"chastened" poems
1227
My Triumph lasted till the Drums
Had left the Dead alone
And then I dropped my Victory
And chastened stole along
To where the finished Faces
Conclusion turned on me
And then I hated Glory
And wished myself were They.
What is to be is best descried
When it has also been—
Could Prospect taste of Retrospect
The tyrannies of Men
Were Tenderer—diviner
The Transitive toward.
A Bayonet’s contrition
Is nothing to the Dead.
26.5k
I do not ask for youth, nor for delay
in the rising of time's irreversible river
that takes the jewelled arc of the waterfall
in which I glimpse, minute by glinting minute,
all that I have and all I am always losing
as sunlight lights each drop fast, fast falling.
I do not dream that you, young again,
might come to me darkly in love's green darkness
where the dust of the bracken spices the air
moss, crushed, gives out an astringent sweetness
and water holds our reflections
motionless, as if for ever.
It is enough now to come into a room
and find the kindness we have for each other
— calling it love — in eyes that are shrewd
but trustful still, face chastened by years
of careful judgement; to sit in the afternoons
in mild conversation, without nostalgia.
But when you leave me, with your jauntiness
sinewed by resolution more than strength
— suddenly then I love you with a quick
intensity, remembering that water,
however luminous and grand, falls fast
and only once to the dark pool below.
9.6k
Against the saturated
Horizon of dawn,
Loitering in the dark timbre
Of emerging consciousness -
Dissipating somnolence
And preemptive despair,
Tacitly adumbrate the
Yawning abyss.
Chastened by the cunning and
Lubricious nihilism,
Igniting fermented provocations,
Silent subterfuge; death,
By mirth - the inane;
Lament of the mundane.
Fallow paradigms, accretions of
The last gasp -
Evaporating empty liturgies
Of suspicion;
Charity and equanimity -
Lost in confinement,
Triumphant avarice bearing
Descendants
Of intransigence;
Wielding imperious
Schemes of orthodoxy.
Pollard fragments of
Silken tapestry,
Miasma draped depression
Abridging;
Conversely,
Permuted flurries of anxiety
Dislodge
The vestiges of meaning
That abide
In brazen equivocation.
Tributaries of dogma reach
Their confluence,
Watershed moment,
Numinous effusion
Streams naked epiphany,
The precarious vision -
A gesture of providence,
Certainty and contingency;
Gratuitously derivative, life
Equals choice.
Verdant branches of intention;
And opportunity the vine,
Live forward -
The pen, my voice,
Piquant conduit pouring,
Exuberant wine.
Footprints found in givenness
Underline,
Penumbrae of my soul;
Mirrored silhouettes,
Thoughts and words engender;
And in verse adorn
Fecund soil, Line after line,
The cosmos altered,
Continuum of permanence -
Artist’s art articulating
Essence of my imagination,
I proliferate, I design
Phrases unique,
Participation mystique.
Words creating world,
The apparatus of infinity
Heidegger, ontologically precise,
Language -
The house of Being,
Ineffable, Promethean
Literary devise -
Envisioning possibility,
And abundance to allow,
I occur
Inhabit
Manifest
Future phenomena
Experienced as now.
©2008 & ©2011 W.S. Warner
Sep 16, 2011
Sep 16, 2011 at 2:02 PM UTC
these tempting and tumultuous times,
when the insect bite of attraction nibbles
your cheek, and first blood thickens with
intrigued,
the blood heated by, with a bewildering new sun's glow,
then bubbling boiling
over
with phantasmagorical fantasies,
and one endeavors to coax, to tease,
to preen, to adduce how best to ******
this persona, imagined or imaginary to be,
whispers a silent "no thankee''
and first bloom curls into a deathly brown doom,
you,
chastened by amorous hastening so quick evolving,
and the hither in come here, withers to a ghostly silencing,
one wonders, reminisces, and sadly recalls then forgets
the entreaties so eagerly received, how one wants to be
deceived,
for the once lay-buried-arousals now well recalled,
and quick to appear, faster to dismiss disappear,
and disaster cones and goes with light-speed velocity,
having fling,
now flung,
having crushed,
now crushing,
you caught laughing at your self,
still evolving long past the time
for youthful deceptions and silly indiscretions,
but not unhappily, for it was an acknowledgement
that good love poetry yet within resides, alas, alas,
it reciprocity seeds need replanting, and that notion
is quite pleasing...
