Best Direful Poems
AFFLICTION?
It is said of young physicians when they first set out to learn
All the symptoms and conditions that known illnesses convey
They perceive these indications each one causing more concern
‘Til they make the diagnosis to their shock and their dismay
They arrive at the conviction
They themselves have the affliction
Now when learned academics write a thesis that proclaims
All white people are infected with a racism endemic
Filled with symptom and with signs supporting dogma that defames
Fragile folk are then persuaded by this plausible polemic
And arrive at the conviction
We’re all guilty of affliction
What could be more direful to survival of this blessed sphere
Than wild nature, once benign, by human feckless acts betrayed!
“See the wild fires, melting icebergs and the hurricanes!”- we hear
Computer forecasts yet sole factors we can truly call ‘man made’
Should we therefore have conviction
Of a terminal affliction?
Data now in a profusion never seen before these times
Flood our eyes and ears and minds in ‘monu-mental’ mind-bate range
Those with focussed strong agenda choose a menu that defines
And steers us, if undiscerning and from reason then estranged
To unquestioning conviction
THAT in truth would be affliction
Categories:
direful, humanity,
Form:
Rhyme
But what is man, but an insignificant insect in my dominant domain?
A wasteful clan, pernicious and prejudicious roaming the open plain…
Using a destructive plan, a killing machine building their festive feasts,
Invading the Sudan, hunting for their prey calling me, the King of beasts.
Am I not an animal, only killing when I hunger to feed the restless pride?
And a lion lacrimal, for I also shed tears when I lose my bar caged bride…
A fading fractional, our dominance diminishing amidst the wilderness wing,
A feline fallible upon extinction, but for this direful day, I’m still the King.
Pic #3
Background music: African chanting
Voice: Male Virtual Voice
Music at the end: Maroon 5-'Animals'
April.30.2019
Free verse or Rhyme
Sponsored by: Eve Roper
Placed 3'rd...Thank You
Categories:
direful, africa, animal, men,
Form:
Rhyme
I sat under the grey shadow of the gloomy night
Raising the closed curtain of the darkest day's flight
My heart subdued the voice of my inner shrine
Wiping the droplets of tears that wet my chine
I sat dumb hiding my impotence under the downy pillow
Unable to forget your pinched face that shot a thousand bolts into the clear billow
Would you forgive me if I just said a simple sorry?
Would that perturbed darkness on your mother's face bring back my glory?
Who is to be cursed in the stillness of this direful dream?
Who is to be put at fault amidst the leftover cherries of the melting cream?
Is it the almighty for his inhuman act of snatching your ability?
Or
Is it me for driving you into the envelope of the shooting debility?
I cannot forgive my ownself for this act of mine
I'ld like to one day witness your smile enlightening the global shrine
Yeah!
Only that can give me peace
Washing away the broken pieces of my guilt
P.S. I wrote this poem as I felt broken when I couldn't convince the head of our institution from sending a child who was differently abled away from the school. He has become so close to me and he loved me so much. He was kept in the school just for one week and I used to take very good care of him. As the boy behaved differently from the rest of the children, he was sent out of the institution. I couldn't do anything about that as I was not the decision maker. I couldn't convince the management as well. No one was to be blamed there. It's the management's duty to think about the other children as well. That night I couldn't sleep and something pinched me from inside. I still am not able to forget the face of that child. He gave a deep look towards me that asked me a thousand questions for which I had no answer.
Categories:
direful, child, deep,
Form:
Rhyme
The Poem is dedicated to nine innocents who has lost their lives in Israli attak on their
humanitarian aid.
Docility, a living destitute of Anthropomorphism.
Recency, appalling of desperation or piteous anomalism.
Recommendations apotheosize a fussiness of hell or heaven,
A gun shooter killed innocents a crackable Raven.
To shot a child or an old person hard lines limicolous
Inconsecutive lewdness a peevish peeping Tom Ligneous.
Reprehensible polygamist direful coiled chaotic prattle,
A salacious salubrity paramour remorseless battle
Categories:
direful, caregiving
Form:
Limerick
ominous rain clouds
appear in the gloomy sky
preluding a storm
4-22-2016
Categories:
direful, nature,
Form:
Haiku
The wind comes up and moans like an old crone
In darkest night that I have ever known.
My car has stopped, the battery is dead.
Black closes in and I am all alone.
I lock the doors, prepared to spend the night.
Oh what I'd give for just a little light.
When I left home I didn't take my phone
There's no way out of this my direful plight.
Tomorrow, Mom will scold, Dad will be mad.
'Til I explain the dreadful night I've had.
Mom will insist I sit right down to eat.
I will be safe and warm and loved, and oh so glad.
