Erstwhile souls debased

We’re wilting in complacency’s shades
lost in gutless conformity
On frequent refrigerator raids
indulgent of deformity

Lassitude has kept us callow
from solidarity strayed
Each morning’s fresh hue turns sallow
by torrid crassitude swayed

We’ll be found too light when weighed
our erstwhile souls debased
Surely this whole jam self-made
with gone sour aftertaste?

Dancing on the pedals

Give your proud legs the chance
to warm, to limber
then set out, watch them prance
in cadenced timbre

Pure pedal powering
in strongest mettle
like petals flowering
in finest fettle

Below blossoms gliding
tires spinning, scouring
boundless bounty riding
while miles devouring

Dancing away on the pedals
in purest joy mystical
beyond mere racing for medals
Living movement lyrical!

+)
cadence = the measure of rhythmical motion; cycling: the number of revolutions of the crank per minute

Pursuit carboniferous

Outlook darkly fossiliferous
of restraint we’re belligerent
In our pursuits carboniferous
of the future indifferent

No mere hubristic vanity
this despairing dissonance
but ’round the bend’ insanity
from which no deliverance!

While Icarus just didn’t watch the wax
we’re giving our whole species the axe

+)
Icarus = the classical hubris poster boy

When weltschmerz abates

My poor heart’s own share of weltschmerz
abates by writing each day
While measured still in kilohertz
keeps disquietude at bay

as well when on bike rides
or admiring a flower
then restlessness subsides
dims futility’s glower

Absorbed in a calm pursuit
in and of its own end
whether in itself minute
ain’t that when we transcend?

Fawningly falling for Fallacy

When replacing what’s factually known
with what’s been determined Fantasy
ain’t it Reality we thus disown
fawningly falling for Fallacy?

In earthly strife of opaque spec
we’re escaping on each day
our noses in gadgets high tech:
Tap keyboard ballet, ole!

While on screen devices we’ve binged
human life has gotten unhinged

 

Flotsam windswept, left in wake, as wept

Watch the ephemeral waves
on oceans eternal
those wary warrior braves
their persistence vernal

Days raced in the froth of my youth
like driven waves, white capping
while now I’m a laggardly sleuth
usually caught napping

Am a poseur among knaves
a most tiresome recluse
one who cowers from the waves
pushing pretexts profuse

Flotsam on stormy ocean
oblivious, obtuse
swept in howling commotion
in existence abstruse

Celebrity expectantly

I’m not fearing to tread
as My Very Own Celeb!
Won’t fail to get ahead
soon gone viral on the web!

Never mind solidarity
must star in My Own Story
Forging on with temerity
I deserve all the glory!

Leaving politics to the Elite
affords time to stuff my own shed
So what that usurious Wall Street
if helps me feather my own bed?

For I won’t hesitate at the gate
of the Only Life Worth Living!
Must not let my beguilement abate
which would turn out unforgiving

Watch me take aim
ready in crisp dress
to claim my fame
a chunk of success!

Disingenuous words slither & slide

Aiming to take us for a ride
those disingenuous words
tenebrously slither & slide
pounce singly as well in herds

By blurred verbiage thronged
our attention grabbed
Bathos suffered prolonged
its contentions crabbed

Assertions spurious
cheery & braying
Assaults laborious
preying, dismaying

Spectacle precarious
in bombastic bouquet
All so faux gregarious
in dissolute decay

 

 

Attempting tighter stanzas

Airy verse warmly oblique
blows abaft, blows athwart
Rhyming bursts in thoughtful pique
lighthearted to cavort

Verse anxious to comport
without baring fangs
just aiming to transport
holding back harangues

Make stanzas tight
not staid or prosy
Make the tone light
but not too rosy

Set not out to sway
or to dissuade
Never try upbraid
attempt allay

Show mercy, so don’t hold forth
Have pity, make verses short

+)
-abaft = from the stern
-athwart = right angle to the ship’s center

Unfolding petals lustrous, contrasting humans blusterous

When Spring blossom releases
with inexorable mettle
bit like coming to Jesus
amidst bursts of finest fettle?

Unfolding petals lustrous
bursting in anthesis soundless
Contrasting humans blusterous
in their nauseous noise boundless

Ethereally endowed
each staunch bantam blossom
grows eternally unbowed
fulfills presence awesome

While Nature stays in full control
mere arrogance the human role

+)
anthesis = the flowering period of a plant, from the opening of the flower bud