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so beautifully ****
made immense by the primeval crush
of light.

there are places in the world
filled with soundless bones,

women in their lifeless braids
and swell sheen of moon

this bane of such swollen river
aching back to its source.

it is that your departure has the
scent of olives crushed against
the squalid home,

    and that your presence never
lights an incense,

   like death wafting searching
for flesh, or a lone animal
left cut in the wild pursuing rescue
with a hue of damp mauves.
L'autel bas s'orne de hautes mauves,

La chasuble blanche est toute en fleurs,

A travers les pâles vitraux jaunes

Le soleil se répand comme un fleuve ;


On chante au graduel : Fi-li-a !

D'une voix si lentement joyeuse

Qu'il faudrait croire que c'est l'extase

D'à-jamais voir la Reine des cieux ;


Le sermon du tremblotant vicaire

Est gentil plus que par un dimanche,

Qui dit que pour s'élever dans l'air

Faut être humble et de foi cordiale ;


Il ajoute, le cher vieux bonhomme,

Que la gloire ultime est réservée

Sur tous ceux qui vivent dans la pompe,

Aux pauvres d'esprit et de monnaie ;


On sort de l'église, après les vêpres,

Pour la procession si touchante

Qui a nom : du Vœu de Louis Treize

C'est le cas de prier pour la France.
cheryl love Jun 2014
Driving down a dull grey road
A road leading to nowhere.
A road that has ruby ribbons
attached to it.
Ruby cornfields in a sea of yellow.
Splashes of hollyhocks and pink
Poppies, amongst the green,
Under a brown bridge, blue drink
flows to and fro, side to side
with stripes of white inbetween.
Ruby cornfields in a sea of blue
Lavender, mauves and scarlet inside.
An English countryside waiting for you.
she wanders through the forests and the groves,
her bare feet scarce upon the mossy ground,
as day sinks into night without a sound
and sunset fills the skies with pinks and mauves;
and like a restless breeze she wildly roves,
a love-lost woodland dryad, summer-crowned
and who could ever guess where she was bound,
or why the sea so whispered near the coves.
her eyes as bright as a white-feathered dove,
beyond the river, near a sheltered tree,
she rests awhile finds lilies for her hair,
their flowery mist no prettier than she,
(enchanting in the hearkened, vibrant air,)
her heart soft-brimmed with longing and with love.
Brennan Ancona Dec 2014
for the false, convict, predilection for insane mumblings to cease into a void of hell, Nero indulges in the waters of the lethe, to forget life, the void, god.

to burn our cities, temples, is to drink, but to eat.
eat, mind you, the key to our temples, and dare not drink, least burn thy gods before unlocking their secrets, delectable enlightenment.

eat, and let the void's blackness of death be lit with the magnificent magentas, mauves, and cyans,
hue of inconceivable reaches of the potential of empty.
the psychedelic ****** frolic and feel,
pain sensual and dominating.

to the banks with Nero and his abyss of black,
let the cruel absence be filled with the blood of Nero, and the spectrum of our minds.

eject that horrid emperor for your self and your self's liberation from yourself. the ego, burns with Nero, in the fiery waters of the lethe.
I found this on my old laptop, I wrote this after my first time drinking Whiskey, this was also the last time, made evident by this poem.
Paul d'Aubin Aug 2016
Le Pont sur le Liamone entre Arbori et Vico