Sep 13, 2025
Sep 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM UTC
Chasten Calypso declared to be clear;
humming a mumble inside of mine ear.
Always heard, but ne’er understood,
a whisper so willing, decidedly good.
The rapture of doomsday is said to be near,
but an ounce of the evidence has yet to appear.
There are several factors that could end it all;
the pride of mankind is destined to fall.
Hastened Calypso declared to be clear,
rumbling a rumble, fueled by a fear.
Often forgotten, yet forever engraved;
those who are faithful have already been saved.
Dwindled and swindled, the man may soon ask,
“Your person is puzzling; take leave of your mask.”
Now the raven is calling, to bring out your soul,
but all you have left is a void with a hole.
With chastened Calypso declared to be clear
she is tumbling a bumble who’s drunken with beer,
and thought the cliff it is climbing is sharp, and quite sheer,
if the bumble dose stumble it won’t shed a tear.
Where we are looking and what we will find
is based in illusion we have made in our mind;
Always is heard, and is ne’er understood.
It’s a whisper so willing, decidedly good.
Oct 25, 2014
Oct 25, 2014 at 1:41 PM UTC
Last light on the bay,
The sky stained red
By a butchered day,
Dying with the grace
Of a sinking star.
All of its charm
Chastened by the waves
To its grave.
Because their sharp rebuke
Would be swift
And angered outburst be sound
'That thou should not sail
Where the sky meets the sea
If thou dost not wish
To be drowned'
Out there on the unsound
Ground of a different galaxy,
Where aliens have no right
To be,
And salt bleeches bones
Right down to the grain
Leaving lost,
unfortunate stowaways
Scattered like shells on a beach.
Nov 10, 2023
Nov 10, 2023 at 2:15 PM UTC
1246
The Butterfly in honored Dust
Assuredly will lie
But none will pass the Catacomb
So chastened as the Fly—
2.4k
Great Michelangelo, with age grown bleak
And uttermost labours, having once o’ersaid
All grievous memories on his long life shed,
This worst regret to one true heart could speak:—
That when, with sorrowing love and reverence meek,
He stooped o’er sweet Colonna’s dying bed,
His Muse and dominant Lady, spirit-wed,
Her hand he kissed, but not her brow or cheek.
O Buonarruoti,—good at Art’s fire-wheels
To urge her chariot!—even thus the Soul,
Touching at length some sorely-chastened goal,
Earns oftenest but a little: her appeals
Were deep and mute,—lowly her claim. Let be:
What holds for her Death’s garner? And for thee?
1.9k
Letter to Cinderella (and her Texas Fairytales)
~for EJ Love~
now lookee here, girl,
slow down pardner,
blanket love-spells need to be addressed,
especially if a return requested back to
the great state of big ole Texas
as I am loved in Texas, I’m well aware
how hard it is to find love in wide open spaces,
more trucks and cows than people,
which is NYC in reverse,
both hard places in different ways
to make angelic fairies appear,
released intact from busted soap bubbles
so here’s my idée fixe,
to the reading, less,
to the writing, more,
command thyself to march towards
the seventeenths poem, and many more
to arrive at the promised
hallelujah
take the formless visions, potions,
drifting in you, figure them into words,
shaped with passion and cunning, twitching in
a creme of teasing, a dollop of wanting,
a whimsy, sense of humor, stir with another’s pinky finger,
bigger than the ineffable lone star of lonely,
an eye tear for flavor, a salty secreted ingredient,
that needs, requires another’s hand to wipe away
and a flashing neon sign:
Texas Red Amber, Chops, and
real good loving desired!
only good loving people,
steady on their feet,
need apply, poets favored,
but a certain kind of cowboy,
ok as well
what be my expertises in matters these,
why I am your chastened, mean no more,
sweet sister who see your spells flying by,
who writes to you with newly learned humility
Jun 25, 2019
Jun 25, 2019 at 3:45 PM UTC
Oh wilderness' soul ― I Beseech thee !
