine I hope and I wish and I want and I yearn Fire and water make a love genuine Water drips from my eyes every night Water cleanses each burning, every harm, every slight Water connects all the beings that are Water surrounds us, no matter how far
In The Beginning
And then, the flow began: The life that was their own, The life that was her own That urged a broad wingspan; No longer words, alone No longer friends outgrown.... She found true love without a man; Won lands afar without a throne; Traversed where none had ever flown - And all of this, without a plan, Without a soul yet to condone The very life she'd only known With only whispers of "I can...!" She lifts her eyes, will not bemoan The very life, love some'd disown; Though from malaise he'd said she ran, Through heartaches, breaks come on full-blown, She'd come to now, to but intone, To sing like ancient Solomon Her heart's truth, life, love depone In psalms, her soul's brilliant lodestone; To find in sweet, attentive span And unfailingly true touchstone Her life, her love ne'er to atone... And then, and so her flow began....
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Star-Crossed
Into the stillness of a dream The day had been what it'd never been Wide swing, warm coffee, chilly day; Words flowed from fingers, come what may When up I glanced, to a tattered blue And a stylish shirt; it was only you They say that clothes can make the man Though I'd say you made those jeans all you can! And I'd say, instead, that clothes can portray The heart of a man and, perhaps, his way For, when you peered from behind the frame And spoke of what sets your mind aflame I knew we'd be friends forever-more Even if we knew not what life had in store Some star-crossed loves are but passing friends Who yet share a connection that never ends And you, who shares so much of his eyes' deep sight Shall have coffee, deep chats with me one long night Words and life may have limits, true But star-crossed friendships never do
For my dear friend, Terrell Clark, on his birthday
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Oceans of Mine 