Best Cratered Poems
QUOTE:
“The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast,
knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever
just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself.
Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light.
The moon understands what it means to be human.
Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.”
? Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Walk I, Naked Under Pallid New Moons
I that crieth with dawn's falling dew
Accuser of this dark world and its hate
Walk I, naked under pallid new moons
With lingering hunger, nothing can sate
As warrior, as a lover now stone-blind
A dying soul, bleeding with ink and pen
Dreams, myself in imaginative realms
Away from this world full of darkest sin
This heart and soul, each crying out for more
And knowing Time will soon end this decay
A ship never finding a safe harbor
A ghost of dead dreams, now morbidly gray
Pay heed, if thy soul seeketh Love's pure kiss....
For tis' Light and Truth that bringeth sweet bliss....
Robert J. Lindley, 1-15-2020
Sonnet, ( As Whispering Wind Swirls About, To Speak )
( A pen allowed to such deep truth sing )
Note:
Hold tight the moments that life gives
the ecstasy of remembrances of sweet romance
for day comes in which more in past one lives
the more one sees that most of life is long-lost chance....
In a world where we are constantly told how we should do this and that,
we must learn to thank them for their opinions…but, to listen to our own
hearts and THINK for ourselves.
There is a difference between guidance & being told what to do; where
opinions are sometimes, sadly, just glorified pre-judgments in hiding. In this
world today, more than ever, we must stand our ground and water our seeds
with our own heartbeats.
Because in the time one could spend listening to loud/louder/loudest opinions
of why one should or shouldn’t do it someone else's way, one could have
already done it their own way. Always move in the direction of time:
Forward
...
Another herd of evaporated soliloquies
Flashing warning signs of good-will
Unto the lost
The deaf
The mute
The righteously blind
They simply ask for a sip of strenuous cognac
To lighten regurgitated burdens
Yet, throats become condensed with
Good intentions
Under a cratered moon, afflicted with two-faced vertigo
How can one stand in the face of adversity
When our legs are kicked from the same foundations
That opinion’s high court built
How can I be told to write with syllabic serenity
When a rambunctious rhyme
Would be the socialized death of me
“Guided” by educated parchments, recycled without signatures
…
If poetry is freedom,
Why do critics scream in beer-battered rings of opulent contradictions?
If poetry is freedom,
How is one frowned upon for speaking the word of Life, the word of God
The same God who told us to speak upon epiphanies’ climactic pain
Towards the same “heaven”,
They swear,
They’ll arrive at.
©Drake J. Eszes
Oh baneful yellow Moon in fullest rounded sphere,
Bright as Summers Buttercups in abundant yield,
Coldly riveted upon Winters beaten, thin silvered panels;
Thereof: By ye mighty hammer doth great thoth wield!
For what fearful trowel gouged out thine far flung valleys
Whilst piling high upon yon monstrous heights?
Wherest, scattering the bare pebbles, a ghostly sower
Coursing across vast cratered plains under Selenian moonlights.
Here once didst thou swelling tides ever invade long vanished shores
Dragged upon by some dwindling, exploded, far distant star;
An atmosphere girdling, warming and nurturing -
Torn from this barren rock and cast way out afar!
Eternally ostracized and deviled, adorned in black swirling robes;
Drifting angular grains heaped - raked by hot solar winds;
Your desolate kingdoms lit in all seasons under heavenly lanterns;
Worshiped and foully cursed upon: for any amount - and all manner of sins.
And ere did erstwhile lovers that ever come forth on bended knee,
To traverse the pale beams that twist about the crooked stiles,
Pledge well intended oaths beneath high, impossible windows:
Their grandly draped balconies and balustrades bathed in luminosities wiles.
When across the recorded centuries of histories misted-veiled years,
from the quill of the old sage, from the high lilt of the bard,
Your pensive countenance disaffected and of a cheerless tilt -
Hanging upon sharply crested vestiges of reckless disregard!
