Best Alas Poems
Hues I desired, soon abandoned my sky
As flashing thunder ignited fiery clouds
Dissipating orange glow evening sought
Turning wild winds into advancing storm
Having promised you a galaxy of stars
I stepped boldly to go where they are
But there was no moon to guide my path
As I waddled in floods pitch-blank dark
Birds had detoured to shelter and hide
Seeing ocean's ride in enormous tides
Scattering on earth a despicable plight
As upon a hill I saw a glimmer of light
Courage I found in wondrous thoughts
Knowing this was to be my only chance
Bracing the storm to go where you are
Waiting inside the tall red lighthouse
But when I made it there you were gone
Alas, I was tricked by a heartless mirage
June 11, 2018
ALAS, POOR LINDA
Alas, poor Linda! I knew her as PD,
a poet of infinite interest,
of most excellent insight.
She has borne the brunt of conflict
a thousand times, and now how abhorrent
her unannounced dismissal.
For we are not punished
for the sins committed
but for those “perceived”
by the keepers
of the gladiators graves.
So let us raise our bloodied shields,
raise riot on their wounded face
demand the King we raised to power
remove his foot from trampled flower.
Return to us her petaled voice
lest all be lessened by such loss.
John G. Lawless
5/4/2016
First descent
had every bone crushed,
as a true descent must do.
Second descent
was of a toxin
placed neither by devil nor god.
Third descent, fourth, and beyond,
were of increasingly greater craft
and increasingly greater uncertainty.
I lay in the soil,
assimilated into
the common grave of mankind.
I vanished into the worms,
the stench ought to have killed me,
yet abjectly I survived.
And thereafter I saw the hereafter,
and I would not withstand
the finality of Gehenna's flames.
In a deathly moment of failure,
I returned from the grave,
for I hadn't the might to remain.
6th September 2018
Alas! Truth Points To Man's Deep Hate
This dangerous world's love for war
with its evil and far flung stones
has done far too much to atone.
Fear now rules, man has gone too far!
Peace and paradise now mere dreams
with airy soiled beds there unkept
lives herded into dying streams.
Some seeing, with sad tears have wept!
Who shall arise to this world save
for such looming and massive clouds
predict too many early graves.
Earth filled with radiation shrouds!
Alas! Truth points to man's deep hate
future days wrapped in hell's hot breath
we repent, else find that dark fate
Will our legacy be such death!
This dangerous world's love for war
with its evil and far flung stones
has done far too much to atone.
Fear now rules, man has gone too far!
Robert J. Lindley, 7-04-2017
NOTE- Written for Carol Duet's Facebook initiative,
"Poetry of Peace".
(1.)
Alas! So Shoot Me, I Grieve What Was Lost
Alas! So shoot me, I grieve what was lost
Not just youth, but those things Time took away
Within aching heart comes an icy frost
Covering epic pains of such decay!
One may ask, how dare I so complain?
Does Nature cry about hard falling rain?
Yet does not this world its ills promote well?
Oft with sorrows borne from depths of Hell?
Dare I choose to such dark verses to write?
Have I not truly joined in the fight?
Alas! So shoot me, I grieve what was lost
Not just youth, but those things Time took away
Within aching heart comes an icy frost
Covering epic pains of such decay!
Robert J. Lindley,
Sonnet, repeat stanza ( with triple couplets )
******
(2.)
Those Lush And Tender, Soft Welcoming Lips
Those flowing curls, glowing luscious mane
Sexy smile, flowering as desert rain
Bountiful beauty, sent to ease heart's pain
Lovely blessing sent for this soul to gain.
Ravishing essence with sweet touch to match
My hesitation, thinking what is the catch
That such a beauty would now my way pass
A goddess, sweet speaking to this poor lass.
Those lush and tender, soft welcoming lips
With true beauty, grace, and curvaceous hips
Yes beauty, as could launch a thousand ships
And greatest king's treasure surely eclipse.
Those tender kisses that were sent both ways.
May we forever - remember that day!
