Best Forebode Poems
As the moon aligns itself with the stars
I search to find me
Can’t find my way
My psyche is perplexed
Seemingly, I long to be found
Yet, I have left no trail of sanity
Left no footprints of sincerity
Silhouettes are numerous
Where I was last portrayed
A mire outline, a profile
A mirage
Depicts the whereabouts of my mind
Illusions and premonitions
Forebode life
Foreshadow the inhabitation of despair
Predict the transition into solitude
Sheer hues of the deep, dark night
Diversify the challenge of discovery
Still I search
Overlooking not one possibility
Though my vision impaired
I continue franticly
Seeking for myself
Among the many shadows
Categories:
forebode, confusion, depression, life, mystery,
Form:
Free verse
O’ to fade! To pass! To rest! To die!
To ponder, to listen
and not forebode -
you were as a thresher to the chaff
and the driven wind
that winnowed.
The thunderclap of Tawhiri raging
silence not a loving
fool’s complaint,
nor portend for whom the bell tolls
when the echoes
of time grow faint
My heart alas divided against itself
knows not what to say
or what to feel,
and with ponderous words recited
I return your resting
place to kneel.
Some final absolutions shared alone -
cold black rain upon
my brow and cuff.
Judge not a froward son - I am who
I am, and have
been judged enough
We are but the quick and the dead,
and just or unjust
no keeper of time.
O tell, what sin was imputed to you?
What concealed divine
law or crime?
And what burden so dark the lamps
of Heaven and Earth
burn less bright?
I ask do we in this realm find peace
or is death’s victory
our only respite?
Only in beds of posthumous sleep
will end my
unspoken confessions.
Nay, I no longer exhume the past -
it rebukes all my
searching questions.
From umbilical dawn to end of days
I failed you - I added
unto your woe.
In life and death there comes a time
when to hold on
and when to let go
May your life and times early passed
live on in the heart
that lives in me,
for in all the silent screams below
is my own howl
in my own vanity.
As I pen my verse the charcoal sky
again rumbles softly
over a distant knell.
No loss, no sorrow, no love unwept
can unring that
fearful tolling bell
Written: July 1991
Categories:
forebode, anniversary, death,
Form:
Rhyme
These quakes and shivers of mine,
Are they tales forebode?
Language spat, drool untold,
Encrypted bits by line.
Does the anchor sit?
Cracks in dorsal fins,
Pinch the nodes whose nervous system knows,
Better than to think.
Juniper pine, ferment pepper mend,
The ache of later hours,
To quench the essence ever tends,
To that which self devours.
Canticles of echoed places,
Hummed in spaces felt at once,
Coded corpus, temporal traces,
And seemly more than nonce.
If only I was less than this,
As only now's enough,
To be all, I'd be remiss,
Missing all the stuff.
Categories:
forebode, absence, addiction, how i
Form:
Rhyme
Translation of Cuppiramania Bharathiyar’s poem: Kannamma, My Love! (Kannamma En Kaathali) by T. Wignesan
Yet another poem by the most famous modern Tamil poet, written a century ago – despite the commonplace imagery – follows in the original very complex classical Tamil prosodic rules in the execution of initial and end-rhymes, alliteration in each line and in the immediate and successive lines as a whole, the inner rhymes of assonance and consonance notwithstanding. The non-Tamil can best savour these poetic and/or musical qualities by listening to the version of the poem set to music, and here sung by Mahathi:
YouTubeFR: Aasai Mugam Jukebox – Songs of Bharathiyar – Tamil Patriotic Songs (It’s the 4th song down on the left column)
Does not the endearing warmth of our mutual gaze – Kannamma
Reflect the light of the sun and moon alike?
Does not the precious circular eye – Kannamma
Dispel the darkness of the skies?
Dressed in deep blue-black silk – the sari
Inlaid with choice diamonds
While in the core of pitch darkness – glitter
The scintillating stars – Dear-Girlie!
Does not the blossoming grove fade – lit by your
Illuminating smile?
Even as blue-tinted sea waves –your
Breast heaves in unison – Girlie-Dear!
Just as the enticing cuckoo call – your
Sweet dulcet tones invade, My Dear!
O! You unspoilt young maiden! – Kannamma!
The bridal feast* has yoked my heart, alas!
You speak of comparing birth-charts* - Kannamma
What avails such astrological omens?
