The moralists, twenty and two,
Know not what is like to ensue,
When, grasping but smidgeons,
They act as if pigeons;
They’ll probably hate me when through.
Spirits of the woodland deep.
Gather, please, at gate.
Shadow, dark fire, through me seep!
Hummingbirds can hate!
Where the prickly pear was grown?
Deep beneath a lake.
Where the angry god was thrown?
Someone made mistake...
There to build, O pyramid!
Tumble down the step.
Deterrence means getting rid?
Soldiers, step with pep.
Stars above the forest?
From heaven, do ye swing?
Harpsichords, harpy, ne'er rest.
Sight-line, foe to sing.
Awkward position? Well, done.
Servants of the One.
Oracle, scion, vision.
Blink and it's begun...
Whiplash? Sword, deliver slash?
If you've got the cash!
Otherwise be-fevered bash.
Dessicate the dash...
Crater, thy rim. Tyrant, whim.
Abysm to swim.
O dark chasm, lights a-dim?
Except moment grim...
Dun days? Clouds above in greys?
Sapphire? Purple haze?
Deterrence, dessicate, cays.
Buildings on the raze.
World around in twilight.
Months ahead a-grim.
Heart within me, burn with fight!
Crater, have thy rim...
Ocean, boil. Intestines, roil.
Ignite, O my soil.
Lightning, fry. My music, broil.
Serpents, time to coil.
Torment, grip each human life.
Quest, on edge of knife.
Fate and Fortune, seethe with strife.
Demon-sultan, fife.
Tyrant of tomorrow?
Of him I never heard.
Surcease sorrow, I borrow!
Tower dark, thy third.
Wind, tear down. Abhor, my crown.
Demolish the town!
Carnival chaos, thy clown.
Hope, see self as flown.
Flickering flame, explode. Death, come.
Doom, hover o'er all.
Chord suffering, play for some.
Family, how ye gall.
Terror, strike. O Panic, lurch.
Bake and flay, O life.
Silver were the trees of birch!
Wisdom, thou art rife!
Tread not on me, brother!
To live is to expand.
Deterrence! Slay the Other!
Cold core countermand!
Boots a-click-clack, cobblestone.
Midnight raid and how!
Help the boy to hold his own!
Sacred, O my cow!
Written in the ancient s blood?
Time to cause a flood!
Rill and river, ricin, rud!
Break, fade, flash, firewood!
Bats before the bayonets?
Batons too can kill.
Settle in before she sets?
Providence, thy will.
Wild as any modern force?
Stranger than the sea?
Shift, O river, from thy course?
Not the likes of me!
Covert action! Civilize!
Cut them down to size!
Aim for whites of foemen eyes!
Dare to criticize?
Thunder, roll o'er city street!
Alarums to ring!
Riot team, best ye complete!
Jerk them on the string!
Silent aftermath, thy path.
Kingdom, how ye grew.
Pour out poison on the math!
Hope, need talking to...
Written By: D. Collins 3/21/25
The essence of poetry is expressing one's mind.
Able to freeze what's happening at that given time.
Everything seen and heard in the course of a day.
Should be scrolled on paper or digital highway.
Each life experience is a lesson to be taught.
To teach generations to follow the safest route.
It is a good thing in momentarily stopping time.
To document misgivings for deterrence down the line.
Frozen ornaments
with fierce tears
Swallowing the lie raw
Life's fake comedy
discomfort and deterrence
Prefer the stories - grisly
With tendencies towards modes abhorrent, I operate
Hone deterrence to deserved carnal pleasure consolidate
Intentional extension of potential paths provoke
Libidinous grasping of bliss platter's swift revoke
Elysium eviction accepts anguish for apple crisp taste
Impaired paradise jags a vagabond, journey's ardour
Want stimulates striving, stiff splinter of suffered strappado
Harvest achieved after toil has farmer famished
Indebted unto a sliding spiral, subsided vanquish
Sacrilege accounts for devious mortals' imminent waste
Pain prescribed for impiety wraps breath in challenge
Embarrassed to decay, by greedy big ego enchanted
Rid of Eden's pardon, shield of shame, always disgraced
22nd October
Transgressions
Obstruct Heaven
Terror
When I thought of the terror
Once I sat engaged and freighting
Much I marveled the splendid scare
Deep into that darkness fearing
On that day my soul grew lonely
Once upon a midnight silent
I awoke and flung the deterrence
Sore while all the while violent
Once upon a midnight silent
and its eyes have all the hushing
It was onrushing, violent, gushing!
