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Dec 2024 · 69
a short dance
renseksderf Dec 2024
In the politics of dancing,
Where hearts move to the beat,
The mind hesitates, second-guessing,
While the heart is quick on its feet.
Nov 2024 · 125
on my back, looking up
renseksderf Nov 2024
from the ground

the ceiling looks so much wider

from the ground

its cracks seem much finer



the paint peels -

minute flags, off-white surrender;

the paint peals -

egg shells of heavy footed plunder...



revelation fall free

release this pretender from the ground

revelation fall free,

on this soul that has been found
Nov 2024 · 597
winter’s embrace
renseksderf Nov 2024
Snowflakes fall, a silent lullaby,
Blankets of white beneath twilight sky,
Bare branches etched in frost’s sigh,
Cold winds weave through the night,
Stars alight, crisp and bright,
Warm fireside light,
Frozen plight,
Deep night,
Still.
Nov 2024 · 546
Hidden Garden
renseksderf Nov 2024
Quietly blooms, where shadows softly play,
Whispers of secrets in petals lay,
Emerald leaves rustle and sway,
Mystic scents drift in the breeze,
Dew-kissed dreams gently tease,
Moonlit moments cease,
Hearts find ease,
Pure peace,
Calm.
nonet
Nov 2024 · 142
black friday cue
renseksderf Nov 2024
flame
running faster than
you can flutter a lash
flash
rushing swifter than
we can sniff a flower
fresh
rippling quieter than
they can queue on Black
Friday
published elsewhere with the title "spur on"
renseksderf Nov 2024
(senryu)

autumn's embrace chills,  
it must now be that season,  
falling leaves and all.




(sijo)

The first frost of dawn kisses the withering maple leaves,  
Winds of change sweep the earth, whispering Autumn’s song.  
In this transient dance, memories linger, time stands still.



(chofu)

Under the golden boughs of ancient trees, Autumn sighs,  
As leaves descend in a swirling, endless ballet,  
The earth receives them with a gentle embrace, whispering tales of time.


🍂
…other friends that accompany haiku
Nov 2024 · 81
surfaced
renseksderf Nov 2024
all the voices  
gathered in my digital scream  
somewhere on a site  
devoted to stream ,live  
i wield words aflame  
i share and laugh with joy  
alone but never lonely  
look at what the web has  
given me  
a liberated mind  
touched by global threads  
something that shines  
brighter than any daytime opery
Nov 2024 · 172
on the footpath
renseksderf Nov 2024
Here sat on a kerb looking every which way
catching proverbial breath and recalibrating
my bearings from a longish journey - still
no longer longing for a telltale day now
pining away atop a window sill
Nov 2024 · 299
Hey now, is the dream over?
renseksderf Nov 2024
shadowy sheets cover,
dark shining lips purse;
pointy ears ***** skyward
as corn stalks pondered
chanting scarecrows curse
in a sea of belly-up bream
Nov 2024 · 97
Going, not gone
renseksderf Nov 2024
flaw-bearing retinue
fore-bearing revenue
insolent foreboding

load-bearing attitude
unyielding fortitude
latitudinal aspirations

Going on in unblemished grace
Onward with a freshness true
Its fullness eternally perfected
Newness spouting varied hues
Growing, all the while, giving chase
Nov 2024 · 461
deck the halls
renseksderf Nov 2024
As pumpkins rolled off from the scene,  
And Diwali lights snuffed out clean,  
Christmas came early,  
In a fashion so gnarly,  
Don't blame me, 'twasn't I that set up the tree!
renseksderf Nov 2024
Lift your gaze, feel the fire in your soul,
Travel back to where your spirit thrived,
Relish the echoes that make you feel whole,
In every word, a pulse of life derived.

