Best Gelid Poems
Frost crisped, the lawn remained
beneath the frozen dew.
Water dripped to ice as gutters drained.
The cardinal bids the day adieu;
the winter storm has left a gelid view.
In depth of woods how autumn dazzles, swirling beauty of ornate décor,
Waltzing with ochre hickory, birch; whirling flaxen moods of sycamore,
Gracing my view upon blazing foothills, where vistas gamboge scroll,
Bedecking maples, swaying rhythms, with fiery red of shimmying knoll.
Zephyrs of west rustle demeanor of black tupelo, fluttering leaves gold,
Glistening burnt orange of sugar maple, revelers in sundown behold,
As remnants of gilded twilight beams, glimmer in purpled afterglow,
Weaving motifs of fall in tapestries idyllic, of blushing eventide aglow.
Autumn’s grandeur glows, as crisp frost gleams, mellowing overcast days,
Where gelid winds shudder trees, foretelling imminent wintry malaise,
Meandering with leaves falling gently; carpeting dyed, chromatic meadows,
As the arena of fall’s resplendent show, shimmers in elongated shadows.
Harvest Moon enamors sights, appealing to fervor of romantic glance,
Enthralled watching dance of stars, attuned to tenor of cosmic expanse,
Gliding over a charming night, wooing souls glued to autumn’s ruby fire,
Flaunting pizazz panoramic~ a farewell of fall-splendor, in cerise attire.
Turning life’s pages of albums, treasured memories rekindle seasons past,
Thankful for the abundance of goodwill~ heavenly blessings destiny cast;
As conversations savor aroma of pumpkin pies; buttery, nutty, apple tarts,
Spending time with family, friends; exchanging missives of kindred hearts.
Sculpting tinges periwinkle, eventide paints on arc of ruby skies,
Sunset dreams of freezing eve, longing warmth of moonrise;
As realms gelid waltz, where light-beams with shadows dance,
Shuddering boughs, quivering vistas, swaying barren expanse.
Prairies frozen glimmer, resplendence of pristine falling snow,
Where decaying colors of fall, in remnants of autumn glow,
When twinkling cosmic rivers, on tapestries of Milky-Way flow,
As frosty moonlight glistens knolls, of shivering terrains aglow.
Quietude dwells in grip of winter, where lakes and rivers froze,
Where beauty shines reflecting light, gleaming blustery woes,
Of shorter days, of time glazed, mellowed in golden sunshine,
Ceding to lingering nights, glinting in glamor of heavens divine.
While gelid breezes of winter, quiver emotions of decaying rays,
And arc of horizon cedes to dusk, evoking grimace of malaise,
Casting shadows tenebrous, shrouding glimmer of a slowing day,
Desperate hope lingers still, in resplendence of autumn’s decay;
Gawking in yonder, where gamboge-orange woodlands fade,
Reminiscing in seasons harkening, realms of love now evade,
Mindful of the broken vows, when grievous calls destiny made,
When forever promises receded, and pledges eternal strayed.
Love now mulls~ if kiss of passion was a subtext of final goodbye?
Was it the last tear of hapless eyes; a bawl of love gone awry?
A silent protest, concealing mindfully, anguish of a forlorn sigh?
Was it the clamor of jilted desires, love enamored chose to decry?
Springs of past summon hope, having risen from wintry throe,
Nights of nightmare cede to dreams in halo of daybreaks aglow,
As candle of love revives hearts, fueled by inspirations of soul,
When whispers of sensuous hints, aspirations of romance cajole.
Desperate hope expounds repentance, vying healing through time,
Unsure if, pleadings in atonement, will redeem future sublime;
Whether love saplings will ever sprout, from ashes of passions bygone,
If dreams forsaken will blossom, in womb of tomorrow’s dawn.
Golden leaves of autumn delight
Where season flaunts hints of romance
Blazing passions of smitten sight
As themes chromatic swirl and dance.
Charming dreams of romantic eyes
Golden leaves of autumn delight
As twilight blushes on mauve skies
Lauding missives of zealous night.
While amber notions waltz in flight
Spurring thrill of flaxen meadows,
Golden leaves of autumn delight
As tunes of love heartbeats compose.
Crimson motifs gelid winds blow
Twirling, whirling, as they alight,
Where gilded canvas glints on snow
Golden leaves of autumn delight.
Oh, how I long, day full of snow
When dawns in gelid breezes moan
And nights anguish in frozen glow,
Now that autumn has left its throne.
As dull and decay shroud meadow,
Oh, how I long, day full of snow,
To soothe malaise of dreary woe
Where blizzards frosty harshly blow.
On barren landscapes caught in throe
Trapped in demise of autumn's reign,
Oh, how I long, day full of snow
Gleaming hopes of dimming terrain.
