Strife At Sunrise - Poem
A Golden Shovel after Maya Angelou’s “Awaking In New York”
Dusk settles a yawning sun as to will
the world to fall in tidal wind
yet no devil robs the heart of whirlwind sleep
Spinning stars abandoned by dust plead with
broken words for the descent of a starved city
Untiring roots hold the captive dark
out blaze Orion’s ephemeral reign and
smolder the vial of ochre venom, a
battle for blood-stained lotuses of war
Harken from the welkin the light glow of dawn
as souls seep from trenches unheeded
Mother Earth’s palms curl in, aching cries will
pierce the sharpest wall of the wind
wide eyes steal the coming deluge of sleep
A march of gleaming metal crush dashing comets with
glee, silence bursting jazz in a plummeting city
the azure clouds never turn astute gazes on
fallen limbs below, envelop the earth and
veil darting buds seeking an
oasis as morning gleam engages cold night in war
dew drops beckon the ecliptic to rest below triumphant dawn
spirits ascend furrowed trenches, flames nevermore unheeded
Search for Shifting Infinity: A Pantoum - Poem
A chariot drawn to the sun
Impenetrable wild horses hold spirits hostage
Heart set on wildly spinning a tale
Blooming unseen into dark tinted waves
Impenetrable roaring horses rob captive spirits
Stumbling toward uncertain eternity
Burgeoning in the dusk on the ochre tide
Unfurl cinnabar to set the world aflame
To stumble aft to wavering eons
Grapple for the violet cores of constellations
Flowering in a plummeting sun twinning ochre deluge
Spread a cinnabar flag into sparkling pyrotechnics
Unendingly discover the violet truths in constellations
As words knit to shining threads in a tapestry
Light flourishes of coral dawn in crimson breakers
Forging glowing palettes of untold secrets
Tapered needles snap words into place
One perfect puzzle piece at a time
Mold serendipitous metaphors on incandescent palettes
Search dancing clouds for lost translated essence
One perfect puzzle piece at a time
Steady beats summon shifting phrases from dusty tomes
To scour pirouetting clouds for nuclei within
Plow the roots, free the rhyme
Tunes of sanctuary beckon shifting phrases into mirrored palimpsests
A past sprinkled into longing echoes braiding the hereafter
Liberate rhyming hearts, pulverize resting bedrock
Steal the still night to resurrect dreams
Yearning echoes plait the bygone into the hereafter
Warm hands undo the knots that impede epiphany
The night hush robbed while resuscitating our truest desiderata
From letters that mingle tears to reflect a rainbow
Knots undone by sincere hands release loping cascades of truth
That line the reaches of welkin on every side
Letters hammer a flaring rainbow from molten tears
To fashion home from veiled hearts with care
To paint a vaulting sky within reach
A heart set on forever weaving sojourns
From shrouded souls, I weld shining sanctuary
While galloping to Helios to divine lyric verity
Pinioned Spirit - Poem
Wings chained to a whistle
eyes blinkered by coarse leather
all to deceive the wild of its power
offer a spirit to a thud of a broom
held by grasping hands on hollow grass
An angel chained to a post
forget the sky open at its feet
Forget the fear born in razor talons
Remember only the dark
and swoops on command to the murky reaches of heaven
Falling down and up, up and down
a silent foreign figurehead in silver frames
To remind a bird of its manacles
is to break a soul into captivity
Does it hear its echoing song?
or does it stay in rough bonds
because every other life holds the unknown
expected paths ease our burdened minds
extend wants to the infinity of certainly impossible dreams
stepping off risks the molded clay
to shatter every notion of our reach in a breathless instant
sometimes better to fragment into spinning dust
Than to live in a vase of our own making
but to summon a tornado is hard enough
to toss boundaries aside is to lose one’s roots
But mistakes blur into the rainbow of the new
freedom or safety is the wrong question
To find a blooming cave in the dark
where tripping yields gleaming gold
where surety doesn’t constrain
where a burning soul can glow unfettered
such a place exists only in rich imagination
or in the turrets that fill our souls
in truth, we compromise freedom for safety
and safety for freedom in every choice
yet look up to the irrepressible trapeze
For wings that bear happiness in their beat
As the clouds dance in the rain
Ananya Vinay is from Fresno, California. She enjoys reading, writing, and discovering the why's of the world through science. The submission is attached below.