I feel your deepest awakening secrets stir
Whispers uttered in immortal Winds
Calling to the Fountains of my soul
Standing the hairs of comfortably numb
Spilled breath bestrewn upon frayed Mortality
Oh wilderness' soul ― I Bequeath thee !
The ashes the deepest Oceans my heart
As circadian Tides have ebb and flowed
Forsaken feigned love’s misbegotten guise
Now chastened sightless before an unseen labyrinth
Beset by a human blindness that decays all light
Oh wilderness' soul ― I Entreat thee !
Cleanse this molted flesh ― time shed ―
Artifacts of perfectly imperfect traces
Reminders of things we strive to forget
For in the self-loathed aching Silence
I feel the urgent pull of Wilderness' Soul
Reaching out ― Benignly
to Entomb my Heart and Soul
Someone you used to know April 1st, 2017
Mar 31, 2017
Mar 31, 2017 at 7:49 PM UTC
Mold me a helm of platinum.
Plate my neck in ornate roses
and arc both ******* in tongues of steel.
Spill an hourglass of silver sheets
to silhouette each torso curve.
Sculpt iron vines over each hip.
Caress my keep in chastened press;
form gold like liquid down my legs.
Engrave a crest of two joined doves
upon my hexagonal shield.
String leather sheathes with your golden hair.
Equip a morning star with spires
that mock the dullness at your rest,
yet forge my sword of diamond strength
formidable as your excited state.
Look on me where I stand armored.
Embrace away my fancied suit.
Please…
lay me down, Love, gently Love,
and place a flower in my hair.
Nov 3, 2016
Nov 3, 2016 at 2:34 PM UTC
in my obliviousness
inadvertent and unintentional
some may say as usual
i disturbed a wasp nest
the heightened bombilation
an anger-pitched droning
unheard somehow
therefore unheeded
until that impolite *****
a warning sting
through t-shirt to torso
followed by a few more
in quick succession
set my legs moving
apologetically away
with hands raised
chastened and contrite
both in supplication
and in order to remove
the offending article
of clothing
the oversensitive wasp
having become trapped within
defensively stinging
as nature directs
to be honest
its overzealous instincts
began to feel
more like spite
than mere survival
Aug 24, 2023
Aug 24, 2023 at 11:52 AM UTC
Answer me
by Nat Lipstadt
Why are the children
if not hurting themselves,
so busy hurting others?
I know hurt in ways you cannot fathom,
And I rise up daily with a but a single quest:
Banish the hurt, expel the hurters,
And practice the one true faith:
Kindness and Grace.
Sometimes the madness I read, too much, too much,
And I walk away and store my poems in another place.
But I am reminded,
There is no such thing as too kind,
So I wander back,
Chagrined and Chastened,
Hoping one among you
Will help to raise up
Me.
The Rebuttal
Ask me now to fight your war and I shall vanquish legions vast
Call that I, a mountain scale and I shall conquer summit fast.
Command me firmly, forth to go and I shall strive as best I can
But call me to administrate and I will call you fool, be ******
Thus some have talent to be red and some attend to hues of green
But few have skills of rainbow shade, few, at least, that I have seen.
Some wear fear upon their smile others writhe with minds that burn,
They wallow deep in misery, whilst others stop to see and learn.
Some are black and some are white, for most the favoured shade is grey....
Roar ye might for judgement's fall, but futile friend... as death's delay.
Aug 19, 2013
Aug 19, 2013 at 2:34 AM UTC
.
Alive as a stone is cold, frozen,
Unmoved as drying statuary -
No blood was running in my veins,
No song was sung behind my brain.
Was I black as rock in wintry shroud?
