The Poetry Marathon

A lady fair

With streaming hair

Went strolling by the ponds

She liked the way

The wind would play

A tune among the fronds

She heard a sound

And turned around

And looked upon a frog

He wore a crown

Of eider down

And sat upon a log

‘O! Lady do you see me?

Maybe you can free me

Allow me to evince

A fell magician

Caused this transition

I truly am a prince

But it may be

You hold the key

All I need is this

Listen well

To break the spell

You must give me a kiss

Just take ahold

My form enfold

You’re much too high to climb

Now purse your lip

And let ‘er rip

I’m sorry for the slime.’

The lady fair

With streaming hair

Felt sorry for the toad

She grabbed the mooch

And gave a smooch

And then the scoundrel crowed,

‘It was all lies

I do eat flies

And live beside a bog

I am no royal

But you’d recoil

From a lowly little frog.’

The lady seized him

Roughly squeezed him

Spake she, ‘We shall see

With kiss of whips

Instead of lips

If noble you can be!’

But ‘twas no matter

All the batter

Though she pinched and kicked

She did slap him

Soundly rap him

‘Til the toad was licked

In the end

Our slippery friend

Was lucky he survived

But there are things

Like sons of kings

That cannot be contrived

Yin

Dark, Black

Destroying, Reaping, Chaos

Moon, Water, Death, Life, Fire, Sun

Creating, Sowing, Order

Light, White

Yang

The sun, so low of late

Now rising higher

Wakes the maiden wood nymph

Naked, as though born anew

Bathing her in golden warmth

The gentle kiss of rain

Coaxes out her blushing buds

Anoints them each with dew

Cradled in her supple boughs

Caressed by softest breath

Ecstatically burst forth in flower

Soon her seed to strew

They call us witches

So let’s set ourselves ablaze

If they turn away

We’ll just watch each other burn

They say we’re useless

So let’s make ourselves lame

If they watch us crawl

On our neighbours we will turn

They say we have no morals

So let’s behave in sinful ways

If they think they know us

Then we’ll lend truth to their lies

They call us cowards

So let’s point away the blame

If they point right back

We’ll elect ourselves their spies

What they tell us

We’ll make true

What they give us

We’ll make do

Whatsoever they might make us

We will make each other, too

Tristram Ivey

is still alive-y.

I don’t know how he did survive-y

when off a cliff he took a dive-y!

Fear not the future

Though it must surely hold your death

For it is the past that haunts us

Taunts us with the things we did not know

A girl lay on her mattress dreaming

a dream first sweet then vicious-seeming

subconscious visions softly screaming

teeming with the ghosts of yesteryear

when woke she with a startled shiver

each cheek the bed of briny river gleaming

streaming with the tears of childish fears

Alight did she on wooden floorboards

creaking as she tiptoed forwards

sneaking past the door and onwards

down the hall in stocking feet

A shady figure always keeping

clear of where her eyes were peeping

went behind her in the shadows creeping

down the hall on stalking feet

For the window made she fumbling

stumbling as she reached out

thumbing heavy drapes

that hid the night

when suddenly she heard a rumbling

as if some beastly stomach grumbling

and nearly tumbling turned she

towards the creature hid from sight

A shudder took her

nearly shook her to collapsing

sure she was that claws would hook her

rasping fast through darkness

grasping as they preyed

Casting out into the masking shadows

now to be forever lasting and crashing

to the floor she threw her hands together clasping

gasping as she prayed

The curtains she had sought were dropped

with haste, at once forgot

yet somehow they had caught upon her wrist

and with a movement pulled into her fist

A twist, and through the window’s pane

the moon before its wane did cast a silvered plane

upon the floor

Before her shrunk the hidden horror

outside the beaming boundaries of the light

around the girl

but sensed she in the blackness watching

the crouching creature still there slouching

while behind her fast encroaching

‘cross the lunar face a looming cloud

Fast the hallowed halo now retreating

lifted she again her hands entreating

in the dark that followed

as the moon was slowly swallowed by the shroud

If you and I and them and me;

and that and this and those and these;

and they and it and he and she;

and ye and thee were naught but ‘We’

Not one or two or even three,

Might not our purpose stronger be?

I see you true

I caught a glimpse

of the soul you hide behind your eyes

I saw you see me, too

You seem a dream

A cruel mirage

and yet you are the one who grounds me

So too, I hope

there must be something holds you here

You give me strength

with strength you show

when edges of the world do graze you

It does not hurt

you try to lie

but

your voice betrays you

This I wish:

The words to speak

and a voice to speak them

And this I fear:

That you might fade away and I might miss you

I hesitate

unknowing

if it would not be meet to kiss you

Allow me this:

A fingertip

My being focused fully to this single point in space

Let me reach you

Give me grace

to trace the salty paths the past has left upon your face

The sky, a single cloud unsundered

Casts desire over leafy crowns

Which grace the head of Mother’s matrons

And gild the brows of Gaea’s patrons

A longing to undress

Their summer clothes so lately lush

Grow itchy ‘gainst their knotty skins

To alleviate the inflammation

A wondrous curse of transformation

Leaves modesty forgot

The ornaments once cherished so

First grow jaundiced, then

Burning with a fever fall

Shedding ‘til they’re naked all

No longer vain and proud

The metamorphosis complete

They feel the bite of frigid air

Huddling together bare

And balling fists of woody digits at

The sky, a single cloud unsundered