For in the silence of unwritten lines,
We find the truth that eternally shines.
renseksderf Nov 2024
flush that goo away and open the windows wide,
allow those smells no place to hide!
Nov 2024 · 62
if you please
renseksderf Nov 2024
from this moment onward,
you will be my eyes, abroad:
so be on time and even earlier
envoi
Nov 2024 · 248
learning to swim
renseksderf Nov 2024
imagine your surprise

as you irrevocably realise

everything can be bought

and everyone has a price

what exquisite shock ensues

when you take off $ signs

unveil powers of exchange

and begin to live accordingly
¥£€$ whichever works in your locale
Nov 2024 · 78
keloid rise
renseksderf Nov 2024
Broken trust lingers,
keloids bloom on tender skin—
time’s sharp hand caresses.

Only mem’ries remain,
etched deep like ancient rivers—
heart learns forgiveness.

Light seeps through the cracks,
wounds become a part of me—
scars, my final strength.
haiku sequence
Oct 2024 · 120
untitled (lighter than)
renseksderf Oct 2024
An unlit candle,
a matchstick, waiting in vain—
neither will ignite,
unless one strikes the other,
shadows linger, dim and cold.
tanka
Oct 2024 · 59
Lmrk2410aa
renseksderf Oct 2024
A number's just a simple sign,
Yet deeper meanings intertwine.
Like scars that tell a tale,
Each figure's more than pale—
A life lived in each line, so divine!
Oct 2024 · 56
a rude remorse
renseksderf Oct 2024
Of the many things
that have been a regret
"putting down the pen"
has been most rude.
renseksderf Oct 2024
In London’s solemn Poets’ Corner stands,
A stone of memories, carved by gentle hands.
Eighty-five years since its first debut,
Yet names were incomplete, a hidden rue.

Amidst the shadows of a war-torn night,
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne lost their light,
The dots above their names—a simple grace—
Forgotten in the haste, in that troubled space.

Sharon Wright, with keen and watchful eye,
Spotted the error, wondered why.
“Have they not earned this small tribute,
To mark their legacy, resolute?”

With a stonemason’s tap, the dots took form,
A celebration of sisters, in art reborn.
Painted with care, the correction shines,
Echoing the strength of their woven lines.

From Bradford’s heart, where their stories bloom,
Wright sought to banish the lingering gloom.
For every tale of love, loss, and strife,
Deserves to be honoured, enriched with life.

Now near Dickens and Austen, their names align,
In the warmth of remembrance, their spirits entwine.
Eighty-five years later, at last they belong,
A tribute to brilliance, a sweet, timeless song.
Oct 2024 · 129
A Rare Edition
renseksderf Oct 2024
In Kilmarnock's print, a treasure lies,
A first edition, where history sighs,
From eighteen eighty-six, its verses flow,
Robert Burns’ heart, in dialect aglow.

Poems Chiefly In The Scottish Dialect,
Whispers of love, and nature’s effect,
Expected to fetch a princely sum,
Fifty to sixty thousand—oh, how it’ll hum!

Once just six hundred, a modest start,
Three shillings it cost, a work of pure art,
Yet within a month, the copies all gone,
Burns' voice, like a lark, sung sweet at dawn.

“To A Mouse” and “The Twa Dogs” share,
Stories of life, in the Scottish air,
At twenty-seven, with passion he wrote,
A legacy penned in each heartfelt note.

Now just eighty-eight copies remain,
A glimpse of the past, a poet’s refrain,
As the auction approaches, the whispers grow loud,
For the magic of Burns, we all stand so proud.
Oct 2024 · 123
be-lightedly
renseksderf Oct 2024
being an unlit candle
an unlit match stick
will surely not suffice
neither the twain shall meet
unless you strike one
the other remains and
unless the lit shall kiss it
the other still abides
renseksderf Oct 2024
Yesterday’s spoken word