Was I a phantasm that caught your eye?
My ends were sewn, threaded with hands,
That room, with you, was clothed in dream.
And I slept in a loft that chastened all airs,
I lived in a box which you buried out there,
Out in the hollows of the winds and rains,
I fear I was dead, before we became.
Aug 12, 2016
Aug 12, 2016 at 12:47 AM UTC
1174
There’s the Battle of Burgoyne—
Over, every Day,
By the Time that Man and Beast
Put their work away
“Sunset” sounds majestic—
But that solemn War
Could you comprehend it
You would chastened stare—
1.3k
her voice, in imagination,
is a moonlight sonata
to which I listen
when I'm alone, eyes closed;
covetous heart unwilling to share
painful beauty of the adagio,
explaining pain only angels know;
then, effortless transformation into
playful allegretto, delicate hands
already caressing bruised soul,
nestles fingers into mine;
we stroll, entwined as lovers will,
along lonely paths together,
each holding up the other,
building to passion of presto;
pace quickened, chastened steps
abandoned as flesh echoes
electric crescendos of bliss,
all that's real ceasing to exist
save sweet sweat,
fragrant breath of the other;
then I listen again,
to impossible moonlight,
and imagine.
Jun 26, 2010
Jun 26, 2010 at 8:38 PM UTC
Naw motha fkka I
Ain't hot ****
Ain't pompous
Knock nitty gritty
With ****** up kids
I got uh
E mergency
Kit put together
With pipe and tape
From the basement
You need gum
Paperclips
Got a leak
Motha fkkn leaking
Unstable, collect
N assemble new
You wit half ya
Bodyweight in staples
BMI justified
With baggage n
Fix its
It's only a problem
When ya round
Motha fkka I
Ain't hot ****
But I'm one
Of the most torn
Up turned up
******* in the pound
Bombastic sensations
Comin from all sides
A ******
No hater
Trouble you
Trouble me
What's it gonna be?
Depends on your visage
**** I could turn it off
N I do do on occasion
If ya kickin without
The free body vibes
I visit, permission
Can't be a thing
I do wut I want when
I do cause I trust me
You r basic n
Chastened n rope
N chains to the brain
Stuck on level
Seth ***** said
In time you lay stone
Work hurt sometimes
You must crumble
Breakin down
The mortar with
Nightshade in
Spray as pesticide
For the vines tangling
Strangling your
Home, it's unknown
If I gonna grow in
The right way but
I trust me so if
I'm so grown I outgrow
Then I gotta go
No hate
May 20, 2015
May 20, 2015 at 11:39 PM UTC
This winter has been harsh and cold; these winds
have scoured the frosted fens for miles around.
I only hope, once the seeds have sprouted,
and long-kept zephyrs hum above the chapped and chastened earth,
that you might walk the woodlands by my side—
and make with me a new, glad spring.
I could not bear
another sighing sad spring.
Feb 18, 2010
Feb 18, 2010 at 9:47 PM UTC
Chastened
Defiant
Emotion
Forgiving
Gateway
Amidst
Blinded
Chiffon
May 12, 2016
May 12, 2016 at 1:55 AM UTC
Where the sky is as blue as CG special tinting reality to a sharpened point.
The seas are. As warm as the womb.AMNIOTIC shock when I dive in.
I can smell beauty in the cool trade winds. My god made paradise here
Carried it away to parts unknown.
My god.
My lover set me free many years ago but I never returned to her tender
Arms. I had forgotten her charms even while laying in her four post bed and running my hands slowly over silken skin. The thrill was gone.
She is forgiving
She looks at me with eyes that glisten.
In the starlight. But time is not my ally.
Soon I think she will deny me
A lover scorned.
I must return to her soon or lose my identity.
Misting heat. Silent roar. Deafening silence
As she whispers me home. Whispers me home.
Night scents .
Blinding darkness bids me ***** forward to lapping shores
Sky so black and starlit that my eyes seek a higher dimension
of comprehension.
