The Banyan Tree

Inspired by Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – Writer’s Choice &
Reena’x Xploration Challenge #367

scenic masterpiece
has a bountiful purpose
splendor of this world

**NOTE – It really is a fascinating tree. Check out more info about it HERE.

Peace And War

Inspired by What do you see #262

beautiful stillness
the sun setting peacefully
sacred scenery

yet it also conjures up an opposite vision…

holy land warfare
blood of the innocent shed
spilled with savagery

Majestic

in awe of nature
so prominent and regal
takes my breath away

A Vision Of Loveliness

Redux

Pixabay.com

When elegance becomes smooth,
that’s divinity in our gaze.

When the form is perfection,
that’s posturing with grace.

When it takes your breath away,
that’s seeing the exquisite in nature.

When you can’t look away,
that’s beauty putting you in a trance.

Originally posted 12/30/2018 on I Write Her.

The Stillness

Image credit – Sean Bocks

like a guardian
the moon watches from a distance
but protectively and silently

there’s peace and majesty
in the view jutting quietly skywards
reaching for the ether

the land pulls us to notice
we are bonded for life
and yet, we are apart

Ken Gierke

Brilliance

Her light is an oasis
in a landscape
of seeming darkness,

the world around her
dimmed by comparison.
That light holds a music

to wake my mind
from slumber with passion
that echoes my own,

offers assurance of a path
through any shadow
that may lie before us.

As Above

so below, within the pulse
star fields emerge
flames engulf, recede, reveal
depth in layers always there
currents conceal nothing, everything
perception eclipsed as stars dance
light washes away perception
an amorphous birth
confirmation of connection
in a quickening pulse

Better Left Behind

A dropped bone is no loss,
once you realize
it was your own, gnawed
by the scavengers
surrounding you.
What is prized by you
should not be determined
by others. You may
come out limping,
but you will walk tall.

Moonbeam Picnic

I listen to our shadows on a night picnic,
visited by words in raining moonbeams
that bring dream sense magic.
Giving them our real names,
I sing to the stars of my love for you
with controlled abandon.
What is our image? Poems and the body,
think of them as one, alive on the nights
you love me most, over the moon.

Limp Bellows

A hearth glows with deception. Flames lick
within, between, around, at the edges

of forms sculpted not by those flames
seeming to rise from embers not embers,

beneath forms not charred logs,
lacking life as ceramic will do,

denying the senses further of the crackle of life,
the shifting of a form succumbing to the seeping

of energy at the end of its life. Instead, fueled
among unchanging forms by a source metered,

piped to that hearth by a provider indifferent
to the romance meant to be conveyed by the flames.

Speak to me directly, without deception
that fans flames long gone out.

Tapestry

Fathers and brothers, sisters and mothers
Triumphs and trials, happiness and sorrow
Woven through tales past and those yet to finish
Blended with those of our children’s children
A tapestry with folds that hold a fortune for those
Who understand the wealth of those tales, a texture
Felt in a moment of revelation with a child
An afternoon with a friend, a lifetime with a loved one
A brilliance in its deepest folds that inspires
In times of darkness or light, then and now
Woven as we come together to share that wealth
Ease the depth of that darkness, our compassion
Among the finest threads of life’s tapestry

Harmless Lunacy

I greet the full moon
with anticipation,
each month waiting for
what it has to tell me,
each month finding myself
putting words in its mouth.
I never tire of this game
with no solution,
no wrong answer,
and never a reason to doubt.

Binding Light

An interstellar pulse measured
through passing clouds survives
occlusion in the syncopation of two hearts
that breathless moment between.

Eyes turn from the night sky
find each other the darkness
meaningless a spark passing
between joining them.

A pulse quickens knowing
the difference is less than
the distance between
two hearts beating as one.

~~~

Ken Gierke writes primarily free verse and haiku. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming both in print and online in places such as The Short of It, Amethyst Review, As It Ought to Be Magazine, Ekphrastic Review, Poetry Breakfast, and Silver Birch Press. His first collection of poetry, Glass Awash, was published by Spartan Press in 2022. His website: https://rivrvlogr.com/ Ken was first featured in 2020 and then again in 2022. You can find his work HERE.

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Bright

vivid poppy shines
with glaring intensity
unfolds its grandeur

Gifts

Redux

Ash D. Solomon

uplifting beauty
eases a downtrodden soul
felt in a quick glance

Valiant

ever so watchful
eyeing the scene silently
proud in a big world

First Light

Inspired by What do you see #219

anticipation
beautiful sunrise greets us
a new day of hope