For those who can hardly repress yearning – Kannamma
Might the stars forebode greater bliss?
If our elders will bestow approval – nuptial
Arrangements we will later formalize
Will I be waiting for you, My Dear – to seal
Our vows – plant I this kiss on your cheek!
Notes
• According to Hindu custom, the brides’s family has to offer a sumptuous dinner to the formally-invited bride-groom.
• Hindu marriages are often contracted after verification of
birth-charts, drawn up by astrologers, to ascertain the compatibility of the bride to the bride-groom.
© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2015
Categories:
forebode, girlfriend, innocence, longing, love,
Form:
Dramatic Monologue
The rush of enchantment brought peace of mind,
To fill the day with contented pleasure.
This journey of lovers where hearts were signed.
Claimed its portion from each was their measure.
The search for love began the longest day,
And crossed loves lonely bridge when joined eyes met.
The rising sun colored this love on display,
To greet lovers under its firmament.
The passage of time, on merriment's road,
Where jubilation's cup fills with delight,
Until lovers start to fill with forebode,
Twilight approaches before the dark night.
To find love is as a flowering bloom.
Its scented fragrance is destined for doom
A companion poem to "The Longest Night"
Categories:
forebode, poetry,
Form:
Sonnet
THE CHENNAI FLOODS - SECOND PART
No food nor drinking water, those alive, pity
Faced chillness, starvation and panic in eyes
No medicines, no blankets and no clothes
People succumbed in homes and on roads
Hundreds of people dead; countless injured
Houses and cars in thousands submerged
All essential storage quickly lost; and no food
Nor shelter; alas providers became seekers
A catastrophe that none believed will happen,
Occurred anyway, as people simply wilted low
Money and materials could not be of help
As holding hands alone forebode being alive
The future looked suddenly bitter and bleak
With money, valuables and motorcars lost
Very difficult it looked to make good the loss
As personal belongings all vanished in a toss
And by the time the boats came calling
And relief was in sight; most people had
Lost the battle and barely held their lives
The unrelenting flood having spewed its wrath
The misfortune threw up the good Samaritans
For many showed up, courting risk upfront
To save many a folk, with dedication abound
In desperate time providing solace and succor
Brave young volunteers were there in full
To reach supplies for people in a mess
But the disaster had hit in full, long before
Many need decades to get back, as before.
And then army men arrived to ferry in boats
Saving people, marooned and maligned
Helicopters dropped food for hungry mouths
As pilots picked the sick and the hopeless
The Government claimed it did its part, well
While the critics made a lot of noise, as ever
Alas people were left, high and dry; dismayed
To mourn the loss and weep, in silent mode!
Some said the authority failed; in their role
Some said it was “El Nino” “Climate Change”
Many attributed: highest rainfall in 100 years!
But I know: Millions of folk took a mighty blow!
Categories:
forebode, courage, halloween, horror, loss,
Form:
Ballad
White Van Man
White van driver, he couldn’t give a damn
Oh how I wish that he would scram
From lofty heights he owns the road
He’s deft at signs sure to forebode
With cell in hand intent on chat
He swears at the driver wearing a hat
Coursing a path that’s bumper to bumper
Behind the woman, oh how he could thump her
His high sided vehicle sways this way and that
He’ll be there soon with foot down flat
He’s king of the motorway’s third lane
He’d love to shunt and scare, be a right bane
But to him his driving feels quite lame
He’s white van driver who feels no shame
A hotheaded madcap who loves to race
Carrying a smugness all over his face
When home he parks to own the street
Along with others, its quite a fleet
In the morn, he rises with the lark
Returning faithfully after its dark
He’s white van driver, he does what he likes
He tells his neighbours to get on their bikes
His majestic status is sure to be noted
Carrying an image to which he’s devoted
So white van man, you don’t give a damn
But I tell you squarely that you’re a right sham
Categories:
forebode, car,
Form:
Rhyme
I fell in love once, twice or perhaps thrice;
And each caused only more pain than the last.
I fell in love once, twice or perhaps thrice;
And each caused only more pain than the last.
The first was raven; the second was blonde;
The third was brunette and had three times; gone.
The first was my childhood, innocent; sweet.
The second; passion-filled love-exquisite.
The last was a girl of half my standard;
Of whom on lonely nights my thoughts wandered.