Robert J. Lindley,
Sonnet,
( And Life, Its Journey Ever Sped Onward )
******
(3.)
Does Basking Moon Ask Strolling Stars For More
Of beauty, earth, wind and soft glowing sky
Dares this artist to weep tears asking why
Heart and soul must pay such a heavy price
And shed blood for it to ever suffice?
Does basking moon ask strolling stars for more
Space and time to heavenly night explore
And cast upon earth a much deeper hue
To inspire such in poets such as you?
Does dawn its resplendent new rays withhold
That gift, that gleaming beauty to be sold
Or Mother Nature fail to gift new birth
Or poets fail to cast beauty's true worth?
Do such quizzing queries set well in verse
Or fail as being dated and quite terse?
Robert J. Lindley,
Sonnet,
( And what of life, love and this thing we call earth ? )
Alas~ If I Could Pen
Oh, my muse please do!
Send romance this very day.
Fill my droll quill do!
Lest I fall away,
In intellectual smog.
Crass,weepy dismay!
Double Engish Haikus 5,7,5
December 14, 2019
I lost a friend the other day
No, not to death, just in that way
so very few friends stay
forever.
Perhaps I felt a bit neglected
felt my feelings could be more respected
perhaps I might have just expected
far too much.
So, just what is poetry?
An endless attempt to rhyme with orange?
A forever searching of the soul for meaning?
An idyll fantasy a-dance with alliteration’s riffs?
An individual search for “our” Holy Grail
Perhaps, a distant song
Forever playing in our heads,
Sung softly ‘neath the murmur of the day.
Pitons driven into the stony crust of life.
A mud puddle inviting us to make mud pies
Rekindle the joy of soft pliable words
Shaping a moment to ponder
Poetry’s resonant question
“who makes the best mud pies”
Fishy and Medusa like
moves subtle in piscean flight
Slower than darting eyes
small mammals increase your size
Shady (steak out) waiting
cold smooth incalculable expectant satiating
For Carolyn Devonshire's attack contest!!
You are the sweetest woman
You are the most handsome man
I would give you the warmest embrace
Alas, if only I can
I would add you to my coffee
Or even take you by the hand
I would dance with you all night
Alas, if only I can
I would introduce you to all my friends
Or even invite you out with the clan
I would share my ice cream cone with you
Alas, if only I can
I would take you to the mosque
Whenever we hear the azan
I would watch Forrest Gump with you
Alas, if only I can
I would jot you down on paper
Observing all the emotions you fan
Then turn you into a lyric poem
Now that my friend I can
Farewell, alas, our ways now part
At the forking of the road
You leave me now with willing heart
And I must carry still the load
Farewell, alas, bravely once here
You walked in sun and dew
And never did I see a tear
To make this choice, so well thought through.
Farewell, alas, I love you more now
Than when my company you keep
But coming to hills bright brow
You spoke of promises to keep.
Farewell, alas, what courage gleams
And you insistent to know beyond the mist
While I raging defer with screams
The myth that something else be ever better than this.
Farewell, alas, I miss you on the sunless shore
At the forking road you left my side
And I walk on alone, alone the poor
And empty world your parting must abide.
alas the ass to ride the dollar and the mule to the bank
I am not amuse the ruse of poetry soup and lack of lentils
as most of you do not know it is a legume to ponder the read
of a dictionary but the bard of avon not going to plant a garden
the sun is bright but you are dim not knowing the share of sum
the perfect buffet with green tea and if lucky perfume with jasmine
Alas! Mankind
Is preoccupied
With living
Not loving.
Alas!
Salubrious antipasto
Trimmed to be vociferous
Left without the tympani
Holding up a symphony
Greased well guaranteed articulate
Inundated synchrony
Molded into ebony
Gone on before the starting gate
Innate
Careening toward a screening
Where is all this the leading?
A gracious over-seeding
All sliding towards a feeding
In generosity I ate
One's whole world changes
when you lose the one you love,
sell by date expired
© Harry J Horsman 2013