Her rivers run emerald and deep.Glisten in the setting sun. A million shimmering diamonds
run to bank in rivulets so perfect as only nature can conjure. I forgot her in my travails.
And she will reprimand my questing hand as cold and dead to her.
My Belize. My forgotten love.
So dismissive have I been as worldly thing have give me waxen wings for
flights of fancy far from my reality.
I am coming back to you my love though buffeted and chastened.
To you to rub my feet and sooth my soul.
I am still what I was before.
And desirous of more still.
Teach me,love me ,Give me one more chance
After all,It is your siren call that hastens my steps
to your embrace.
Homeward.
Oct 20, 2013
Oct 20, 2013 at 12:10 AM UTC
It’s Really AMAZING...
To See Masks On Faces...
In Most Public Places... !?!
New World Social Graces...
Are Quickly Displacing...
What Once Was Engaging...
Like... COMMUNICATING... !!!
With People In Stations...
And Public Locations...
But Now Most Are VACANT...
Or... FORCIBLY Making...
For UNNATURAL Spacing... ?!?
And Of Course Vaccinations...
Are Something Now Making...
Some People Make Statements...
That Have People Chastened...
Or That’s Right RESTRICTED...
Like... Corona Victims... !!!
But To Me Something's MISSING...
Like Cashflow For Business...
And LOGICAL Thinking... !!!
So What Is The Mission...
of Those In Positions...
Who Are Leading Us Through...
This DANGEROUS Flu... !!!
I Just Don’t Have A Clue...
But What About YOU... ?!?
Are You Out There Complaining...
Or Are You Now Waiting...
To Get VACCINATED... ?!?
It Really Is CRAZY...
How Some Are Behaving... !!!
Anger’s INFLATING...
As Well As PULSATING...
Through Heads Acting Shady... !!!
I Found Myself Facing...
A Fella’... Road Raging... !!!
As If I’d Attacked...
This Fool With An Axe... ???
And What I Found Was Sad...
Was That This Guy Was Black...
And Seemed To Be Ready...
To Break Like Those Levees’...
That Left Things Unsteady... !!!
Because He Had Seen...
My Face Through His Mirror...
And Clearly Had Figured...
That I Was ANGRY...
When I Was Simply Confused...
By The Move That He Pulled...
And That Is The TRUTH... !!!
My Face Showed Frustration...
But How He REACTED...
To Me Was... AMAZING... !?!
Now What I Am Saying...
Is That Life Is Now Making...
Some People Start RAGING...
In Ways That Are CRAZY... !?!
... CORONA Is Now...
Making Folks Start To FROWN...
Who DON'T Even Have It... ?!?
Which I Think Is... TRAGIC... !!!
But... ATTITUDES Too...
These Days Are NOT COOL... !!!
When It Comes To Abuse...
And The Airing of Views...
To People Who Choose...
To Place Judgements On You...
That LACK Solid Proof... !!!
It’s AMAZING To See...
How Some People Think...
And What They Believe...
To Be... DEFINITIVE... !!!
And Some Feminists...
These Days Are TOO Quick... !!!
To Jump Down The Throat...
of Men Who Don’t Flow...
With... Feminist Quotes...
As If Females DON’T...
LIE Or... Do Things...
That Link To What STINKS... !?!
Well I’m … One of Those...
Who DOESN'T Just Fold...
Like These Modern Blokes... !!!
Who Seem To Believe...
That Females Are PERFECT...
And DON’T Make FALSE Claims...
When It Comes To Rapes...
And Forms of Harassment...
That Deal In ENTRAPMENT... !!!
Because They Get VEX...
Due To Things A Man SAYS...
That Leave Them UPSET... !!!
It’s Really AMAZING...
How Folks Are Relating...
In This Modern World... !?!
From Illness To Girls...
Or APPARENTLY... WOMEN... !!!
Whose Feelings Get Hurt...
When Men Deal In THINKING...
BEYOND... ****** Limits... !!!
And These Days That’s Why...
I'm A … FREE Single Guy... !!!