Governess of endless flowing tides
Ancient Orb that mystifies
Dusty ochre, bright hot white
Cycling and glowing with borrowed light
Cratered desolate dusty reflector,
Yet invoking your own haunting specter
Revealing all when heavily laden
Ebony cloaking when waning maiden
Luminous shafts caress and bathe
The supple skin of lover’s raves
Wondrous wishing talisman bold
Wide-eyed children cup and hold
Your gleaming form within outstretched hands
All tiny grains of billowing sand
Haunting compass; true and right
For countless seaman through the night
Ageless past and endless tomorrows
Stalwart celestial illuminations borrowed
Rest well within your firmament high
From darkest sable to lapis lazuli
Grace us again in coming night
With opaque splashes
Of
Perfect
Moonlight
They fought the tide to own some land
A fight I did not understand
They fought the plow, they fought the drought, they fought the debt
But yet, by God, ... they owned the pride
In retrospect, I'm still ashamed
My heart and soul were not engaged
A flippant mood was all I brought, with sighs, and whys and skipping rocks,
the day we made the pilgrimage
A stranger to this twilight zone
I was about to step upon the moon,
A cratered space of rocks and sage, of rolling hills, with no escape
She saw it differently, of course
And though her bones were weary, worn
her eyes were strong. She saw a home
Her age was then, what mine is now,
It had been her life. It was her vow
to come again, just one more time.
Ten years old, I'd been dragged along
I couldn't the great attraction
Overlooked her deep reaction
I missed the tears within her eyes
She scanned the place she left behind
Her gray eyes drinking up the sun,
I saw dust, I saw the sand,
Where she saw beauty, I saw none .....
Nothing more than a sea of weeds, crumbling brick, the rocky creek
A place to shuffle restless feet
The years passed by, and I would learn
a home is more than bricks and stone
The photograph I hold today means more to me than words can say
In the rubble she had found one valiant rosebush left behind
while smiling in the summer sun, among the rocky hills
I wish I could go back to then
But I can smile,… remembering.
_________________________________________________
Her face is wrinkled, cratered, and scarred;
It’s far from flawless; agèd; hard.
But when the night is right, she’ll overflow,
For about her is an indelible glow;
A glorious white that lights the sky
As I kiss her surface with my distant eye,
And stretch out my fingers for a feel
But she steps an inch back, arousing appeal;
I wish the nights would bleed over days
So I could bathe in her luminous ivory rays.
Cursed be the sun, for when comes the dawn
With an opalescent yellow yawn.
the night sky wavers in your frosted light
imaginings of ever after cling like honey to a spoon.
you face the earth as sister, smiling coyly
from the cratered depth of dimpled cheek and chin.
edged in the kohl of Cleopatra’s line
your brows appear to question even starlight
your oceanic orbs dry of tears still twinkle
in the remnant asteroid powder of eons past.
beauteous Luna purse not your lips
let reflections of a brighter hue let glide
across your roman countenance so bold
and teach the fiery sun of catered glory
for it is you who rule when day is done.
*dedicated to my muse Rhonda!
Azure blue skies weep in rent glacial torrents,
iridescent earth sun trap poised to garner sympathy,
dark red cloud’s indignant float might yet rumble,
toxic deluge drenches mudbank plot as toilers whine,
thunderstruck I gaze at wild indigo sea mist on brine-fleck shore
Edge of seat terra firma species orange alert mere bluster,
grim altitude apocalypse for amber moon orb,
rampant shower pockmark with visual scar as trenchant plague,
vapour trail from lachrymose horizon now a shrunken haze,
alarm bell’s doleful peal across an impact cratered expanse once sumptuous mint green
Stream of gurgling silken brook upon reciprocal bright cadence,
otherworldly pine from volatile nebulae’s damp swathe,
vapid biome acreage a gaunt reflection though surreal,
despite magenta stardust twinkle whose infant phase corralled
by wayward drizzle
Hemisphere by half redolent of sombre devastation,
yet exotic visual haunt is that vaunted shadow zone,
sweet maple leaf ether bound refuge from monsoon rife,
pot of gold opal strewn paradise escape hatch,
from lesion blight topsoil or open sore empyrean
Purple leaf and bell pepper cascade swirling o'er panic stricken globe,
perfume clad hillock under hawk-eye squint,
denizens idyllic foster atmospheric canny urban vault,
they hobble gingerly on salmon pink stone bridge en route to harried terrain rescue
It was the very cusp of day,
The last vestiges of night—
The cratered-moon, it sipped away,
And with it too, its light.
The sleepy sun was yawning
As the beams did slowly wake—
Appropriate for such a thing
As the day’s auspicious break!
What of night, now dreaming?
It will come the morrow rise—
Even as the sun retires,
And the winged-moon, it flies!
Smiling o’er a restless sea,
Beyond the things of man—
Proudly doth the moon appear,
For it has always been.
