Best Desolateness Poems
" Amid the jagged shadows of mossy leafless boughs"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Gold tinged paints dripped from the air,
under the clear opalescent autumn sky,
jade foliage turned to full-bloom flower,
I flew my heart like a bird over the canopy.
The canopy of your allure so beguiling
took me to the enticing heights of ecstasy.
The nest we built in the cleft of boughs
glistened in love-laced moonshine night.
Night of strife surged a wrecking storm,
the nest crumbled to debris of despair.
You flew away to the sunny sky obscure,
left me to suffer in the spasm of winter.
Winter frost slithered with the north wind
to desolateness of the defoliated boughs.
I felt my love freeze in the congealed heart
amid the jagged shadow of broken wings.
" Without love, we are birds with broken wings"
- Mitch Albom
November 28, 2019
For Brian Strand's Contest A Brian Strand July 12
Categories:
desolateness, analogy, bird, lost love,
Form:
Free verse
Golden paint drips from diaphanous air,
beneath the opalescent autumn blue sky,
jade foliage enfolds full-bloomed flowers,
I fly my heart like a bird over the canopy.
The canopy of your allure so beguiling
takes me to the enticing height of ecstasy.
The nest we build in the cleft of boughs
glistens in love-laced moonshine night.
Night of strife surged as wrecking storm,
the nest is demolished to debris of despair.
You drift away to the sunny sky obscure,
leave me to languish in the spasm of winter.
Winter frost slithers with the north wind
to desolateness of the defoliated boughs.
I feel my love freeze within the arctic heart
amid the serrated shadow of broken wings.
_______________
Written : August 10, 2022
February 6, 2023
2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL
Placement Poetry Contest
Sponsored : Mark Toney
Categories:
desolateness, analogy, imagery, lost love,
Form:
Free verse
On a frosty opaque day in windy winter
I, an old defoliated tree denied the sky and the soil
by the young aggressive ones spreading branches,
walk out of the green forest in sheer desperation.
Crossing the contorted contours of the barren badlands,
I go across the pallid plateau to a city quite far,
where I could see no sun shining with survival panacea,
so I couldn’t soak the rays to get my lost foliage back.
I could neither find sustaining soil of bonding sympathy,
so I couldn’t stand upright in the storm of strife.
Dejected, I then morph into a human figure without roots
in the remote corner of the concrete forest.
In dismal unkind desolateness my heart soon breaks,
and the forsaken fragile hands hang unheld,
picking up pining the strewn shards abandoned,
from the cauldron of a smoldering summer day.
Disillusioned, I walk back to the forest I once left,
and burn the essence of humanity in the forest fire.
January 29, 2021
Title used : If I Were A Tree
Contest : If I Were A?
Sponsor : Mysytic Rose Rose
Categories:
desolateness, analogy, city, humanity, tree,
Form:
Personification
It’s not our choice where we would be,
but now that we are here
as an actor performing at the wish of God,
let’s give life the chance to be fulfilled,
and in its fold, make us a good human being.
We chase the mirage of endless desires
in the desolateness of weary existence,
carry the languishing life listlessly
across the desert of limitless bleakness,
on the pitiless pathway of disparaging delusion.
The formidable mountain of life we climb,
the summit to be reached on the track undefined.
Let’s surrender to the designed will of the supreme,
and in His prescribed intent repose our trust,
for faith will pave the pre-defined path for us.
The turbulent ocean of life we need to sail calm,
reach the last anchorage on the tranquil shore far.
Kindle the search light of everlasting hope,
we’ll see silver-lined cloud in the gloomy sky,
the divine light will take us to the destined shore.
Light up the dense darkness of suffering
with the candle of selfless altruism laced with love.
Bloom flowers in the debris of broken hearts,
see these radiate divine glow of happiness,
and the mangled minds find infinite bliss.
Across the wasteland of desolation
many walk in the dismal winter of despair.