Nous venions du «clos d'Alzetto»,
Domaine réputé en Corse,
Passant par Arbori et Ampigna
Sur une route plus noueuse,
Qu'une couleuvre se tortillant.
Le couvert boisé tempérait
Le soleil qui dardait la lunette
Et la nature semblait impénétrable,
Comme dans les maquis
De Prosper Mérimée.
Il ne manquait, dans nombre d'endroits
Faits pour l'embuscade,
Que la lueur d'acier
Du canon d'un fusil,
Lorsqu'apparut un pont génois
Haut dresse sur le Liamone.
La route, pour franchir la rivière
Faisait un coude
Et nous sortirent de l'auto
Saisis par le charme du lieu,
pour jeter des regards,
Portant au **** du cours du torrent,
sur les à pics de la rivière,
A la fois tumultueuse et grondante
Avec ses bassins de granit
Sculptés dans le cours du fleuve,
Et baignés d'eaux vertes sur fonds mauves,
Qui semblaient réclame
leur trophée
De nageurs et nageuses
Pour tenir compagnie
A ses truites fario
Si bien cachées,
Dans les cavités de granit.
Et au génie tutélaire
De ce haut Liamone,
Qui règne sur ces torrents
de Montagne
en donnant,
Depuis des temps immémoriaux.
Un spectacle si rare et saisissant,
Qu'il emplit les esprits
D'une sensation de contempler,
L'un de ces objet d'art,
Façonné par notre mère la Nature.
Et levant les yeux nous vîmes,
Planer l'aigle royal,
Paraissant ainsi saluer,
L’altière grandeur de ces lieux.

Paul Arrighi
Erika Soerensen Apr 2018
we are not alone.

we have the cackling call of the
wise old crow
and the warbling whistle of the
persistent loon,
to remind us of that....

we are not alone.
we have the magnificent trees,
our sisters,
limbs outstretched in a forever
welcoming hug
providing shelter and shade and
authentic beauty just because
they can,
to remind us of that....

we are not alone.

we have the near-unbreakable rocks
and stones pregnant with resiliency
and raw grit, bathed in
curious colors from the
spark of life;
pinks, mauves, apricots, greys
and deep brick reds,
to remind us of that....

we are not alone

we have the playful wind and sky
weaving her many moods and contradictions,
orchestrating the elements while
caressing our skin and kissing our hair
never abandoning and always constant,
to remind us of that....

we are not alone.

we have the vivid green grass
full of ***** and willpower,
fearlessly embracing its
bold freshness and
seasonal rebirth, chanting:
"live boldly in THIS season in
THIS hour in THIS moment
because the only constant is change!"
to remind us of that....

loneliness is not a place
but a perspective.
not a feeling
but a thought.
not a reality
but an illusion.

nature is our constant comrade
showing up every single day of our lives,
regardless of the weather -
to not only breathe life into us
but right along with us.

she is us and we are her,
as we destroy her, we destroy ourselves
as we show her reverence and respect,
we show reverence and respect to ourselves,
and our Creator.

so don’t be a ****.

happy earth day
2018
Paul d'Aubin Nov 2016
Automnes de Luchon

Phébus s'était lové sur le val de Luchon,
Les arbres rougeoyaient comme sous le pinceau,
D'un Van Gogh qui aurait amené la Provence,
Dans les vertes Montagnes des Pyrénées centrales
Non **** de l'Aneto et très près du Vénasque.
Mais tout ce verdoiement laissait place à l'automne.
Avec ses rougeoiements, ses mauves et ses dorés.
Et les fins cheveux roux donnés par des buissons.
La nature semblait avoir changé d'atours.
Pour nous faire oublier l'été et ses douces torpeurs.
Les Erables, les Tulipiers et les Cerisier sauvages se parent,
D'atours d'or ou de rouge sang,
Comme pour les noces des feuilles et de la lune.
Oui, les derniers rayons sont toujours les plus beaux !
Dans les futaies et les clairières pourpres.
Et l’automne tendre a  ce goût de châtaignes,
Grillées dans les jardins ou embaumaient  les roses.
Et de flambées heureuses et de baisers brûlants.
La montagne est si belle que l'on voudrait figer.
Ces splendeurs éphémères et suspendre le temps.
Afin de contempler toujours ces beautés vives
De la ville Coquette et du val arboré.
Les jardins de «la Pique» faisaient belle figure,
Si près de la rivière aux eaux vivifiantes.
Et l'ancien Casino nous donnait à songer,
Aux beautés d'autrefois alanguies, sous la soie,
Dans les bals bien réglés parés d'un luxe doux
Ou il faisait parfois bon savoir jeter bas,
Les fausses les convenances pour le beau Cupidon.
Aujourd'hui; riantes et bronzées, les belles
Sont sportives, parcourent la Montagne.
Et viennent au «vapo» pour bien se délasser.
Oh; Reine d'autrefois, toujours ville de charmes.
Tes automnes suggèrent des rêves de bonheur,
De vies épanouies et de soins pour les êtres.
Ou il est reposant de venir t'admirer.
Parmi tes fleurs, les arbres et ton air vivifiant.

