contemporary poetry
I Am Woman
POSTED IN contemporary poetry January 17, 2015
Rondeau: I Am WomanI am Woman with mindset of steel:
forging wheels on the line in a foundry;
breaking ceilings of glass with no boundaries
in the corporate world making deals.Treating patients so that they may heal;
teaching students with vigor and zeal;
gaining knowledge both complex and sundry;
I am Woman.Always humble at heart to reveal
to the ones that I love what I feel;
domesticity roles, doing laundry,
solving problems when we’re in a quandary,
giving thanks for each day that’s been sealed.
I am Woman.
Thank you, my Wonderful Shari!
Shari Jo LeKane-Yentumi
Nevicata Notturna / Nocturnal Snowing
POSTED IN contemporary poetry January 15, 2015
Nevicata Notturna«Lasciamo che questa neve leggera cada sui nostri
Sogni e li faccia risplendere! »Reso libero,
Il tuo respiro leviga cieli irremovibili;
La tua percezione gratta realtà ancora non aperte.È forse un passatempo per pensieri smarriti,
Per volti e peccati dimenticati?Guardando da un’altra parte per paura o
Imbarazzo, svegliandoti la mattina successiva,
Dovrai allora imparare
Come mantenere viva la mente assopita,
Nel tentativo di spinger via
Quella treccia di capelli
Inceppata negli occhi della memoria.Ah.. Quei ricordi assillanti!
Era reale il suo dolore
Quando esclamò «Quello è il mio vestito rovinato!
Il vestito della festa,
Quello che i tuoi occhi pieni di lussuria mi strapparono via»?Quasi uno scherzo del destino quella
Polivalente percezione che rese
Visionaria, chimerica la tua pleonastica attesa.Perché lei non ritornò.
Neppure all’alba. Neppure nelle tue aspettative..Ora il dolore urla soltanto col silenzio
Quando affondi le dita nell’intimo del tuo cuore
Che sanguina —Un dolore assoluto, rimasto
Senza voce
Perché giorno dopo giorno, anno dopo anno,
Tutto diventa abitudine.Finché,
Osservando quella lanugine bianca in volo,
La scorgesti —Insieme ad un
Soffio del suo profumo..Scrutando nel profondo del tuo sguardo
Lei pronunciò parole di speranza
E insieme -forse- una promessa:« Una nuova vita ti si prospetta al di là dei
Campi imbiancati della mente »Parole ovattate, pronunciate sottovoce
Per non scalfire la purezza della notte.Fu una profezia?
La celebrazione di un trionfo o un
Fallimento —Un incubo raccapricciante?Basta! Non voglio più saperne!
Con lo sguardo fisso sulle mie dita insanguinate
Stancamente sospiro.
Nocturnal Snowing
«Let this fluffy snow fall upon our
Dreams and make them shine! »Set free,
Your breath smoothens unshaken skies;
Your perception scratches unopened realities.Is it a diversion -maybe- for lost thoughts,
For lost faces and sins?Looking the other way out of fear or
Embarrassment, waking up next morning,
You should then learn
How to keep alive the drowsing mind,
While trying to shove away
Her plait of hair,
Jammed in the eyes of memory.Ah.. Those haunting memories!
Was her pain real
When she asserted «That one is my spoiled dress!
My dress party
Which your eyes, filled with lust, tore me off..»?Hardly a twist of fate that
Multivalent perception which made
Visionary —Fanciful
Your unnecessary waiting.Because she didn’t come back.
Even at dawn. Even in your expectation.Now your pain screams only through silence
When you sink your fingers deep
Into your bleeding heart —A sheer grief
With no voice anymore
Because day in day out, year after year
Everything becomes habit.Until,
Gazing at the fluffy snow falling, you
Caught a glimpse of her —Along with a
Whiff of her perfume..Peering deeply into your eyes
She spoke words of hope
Along with a promise -possibly-:« A new life is looming beyond the whitened
Fields of your mind »Hushed words, uttered under her breath,
Not to scrape the purity of the night.Was it a prophecy?
The celebration of a triumph or a
Failure —A bloodcurdling nightmare?Enough! I’m fed up!
I stare at my bloody fingers
And faintly sigh.(Florence,2014)
(Firenze,2014)
Copyright © Fabrizio Frosini – All rights reserved
Hypocrisy
POSTED IN contemporary poetry, reading poetry, Stories January 11, 2015
Hypocrisy
She’s dressed in black with white high heels,
A designed dress her ways reveals,
She fakes some tears with mini skills,
She hides her face and what she feels.
She wants to say: “I am a saint,
I can’t bear badness, I do faint,
I talk to angels while I paint,
I am suave, fragile and quaint”.
Her voice is calm, and kind, and deep,
Her head inclined in little weep.
She’s got style, poise and sex appeal,
One may think she’s the real deal.
She hides her face, her eyes, her truth,
She fears to be perceived in sooth.
She knows: in a photography
One can’t see the hypocrisy.Maria Magdalena Biela
Constellations
POSTED IN contemporary poetry December 14, 2014
Constellations
I
Heavenly constellations
written ‘cross the sky
speaking a language of light
II
This, who I am that you see
is as old as you
beginning as time began
III
Be patient, sincere and wise
befitting a man
in possessing your proper share
© Garnet Shaw Robbie 2013
Autumn Rains
POSTED IN contemporary poetry July 28, 2014
Autumn RainsOur lawn is in a state of disrepair; the grass
lies dormant, trampled brown; and dead.
For only hardy weeds can thrive out here
And even those – our urge is to de-head!
My neighbour’s patch is brilliant, emerald green.
Not for him this gasping, drought struck land.