Today’s unvoiced silence

Tomorrow’s welcomed regret

press Play and tap Mute

Flickering screen brings slumber.
npc: non-playing character
Oct 2024 · 176
dream slices
renseksderf Oct 2024
once nimble fingers
grasp at lithe reeds
as they slip and dance
in a breeze’s lullaby
ever present companions
as days turn into nights
Oct 2024 · 53
Look out tomorrow
renseksderf Oct 2024
The mailbox is usually empty
What with the P.O. Box and
social media, emails, SMS
all so many differing ways
to keep ourselves in touch.
But this day’s walk down the
drive had changed the day!
A notice arrived, in paper
from hospital’s renal unit.
This path may lead clear
or perhaps to dialysis or
even a kidney transplant.
So look out, Tomorrow
quite surely here we come.
Sep 2024 · 59
by fiction of pen
renseksderf Sep 2024
fictionalising that pain
only in writer’s quill remain
inkwell daily welling over
one that never need run dry
on pristine sheets shall ever cry
there a field blanketed in clover
under pregnant sky contain
descends yon seasonal rain
there be legal entities by fiction of law and there too literary entities by fiction of pen
Sep 2024 · 214
mail carrier’s bill
renseksderf Sep 2024
leeward of a lean-to hill
iambic cadence thrill
amber flecked lemonade
morsels don pleated frill
bring on tend’rest brocade
while at windward dale
wizened cheeks go pale
Why do we always mess with the postman?!
Sep 2024 · 228
rue the hay
renseksderf Sep 2024
all have gone far and wide
there, a fair distance away
where no eye spy nor stray
only hindsight dare confide
even sproutlings coy in Spring
no fresh joys will they bring
still from Sun, buds cannot hide
Sep 2024 · 75
summer fête
renseksderf Sep 2024
just like open sunlit skies above
which kept our days ever bright
whose bare-all gaze shoved us
to sanctuary from blistering glare

we always kept our shadows in sight

tents and those world tree ash boughs
carried us to roman candles of night
matsuri: our own non-roman holiday --
summer may be gone but these remain
Jun 2024 · 131
sea sponge fraying
renseksderf Jun 2024
by the sea face in face
a child’s visage open
fraught in fear, freedom and friendship
predators, salt, sand
waves crash, rocks cut
chest crushing breaths
from watery garden sea sponge plucked
beside shells and stones
by a farcical display
feigning, fawning, flaunting: fearful now
petulant sand in shoe
soaks nothing better
no return, no exchange
Jun 2024 · 226
piano old
renseksderf Jun 2024
frost laced teeth of cracked leather
course through bare back thighs
frigid sheen of yellowed ivory
caress tentative fingertips
nose, cheek and ear
incline then enquire
old smell, old sound
ancient piano sing
Feb 2024 · 175
long distance for now
renseksderf Feb 2024
Three years, three months and three days
Perhaps it’s a random amount of time
But in three hours this flight will take off
Gotta take three minutes to freshen up
And look away for for three seconds
No worrying now about free pushbacks
Let’s put up memories with thumbtacks
All adds up in life’s measured advances
Feb 2024 · 102
rosy cheeked
renseksderf Feb 2024
why are you so easy
to be walk passed
but then so difficult
to completely forget

a cattle brand that
sears waking memory
scathes dreams of night
what remains of you

are rumpled bed-
clothes at sun-up
and crumpled sheets
on litter-strewn desk
Feb 2024 · 80
think of them
renseksderf Feb 2024
give up shallying; on finding and sharing
what could be thought of as inner beauty
when these hirsute thoughts bristle again
berating what little of self regard remains
it’s but an exaggeration to point out hate
when clearly it wasn’t my poem but myself
that lay on literature’s butcher-block altar
Feb 2024 · 85
think of you
renseksderf Feb 2024
for whom threadbare scraps
are treasures under your table
deserts, ever undulated dunes

in picture-book perfect gales

stripping away like sandpaper
perhaps the sting of salt rain
shall sterilize this wanting within
Feb 2024 · 107
think of me
renseksderf Feb 2024
think of me, of us, some time
bandying of thoughts will do
let them sidle up close to you
just as we did not so long ago