I lay once or twice and penned her an ode;
Of the love I felt that fate had forebode.
Though clear of the danger, I gave my heart;
That raven goddess three times ripped apart.
Categories:
forebode, betrayal, break up, desire,
Form:
Iambic Pentameter
abominate, abhor, abuse, admonish, adumbrate, afflict, advance,
agitate, agonize, alcohol, announce, approach, awaken, bait, bark,
bawl, bedamn, bedevil, berate, betoken, bluster, bode, bother, break,
brew, browbeat, bully, caution, censure, chide, clutter, comminate,
complain, complicate, confuse, cow, crucify, DAD, damage, daughter,
deplore, detest, devil, disarray, disorder, disparage, distress, divine,
embroil, enforce, enmesh, ensnarl, entangle, entwine, exacerbate,
excruciate, execrate, expiate, family, feel, fist, flex, forebode,
forecast, forerun, foresee, foreshadow, foreshow, foretell, foretoken,
forewarn, frighten, fulminate, gnarl, gnash, grieve, growl, hammer,
hang, harass, harbinger, harmonize, harrow, heckle, herald, hound,
injure, intimidate, impend, imperil, imprecate, inflict, intuit, involve,
irk, jam, jeopardize, joy, knot, laughter, loom, love, maze, menace,
mistreat, molest, Mom, muck, muddle, mumble, murmur, mutter,
nag, normalize, omen, overhang, overshadow, perplex, persecute,
pester, plague, portend, preindicate, provoke, punish, push, presage,
pressurize, prognosticate, promise, prophesy, provoke, punish,
quarrel, quiz, rack, ravel, rebuke, reprimand, risk, scare, scold,
scourge, scowl, sense, shake, shame, signify, smite, snap, snarl, son,
soothsay, spook, strike, tangle, tease, terrorize, threaten, thunder,
torment, torture, trouble, upset, usurp, vaticinate, vex, vilify,
vociferate, walk, warn, worry, wound, wring, yell, yelp, zero, zip, zone.
Categories:
forebode, angst, childhood, confusion, depression,
Form:
Free verse
I just put the “BAM!” in Bambi
Out there on the street
As the sunlight was all but vanished
Who should I happen to meet
But a cute and cuddly deer, Dear
Just prancing across the road
The van met her in the middle
I’m afraid they were both KO’d
I’d like to say that the dear vanished
With a look and a limp she walked away
I’d like to say nothing was damaged
But it didn’t go down that way
I didn’t have time to avoid her
I didn’t have room to stop
Bambi now lives with her mother
And the van’s going into the shop
And me, well my knees can’t stop shaking
And my heartbeat’s a mile a minute
In a battle ‘tween deer and an auto
It’s a dead heat and neither can win it
Mdailey 10/29/11
Written for a good friend who had a run in with a deer last evening.
I was goaded into writing another verse - - -
Twas the night that Bambi got busted
Out on a lonely road
This jay-walking deer got dusted
As out of the woods she strolled
I admit that my reflex have rusted
The outcome so easy forebode
To say the least, I was disgusted
To see Bambi – poor deer - explode
Categories:
forebode, nature, , cute,
Form:
Rhyme
Cold winter's breath blows
Icey fingers decorate
Dark clouds forebode snow
Chance climate holds thus
Dancing white will soon alight
The god's magic dust
Colorless earthscape
Snow maiden weave thy blanket
Fair comfort to drape
Categories:
forebode, analogy, god, january, metaphor,
Form:
Haiku
Equilibrium of Delirium
Strolling alongside my casted shade,
the forlorn rememberings have stayed
in this far-flung antipode of a star-lit glade,
where the skin of my self was flayed.
Though the butcher vanquished,
I was doomed to wander
across plains where thought languished,
and utter chaos loomed yonder.
Yet there beneath a gnarled old Willow,
lay the Sandman’s very pillow.
So down, down below I ventured,
to the primal dark: ‘o ultimate solace,
where the mind cannot be censored,
and logic becomes weary and nauseous.
My mortal makings now dismembered.
The last of my humanity disemboweled.
Yet what I once was shall be remembered,
as I abandon the heresy I had vainly howled.
My thoughts now echo aloud
in abyssal depths of a timeless shroud.
Ever deeper into the depths I implored,
wavering over my early erected cenotaph,
while olive branches whispered the deplored,
and I could somehow not help but laugh.
