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186 · Mar 2023
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
179 · Mar 1
‘bear pottery’
renseksderf Mar 1
And then there is ‘bear pottery’
farming salmon adjacent to a bear sanctuary:

while waiting for spawning season
as the ice begins to melt,
those that have unhibernated
are whiling the time away
at the potter’s wheel….
in response to Davidgeo’s “beer poetry” on another online poetry site…
176 · Nov 2024
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
171 · Sep 2022
behind each poem
renseksderf Sep 2022
behind each poem
behind each rhyme
is more than a story
more than a parody

under each layer of verse
there is a beating heart
under each line we find
a poet, a person, a mind

behind each poem
past each non-rhyme
in a varied place and clime
there a person wrote in time
renseksderf Jun 2022
.


sunrise unveiled a promise of treasure
demure as petals enjoining midday
grey clouds thin in billowy summer breeze
freeze a moment before this day consumes


sunset reveals firefly melodies
meandering starlit rivers flow,
flowered evening fragrances wafting;
welcomes a momentous nocturne


.
161 · Nov 2024
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"
151 · Jun 2024
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
147 · Oct 2024
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.
146 · Sep 2022
live fed matins
renseksderf Sep 2022
witnessed a Sarasota sunrise today
at 20:21 PM via live feed, on screen
to tidal songs that sounded like pounding
wavelets folding into the shore while
gulls milled about on a wooden jetty

clouds hovering in a lazy breeze that
didn't care either way for its entrance
peeking past the horizon between gaps
piercing through the distant haze
with an orangey sparkle in its wake
two-fold expression of birds' morning song and morning prayers at sunrise
141 · Nov 2023
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
139 · Jan 2023
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...
139 · Nov 2024
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
136 · Oct 2024
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
134 · Sep 2022
would-be people's queen
renseksderf Sep 2022
candle in the window
for the son of a widow
now left orphaned, save

for a bejewelled crown
whose issue once secured
now stands a former flame

for want of royal surrogacy
where an uncle demurred
now twice an heir found


candle once in the wind
on a window sill still, sits
once, always the people’s princess
133 · Sep 2022
split second indecisions
renseksderf Sep 2022
A "dying" family car can drive a child to grow up or become sad.
130 · Oct 2024
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
129 · Dec 2024
spaces we inhabit: mornings
renseksderf Dec 2024
In the morning light
we gather at the square
voices mingling
plans unfolding
     . . .  a tapestry of lives
undulating in the sun's rays
125 · May 2022
thread diving
renseksderf May 2022
people are our real legacy;
one day sure, entire poems
shall have been forgotten,
while remains a phrase or
a feeling drawn from wells
deeper than memory can
reach, or device can retrieve
much like thread-diving as
we scamper for posts buried
by traffic and flood posters…
follow, subscribe, or friend
buttons can only do so much
so we hang on to what we
have and hold dear, today
saving each precious moment
if bookmarked sentiments
are promises all will be well
we’ll boldly breathe again
With all the internet surfers and all the data swirling around the worldwide web, even the empowered voices of everyman-person can be washed like sea **** on the shores of the shores of social media.
120 · Oct 2023
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
114 · Feb 2024
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
114 · Feb 2024
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
111 · Nov 2024
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
109 · Oct 2024
being an NPC in their story
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
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.
103 · Nov 2023
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.
renseksderf Nov 2024
flush that goo away and open the windows wide,
allow those smells no place to hide!
95 · Nov 2024
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
89 · Feb 2024
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
84 · Nov 2024
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
84 · Sep 2024
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
84 · Feb 2024
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
79 · Dec 2024
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.
76 · Dec 2024
unlikely treasure
renseksderf Dec 2024
Discarded thoughts collide,
cast aside once too many times;
now stride across crumpled sheets,
from where quenching springs rise
fuel that pen and paper set alight-

A battered note, a torn-out page,
explode in fervent rage…each
critic's stab, each cut so deep
pick axes unearthing jewels
rough but worth their keep.
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
72 · Sep 2024
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
72 · Jan 16
new day
renseksderf Jan 16
Bring on kintsugi
In the night’s cathedral hour
New life starts at dawn
71 · Oct 2024
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!
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