Categories:
direful, adventure, urdu, night, night,
Form:
Rubaiyat
Right here on my chest,
Lies a mark I didn’t intend to make but it’s visible like a crest,
A cut made so deep to torture my body for entangling in a mess,
A great soul smitten and scourged, nothing less,
Borne onward by slow-footed time, from my hand, the gold it did wrest.
Amid the direful calamities of the time, loss and distress,
An almost pathetic appearance of ephemeral fragility that’s very hard to buttress,
The scars, now all over me, reminding me I got no peace,
Because I’m broken even as I pen down this piece,
A perfectly articulated echo and amplified tempo of my real stress.
The thought hit me! Why are my trying to live if I’m just living to die?
But seeing these scars helps me understand that reality don’t lie,
Now dearth couldn’t dwarf my ambitions,
As I break away from the shackles of perditions,
Marching down to posterity with divine honors round my neck like a tie.
Many believe I have already won the war between good and bad,
While I am still alive, I shouldn’t be sad,
But straight on my chest lays a scar of survival and torture,
A mark I made for memory’s sake and the future,
The only evidence I ever had.
An Stewart Annie Everestus's poem © 2019
Categories:
direful, anxiety, grief, hero, pain,
Form:
Limerick
Occurring being direful the winter
while the middle-minutes night
By anew wake up —of dawn.
the snows alike ... rain falling from the space
and the Cathedral is hollow-ringer
sudden off gave fifth pealing of bells
And done announce is hours, by dawn turn.
through my window pane glass
— over the vision of wake darkness
the winter I’d listened
By sound giving in torment whimpers —
and the illusion, the dreams
the childhood and romance bit ...
— school instantly at winter!
as passions evenly –a region
occupying was sort, my mind —
and memories apart
so critical-up chipped for precious...
The beauty, the greatness there!
Of moments is —in life.
and by the end, I wrote
the winter I’d listened
in responded over ill temper
a bit much hard fury whimpering sound,
Landing attacks, up hale are torments.
Categories:
direful, imagination, nature, seasons, winter,
Form:
Imagism
I've been reduced to the lowest humbleness
by making a smart choice, never lauding myself
for my achievements more than twice,
it's foolhardy that they didn't fit into my perception,
but others praised me with deep admiration;
I have put aside all pride and vanity for humility,
allowing myself one joy and not be pinched by thorns...
hoping not to bleed profusely in incipient pity
when confronted by an unforeseen demise!
This honorable name, the pride of knights, never been
garnished by a stain, its wholiness remains
intact: the hands of this warrior are the walls
of his impregnable fortress never being taken,
and the sword, so shining and dangerously sharp,
frightens many, but I won't let them play their harp!
The strongest are tested by their endurance,
by the strenght of their will not to succumb
to weakness when confronted by impossibility,
and the challege to overcome all obstacles
rests in the will to behold life, not the tomb!
This honorable name fought in the Crusades
to defend Christ and to revenge the marthyrs
who were slaughtered and now lay in tombs...
awaiting the resurrection of their lifeless souls
with a new vibrant heartbeat and steady breath;
ah, direful death, fear looms if there isn't enough
faith to continue the jeourney and encounter hope,
but in desperation another life is taken by the rope!
Written on 7/31/2017
Categories:
direful, change, character, death, destiny,
Form:
Rhyme
It is all my fault, for I am in command,
We sped into space with aspirations grand.
As we neared lightspeed, we saw pulsars,
And twinkling stars, deep space memoirs.
The cosmic sights were dazzlingly unreal-
Red giants and colorful nebulae surreal!
Stars as blue as the fountain of youth,
And worlds where aliens seek a new truth.
But something went wrong! We felt a bump;
Strange and jarring, time seemed to slump!
Where did the spectacular scenery all go?
Possibly we entered a wormhole, you know.
Perhaps we'd somehow surpassed lightspeed,
Like a runaway train in sunshine honeyed.
We were so eager in our adventurous quest,
Like the premiere song of robin redbreast!
I feel so guilty. I don't know what to do!
But, let me finish telling my plight to you.
We headed home. That's all we could've done.
Ended were my commanding days in the sun.
We finally reached home, dispirited and sad,
When the ship landed, I confess I was glad!
But when we emerged, the scenery was strange,
No houses, just greenery and mountain range!
And then we heard the most fearsome bellow,
Like thundering skies causes trembling below!
As above the trees came a direful green head,
With evil looking fangs and big eyes of red!
The craft was functional and that was good,
For the memory had faded where ages once stood.
We're trying to return, via the route we came,
If we can't, I hope someone remembers my name.
Categories:
direful, adventure, earth, space, stars,
Form:
Couplet
How dare you say you understand me
Have you swam in the same ocean
That drowned me? -- freezing, macabre
Have you ever encountered
The direful monsters lurking
Under my creaking, rusty bed?
Have you heard their voices
That command me to end my life
Whispering to wrench my heart into pieces?
Have you ever tried
To avoid going to sleep?
