Best Dampening Poems
I walked home alone in the dampening mist
as the pastel colored sky blanketed the sun
His rays sank into the sea for their daily tryst
Resting among the waves, his work was done
And now the moon will rise in splendid glory
bringing lovers together in her lustrous light
while the mist hides the tears of my sad story
My heart is broken and my spirit is contrite
My cottage hearth will hold no warming fire
It's to darkness that I'll open my creaking door
No smiling face or welcome words will transpire
Twilight's become the time of day I most abhor
She would run and greet me when I neared home
But no longer do her laughing eyes meet mine
Her eyes now shine where she chose to roam
Bitter on my tongue is the taste of finest wine
Pity is not an emotion in which I choose to wallow
One day when the sun no longer drowns in the sea
perhaps then my wine will be pleasant to swallow
and memories of lost love will no longer torture me
Categories:
dampening, lost love,
Form:
Rhyme
A wink of the sun gently caresses my slumbered eyes
the rush of the tide slowly moves in and out
lightly dampening the virgin white sand
on this secluded tropical beach,
The scent of coconut fills the fresh oceanic air
and then I see you
emerging from the churning sea
more beautiful than Aphrodite
glimmering
your long soaked hair
reaching down
draping that soft sweet skin
you sway
as you come closer
twinkling
those caramelized eyes
so rich, so full of life
staring right at me
I speak
but you don't let me
placing your luscious lips upon mine
and we kiss
like we have never kissed before
as the last drop of water falls
off your sundrenched body.
At last
a lover's paradise
Categories:
dampening, love,
Form:
Free verse
Rippling waters moving
feeling hypnotically soothing
under our boat it rocks us
under its spell it locks us
misty fog slightly breezing
dampening the salty air we’re breathing
over our shoulders it shrouds us
silhouetting the masts around us
rippling waters moving
feeling hypnotically soothing
its rhythmic ride tells us
to give in and let it lull us
moody night skies
reveal nothing to our eyes
not the light of the moon or a star
but secrecy’s a seductress where we are
rippling waters moving
feeling hypnotically soothing
sultry sway hypnotizes us
as Eros glamorizes us
Susan Ashley
May 17, 2019
*In Greek mythology, Eros is the Greek god of love.*
Categories:
dampening, boat, desire, emotions, love,
Form:
Lyric
There, on a sill of contentious decisions
Glass shards sit waiting a wavering hand
Reflective the memories wrapped ‘round the curtains
Lost in a pane that she can’t understand
Chilled calls the breeze through a jagged eviction
Scenting the air neath a ceiling now stained
Dampening dreams behind oven doors gaping
Finding the pilot light has not complained
Ripping out pages of scribbled delusions
Day becomes night in the depths of her mind
Chasing the echoes when no one will answer
Begging each shadow for something to find
Setting a table of rounded persuasions
Watching fluorescents fade fast in her eyes
Turning the knob towards a sorrowed direction
Why is there none who react to her cries
Loneliness peels back the layered condition
Voices of reason have fled to her past
Fearing the worst will come visit tomorrow
Sensing the hour shall now be her last
So many days and the roses need pruning
Nary a movement is noticed inside
Caught in his thoughts that her words had intentions
If only those moments ignored would confide
Desperate ink found in fingertip writings
Penned by the demons left roaming her head
Still haunts the question of fear never listened
Death becomes art in the stanzas unread
Categories:
dampening, death, depression, poetry,
Form:
Rhyme
One of many dark moments in America's History, home of the brave and the free.
A.W. Nutter
“Let the bullwhip sing”
“Stifling freedoms ring”
My sweat soaked shirt
Was quickly torn away
Fears dampening the dirt
I silently began to pray
My arms tightly bound
To a very large tree
No mercy to be found
I will never be free
“Let the bullwhip sing”
“Stifling freedoms ring”
A breeze caresses my skin
The whip will soon follow
His property committed a sin
My screams I try to swallow
The bullwhip slices the air
Skin separates with each lash
The pain more than I can bear
I scream as the master laughs
“Let the bullwhip sing”
“Stifling freedoms ring”
Categories:
dampening, angst, history
Form:
Rhyme
On a walk after the worst of the Sandy storm
I slogged down the still dampening
Green grass valley rutted between
The moldering fences of the shadowed alley.
Under the low, ominously rushing, soggy gray clouds
I saw so many black birds silently
Clinging against the stiff breezes
To the broken branches of the skeletal oak on the corner
As if they relished the fate of the cruelly stripped leaves.
I saw a hundred crows there.