Let’s extend the arms of love and compassion,
take them to the sunny shore of the warm sea,
sparkling with joy under the radiant fervent sky.
Let’s release the surge of forgiveness
from the inner recess as the empathy spring,
drown the irate senses in the flood of wisdom.
Rise from the ashes of remorse, douse the disdain fire,
let the fountain of forgiveness flow unhindered.
Let’s strive to be free from the mortal grip,
recover the power of the resolute essence,
that’ll impel us to break away from the clutch of agony,
and with the discernment of divine conscience,
chart for us a new course of psychic awareness.
_______________
March 19, 2023
Contest : Now That We Are Here
Sponsored by : Unseeking Seeker
Categories:
desolateness, life, love, spiritual, sympathy,
Form:
Free verse
The effervescence of the party doesn’t seem to abate,
even when the guests leave one by one,
the psychedelic lights dissolve within fading melody,
the rolling ripples of air clutch the last rhythm.
The dark stillness waiting outside enters inside,
the music in the air never gets forsaken,
as the darkness melts, a stream of umbra flows within,
cascading in the vale of vibrant blankness.
I dance in the captivating cadence of bliss within,
merging with the mesmerizing music of silence,
see the guests return from the dark one by one,
and come to life in times drowned in desolateness.
They sing the song of pulsating quietude,
the essence permeating the resounding void space,
saturates my time of lingering loneliness,
and dances to my music …
the party doesn’t end.
________________
Posted : December 21, 2020
January 25, 2023
Contest : 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 25
Sponsored by : Mark Toney
Categories:
desolateness, loneliness, music, night,
Form:
Free verse
This unhappy man in the midst of flowing opulence lived
like a discolored precious stone in a box of rare jewels,
and was always sad like a dry wood in a lush green forest.
He got up one morning more dejected than the morning before,
threw the flower embossed curtains off the crystal clear window
and looked out to see, maybe for the first time,
the crimson sun rising in the flaming horizon
that painted frescos of rhythm on water of the river.
He heard the beckon of the river in the rustle of the
leaves as the cool morning breeze ruffled them,
and as the colors of the dawn touched his heart softly
like the petals of flowers embracing the hard grey ground,
a delightful sensation he never felt before,
and as the call of the river floated silently to his senses
the way the drifting clouds talk to the mute sky,
he walked with his face flooded with soothing sunshine
to the bank of the river where he saw a sand bar
rising proudly from the water in the middle of the river
and spreading a golden sloping bed for a small tree to grow
whose branches were dancing in the western wind
and the emerald leaves were shining in sunburst splendor.
These he thought were the expressions of happiness and joy
that the lone tree could generate as it grew free
in an isolated barren bed of dry sand bar.
So he traveled across the coral sea to a distant barren island
and like the tree he let his life take root in desolateness
and lived to see the dawns come with pristine colors to cheer,
the sea become tapestry of liquid gold in ecstatic sunset hours,
but he couldn’t spread his hands out in the embalming air
the way the branches of the forlorn tree did in joy,
his eyes didn’t shimmer under the sun soaked sky
the way the leaves of the lonely tree did in happiness
because he became a barren island.
October 8, 2018
Contest : Fiction - October 2018 Writing Challenge
Sponsored by : Dear Heart a.k.a. Broken Wings
Categories:
desolateness, analogy, depression, happiness, imagery,
Form:
Narrative
Trudging alone on the indolent desert dunes
fragile footprints collapse and the sands flow
on cadence of mirage music, life’s unsung tunes
fades away slow.
In the trembling spine of my parched shadow
hungry predators burrow harrowing dark hole,
as dry desolateness sucks me harshly hollow,
from the depth of soul.
Familiar faces turn to cactus of thorny sprawl,
blood desiccates in the cleft of fractured heart,
trunk of fossil life crumbles in parts or whole,
time trampled the dirt.
Waned neurons rise from psychedelic trance,
subliminal cortex networks fervently strive,
capture images of sprouting stars’ silent dance.