When storms from north exact a toll
Where rivers freeze, struggle to flow,
And lifeless shivers gloomy knoll;
Oh, how I long, day full of snow.
This February will not usher spring,
wisteria like grapes hung on their roods;
more pewter shadows does the season bring.
Now I've misplaced all the beatitudes
to lambent grasses flocking on the mount
as spring green creepers tendril up the posts,
the lilac blossoms teeming like a fount
of amulets to stay the latent ghosts
that haunt as far as April with their rime.
As Puxatawny Phil goes under ground
I've six more weeks of gelid hush to mime
the turgid verses of this numbing round.
I rummage blessings as the winter girds,
yet somehow can't remember any words.
Between frosty cobalt-cliffs, cruise-ship hesitates to pause,
Amidst ice sculptures echoing cheers of spirited applause,
Mesmerizing enthralled sights evincing awe-struck trance,
Lauding vast gelid expanse, hypnotizing eyes of romance.
Buoying on inlets, flaunting aesthetics of sculpted designs,
Dark blue glaciers rise for miles, as our ship gently aligns,
Watching seals resting lazily, ruminating on blocks of ice,
Empathetic of frightened sparrow decrying the crowd-size.
Gracefully ship circles around, as if staging a festive dance,
When in enamored glance, caressing hints of romance,
We praise motifs on water~ floating white cotton balls,
Where shards chromatic fall from frozen-tall bluish walls.
Miles of crystals adorning yonder, glinting cerulean blue,
Stack mounds of white contrast on distant emerald hue,
As Glacier Bay begins to fade retreating in rearward view,
When ship's whistle blows aloud, bidding a fond adieu.
A journey we treasure now in albums of cherished past,
Where moments unsurpassed, coveting-forever last,
Embracing precious memories evoking paradise on earth,
Glamorizing place-idyllic, luxuriating in cadence of mirth.
May 28, 2023
Placed 1st: This or That, Vol 18 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title Chosen: I Know A Place
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve lies west of Juneau, Alaska and can only be reached by plane or boat. Glacier Bay was declared a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE in 1979 for the spectacular glacier and icefield landscapes.
A tenebrous void occupies my soul
like a queasy, dark, wintry cloud
hanging low and heavy with sleet and frost.
No gelid wind blows it away
and I despair. I cannot forget the dead.
An empty, lonely chapel still beacons.
It stands alone
amongst the tall dark pines
of an abandoned forest.
Inside, the dim light filters poorly
through dirty broken stained glass.
There's nothing inside but dust.
No chairs, no pews
for the weary traveller.
I sit on the cold slab tomb,
wonder who was laid to rest
inside the sepulchre.
Then did I realise I was alive.
All memories stored deep inside me.
The waking of empathy
especially to the self, is painful.
How oft had I tried to erase
my thoughts on you?
I leave the disused chapel
and return to my empty home.
I still think of you.
When gusty winds blow, riling my troubled dawn in gelid woes
Squall of my throes dissipates in scented whiffs of budding rose.
As brazen fog shrouds mind, heightening my grief, poking fun
Defyingly I step out in glinting rays of the dawning golden sun.
Refusing to surrender when my tears dominate indignation
Joy I find on the vibrant horizon, blazing sunset’s ruby elation.
Verdant paradise appeals to pleas, adorning my shamrock hills
Appeasing cry of stygian echoes storming from mountains of ills.
If night reigns moonless and nightmares soon rage my dreams
Comfort I find within soothing zeal of spring’s giggling streams.
While strife of life endures in raging summers of unending heat
Readily I seek blue oceans, surfing rhythmic tides’ buoyant beat.
As laments of the world drown humanity in hapless deep dive
Strength of nobility rises, helping weakened hands to survive.
When the rancor of disillusionment exudes ambivalent sigh
Autumn’s scarlet imprints eagerly vie, healing souls in russet dye.
As hindrance of the ordinary distresses progress of mankind
Delighted I am to see rationality unite, to defeat the unrefined.
When sullen is my heart aching in the anguish of ashen skies
Solace I derive from serene vibes gleaming your tranquil eyes.
At times in my life, I encounter the black-holes of opaque space
Yet, the light of day gets through in sanctuary of your embrace.