How many make a murder?
Black pointy wraiths;
Scattered commas lined up like
Iron shavings stuck
To magnetic branches.
Dull steel skies slid in vast arcs around them.
Sprinkling windy foreboding,
Their clouds reached down
To Collect their talons.
So many eyes I know they see
Spiny black needles poking out of me.
Bloodless murder, muffling gray gauze No need to caw…,
A hundred crows see it all.
Categories:
dampening, green, weather,
Form:
Narrative
-
My tears fall like
freezing rain
dripping from barren
branches overhead,
dampening my smile,
replacing the sunrise
with clouded sorrow
as your heart breaks
like thin ice
in the winter
of your sadness-
Categories:
dampening, sorrow,
Form:
Free verse
The naked skyline falls into a quiet darkness,
slick sidewalks and flickering street lights bid farewell
as I enter the elevator to her loft, fifth floor
My day was long, but worth it, she makes it worth it
The hallway is silent… I knock lightly, no answer,
letting myself in I see her through the open glass doors
I let her hear my footsteps…
a slow drizzle shimmers on the big city
Her perfume tempts my senses as she
peers from the balcony’s iron rail
into the vast cavern of sleeping buildings…
like a rose petal hourglass
She feels me…closer…her black dress and red heels
against the dark backdrop of
dreary skies silhouette her beauty,
she is a poem waiting to be read,
a song you can’t get out of your head
or would want to
I place my arms about her waist,
she turns, moist ruby lips infectious,
eyes hiding her story find mine,
the rain falling like diamond tear drops
decorates her cheeks as she smiles
and my heart is flooded with light
We embrace, a deep passionate kiss,
locked in haunting silence
speaking louder than any words,
all that was cold becomes warm
as moisture seeps, dampening my skin,
and I don’t care
She is what love is…
a hot cup of coffee on a cold winter day,
a cool breeze in the middle of August,
a beautiful delicate flower
blooming from a crack in the asphalt
on that long, endless highway of life…and she is mine
Categories:
dampening, love,
Form:
Epic
There’s rain in my brain,
A pitter patter on the old grey matter,
Cats and dogs in the cerebral cogs,
A shower dampening my mental power.
There’s precipitation in my imagination,
A cloud collision in my vision,
A deluge in my centrifuge,
A tidal surge has overwhelmed my optimistic urge,
A tsunami is rampaging through my spiritual harmony,
A lighting strobe just struck my frontal lobe.
There’s a vortex in my cortex,
An eddy in my heady,
A blizzard in my gizzard,
Hail in my vapour trail,
Sleet on my feet,
Snow on my big toe
Making me feel low.
I’ll pop a pill and rest my head
Upon a bed of feather
And when I wake I’m hoping
For bright eyes and better weather.
Categories:
dampening, health, humor, humorous, weather,
Form:
Free verse
Il Pleut
It rains torrentially
after long drought and disorder;
it rains drenching the empathetic
scraggy soil of the heart
it rains moistening the rocks of anger
crags of revenge and cracks of depravity
it rains covering the jealous holes with purity
healing the undesirable crevices of the being
it pours incessantly to cover and clean
the gaps of deceptive caves of life
it rains inside me constantly
stretching the cramped limbs
softening the being;
it skits with a susurrus
leading me to the lee
when all on a sudden
something goes wrong
influenced by someone’s lewd smile
or a serein’s half-hearted dampening.
Rain of grace falls and falls
to soothe my ruffled feelings;
it corrects, it helps, it leads me
always to the right way.
When it rains in the forest of my being
where the tallest trees touch the sky
and the moon shines bright on the leaves
through the gnarled branches
lighting the dark parts of existence,
life becomes wholesome
peaceful and serene.
Removing the dryness and darkness of life
rain of grace falls and falls
perpetually to revive.
Categories:
dampening, imagery, life, metaphor, rain,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Residue
Wrapped in cellophane and ribbon
mocking burned down evergreens
Screaming at the shadowed walls
as nightmares spurn your toxic dreams
Lurking near the bottles filled with
endless empty molten fears
Dampening the diapers as a
mother cries her countless tears
Broken weave of tattered sleeve behind the darkness to believe
That midnight forms what we conceive in moments cast to only grieve
We’ll go dancing nightly
in the attic
while the moon is rising
in the sky
If I’m too drunk tell me,
I’m so scared your little
head will come off
in my hands
What the heck did you expect for just a speck, a tiny fleck
Now hit the deck you wretched wreck as long ago we did suspect
Counting money residue on
blackened smoldered fingernails
As billion dollar babies sing
in toothless whining rancid wails
Toddlers of the devil’s creed wear
shiny plastic floating eyes
Now staring at you while you sleep
these monsters gather in disguise
This poem was inspired by one of my favorite songs,
Alice Cooper’s “Billion Dollar Babies”
The italicized lines are lyrics from that song. Here is a link to the song: https://youtu.be/6sD8sO0B97I
And in case you didn’t know, the other voice you’ll hear singing on the song is Donovan (Mellow Yellow)
Categories:
dampening, horror, imagination, money, music,
Form:
Rhyme
Have you ever met, the demons that walk among us?
