Poetry competition CLOSED 28th January 2019 3:57pm
WINNER
ImperfectedStone (The Gardener)
View Profile Poems by ImperfectedStone
trophy
RUNNERS-UP: eswaller and PoetsRevenge

Go to page:

Bone - Celebration of Mary Oliver

Ahavati
Tyrant of Words
United States 116awards
Joined 11th Apr 2015
Forum Posts: 14145

Song of the Builders ( After Mary Oliver )

We are humankind, all of us
living various levels of experience—  
growing consciousness as bones.    
     
Some are fractured, broken  
scarred by choice or accident—  
others, solidly intact.  
 
We do not master response  
as much as approach —  although  
it is not the latter that generates war  
but the former alone.  
 
If I say, Strike my cheek    
do it, that I may judge  
how much I have built  
 
upon the foundation of Love  
by turning the other too—   
or, how far I still need to go.      
~      
     
#MaryOliver
Written by Ahavati
Go To Page  

SatInUGal
Kumar
Dangerous Mind
United States 24awards
Joined 31st Dec 2015
Forum Posts: 903

SWEET ANNIHILATION

There was a moment at the end of youth,
I sat upon a rock and watched the breeze.  
As seeds and tufts and other fancies flew,  
I read the writing of the earth preserved  
In granite by a withered dry creekbed  
And felt in me the want to take up ink.  
As termites scarified a heart in wood,  
The richness of wild minutiae took hold  
And laughter bellowed out my slack-jaw mouth.  
  
My life doubled in years but no more known,  
I came again to sacred stone and trees  
A little way from where I had grown up,  
A little way from love that I had lost,  
Sat still and watched the daytime moon pass near.  
I bushwhacked through my ego to a lake  
And with a snake and catfish swam carefree.  
   
That nature must destroy me now and then  
Is a lesson aging nicely, I think.

~

#MaryOliver
Written by SatInUGal (Kumar)
Go To Page  

ImperfectedStone
The Gardener
Tyrant of Words
United Kingdom 28awards
Joined 10th Oct 2010
Forum Posts: 1347

The Swan (Oliver: Bone)

 
For my small, incredible Great-Nanny, who loved Swans, who has been gone for seven years too long.

Inspired by Mary Oliver's poem by the same name.    
  
  
Inwardly descending, shifting across the creek  
   she comes  
      with the grace of a purest babe  
   and careful, as mother carrying it  
  
'her ship, filled  
   with white flowers–'
      dancing upon the early-grey  
   of ghosts, in their holy chariots.  
  
I miss my Grandmother's company–  
   sketching waves  
      within perfectly penned lines and  
   of course! Songs a-sung -  
  
hymns of angels never-heard.  
   Secrets shift beneath a surface,
      too fine and infinitely thin  
   to perceive.  
  
Hollowed out on gutted instruments of man they are played,
   left safer untouched - lingering ear to ear, eye to eye,  
       with almost words,  
     almost touches.  
  
Hover back, dear fullest ship,  
     with cargo of earnest pleasures,  
       carry your goodness between this life and next  
   safekeeping histories of the goddess 'neath your wing.

     
#Mary Oliver  
Bone
Written by ImperfectedStone (The Gardener)
Go To Page  

Heaven_sent_Kathy
Thought Provoker
United States 9awards
Joined 1st Nov 2017
Forum Posts: 177

Omnipotent Journey

Is it age that has me turn aside,  
to think twice because the  
turmoil in my life is nothing new.  

This time around it’s  
different news or seems to be,  
though bitter onslaught’ chill  
and words are all the same.  
 
Before I’m overwhelmed  
this time, I know what I must do,  
and I won’t be alone.  
 
From those who try to hold me back  
with lists they need for me to fill.  
 
From shouts that try to blame their  
wants and woes so hard it seems  
the earth will free-fall from its spin  
— I soon walk out the door.  
 
There’s nothing to prepare my rout.  
I’ve all I need for this.  
With coat and gloves and shoes  
and hat, I’m down the stairs.  
 
Already I’ve a smile that isn’t seen  
but felt within my lightened heart  
as deeper in the woods I go,  
 
where neither voices’ drone  
nor storm can reach.  
It’s all I want to know.  
 
Each rapid step I take for minutes  
passing till I’ve lost the count,  
and now don’t even bother.  
 
It must be like the crane that  
takes to wing and lets its instinct  
be compass and navigator,  
 
leaving me as only motion.  
What is my instinct?  
 
I stop to look up through the trees  
With tiny rippling stars in sight.  
The world’s at rest.  
 
The cold and crisp of winter’s air  
surrounds me and the sentinels.  
 
I’ve long forgotten where I laid  
the broadsword I never used.  
 
I didn’t need it then  
nor do I need it now.  
 
Though deep in darkest night,  
the words that I am hearing  
come to me more clearly  
are of myself.  
 
I feel I’m reacquainting  
with a friend.  
 
I’ll stay here for a while to think,  
while curious brave the cold,  
peering from foliage and drifts.  
 
I hardly know how  
or why I’ll be all right.  
 
As winter makes amends,  
I promise Him I’m doing this  
for only me, I won’t forget again.  
 