Am I alive?
Written : May 11, 2019
Contest : Completely Your Choice (6)
Sponsor : Brian Strand
Categories:
desolateness, analogy, death, dream, imagery,
Form:
Rhyme
Hold your ear on the verge of the moment…
Listen as her eyelashes wisp the air closing
Hear tears filling and clouding her perceptions
Hearkening out as they surge a burning roll
Give an ear to the silence ricocheting inside her
Absorb of her desolateness
Listen as she shakes uncontrollably into the night
Hear her heart fracture with each muted jolting
Listen to the caustic drivel of our undertones
Can you hear the approaching edge of razor?
Beholden to it’s resonance of steel upon skin
Listen to her life as it flows trickling away…crimson
Hear it slowly seeping from fingertips and elbows
Recalling the sound of those burning tears flowing
As twins they fall to extinguish the flame of her scourge
And we…
Only taking notice of her final breath
Can we hear her screams of misery
Categories:
desolateness, angst, life, loss, sad,
Form:
Free verse
This unhappy man in the midst of overflowing opulence living
like a discolored precious stone in a box of rare jewels was always
sad and lonely like a dry wood in a lush green forest, woke up
one morning, more dejected than the morning before, threw
the flower embossed curtains off the crystal clear window and
looked outside to see, maybe for the first time, the scarlet sun
rise in the flaming horizon that painted the fresco of rhythm on
the rippling water of the river, he heard beckoning him amid the
rustle of the dry leaves as the cool morning breeze ruffled them,
and as the colors of the dawn touched his heart softly like the
falling petals of flowers embracing the hard grey ground, a rare
delightful sensation pervasive, he never felt before, and as the
music of the river wrapped his senses the way drifting clouds
serenade in the emptiness of the mute sky, he walked with his
face flooded by sensuous sunshine to the bank of the river
where he saw a sand bar emerging proudly from the water in
the middle of the river and spreading a silvery sloping bed for
a small tree to grow whose outstretched branches were dancing
in the southern wind and the emerald leaves were shining in
sunburst splendor which he thought were the expressions of
happiness and joy that the lone tree could generate as it grew
free in an isolated barren bed of sand bar. All these enticed him
to sail across the coral sea to a distant barren island and like the
tree he let his life take resolute root in desolateness, living to
see the dawns come with pristine colors to cheer and the sea
turning into tapestry of liquid gold in ecstatic sunset hours, but
he couldn’t spread his hands up in the beguiling air the way
the branches of the forlorn tree did in ecstasy, his eyes didn’t
shimmer under sun soaked sapphire sky the way the nascent
leaves of the lonely tree did in happiness, because insular time
had made his mind a barren island.
seclusion accretes
in confines of lonely time…
soul seeks shore of bliss
August 26, 2020
Contest : Let The Pens Flow-Haibun
Sponsor : Jenish Somadas
Categories:
desolateness, loneliness, metaphor,
Form:
Haibun
In the burnt barren wasteland
Once a graphic garden
I rise from the arms of ashes
A fortified sapling
Split the crevasse of desolateness
Where I bloom a solitary rose
A pervasive singularity of creativity
Enclosed within the sublime soul
Fathomless as the cosmos
Timeless as the eternity
I unfurl for you in essence
The beauty of the universe.
__________________
Written : March 7, 2020
For A Brian Strand Freed Verse Contest
Categories:
desolateness, imagery, life, universe,
Form:
Free verse
Blow away the morning dew
And clear off the heaviness of summer wetness
Times gone are gaunt, your heart is weary
Unbeat the drums of your sordid story
Emancipate your innocent soul
From this spectral link with old life
You are not forgotten
Just another moment of longsuffering
The past is done, you’ve been betrayed
Your presence is no longer
A melancholy of irking tales
That hollow heads with desolateness
Your name belongs to the clouds
High above the highs and lows
You are not forgotten
Just another case of ill fate
Abort your Inertia for life
Conceive your long time passion
Look at the sky above you
The stars are falling down
To locate your place in the sun
Let the flash lights carry you on
Focus your eyes on
The neat cluster of glory bright
You are not forgotten
Just another case of prolonged destiny
Categories:
desolateness, encouraging, inspiration,
Form:
Bio
Frozen sky and frost fastened ground
In the mystique mask of departing light
They meet in the abode of those departed.