He has the liveliest grass I’ve ever seen!
From founts of water hosed by liberal hand.
Not us! We wait for autumn rains to fall.
And though my fingers itch to bring back life,
I must desist; we are in Nature’s thrall,
To interfere may cause some future strife.
So in this desert moment we just wait,
For autumn rains to come and satiate.
Amanda Edwards
The joy of child care
POSTED IN contemporary poetry June 5, 2014
The joy of child careYou rush at me this morn with open arms.
I gladly scoop you up and hold you close.
A heady mix of soap and fragrant talc;
A hint of milk and jam and buttered toast.Your lips begin to tremble; Mum departs.
Another friend arrives, I crouch down low.
Transform into a tiger’s snarling jaws.
I watch your face; a smile begins to grow.You stumble on the mat upon the floor.
Tears spill quickly from your full moon eyes.
Such trifling troubles yet for one so brave;
A magic kiss brings sunny cloudless skies.You look upon the world with simple joy.
There’s no pretence; nothing you must hide.
Another day of freedom to explore;
To seek, to find, to know, to be a child.
Amanda Edwards
Coming Ready or Not
POSTED IN contemporary poetry May 4, 2014
Coming Ready or Not“I’m coming ready or not”, you call;
I scramble one last time,
To find a dark secluded spot
That I can claim as mine.The time for hiding’s over
Yet I’ll play this game awhile,
I’ll let you come and find me
And greet you with a smile.Come and get me, if you please
I’m ready for you now,
I’ve longed for you to find me
Just no one told me how.How to find you with my heart
My eyes have blinded me.
It’s taken me so many years
But now I truly see.
copyright 2014 Mandy Edwards
Dreams That You Dare To Dream
POSTED IN contemporary poetry May 1, 2014
Dreams That You Dare To DreamOnce in a place in a far away time
Inside a space from where grew perfect rhyme
Beyond the realms of a blink and a sigh
A poetess grew wings and took to the skyIn to the sky like an eagle she flew
Above cloud cover still heavy with dew
Beyond the stars giving way to the morn
On wings rose tinged with the blush of the dawnSetting her sights on the edge of the world
Steering her course as her karma unfurled
Out of the darkness and into the light
Out of the dreams that were guiding her flightHigh above oceans and rivers and ranges
Safely away from all possible dangers
Driven by powers once quietly sleeping
Looking for him with her heart in his keepingThere in the distance she saw the rainbow
Colours more brilliant than seen from below
Stunned by its beauty she paused in her flight
Just for a moment to bathe in its lightSlowly with care through the colours she flew
Finding those bluebirds and skies always blue
As she looked down from her heavenly high
She saw land once heard in a lullabyKnowing her journey was now at an end
Wings barely moving began to descend
Closing her eyes as her feet touched the ground
The edge of the world she had finally foundHe came up behind her, no longer a myth
The one she had flown across time to be with
He turned her towards him and tilted her chin
Then lowered his mouth and took her soul withinWrapped in the cloak of his loving they walked
Through quiet moments together they talked
Finally united to never more part
Home was the poetess, Home with her heart.
from Wanda’s page
Wanda Kiel Rapana
Land Of My Birth
POSTED IN contemporary poetry May 1, 2014
Land Of My BirthOh Mississippi, my beloved Mississippi
How I long to bathe in your dark rich soil
Where my life was spent in great toilHow you dare to say can I feel this way
This place that brought me such pain
Labelled by slavery, cruelty, and shameIn the Delta’s belly we were thus conceived
Breed like animals because of others greed
Compensated by death for our sweat & toil
My ancestors’ blood fertilizes the rich soilOh Mississippi, my beloved Mississippi
Labels shan’t cover your Magnolia trees
Or the sisterhood created from your seedsThe cruelty of men shan’t dim your beauty
It is the blind I fear that refused to see
That Mississippi is an integral part of meThough the master’s whip plotted my course
And I borne him brown babies to till his fields
I cleaned his house & breast fed his young
And by his hands our children were hungOh Mississippi, my beloved Mississippi
You are my mysterious womb of birth
Every mother knows labor pains hurtHow can I not understand your worth
My heart is planted deep within the soul
Of a sisterhood more valuable than goldOh my beloved Mississippi, Mississippi
I am not blind to your natural treasures
Even if men cruelty is still raging strong
It’s to you I yearn to come back home
Copyright
12 / 28 /05 – 1 / 02 / 06 Linda Jones Malonson
Springtime
POSTED IN contemporary poetry April 30, 2014
SpringtimeA hoary old man, winter lingers, untill
he grows tired and relents, he gives way
to Lady Spring. She yawns and stretches
to longer light, the sweet air of spring
kisses winter and waves him goodbye.She wears a new dress and recites poetry.
From southern oceans her zephyr blows
breathes new life into naked trees: bursts
dormant sticky buds and opens translucent
green leaves, adorns cherry apple and pear.A spring bride, in her train, fragile blossom
forms many tiny fruitlets. The Forsythia
spreads rays of sunshine. The frogs, free
from hybernation, wrestle in the pond
an orgy, on which their survival depends .When V skeins of geese fly honking towards
Romney marsh my heart greets Lady Spring
The ladybirds settle like tiny red blisters
on the fertility of a flourishing nettle patch.
The proud cock pheasant swaggers downthe lane, a drab hen bouquet in his wake.
The ra-ta-tat-tat… of woodpecker’s verve,
echoes percussion over gently undulating
green hills, where lambs gambol, the ewes
chew grass, while two llamas stand guard.A farmer plants seeds trusts in summer sun,
autumns harvest.Spring dances in our hearts.
Gael Bage
