River Wedding
The wedding bouquet,
gardenias and baby’s breath,
swirl in the eddy
as though looking for
an escape.
Up river,
a boutonniere of
coral rosebuds
catches the rapids
and is pummeled forward.
Colliding with the
vortex, it too
merges with the whiligig,
a churning water-garden.
Back upriver,
a man in a tuxedo drinks whisky straight;
a woman takes shears to her gown.
[...] Read more
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Inside and Back Out
A forest encircles the lawn,
the lawn encircles sheets of English ivy,
the ivy encircles the walls of a house,
the house encircles its furnishings,
the furniture encircles a family
the family sits on the furniture,
the furniture completes the house,
the house is cuddled by walls,
the walls are warmed by English ivy,
the ivy loathes the horizontal lawn,
the lawn pines to be a forest.
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Procession
A sinuous black worm,
the funeral procession
of black limousines crawls
toward the cemetary.
The headlights on the
hearse stare straight ahead
like zombies’ eyes,
illuminating the way.
Automobiles passing
the opposite way pull over,
some passengers hushed,
some restless.
Burdened with baby's breath
gladioli sprays and black lace,
a funeral is solemn
departure—a journey
before the journey
[...] Read more
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Medusa Is Mad
The irony of it
(sort of like Medusa getting bit
by a snake)
did not escape her.
She was the one
who ALWAYS had the upper hand,
who never gave an inch,
whose venom was
100 proof.
She could not
for the life of her
pinpoint the moment
when she had
lowered her guard,
exposed her vulnerability.
Betrayal is a slithery thing,
reptilian, if you will.
[...] Read more
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Dancing in the Wind with Aunt Ana
‘Lectrical storm,
prophesied my aunt Ana,
All fire and precious little water.
Drum-rolls of thunder
bounced about on the western horizon
like pin-balls.
Ribbony fingers of lightning
pointed toward town.
The wind has caught fire,
shrilled my aunt.
Reach up and douse the wind.
I reached up.
I squeezed the wind.
The wind warmed my hand.
My being is all
birdsongs, wind chimes,
[...] Read more
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Ups 'n Downs
Like white ink on black paper
sometimes life seems turned around.
Like ice in summer, desiccated leaves in spring,
like fish swimming in the Gobi Desert,
like a bell that will not ring,
it’s disconcerting, I've found.
Like black ink on white paper
sometimes things seem straight ahead.
Like iced tea in summer, cherry buds in spring,
like fish catapulting in the thrusting whitewater,
like a bell that rings and rings-
then life’s a dancing thoroughbred.
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
From Beth to Vickie
One summer he read rows
and rows of Elizabethan verse,
from an anthology whose jacket
was illustrated with a red rose.
That was the summer
he was in love with a sophomore
named Elizabeth Forrest,
soft and more precious than a dove.
Lovelier than verse
and theology, Beth was both
the tree and the forest—
she rose above it all.
But summer dwindles
and love loses its petals too—
His Elizabethan period closed that fall
when he met a senior named Victoria.
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Dreaming of Insomnia
His dream is to dream.
At 3 AM his REM
sleep remains elusive,
fluttering under his eyelids
like caged moths,
not conducive to slumber.
The number of hours spent
changing positions over and under
like tidal waves coming and going,
like a snake coiling and crawling,
comprises the shank of the night.
Like invading goths,
inconsequential thoughts
battle the armies of Morpheus
relentlessly until Apollo arises
and the alarm goes off.
Then sleep ascends,
just as it’s time
[...] Read more
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
One Leaf Minus a Thousand
Why is it so difficult
when looking at, say, a leaf,
without the imprint
of thousands of other leaves
distorting the view?
To be able to observe something
as we did the first time
we set eyes upon it,
when we were
also as fresh and new
as spring buds:
ah, now that would be
a noteworthy event.
If only we had known
back then the gravity,
the urgency of that first glimpse
of a rainbow, or even the reflection
of a rainbow in a still pond,
[...] Read more
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
After the Sonnet Ends
After the sonnet ends it begins.
The final word glistens suspended on a string
like an industrious spider on strands slender as pins,
like a trapeze artist’s precarious swing.
The minstral invites you to take the gift
of vases of words and decanters of wit
and parse them in your mind and shift
the meanings and the mores to fit
the memories of music and rhyme
in the repository of your mind
and perhaps to recall some other time,
and in the recollection find
another starting point where the thought ends,
still another meaning where the line bends.
poem by Sonny Rainshine
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!