Written by Heaven_sent_Kathy
Go To Page  

Ahavati
Tyrant of Words
United States 116awards
Joined 11th Apr 2015
Forum Posts: 14145

The Journey ( Resumed – After Mary Oliver )

It never began but resumed              
on some lackadaisical day                  
when you least expected joy  
amid the everyday mundane—                  
               
or, maybe it was an extraordinary
moment orchestrated by love              
activating clarity of intuition                  
subcutaneously dormant within you;                
a minute idea-like mammal                  
etching its way blindly                  
through hallowed cavities                
of your solar plexus—                   
               
its sacrosanct cave reflecting                  
a déjŕ vu of something                  
vaguely remembered                
and familiar; an ingrained            
pattern of repetition. . .              
                
Millenniums of theory                
hammered upon an iron anvil                 
of imagination and speculation                
into understanding                  
exactly, exactly why everything,  
especially you  
exist to overcome  
such undesired contrast  
necessary to water your growth;  
   
not to provide an advantage—  
but, to accept its universal flow;  
allowing no inclement onslaught  
of circumstance or excuse    
to hold you back anymore.                     
~
Written by Ahavati
Go To Page  

Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

Essence

      
it likes to imagine      
appendages      
to yawn and stretch      
      
quiet testing,      
then owns the sunrise      
to meld with and warm      
from its answer      
     
alone, it yearns      
then comes into      
our sphere,      
idillic form to be free in      
     
( shapeless, eternal      
Is nothing new      
in a universe )      
     
it fancies form with its      
rudiments and      
shortcomings      
providing curves      
     
it wants a connection,      
a dialect      
radiating from      
its own star, felt      
     
imagination of day      
blending into      
destinations of night,     
streaming      
     
wavering, boundless,      
liking to be its own      
‘playful’ in a body      
aglow      
     
if I were it,      
I would melt,      
dissolve my issues      
and resolve      
     
and, like spirit,      
but as my essence,      
evolve and wistful    
float away      
     
Yes, I could.      
I have what it likes,      
it feels everything      
I’d ever need to   
     
 
Written by Jade-Pandora (jade tiger)
Go To Page  

( non-entry )

Ahavati
Tyrant of Words
United States 116awards
Joined 11th Apr 2015
Forum Posts: 14145

Hi, Jade.  Thank you for assisting us with creating a theme for Mary Oliver.   We appreciate your participation.  #📝

As conveyed via message last week, and for public clarification because the guidelines state only one entry per DUP persona, you may enter an additional poem; however, at that time you must let us know which you would like judged.

We've already spent judging time on your previous entry.  Is this now your entry?  Or just a submission to populate the theme?

Thank you.  

Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

I attempted a pm so as to keep the comp thread clear but the system “ate” it, so I went to bed.  Now I’m logged back on site and was in my notes to let you know but you beat me to it. Not my intention to make you go through the trouble.

Please continue with my initial entry “Sleeping In The Forest”. “Essence” will help add to the count for our Mary’s hashtag.

Thank you, Sage.

Jade

Ahavati
Tyrant of Words
United States 116awards
Joined 11th Apr 2015
Forum Posts: 14145

Thank you, Jade.  Requesting clarification wasn't any trouble.  

Just for future reference to all entrants; it would help us greatly if you would mark any subsequent entries "non-entry", as Johnny and I do on ours.  

Thank you and carry on.  

Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

So marked as such. Thanks again.

Ahavati
Tyrant of Words
United States 116awards
Joined 11th Apr 2015
Forum Posts: 14145


Welcome home, Mary Oliver. ⭐ September 10, 1935 - January 17, 2019 ⭐

Thank you for your wisdom and poetic legacy.  You will be dearly missed. 📝❤

https://www.ajc.com/news/pulitzer-prize-winning-poet-mary-oliver-dies/PFH0b6UuskL0C931CoAwhP/amp.html


When Death Comes

like the hungry bear in autumn;

when death comes and takes all the bright coins

from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;

when death comes

like the measle-pox;

when death comes, like an iceberg between

shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door of curiosity,

wondering;

what is it going to be like, that cottage

of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything

as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,

and I look upon time as no more than an idea,

and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common

as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music

in the mouth,

tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something

precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom, taking the world

into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder

if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing

and frightened,

or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited

this world.



Mary Oliver, August 30, 1992

JohnnyBlaze
Tyrant of Words
United States 23awards
Joined 20th Mar 2015
Forum Posts: 5572

😕📝❤

ImperfectedStone
The Gardener
Tyrant of Words
United Kingdom 28awards
Joined 10th Oct 2010
Forum Posts: 1347

How tragic.  I hope her family are surrounded by love at this time. A beautiful choice to represent her above, thank you. I'm glad you introduced her to us.

Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

I’m grateful, and it seems appropriate, that this, this competition in tribute of Mary, is what we were doing when she passed. And now, it’s filled with even more meaning.

Thank you for letting us speak at this very special time, outside of posting entries...

and thank you, Sage, most deeply & sincerely.

Ahavati
Tyrant of Words
United States 116awards
Joined 11th Apr 2015
Forum Posts: 14145

When Death Comes ( After Mary Oliver )

When death comes,  
let them say I mastered      
the anatomy of words,    
that my life was poetry.      
Let them say I humbled    
that bulwark of ego—      
that bane of pride,      
leaving a quiet legacy.      
Not with the flying colors      
of a Rainbow lorikeet      
capturing its beholder's eye;      
but, a female cardinal—      
her lackluster appearance      
ensuring the nest survives.    
     
Let them, despite my human      
mistakes and many faults,    
say I at least loved poetry—    
that my Spirit became a poem, a bird,      
a cardinal nesting in a cup of words.      
~
Written by Ahavati
Go To Page  

Go to page:
Go to: