Restless nights made of pixels and stardust
Alt 29
I watch him halting between left and right
No-signal TV looms in a distant dark corner
Boisterous music befriends a stealthy black stereo
Olympic games run on the PC
Winner title appearing on the screen
Nothing fulfills him more than a cyber marathon
Ecstasy rushing through his veins
Refilled with unending virtual noises
Dumbfounded by countless choices
Hunters go;
prepared to brave the snow.
Survival befriends winter’s harvest.
All the while, ancient arctic winds blow their harshest.
Mounds of glimmering white drifts; December’s stardust.
O’ all the perspectives seasons bring,
blessings of life, come Spring;
Newborn King-
Silence whispers beside my empty bed,
Even loneliness whimpers to flee my side.
The darkness deepens the starkness of my fear,
Yet my mind is made — I won’t beg heartache back.
Of what use is a marriage in which love exists
Only in my mind, never in my home?
Whines and nags were the only music~
the winds played when my soul begged for rest.
Today I met your footsteps that went outdoors
And begged never to be allowed back in —
Even if your knocks dent my door with persistence.
My mind finds peace where you have hidden it.
So long as life befriends my soul and mind,
So loneliness finds peace within its depth,
So I can sleep and close my eyes without~
the fear that a knife might pierce a hole in my heart,
So emptiness can bring back my sanity.
Please—never reply to the plea of my loneliness,
To fill it with the trouble twelve years taught it to love.
And never mind emptiness begging you
to stock it with your figure filled with hatred, not love.
Old men
see death
more clearly
When young
all life
is blind
The magic in
that voice
who calls
In
salutary
rhyme
Old men
embrace
the knocking
That
signifies
the end
Their souls
intact
for travel
Their
legacy
befriends
That road
beyond
tomorrow
Where
posterity
inures
Awaits
the man
who braved the storm
And leaves
this world
— secure
(Dreamsleep: October, 2025)
Life ...
an unending series
of crossroads
Take
the right turn
— and tomorrow befriends
(Dreamsleep: September, 2025)
Florence has warm blood
and cowrie teeth that seldom clatter,
even in the chilled, fluttering dance of July rain.
She’s an element of Shiloh
in weeping quest of a promising Samuel,
and for this,
walks through long and clammy paths in July rain.
July, a month of sacred yams,
with breast tubers and milk tendrils,
befriends Florence,
an eloquent lamenter,
the quintessence of languor,
this day of streaming showers.
I have often had her tears
on my palms —
tears that sob gently, lest the temple yonder
hears her and pronounces them FAITHLESS.
Florence, battered in the rain,
frazzled by extreme caution,
with ambiance of July
and naivete of the grey ewe,
has prayed for her breasts, for her milk
and for the growth of her stunted soul.
I, too, have prayed —
for the rebirth of the seventh moon,
for Florence and her bedraggled sorrows,
and for strength on behalf of our weakened village.
It falls with grace.
Metallic bawls hail the strength of zinc roofs.
At the mercy of the thatch,
Drops drip from needle points of skeletal
Palm fronds.
Particles of rain descend on thresholds
Among dewed terrains.
The petrichor befriends the atmosphere,
Caressing limpid warmth with floating cold.
Lightning, a white dancing Anaconda, races with speed,
Filling the tenebrous plains with lights of hope.
Troubled skies ululate through the power of thunder.
I always recline on that liquid voice!
Rainmakers cream their palms
And roast fresh leaves of
Epochal petals
Plucked from somnolent trees.
Bubbles, green and full of life, puke,
Filling up the mouths of burning woods.
Grey darkness suggests the pleasant wars of
May through October,
When distant wayward drops
Trickle before the deafening deluge.
I hail the blandishments of July
For the society of fattened yams and the
Worthy tendrils —festooned confetti of ceremonial
Harvests.
Droughts yawn in vain when the attitude of
Wet seasons befriends the skies,
Yielding fecund grimes that grace the soil.
Beginnings
unending
Each moment
befriends
Untethered
unfettered
Intuity
mends
Connection
in motion
Where starts
never stop
Time lost
in fruition
From bottom
— to top
(Dreamsleep: July, 2025)
Ego exhumed, soul will bends
and the vibrant void befriends,
that one with the universe,
we then hum a joyous verse.
Though no desire arises,
heart embraces surprises,
gifted by the grace of God.
Cupid smiles and we too nod.
As both the all and this form,
the only rule ~ love’s the norm,
free from fear, free from desire,
in heart burns, God’s sacred fire.
A sailboat gently floats across a peaceful lake
and suddenly the world befriends me once again
Beyond all time the memory of our fishing trip
still lingers on my mind;
It lays softly upon the Huron lake,
like a plethora of Petoskey stones,
reminding me of the way the sun used to slant
softly, across your misty green eyes;
I sit here for endless hours seeking solace
and as evening draws near,
I see the stars begin to twinkle
like tiny diamonds sprinkled across the water;
Oh blessed moon of love and peace
take me to his resting place,
before I forget to remember
the caricature of his handsome, loving face.
She rises amidst the morning fire
Longing for the dreadful desire
Longing and lonely as a star mourning
Again and again she desires
She desires as much as fire
Fire upon fire hungrily stands
Outstretched in columns
It descends, swooping overhead
Outstretched beyond it’s limits
She apprehends and condemns
The utmost decision;
She befriends.
tender buds sprout on persuasive branches, spring
all the birds, tremble with anticipation
most gather round the feeder while others sing
hungry souls are enthralled by God’s creation
wistful breaths of soft wind and rain remember
most are thanking God this is not December
as the weather befriends hearts with sunny skies
washing life in love as the dark winter dies
Tradewinds strummed the cocoa nutter's palm fingers
the sun crept down to its packed trunk
overburdened routes tangled tunnels underground
the sun snuck below through the subtropic shaft
a sunny chamber secrets rays gaping droplets
friendly fronds fingering the sun's gaps as palms' breadth widen
cavernous collapses as sunlight escapes
shadows were the only victims that were claimed
the noontime sun dims over paradise
solar eclipse is a harbinger
light dims life ominously
the betrayed-winds cease
palms fronds dangling
eclipse ends the sun's suspend
eve befriends supine palms read
groves of palms with their trunks all packed
air express vents
Tryst
befriends
a hodgepodge
of too much pangs
leading to unsuspected circumstance
despite light at the end of the tunnel
count on lights out
as miss match
no friend
twist
Benevolent belle,
bounteously brilliant bard,
befriends birds, butterflies,
bard buddies bow, bring ballads,
buttercups, bellflowers bloom,
blithe, bestowing bursting blossoms
brimming bright blessings. ~
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.