Paul Arrighi
Mhelaney Noel Feb 2019
The American people are lotuses
Grown out of the murk
We’re periwinkle pretty, but we have residue on some of our petals
And one could drain the swamp, but we’d still be in it, withering in the harsh sunlight
They could select only the fairest lotuses to be preserved, but nature would be disturbed, mutated
The indigo birds that drink our nectar would be betrayed
Then they too would leave us
And leave the aphids without prey
In the absence of deep pink flowers nature would start to cave in on itself and white-hot turmoil would fester and procreate
So invaluable to us is our gradient of flowers
They were meant to be part of our roots, their magentas and mauves keep us balanced
Keep us from turning over into the muddy water where sunlight cannot grace our petals.
This poem was first published by the America Library of Poetry in their 2019 student anthology, Futures.
David R Apr 2021
Brides of whitest, delicate lace,
Gowns immaculate, as snow their face
Softest pink, a blush to embrace,
Rose, as rising sun to race

Sheets of white, 'candescent as moonlight,
Waves of coral, leaves and floral,
Rows of candle, as calcic stalagmite,
Mauves 'n violet as wild wood sorrel.

So yon maidens of sweetest spring
Herald the Queen Summer's oncoming
Her nectarous drupe and fruit offspring
The bountiful boon she will bring.

Behold the language of your Beloved
Speaks in tongues of secrets vivid
Of kindness, giving, eternally sipid
Of warmth and fire, of ardour vivid

So when next you spy the verdant maidens
Bedecked finery, blossoms laden,
Whispering, bowing, to one cadence,
Know you see the One true Haven.
BLT's Merriam-Webster Word of The Day Challenge
#verdant
wordvango Jan 2018
Gonna
After a second
Examining the rise of her
Breast the darker
Pink of an ***** ******
Extending
The length of a second
The wealth of a lucky man.
Gonna
Just take a look slow all round the peak curvatures
Compare the pink
With the almonds the mauves
And cinnamons drink
Of  pallmall nicotinic
Sweats and long pauses
Now
I cull
Annihilate
The culinary incarnate
Etching with a
Claw on rock  her
Taste
Pawn her
Platinum diamond
For a soda and chips
As the faucet drips
Geno Cattouse May 2014
Flowers and candy.
                      Takin steps to the light.
Version delightful. Make happy.
                                     Pretty please. Write  pretty tales fairy. Nice baby nice.
             Smooth suplications calm the pulses.

Write pretty in mauves and magentas.orange and blues.
Dont nobody bring me no bad news.
kiran goswami May 2020
Next doors, on the next floor,
I see a woman, everyday.
On some days, she looks at me with her eyes lifting off the newly mopped floor
On other days I find her staring blankly at the cloudless sky.

Her eyes, some days kaleidoscopic,
Some days achromatic,
A blank verse.


Her eyes hold her summertime sadness
And her happiness as capricious as melting snow,
While she stretches herself between her found past and lost future.
She ends up falling,
Softly,
From her core,
Like dough being stretched from both sides.
She picks herself up again,
And folds herself in her kitchen,
Like dough that fell while stretching.
She sways but never falls,
like a bobo doll


She always plucks a flower from her garden,
A rose.
Like it was given by her first love,
Or, by no one.

Her lips, scarlet yet pale,
She speaks three lines a day, a haiku.
But I hear three hundred sixty-nine, an epic.

Every fortnight, when the moon faces the west,
She picks a few sheets, thumbed and joint together,
called 'Cinderella'.
She reads to herself,
In a melancholic tone.
Just like her grandmother did.
She too was like Cinderella,
But Cinderella never mopped the prince's floor.