Has your mind ever let, them tell you not to fuss?
If you show me, I will shine.
A borrowed catastrophe, though you cannot have mine.
Tonight I’m taken, trapped in endless whispers.
As unholy waken, I’m left among the sleepers.
I can feel you, dreaming of me tonight.
A solemn ghost passes through, terrified of its own sight.
Nothing can stop them, beneath a broken dream.
Unfaltered by any whim, will we be torn at the seams?
Tonight we were alone, one last time to dance.
A missed longing shown, broken love that must enhance.
A storm brought together, dampening broken spirits.
Forgotten in time forever, a haunting credence.
What will we do, as tomorrow leaves behind yesterday?
Will I ever see you, though you’ve nothing to say?
I unfortunately saw, a sliver of corruption and hope.
An untimely fall, a shattered remembrance to cope.
Will the night come, will it bring another new home?
A wish to succumb, an ever filling tome.
An emotionless guise, that brings death ever near.
An enduring surprise, though the thought is clear.
A burning passion, ignited to make it all worthwhile.
Life left ashen, left with a poison taste of bile.
A passing feeling, a gift of love and despair.
Compromise left reeling, wondering if you still care.
Categories:
dampening, depression,
Form:
Rhyme
playfully up close and personal
tingling joyfully on my skin today
warm and toasty the frisky sun
behind me wintry months of frost
no matter what claims my calendar
unofficially it’s the first day of spring
with gleeful sounds of melting snow
melodious and enchanting to my ears
how disappointing to see the sun
toward cooled horizons slowing sink
dampening any delusion of hope
for a premature springtime kickoff
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
Posted on February 16, 2018
Categories:
dampening, hope, longing, seasons, spring,
Form:
Free verse
What weighs down this sandy wisp
between a bay and ocean is not
a causeway, not the press of footed towers,
nor the tread of bare and browning bathers
on its narrow, wet, khaki-colored beaches --
It is the weight of air, cloudless, clear
but heavy air -- blue in the depths --
that arches overhead; and it is the sizzle
of minor surf along the island's edges,
dampening sand, to stick upon the sea
like a licked stamp upon a letter.
The men, roads, and condos all may seem
to wrest control from nature and its weather;
but, we, who've spent some years here,
know better.
Categories:
dampening, life, natural disasters, nature,
Form:
Free verse
Charlie. I worked with Charlie for 14 years. He was a little older than me, did the same job. Sure had the "highs and lows" - he must have been manic-depressive or bipolar or something. He'd blow up, but remained a good friend. Charlie was big, had to be 350 lbs. or 160 kg. A very good drummer, he could work magic with just his fingers and thumbs on a table. He said nobody in his family ever lived past age 55. Colon cancer. At first, there was some steely resolve to fight, but it quickly leached most of it out it of him. He was correct about age 55.
Bob was a mechanic, and didn't work "on the road." At that time, it was somewhat like being in the military for most of us - we had our rank, our chain-of-command, and our missions (not to mention our egos). Bob was at peace, competent, relaxed, quiet. He was a little hard to understand - he spoke softly, perhaps slightly muffled, as if with a small speech impediment, but always with good humor and a twinkle in his eye. I'd see him a few times a year, when we were back from a tour of work. Always wore a red bandanna around his head.
He was as purely good-natured as anybody I've ever met. This was in the days before cell phones, and in the repair shop there was a pay phone that was enclosed with sound-dampening material, so you could hear over the din. One time I lost my wallet - that cold, nauseating feeling - I'd left it in the little sound-booth. After searching the grounds for two fruitless hours, I came upon Bob, approaching me with the most honest smile. "Are you missing something?" he said, holding out the wallet. No games, no sarcastic comments, he was just glad to help.
And then one time he wasn't there. "Bob died - he had leukemia." I hadn't known; I don't think he told anybody, maybe a boss right at the end. Oh Bob.
Categories:
dampening, death, life, sick, work,
Form:
Prose