MM's Selections for August Comp, Congratulations Wally for Third Place! Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Another nomination for the August IBPC:

Hi Lori,

I would like to nominate Daniel's poem A Door to Curiosity for IBPC. It can be found by clicking here. It's an amusing and deftly written piece about long past experiences, with which many may identify.

Cheers,
Syl***


A Door to Curiosity

Walking the halls of his high school last week,
something made his curiosity peak.
Daybreak peeked in from a place where he swore
he'd never noticed a doorway before!

Faintly a song had emerged from the mist
seeping out under the door... which was locked.
Nearly in shock, he looked 'round to enlist
help to gain entrance to where he had knocked.

No one was there, so he battered and kicked
'til he became so worn out, he sat down
right where he was, heaving hard; he was licked....
Suddenly out of the space came a clown

mocking the rube like Uriah the Heep.
Thoroughly humbled, I woke from my sleep.

© MLee Dickens'son 2013


This post has been edited by Cleo_Serapis: Sep 22 13, 19:43

Reason for edit: Revision posted

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hi,

This is a must read war poem that moved me to nominate it for IBPC. It's telling descriptions and visual imagery are fabulous even though the subject is about war. You can read this poem by clicking here.

Enjoyed the read,
~Cleo

Flash in the Pan by Walter Schwimm

In wartime, lights in the night usually signify something bad is about to happen – somewhere!

Breaking the stillness; a bump in the night!
Is that the start of an Eighty-one’s flight?
Payload of chaos to no one knows where
till H.E. and shrapnel light up the air.

Bursting in splendour, bright star in the sky,
Icarus riding a thousand foot high.
Just for a minute she dazzles the eyes
then swinging in circles, gradually dies.

Lazy green fire-flies, starting out slow
floating through darkness – all in a row.
Lazy green fire-flies rapidly change
to green killer-hornets streaking up-range.

Flickers of lightning! (A storm's overdue?)
Katyusha's big daughter, the one-twenty-two
shrieks overhead like a flaming banshee;
the zone near her grounding you’d rather not be.

Lurking in shadow, as patient as Jobe,
mine waits a victim to press on its probe,
renting the soul with a blast out of hell;
a few have survived their story to tell.

Of battle aurora commanding the night,
nothing’s as heinous as one out of sight.
Tiny hot flash of a rifle well aimed
could modestly signal “Your life has been claimed!”



Notes:
“Eighty-one” – 81mm NATO calibre Medium mortar. The Russian version had an 82mm bore.
“Icarus” – Hand launched parachute flare, also known as “thousand foot flare”.
“Katyusha” – Russian nickname of the older 82mm artillery rocket also known as “Stalin’s Organ” .
It was superseded by the powerful 122mm projectile with a range of up to 30 km.
Other references are to; machine gun tracer fire, mines and booby-traps.

This post has been edited by Cleo_Serapis: Sep 15 13, 15:09

Reason for edit: Revision posted