then come and gaze again at

the light residing in my eyes
then tell me if your reflection
shines with crystalline truth
some time, think of us, of me
Jan 2024 · 360
a lonely light
renseksderf Jan 2024
a lonely light
shall be the only
one to shine upon
a poorly lit spot
until its image
reveals a well
hidden spark
Nov 2023 · 425
Autumn coffee run
renseksderf Nov 2023
Right in front of the koban
Star-B’s cramp and crammed
Not for the presently starving
Perhaps not or the Summer
With its heat reflecting tiles
Where else is boxed contentment?
But where it’s found in a moment.
*koban = police box/kiosk/stall
Star-B’s = Starbucks Café
box = bento = compartmentalisation
Nov 2023 · 92
Not in November
renseksderf Nov 2023
Here again, there again;
Staring at an empty page
Like a wait for a balloon 🎈
To pop 💥 as it rises high
Up it goes into the sky ☁️
In the end we won’t find
Out, nor shall we ever -
Never been that clever.
Nov 2023 · 131
perspicuity
renseksderf Nov 2023
Hello
PeOple of the once
EThereal metamoRph
Your moment has now
arrived; PERiwinkle
adornments on your
china on display,
SPecific to table placements
ICarian silhouettes on
placemats, UnIcorn-lined
doilies in conTrast Yell
out: 'perspicacity.'
Your aid and companionability
see us through it all.
published elsewhere in 2020
Nov 2023 · 194
recital
renseksderf Nov 2023
Ribald footprints

of a silent, brooding zitar

rendezvous with an ebbing tide

recalcitrant thoughts wash away

along this sandy shoal.
throwback online poetry
Oct 2023 · 753
absinthian reveries
renseksderf Oct 2023
from misty stupor

faceless sentinels are roused

absinthian rev’ries
Oct 2023 · 112
cemetery
renseksderf Oct 2023
Entering through resplendent gates,
to where countless dead seek final rest,
and those alive muse the touch of soil:

Where commemorating stones are monumental;
a reminder to all creatures that waste away
in vessels that perish beneath a hundred years.

Where manicured gardens court Repose
whose silence disturbed by a lazy breeze
interrupts one's meditation.
throwback Ocdtober
Mar 2023 · 174
stairs
renseksderf Mar 2023
though stairs above, unlit
well at each landing glows
where spiralled shadows fly
its bridge curtails its distance

through yearning measured steps
their creaking shrugs off decay
Mar 2023 · 180
going, not gone
renseksderf Mar 2023
flaw bearing retinue
fore bearing revenue
insolent foreboding

load-bearing attitude
unyielding fortitude
latitudinal aspirations

Going on in unblemished grace
Onward with a freshness true
Its fullness eternally perfected
Newness spouting varied hues
Growing all the while giving chase
Feb 2023 · 545
star signed
renseksderf Feb 2023
somewhere overhead
the smaller bear sits
my constant companion

whose trajectory lights up
carries forward my story arc
brings us our own constellation

revolving as sundial shadows
in the darkened doorways
will always ever be in transit
Feb 2023 · 193
more than counting sheep
renseksderf Feb 2023
it's quite sad, so sad

when afterthoughts don't count

lopsided in the mind



where fore thoughts do abound

it's like gazing intently

at those flat rainbow lollipops



what spins you round and round

emptying memories we've had

and new thoughts find
Feb 2023 · 193
tongue in cheek
renseksderf Feb 2023
enough of you
and all of me

before letting go
this consider--
once posted, one
may thus wonder
is there a reader at the other end of this poem?
oh, sure there is

but the privilege
of knowing their thought process and journey
is theirs to keep
or to you share
at their behest
so now let’s see

enough from me
and now to you
Jan 2023 · 260
basted glow
renseksderf Jan 2023
droplets of honey--
your words varnish
my waking mind,
coaxing me to
leave all, behind

gone, but ever remaining
never learning
held, ever close but
never belonging
cradled light - metaphed demise

on a spring morning
melting, paraffin wax;
now a shadow of a
hand, held tight
in the deep of night
Jan 2023 · 126
aubade (2023)
renseksderf Jan 2023
in the finality of this hour
as all of this shall disappear
while these broken words become clear
our dearest thoughts bloom like a flower
having been watered by many a tear
fear is but momentary, please don’t cower
spare a thought, plant seeds of good cheer
peer at what still may be for us here
so through ensuing years our hearts steer
as the first streaks of the year tendril through our awareness...
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