She smiles slightly,
when she looks at the new frame,
that embraces her old photograph.
And both smiles find similes between each other,
They look similar and are yet different.
She smiles again to drop the previous one,
like a wisteria that sheds its mauves.


She wears her enigma and dances with the moonlight,
While she talks of the days she loved.

She looks at the calendar and finds her birthday marked.
She knows again,
she will shed another part.

These parts first emerged when this glass doll fell
and
smashed into pieces.

Like a snake, she performs ecdysis
and every year a part of her is gone
until there is no more left to lose.
Thirty-nine years, and she lost herself twenty-nine times since she was ten.


Age Ten:
Her Barbie doll was thrown,
She had to ‘grow up’.
She was ten after all.
But when she tried to pick up a sword,
They told her ‘no’
She was a ‘girl’ after all.

Age Twelve:
Dad no more played ‘throw me up’ with her,
She could no more touch the sky,
She looked up in envy,
While the sky stared back with prejudice.

Age Fourteen:
Crimson and scarlet defined her now,
Every statement carried a clause,
and every clause a red stain.
Her calendar started being marked with red pen.

Age sixteen:
She was praised five times,
Her achievements were twenty-five,
While her brother was cheered a hundred times
But his achievements were ten.
During all her math classes she used to question
When did her parents’ ‘half love’ for each turn into one fourth for her.

Age seventeen:
The playground and the streets only heard the voices of boys
And never her laughter and cries.
‘Do not go outside; it is unsafe,' she was told
Her mother constantly reminded
‘Darling the world outside is dark,
Keep the doors of the heart closed'
She finally learnt a hundred such phrases.

Age eighteen:
She got a rose for the first time,
A fallen one.
She knew another first love was rejected,
like her.
Alas! she lost a love.

Age nineteen:
Her best friend changed from her mother to a collection of papers.
Her secrets changed from new toys to young boys,
She lost the pages of her heart with each rejected letter
She lost her mirror friend, who she thought was no better.

Age twenty:
The kid was lost,
She finally grew up,
But her feet told a different story
When they swung in the air to
‘If you are happy and you know it…’

Age twenty-two:
Pale, wan
Lean body wrapped in red
Her hands painted with heena.
And her lips sealed with lipstick.
The artist yesterday became a canvas today.
Age Twenty-three:
The chaste woman,
Now belonged to a man.
She used to scream out her insecurities,
He used to burn her purity.

Age Twenty-four:
Cradles,
Milk,
laughter and shrieks.
She left her cries in the tears of a child’s eyes.

Age Twenty-nine:
Wrinkles and stretch marks
Loose skin and spots so dark.
She was ageing,
Losing her clear young skin.
But a mother of two, didn’t care for such petty matters,
She didn’t give a lark.

Age Thirty-five:
‘Study well, be polite’
She told her children.
‘We will, we will’
Was all she heard.
‘Spend less, listen to me’
She pleaded with her husband.
‘I will, I will’
Was all she got.
She did not know when she had lost the respect for which she had always fought.

Age Thirty-nine:
Words left unheard.
Prayers left unheeded.
Shrieks lost in vacuum.
And she in her gloom.

She reminisces about the old,
While she loses the new.

As the day begins she collects her scattered words,
And tries to string them together with each chore.

Every Sunday she watches 'Roman Holiday'
Maybe she too wants her freedom,
Maybe she too wants to go back.
But like a 'macaw' that gently leaves her feather,
She too leaves her free past.

And when she blinks every three seconds,
I find the colour of her eyes changing.
From the darkest oceans,
To the lightest lilacs.
From the tiniest saplings,
To the tallest leaves.
From the withered clematis,
To the blooming arabella.
From the roses that she never got
To the blood she always bled.
From the dying dandelions,
To the fresh fallen snow.
And from the lightest night sky,
To her dark black eyes.
I find stories in her,
Unwritten so far.