And so my being went to and fro,
into realms as would the newborn doe.
Though in this murky orchard,
not even light permitted me to see,
and as my vision was further tortured,
I stumbled blindly into what I was to be.
With neither sword nor shield required,
the dweller on the threshold quivered
as I ended what he had conspired,
and into Truth was I delivered.
For my brittle bones are embellished
by gems which Kings have relished.
My muscle boiled and rose in steam,
precious organs torn at the seam,
and all the while ran a red stream,
as I basked in the sweet Void’s gleam.
Alas, the final vestiges now fade,
surviving only as dirt on the Sage’s rusted spade.
My withered feet now freely skipping
down a strangely familiar cobbled road,
while the thoughts of doubt slipping,
and a sense of serenity seems to forebode.
Downward once more goes the stone path,
as I climb into the canopy of a pale tree.
And as I leave behind all feelings of wrath,
I am given anew the ability to see.
Now here have I arrived,
though no mortal survived,
at last at the Divine Equilibrium
of this flawlessly Chaotic Delirium.
Categories:
forebode, allusion, dark, dream, journey,
Form:
Free verse
Now, Father McGee and Parishioner Finn
Stood out in front, by the road
Each of them holding a sign on a stick
with a message with spoke of forebode
McGee's sign said " THE END IS NEAR"
Finn's--- " TURN 'ROUND, BEFORE IT'S TO LATE "
Soon came a car speeding on by
With a driver who looked real irate
"GET OUT OF THE ROAD, YOU DOOMSDAY NUTS"
Yelled the driver, while increasing his speed
Just seconds later the pair heard a screech
And a very loud splash there indeed !
McGee turned to Finn, said "It's Happened again
This message I'm beginning to doubt"
Finn then suggested perhaps a new sign
Stating simply " The Bridge is washed out"
Categories:
forebode, humorous,
Form:
Rhyme
A time ago,
After it snowed,
My friend forebode,
A certain road,
The shortest way to go.
Yet I was slowed,
So on this night,
The moon was bright,
I took a right,
And went on down the road.
And to my sight,
I could defend,
Against my friend,
But would depend,
On if the end was bright.
But at the bend,
I saw it close,
And so it goes,
The road I chose,
Was dead upon the end.
Categories:
forebode, introspection, journey, lost, metaphor,
Form:
Rhyme
At one time my neighborhood was new mass-produced little boxes made of ticky-tacky – all looking just the same*
Beautiful affordable, true suburban models, in mid-twentieth century they were truly quite the rage.
But now the then-proud new homeowners have mostly moved to better places
While new ones gladly renovate these aging homes with new rooms and outer faces
When I walk down the street it’s easy to see many of these homes looked exactly like mine
at one time,
before they were distressed and foreclosed
It was a model community that boasted of its clean uniformity, sterility, and safety from those unqualified outside, distressed and forebode
Now it’s a bit grittier yet in my mind much prettier than a planned little row of little boxes where the kids all turn out the same.
It’s a mix of even and odd ones, making for a mix where none is truly plain.
Now the trees have grown so high, and despite the leaves and branches dropped I’m thankful for the breezes
I imagine there are dozens of Spots, Fluffies, and Socks in haphazard plots beneath them
Where beloved pets rest embraced by roots that still grow along with branches
that are strong and large, and now holding swings for another generation of kids and grandkids.
The yards are no longer so clean and shining green, but I focus on a long-gone vine
That left an imprint as it at one time crept up the wall outside my door,
and so artful its design
I want to keep it there forevermore.
I pass added studios for boarders, made from added rooms from added carports,
Basketball hoops at the street side, foot bridges over ditches for bikes, and newly added porches.
With new rooms, rooves, paint, and landscape
Nothing here a mere misuse of ticky-tacky tape.
Even those homes that still look the same outside for their original floor plan
If you go inside each you’ll see windows and walls removed and added
While the footprints are still here, new shoes have stepped in place
All from boots to bare feet to these homes have found their way.
So as I walk down the street,
At least I have a little hope right now
For despite how bleak the times may be,
At last I can believe everyone is allowed in Levittown – for now.
*Apologies to Malvina Reynolds, Little Boxes (1962)
Categories:
forebode, america, color, culture, discrimination,
Form:
Rhyme