Because of nightmares, my eyes stay wide.
Have you drank hundreds of pills
Just to escape all the gruesome pain
But ended up breathing still?
Have you cut your wrists
And bleed intensely-- almost near death
But all that remain are numb fists?
Have you tried to jump on a cliff
Due to sufferings and hopelessness
But still can't because of stupid beliefs?
Because you never walked on my shoe
Don't you dare tell me
That you know what I'm going through.
Categories:
direful, blue, death, depression, fear,
Form:
Tristich
It does not fit in these now modern times-
the news that's dominating our TVs.
With some gains made in world diplomacy-
these scenes of war are too hard to believe.
The Afghan war went on some twenty years;
yet threats of World War III seemed off the board,
since direful risks of nuclear weaponry
did grant discouragement for future wars.
And yet, it's happening before our eyes
two countries now engaged in fight or flee-
with fears of bringing others in the mix-
all NATO countries heading into war.
Though unprovoked, Ukrainians are caught
in war with sins against humanity!
Russia discounts rules of engagement, so
all women, men, and children are fair game!
How did this war slip back to brutish times-
now watching that Ukrainians must flee
to save their lives against the Russian plans
bombing their city Kyiv- and many more?
We had progressed ahead of former times
as fighting wars unveiled the awful costs.
But now, this war misfits- and perhaps peace-
is obsolete when enemies serve greed.
March 14, 2022
Contest: Kyiv Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Kai Michael Newmann
Categories:
direful, anxiety, fear, sad, war,
Form:
Blank verse
The whips of smoke was thickly spiraled all over my face,
I stood at the shrine, rather the church,
The eerie and somber silence within the cave scourged me,
As the nocturnal owls spoke cabalistic monologues,
Ushering in a hint of death in the icy breath of the gale.
In the dead of the night, the ornery birds quiesced,
Suddenly, the cry of a mysterious cat tore through the air,
And died after a second or third shrill meow.
Amid the direful calamities of the time,
And in a weird world of morbid horrors,
I just prayed to die, but I didn’t.
As if by a magic, the owl disappeared,
And a balding vulture surfaced on a tree branch,
Its eyes glowed in the dark like a halogen lamp,
As the hands of time ticks,
It moved closer to my expiring frame,
Ready to devour every flesh attached to my trembling bones.
Many throats have been slashed in this evil forest,
Lineations of gushing bloods whirled round my troubled soul,
My heart asserted itself again, thunderously beating,
As my whole frame seemed collapsed and shrinking,
Hope was just far and dim,
As I watched the seventh victim being dissected with a machete,
And his life hurriedly detached.
Now, trussed up and dumped on a heap of human skulls and skeletons,
To be sacrificed to a blood-tasty deity,
The chains on my neck and hands almost suffocated me,
Time was just still with fathomless blackness,
Leaving me to sing lustily as if to exorcise the demon of gloom,
Alas, a monstrous figure appeared with an axe and sword.
Her stare on me lasted and later dissolved,
That was undoubtedly an awful and implacable approach of doom.
My helpless and defenseless body became more coldish and clammy,
Struck dumb with strange astound,
She smiled disarmingly and stepped towards me,
And said “Thou precious and guiltless Nigerian blood,
Go home, build and rule your world while I die for you”.
I woke up, it was just a nightmare full of messages.
Categories:
direful, death, evil, hurt, world,
Form:
Free verse
The sun has set behind the golden hills
And silence reigns within the forest deep.
The dice of life fall as the goddess wills.
The shadow grows, the birds are fast asleep,
A somber night is beckoned by the breeze.
‘Tis direful from the cup of lore to seep.
The wind of autumn murmurs through the trees
Adorned by rusty leafage on their crowns.
Alone are those whom secret wisdom frees.
Upon the lake, the whispers softly drown
In playful croaks of frogs around the shore.
Accursed is he on whom sly Venus frowns.
The goddess moves, the silence to restore
And soothe the vulgar crowd into repose.
Unwise it is her wishes to ignore.
Find my poems and published poetry volumes at www.eton-langford.com
Categories:
direful, bird, mythology, nature, peace,
Form:
Rhyme
Time starts to pass
and I panick
Unsure of where to go,
what to do or how I'm going
to get there...
where ever "there," may be.
Limp and frozen;
there's no stopping me now.
I must seek.
I must find.
Hesitant and afraid;
unaware of what lurks
farther down the dark
and direful road.
I take my chances and walk
my way through the abyss
of darkness that devours
my very being.
Its a never ending journey
and now.. I start to settle.
What more is there to live
for, if I am already stuck
with no way out of this place
I would call, "Hell".
Then.. it comes to me.
I AM the darkness
I AM the evil that lurks
within the eerie night.
I am. . .
I see a light
Categories:
direful, death, loss
Form:
Free verse