Every 30 hours she drops an eyelash ,
Just like she dropped her dreams and hopes,
While she was busy becoming
A daughter,
A woman,
A wife
And then
A mother.
She is an ode to herself,
And a ballad to others.


And by the end of the day,
She becomes a poem.
A poem that is never written or read.
Michael Jul 2018
Hear our voice
From the east, west, south, and north
Hear our independence
This July Fourth
Like flowers in bloom
In the night
See the chandeliers
Hang in the sky
With crescendos and
Reds, blues and whites
Explosions and commotion
In the battle lights
In the bomb blasts and bombast
Crimsons, umbers and beige
Like the dawn’s breaking light
Mauves, cobalts and jades
All the high-lights and sky-lights
Caught by the American’s eye
It's In the fodder of the diviner’s rod
In the wizardry of July
Copyright 2012
David R Aug 2022
paths of gold dappled bronze,
effulgence framed mauves 'n pink,
mirror sun-star in sky in yon
blue-purple drapes and silk.

swift the magpie and the swallow
dart in swoops of flame 'n fire
as overhead in shimmering halo
circles buzzard ever higher

o'er jardin of country-house
rich in greens and reds
as solitary darts a field-mouse
towards yon shrubbery beds

a bullet from a rifle
outta paradise
another life stifled
for buzzards love their mice
BLT's Merriam-Webster Word of The Day Challenge
#effulgence
David R Jun 2021
what is this that grips my senses
its magic grasp inveigling,
the mauves, the reds, as blood of ******,
as fairest ****** beguiling

depths of salmon orange,
the deepest, velvet pinks,
bid me pay them homage
as Pharaoh to his Sphinx

i gaze in heartfelt wonder
and touch her deepest secrets,
scented lightning, silent thunder,
quenching soul with her streamlets

of ever transient virility
of flower of fertility,
her arrows o' Cupidian agility
blushing unashamed fecundity

words cannot paint your beauty,
or describe eternal mystery,
they cannot do their duty
unlock thine vernal divinity
inveigle
BLT's Merriam-Webster Word of The Day Challenge

first stanza original:
what magic is this that grips my senses
in its grasp beguiling
the mauves, the reds, as blood of ******,
as fairest virgins smiling
Cruel summer in viscous reds and pinks; wine stains,
sweating cans, margaritas in plastic cups,
everything pulsing on a sticky dance floor and sad.
Screaming and flirting with the easy and the lost as the sun drags bodies
to a place where hearts are haggard and hungry,
where the hunted steer to survive.

Cruel summer in tangerine-dream and traffic-light-greens,
the slant of bruising metals, the hollow of a hollow,
hot-hopes of the blue of blue and more blue.
A polite laugh, a memory’s memory, a wish on a still-burning candle.
I’m nothing if not a witness to superstition and the way faith tastes like fear.
I’m everything if I play my cards right.

I’m roving about;
a derelict architect, a soul with someone else's name carved across it.
I’m in and out of the city,
in and out of the conversation.
I’m in and out of his vision like suspicion-
he walks past our claw marks on corners and song-scratched streets,
he looks at the city and the city looks back, and he thinks of me.
Planted and planned and made to be.

Cruel summer in jaundiced yellows and mauves,
the pain of​​ the sun on shoulder and bottle,
the ache of a smile and a lie on lips.
His hands on my waist, my mind in a hot room,
my glint swimming in his eyes,
his voice snared between my sharp, sharp teeth.

Cruel summer in grimy greens and stained-glass jewels dripping
another bartop, another night where just friends melt and merge,
another morning spent tangled and giggling,
like all of this exists to see each other smile.
Like this wasn’t a dutiful ritual and a route to ruin.
Like it wasn’t the most marvelous game to play.

Cruel summer in royal purples and gold beading, holding his hand and my tongue,
meeting the train with a sinking chest and a straightened spine.
Another kiss before I hop the turnstile.
Another three months wracking and whirling;
cursing his hands, howling the night, willing him to pitch me the ball.
Just waiting for cruel summer to bloom in shades of blue,
beaming because cruel summer doesn’t lose.
June 2023

— The End —