The identities dissolve in inseparable oneness
Bringing together in seamless proximity
The living and the dead
In gripping stillness and in deafening silence
In fading light and in gloomy desolateness
Of the graveyard in the wasteland reclaimed
All engraved in the consumed life’s winter frame.
Defoliated trees clad in somber grief
Stand static as the shadowless sentinels
Lest those lying beneath the stones resurrect
And fly away with the northern wind.
The children of the past born under the sun
Left behind the warmth in the distant hearts
When time came to find a place within the earth.
The lonesome bouquet laced with love not yet dead
Carries the frozen fragrance of remembrance.
The defrosted soul may rise someday as mist
Enwrap the lives enfolded within despair
Of the cold embrace of the dried drops of tear.
Written : September 16, 2017
April 24, 2020
Contest : Strand Pick D, Any Theme, Any Form
Sponsor : Brian Strand
Categories:
desolateness, bereavement, death, grave, winter,
Form:
Free verse
life taken so suddenly... and painfully so,
no time to satisfy desires of togetherness.
happiness to unexpected fear, emotions flow...
remorse , love , compassion, desolateness.
her words haunt my memory , " i never thought
this year would come to this ." i sat , staring
into her eyes , nearly motionless ... distraught .
suffering of pain ...... my heart tearing.
external beauty fading by loss of hair and weight.
bones deteriorating quickly. everyday abilities ...gone.
worries of what's to come. my father , her soulmate ,
by her side ... august 10th..she's taken at dawn.
to this day , it still doesn't seem real . i
find myself expecting to be greeted by her whenever
i return 'home' . and although i have told her goodbye ,
she shall remain in my life forever.
my dad , my brother and i were all with her as she passed....
....we all miss her dearly.
Categories:
desolateness, death, family, father, friendship,
Form:
The litter of chatter
On air pitter patter
Like the Galean on water:
The other one without the power
There is a desolateness here
Borders broken
By the commerce of men
Restructured by the twitter
Bringing anomie from the bitter
Knowing of self without fetter
To community and roots
Of anchored ancestry.
Fragments, fragments
Broken stones on jarring landscape
The superficial arguments
Making conditions
Of our dispossession easy
For robber baron twine
The fragile shrubs of history.
Pause
And listen where the minotaur
Make new catacombs
With mind dripping claws
The old heart is speaking so near
Descend the cloud of noise to hear
Or else we fritter, fritter
Away sun upon the salt mines glitter.
Categories:
desolateness, inspirational
Form:
Free verse
From the edge of the ebon night sky,
under the engulfing clouds of gloom,
the promise of moon I’ve made to you,
I’ll keep before the eclipse starts.
The somber storm of smothering strife
drifts me away across the slate horizon,
the clouds melt in the torrent of tears
as my sky falls with the marooned moon.
The promise kept after the agonizing wait,
your fervent window opens on vista of hope,
ushers in the dislodged moon called heart,
rolling onto your satin bed long unslept
In the dark niche of your desolateness
glows the frozen moonbeam burst,
while the floating tinsels of silver dust
flutter like fairy over your silhouette face.
Holding the magical moon turned crystal globe,
you look deep into the illumined fortune
in kaleidoscopic images portending the future,
where my yearning paints dreamscape for you.
Written : March 10, 2020
June 9, 2020
Contest : Strand No. 790
Sponsor : Brian Strand
Categories:
desolateness, dream, fantasy, fate, moon,
Form:
Free verse