Not too long ago, back about 1929
Was conceived a boy, name of Danny Fine
Born on a Thursday, 24th of October
A day the stock market turned stone-cold sober
When the crash was over, five days later
The Fine family fortune had totally cratered
They'd lost all their wealth; Mr. Fine lost his job
Mrs. Fine had a breakdown; she wept and sobbed
Little Danny grew up in so horribly destitute
His only clothing for weeks was his birthday suit
His mother's milk dried up all-too-quickly
Poor Danny became anemic and sickly...
He struggled at home; he struggled at school
He was undernourished; life was so cruel
At age 15, he ran away from home
Determined to turn things around, all alone
He joined the Armed Forces, lied about his age
Helped liberate Dachau and Auschwitz, turning a page
Came to believe in himself in those heady days
Danny had learned, "Where there's a will, there's a way."
You may well guess Danny's now rich and/or famous
And sure he's succeeded and is no ignoramus
He's a regular guy with a wife and four kids
Who just can't move past something he long ago did --
After leaving home, he did not return again
A decision that's haunted him ever since then
For no matter the good deeds he's done for others
Danny Fine did not honor his father or mother
So the lucky among you, whose parents are still living
Honor them every moment; keep on giving and giving
Because once they have both breathed their very last
It has all been recorded; you can't change the past
Don is the ultimate user
His deals seal you as a loser
When Trump holds the cards
The lives now in shards
Bear witness he’s an abuser
The Don has a trick to reveal
He’ll dick you and cancel your deal
Like hands on your neck
Trump voids your paycheck
And feels ecstasy when you squeal
If acts are life’s indicator
Don’s a classic woman hater
Though cratered with flab
Trump will pussies grab
As rapist and a dictator
What will show how Don’s dick-brain thinks?
Trump’s thrusts come with lies and high jinks!
Amid this disgust
Some high and non-plussed
Have heads up his rump with what stinks!
The sun opens her eyes behind a roseate veil,
her aubade harmonizing with Argus-eyed blackbirds
as it rises to a crescendo, staring in her husband’s
cratered eyes, ready to relieve him of his watch over the
world’s children so he can attend to their parents —
that is, the cosmic bodies that collided to create them; the
sacred alchemy.
He lifts her honey veil; a goodnight kiss he hopes to reenact
eternally, the aeons circling anniversaries as if liesegang
rings. She looks back, her flint knife eyes flashing violently.
“This fierce face is a facade,” he thinks, seeing her tremulous
expression, lips quivering in anticipation; a holy seduction
— that is, the ancient and sui generis matrimonio of
gods.
a mystic poetess in her thought patterns
of iambic heartbeats, makes new rhythms
with a symphony...joy and pain in cadence.
in her confetti of stars moonbeams cadence
caressing love in ivory and ebony patterns
perforated feelings careen melodic rhythms
in her sonnets, words entice in rhythms
lovebird's lyrics drift in endless cadence
cratered lands embellish crystallic patterns
Catharsis traces passionate patterns of rhythms in cadence.
I played marbles with the moon
Taking it in my hand
It was mine to command
Feeling the cratered surface as I squeezed
It left my hand with such ease
In space there is no breeze
Rolling through space
My heart began to race
As my breath kept pace
Gravity pulling on the oceans below
As the moons forces began to grow
Space bending with an eerie glow
The earth followed like a tethered ball
Beckoning to the loving Moon's call
Save me she said
I do not want to burn
Silly humans will they never learn
At that moment I felt concern
Passing all the planets one by one
Heading with force towards the sun
Lives may be lost for all time
Because of a silly game of mine
So I remain in a moonless space
Left to ponder my disgrace
I caught the Earth just in time
Luckily the people are mostly fine
The earth is sad it sheds salted tears
The love of his life is no longer here
A cosmic game resulted in great cost
Look heavenward to see what was lost
From here to the moon and back contest
Written April 21, 2013
I felt my heart fall from my chest
Like a shooting star coming down to meet it’s untimely death
I wondered where it had gone
Where that star may have went
Since nothing else was shining in the night
I looked toward the moon instead
A grimace cratered her face
She wavered gently in my misty eyes resembling a disapproving shake
The heavens were against us
It is what it is, fate
I knew what I had to do
But this was never me falling out of love with you
I just can’t expect the stars to align the same twice
This wasn’t an excuse to walk away
I’d follow you like a planet in orbit
If the universe let me have my way
Those feelings we had for each other are somewhere out in space
not here on Earth where they should be
But so the moon stays,
Magnetically pulling me in the direction I should take
So stay wild, moon child
Don’t forget to smile
And don’t ever let that fire of yours tire
I wish I could mark this all up as simply a mistake
But you and I both know for that it’s way too late