The clap never brushing
I crave the stirring, somber sedition
There stood a voiceless nutrition
To warn me about the basal metabolic rate
In The blacken darkness riffs of hate
Deep into that darkness sing
Still is sting, still is sting
As of someone gently bring, bring
Death shall bring hallelujahs
Deep into that darkness fooling
All my soul within me grueling
As of someone gently schooling, schooling
Death shall bring acclamations
All my soul within me dueling
Engaged and freighting
Much I marveled the splendid scare
Deep into that darkness fearing
On that day my soul grew lonely
Once upon a midnight silent
I awoke and flung the deterrence
scary-Terror
3/22/22
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2022©
A sadness appears
on the face of a nation
as tears fall like rivers a’flow
Midst rubble and death
with dreams slowly shattered,
where blood coats the fields draped in snow
So gallant they stand
to the war machine charging,
a serpent of heartless desire
Their bravery shines
like the flames unrelenting,
their world inundated with fire
A leader’s decree,
there shall be no surrender,
our lives will remain on this ground
Till peace be our prize,
with defeat not an option,
eternal this courage is found
A formidable foe,
bearing breath of a dragon,
deterrence shall not be thy gain
With strength one and all,
we shall battle this demon
for we are as one, oh Ukraine
Immigrant bodies pile up in Texas
After building a wall from ‘freedom’ glass
Green card for hard labour
Slave on dearest neighbour
Watch your companions expire en masse
17th July 2019
Nuclear bombs are stacked
To use when an enemy needs to be whacked
With one leader having eight hundred bombs ready
And another matching them so very handy
Scientists move their clock
Closer to the midnight slot
For mutual deterrence is the story
Locked with complacency with no glory.
© Paul Warren Poetry
Soon everything we know will rapidly be changed
Into an unfamiliar landscape and a worldwide shooting range
Guns pointing in every direction and at every town
No inspections will be allowed and best not show a frown
Orwellian decrees are issued, as government is a fail
False leaders arise; resorting to trickery and blackmail
Threat of war becoming constant with each passing day
Hot weather rapidly increasing evaporating countless lakes and bays
Electromagnetic pulse use likely; these weapons we do store
Thoughts no longer of deterrence, but of all out war
In a flash, atomic weapons destroy all that we have and stand for
Man still is searching for an out, but there is no escape door
Extreme earthquakes continue shaking the earth down to its core
Sadly, all of this must occur; to allow true peace to return once more
I am nothing and I am common
Does doing something new means a difference?
Becoming well known and uncommon
Perhaps an only lifetime were meant for deterrence
If we climb we will fall
No going about any other way
Why do we ask for more?
Is it because... we cannot find the way?
We listen and we try to follow
Are we not listening to oneself hard enough?
If we're listening... why isn't the bad we borrow?
Is it cause the good in us all will people laugh?
I will not run... I will confront
I will not hide... I will dispose
Living means only... never done
Trying only means... never close
Have I done something to make a difference?
When I did... do I become uncommon?
Is there a whole world to make that interference?
When nothing I am... only to be common
With a little bit of inspiration
Written By Dean Masciarelli
September 30, 2010 (3:10pm)
With a little bit of inspiration
I encourage you
To expand your imagination
Because this will allow you
to broaden your horizons
So that you can explore without limitations
Because it will give you the opportunity to
do
everything that you have ever wanted to do
And that includes doing things that you have never
done before by avoiding the deterrence of hesitation
I aspire for a flight of magnificence
though the words at times reek of innocence.
Yet striving to create a renaissance
in form which will not require penitence.
I boast of overcoming pestilence
in manipulating verbal reticence
to overcome loathing of quiescence,
which in a sense is the essence
of any poem of mental brilliance.
Aspiring to poems that soar in evanescence,
a luminescence of fluorescence in abundance.
The presence of acquiescence a deterrence
to obsolescence of obeisance in appearance.
The absence of pseudo credence and conformance
to the quintessence of acceptance of senescence,
in poetry, assures defiance of decadence,
and a deterrence of annoyance in articulence.
Yet the arrogance of old heads holds coalescence,
the decidence of some form’s discontinuance.
The annoyance and inconvenience of their defiance,
keeps their belligerence in convalescence.
Their exaserbescence akin to adolescence
in nature, they think obstinance is a virtuence.
© Sept 19 2010 Charles Henderson
4 th in John's Free verse contest
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