Because Where I’m Stationed...
Really Bears NO RELATION...
To Modern Day Statements...
That People Are Making...
And Actions They’re Taking...
Because MOST Are CRAZY...
And To Me Are........
....... “ AMAZING “...... ?!?
Sep 27, 2021
Sep 27, 2021 at 9:59 PM UTC
93
Went up a year this evening!
I recollect it well!
Amid no bells nor bravoes
The bystanders will tell!
Cheerful—as to the village—
Tranquil—as to repose—
Chastened—as to the Chapel
This humble Tourist rose!
Did not talk of returning!
Alluded to no time
When, were the gales propitious—
We might look for him!
Was grateful for the Roses
In life’s diverse bouquet—
Talked softly of new species
To pick another day;
Beguiling thus the wonder
The wondrous nearer drew—
Hands bustled at the moorings—
The crown respectful grew—
Ascended from our vision
To Countenances new!
A Difference—A Daisy—
Is all the rest I knew!
994
Lines aflow and about
rushed to welcome thee
and the bundle in thy hand
pushing buttons that said;
Hey!!!
Look straight
This poem is unread,
Unrevealed and strange
Hold tight....
Hold tight you did
This mama rare
In tears, pain and joy
you provided and chastened
leaping at the tiniest of successes
pushing boldness forth
caring like we were just one
but as for one, you did for all
with the grace on you
that I desire an inch.
those from that blessed womb
this sojourn is sweeter 'cos of you
#Losechukwu and Uweoma
my CEO's and executive minsters
You sweet-talked me to victory
#Ebubechukwu and Obianinulu
My pretty sisters from one blessed mother
Prof and Wizzy- Brain
being an Oduwegwu born Female would have been Boring without you guys
Friends, sweethearts, mentors, Fathers, Mothers, brothers and sisters. I wonder the turn my life would have taken without you guys.
Dadddyyy
I mentioned you last, cos I didn't know if the space above would be enough.
My Hero, Mentor, Teacher, Provider
You are many things in one thing
breaking odds and making roads
soothing our pain from afar
Daddy mi
I appreciate you
Having you is more than an inspiration
Words flee for fear
From your personality great
so stop I must against my wish
SUCF UNICAL & DLCF UNICAL
God has blessed me through you, turning the frightened little girl into a confident woman right under your roof.
Space is pleading
and heed I must
for future chances I crave
and deny it can
but God knows my heart
He's been faithful and true
Giving me new chances
With each dawn of the day
I'm grateful for life
and chances about
Living till this day, is only from Grace
Grandmother divine
Nnemukwu onye efoma
I appreciate you!!!
Sharing this month with you
Is fulfilling and uplifting
You birthed the best and prettiest woman I know # C O Oduwegwu
Moulded her with thy hands
and taught her to groom us
I'm grateful for your birth.
Inspiration and strength
I draw from your life
When the day comes to go
You'll pass with smiles
Finally I stop
but I wish not so
but Gladness overflows
and you I must mention
My Children in DLBC Afia-eze
I love you guys
Your laughter, creativity & high-spirit
Bring strength to my bones.
Oct 17, 2015
Oct 17, 2015 at 4:39 PM UTC
what sits in vicious throes of time
her silver shiny face
quivering from infernal forge
obscured away in space
enigma of this starry gloom
labyrinth of fantasy
dissected by her loneliness
seamless as tranquil sea
the opus of my nightingale
and chastened sounds of glee
sure as a stolen sight of gods
reveal our destiny
a life of defunct voidness
the land of phantom trace
in fraction of the infinite
she finds a sweet embrace
of what is filtered through her eyes
it rains through silver hair
all in the moments autumns float
and thunders sweep with care
for those of us who shall be praise
or bring repose upon
hers is the love so often missed
and seldom ever won
for coldest warmth of molten dreams
may spiral passing by
and mark a mortal woman's love
for a man who could not die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GFkN4deuZU
Oct 22, 2013
Oct 22, 2013 at 7:52 AM UTC