August 19, 2020
Placed 1st: Sanctuary Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Silent One
the floorboards offer only joist only the give the soft jawed stud in the hall
plaster molts white flecks like the chicken did last winter
the tv spits a grey electric grit
a static stuck rattling the cul de sac the deadbolt evening click
i have swept the dead from the wires the cold clot they leave in the pipes
the notice said final in red it promised a merciful eviction
in a neighborhood of taped up windows
the crabgrass a green fire where the dog used to squat wait
inside the mind a leaden bell a pendulum already swinging
the weight of crown molding and sweat
a siyn nap pops like a fuse when the heart stops
just the thermostat clicking off
the house already a frozen meat locker of blue bellies
as the soul snags on the splintered jamb by the side door
while the neighbors count the moving boxes
i kept thinking about the fridge light how long it could burn
over the fatback sweating into a cold yellow brine
the stars rock salt in a split lip
the factory a pulled socket wired to nothing bleeding soot
porch light a clotted throat of toasted wings
the smoke alarm battery dead
all that evisceration funnels us back to the kitchen
we sit in the kitchen thumbing the unpaid slips
my fingers gelid sticking to the paper
the fridge drones on borrowed power
just caught in the clock slow gears a germ in the cogs
the sink drips
the soul stays low in the wiring
behind the lath
holding on
until the breaker snaps
The blood and lapis daylight sets
in ether. How the mind resets
brutality of winter chill
with February's codicil;
what gossamer a dream begets.
I hear the crickets in the dark,
their clicking takes up where the lark
has been. The flagrant marigolds
have huddled into twilight's folds,
on sanguine nightfall to embark.
The eastern zephyrs fall and rise
with rapid movement of my eyes
and echo whispers midnight makes
of blood white trails on moonlit lakes.
In silhouette I recognize
a dogwood, though can only sense
its glowing coral consequence.
The blossoms tell me they comprise
sweet spawn of sun rays in disguise
and capture all my heartbeats hence.
Now honeysuckle is entwined
on crisscrossed pathways of my mind
with jasmine in a potpourri
to conjure shamrock reverie
that leaves the pewter scape behind.
Around the lambent dogwood tree
alone upon that verdant lea
buds can prosper, bees will hum.
As though seduced by opium
I greet a vista I can't see,
at least not quite. I know it's there
and feel the dogwood everywhere,
behind me, flanking left and right,
an omnipresence in the night,
like answers to unconscious prayer.
Now high upon a clovered scarp
the tree is standing clear and sharp.
In silence I see restless blooms
play music that my ear assumes
is chiming dulcet as a harp.
Such Efflorescent star bursts splay
like windmills on a gusty day
that in ebullience do portend
a vibrance that will never end
and all my reticence allay.
In waking to a winter storm
that's February's gelid norm
I long still for my fulgid tree,
resplendence that surrounded me,
but only meet a turbid swarm.
I rise and pull back hermit drapes
to see the torrid flurries traipse,
yet through the chaos can discern
the leafless frame for which I yearn
beyond the window storming scrapes.
The dogwood stands just as before
unclad upon the icy moor
with nascent berries undeterred
as though through humble verse and word
like daylight through an unclosed door.
2/23/18
Strength Thru Adversity
Gregory R. Barden
It was the feathered purple of a blossoming iris,
kissing the laden air
with trembling lips.
I was awakened by its fragrance,
the newness of its ancient story,
told yet again by a moistening earth
in silvery birdsong.
Sometimes,
I have missed the turning from gelid and motionless
to the softening sway that unerringly follows.
I have been embittered—
brittle and bare as a crooked branch,
scraping a vacuous sky—
but not this time.
This time, the tenderest breeze,
prodded by the fingers of a spreading sun,
finds me waiting—
eyes closed, smile turned eagerly upwards
to greet the renewal
of creation.
Melting your frozen heart.
Why do you refuse to feel my love?
Why has your heart grown cold?
It´s so cold it is frozen solid,
beating ever so slowly,
for no one.
A warm smile, a calid embrace,
a compassionate understanding
heart beating for you
right beside you
only for you
here forever
trying to jump start
your
frozen heart
with the electrical
spark of my love.
Have you been abandoned
and hurt so much that
you feel too unworthy to be loved?
Why do you not feel my warmth
as I try to ease your pain?
Your gelid coldness will turn
your frozen heart
into perma frost...
if you don´t
allow yourself to feel
my warmth
there will be a cost.
A price to pay that is far to high...
for a heart
that remains cool
to anothers love
will stay frozen
and will
slowly
die.
A frozen heart
can melt
but it takes time...
to feel love again
can be so surreal
ever so sublime.
Open to me my love...
feel what I feel
with tenderness
kindness and patience
true love is revealed
Open your heart...
let it feel my love´s fire
even from a distance
you can feel the warmth
your heart can melt and
beat with mine
beating as one...together
till the end of time.
John Derek Hamilton
March 1,2016
Gems of sunset adorn
Gelid skies of Janus;
Garlands of blood-beads cast
Glints on glacial landscape,
Giving brief warm relief...
Glimmering sparks to thaw
Grief's glassy ice-shards.