Best Gown Poems
I sketched with pen the outlines of clustered naked trees
With brush in hand I painted with care and utmost ease.
Outpouring of emotions on canvas splashed in hues
With freedom of expression I shed away my blues
A captivating picture – the flair of ardent muse.
The yellow, red and orange mixed well with mauve and brown
With eager strokes I finished and called it Autumn’s Gown.
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10th September, 2014
Contest: One Autumn Day (7 lines)
Sponsor: Poet Destroyer A
Placed: 7th
Flowers In Your Hair, Gold Dust On Your Trailing Gown
( Robert Lindley and Nicola Byrne )
Flowers in your hair, gold dust on your trailing gown
You my true sky angel, had floated right on down.
Golden sandals on your feet, toenails glowing white
All eternity shan’t see a prettier sight.
Your soft and gentle voice, a million ways of sweet
Your touch is my hope and your kiss, love-food to eat.
Each moment a true blessing, you my darling gave
Each dance your gift, healing treasures, my heart to save.
Love of my life, sing softest hymns to this lost soul
For before you came, sorrows took a heavy toll.
Know darling, this heart and spirit you have thus healed,
Should fate deny us, with love, truth has been revealed.
Now every balmy breeze that blows against my skin,
Resonant of your kisses, brings a joyous grin.
In the sun’s warm splendour, a halo I doth see
Shine upon the waters, where love’s eyes swim to me.
And every now and then, blessed with rains from above,
I feel your tender touch, the glory of your love.
Your scent, like fragrant blossoms, straight from heaven’s lawn
Exhilarates the senses, waking me each dawn.
Firm witness is the world, to thy healing powers
and graceful presence, bringing halcyon hours.
All that I envision, to turn around a frown:
Flowers in your hair, gold dust on your trailing gown.
Collaboration by Robert J. Lindley and Nicola Byrne
5-22-2017
Whenever my emotions are gathered pain side
down, a smattering of silent, shallow, cobweb shadows
wear me as woe’s weighty gown atop clouds blind
to rainbows where naught is wrought but gloom’s
sound, tempo fraught, inbound.
she wore her black gown with such aplomb
proud and alone followed to the tomb
sad though she was to lose her man
can she cope on her own, yes she can
the grey graveyard ,with an open tomb
she wore her black gown with such aplomb
lifting her head all could perceive
the tears falling as she stood to leave
her eyes misted tears starting to fall
remembering when love conquered all
she wore her black gown with such aplomb
she gave a last look at the tomb
friends became lovers as time progressed
loyal to the grave their love confessed
as they gathered and wept around the tomb
she wore her black gown with such aplomb.
penned 28 January 2016
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You turn and risk two smiling eyes my way as I walk in..
how pretty you look sitting upright in that little bed.
Quietly whisper, how well your bridal gown now would fit,
imagining our dream wedding dance in your fever'd head.
And do you still hear the sweet music of the love we made,
in a different room, full of flowers, where children bloomed?
Those memories savored now, where you, my heart's saviour laid,
the shadows drowned by your brilliant glow in musky perfume.
Tired nurses and CNA's steal a glance behind misty glasses,
at a star'y eyed groom longing to see his bride in prime.
Unafraid of death's grasp, I pulled away your tear-filled mask,
dared kiss two lips in precious life that hugged me one more time.
If loving you proved lethal, or a lingering disease,
then let it linger. I need no cure for what's shared within.
Warm hands and laughing eyes so cherished., I'm now loath to leave..
so please stay here with me, sharing in all that love was meant.
I am Nimbus, gathering my black ruffled gown
preparing to race against the whistling wind.
My tears threaten to come tumbling down
and dark tendrils untamed; have come unpinned.
My bereavement wails as thunder hammers the skies.
Twin scepters of lightning flash in my mournful eyes.
I twirl in rhythmic dance upon swiftly swirling winds
Behold the grand majesty of a siren's release!
With a sad heart I say penance for a lifetime of sins.
In deep guttural voice I shall bid the storm to cease,
for I've reached the abysmal depth of my delusive soul.
I am enrapt by the tempest emotions in my control.
May 24, 2021
Personification Poem Contest
Sponsor: Caren Krutsinger
Bitter tears fall from her sapphire blue eyes
Sally strolls in the place where they first met
Dropping to her knees she prays to the skies
The love of her life she cannot forget
Sally strolls in the place where they first met
Wearing the red gown she wore when they’d wed
The love of her life she cannot forget
Thoughts of his love will always fill her head
Wearing the red gown she wore when they’d wed
She wipes away tears that she has just cried
Thoughts of his love will always fill her head
Recalling the pain when her loved one died
She wipes away tears that she has just cried
Dropping to her knees she prays to the skies
Recalling the pain when her loved one died
Bitter tears fall from her sapphire blue eyes
Written for Pantoum contest
Checked with how many syllables 10 per line
09~28~16
As My Sad Tears Fall, Its Gown Glows A Fearsome Red
I simply can not write good poetry today
yesterday's ghost haunts me and will not go away,
on its torn black cap and red shoes are jingling bells
in its raging red eyes are high, sea raging swells.
Ruby ringed left hand, holds repugnant staff of wastes
in its right, bucket of blood, begging bitter tastes!
I simply can not write good poetry today
last night's dreams, yesterday's persistent ghost yet stays
replaying scenes that are chosen to break my heart,
screaming, beautiful red roses were torn apart.
As my sad tears fell, its gown glows a fearsome red
casting curses upon lying words I once said.
I simply can not write good poetry today
yesterday's ghost haunts me and will not go away,
on its torn black cap and red shoes are jingling bells
in its raging red eyes are high, sea raging swells.
Ruby ringed left hand, holds repugnant staff of wastes
in its right, bucket of blood, begging bitter tastes!
Robert J. Lindley, 7-17-2018
Rhyme, (Dark And Ghostly Regrets)
Inspired by a dream, rather a recent nightmare I had....
* * ° * *
In
Mother
Moon's armoire
hang star-gilded
gowns of indigo
silk, heady with
cedar and
sandal
wood
* * ° * *
I am a self-portrait
portraying myself & second self
though, I am just of one flesh
one mind and soul,
I've expressions
of two psyches, dualities
two distinctive women
of two heritages
Didymous are the
liking's of Castor & Pollux
deluxe in statuesque, in alabaster
we are spiritual twinship
thunder & lighting, two-fold
from left to right,
in Victorian elegance
a wedding gown
On the right of me,
in Tehuana frock, fabulosa
I arose from the overworld
one of Northern celestial
the other southernmost
we are twins separately
by surgical pincers, bleeding hearts
as crimson seeps onto white cotton
it stains with the past & present pains
we share one main artery
torn up, broken down
yet are countries apart
with hands clasped
together, we are Gemini
The wedding Gown
She stepped boldly,
stoically erect
to the strains
of the wedding march,
radiant in the resplendent
beauty of her gown
and poetic demeanor.
The long silken train, the work
of tens of thousands of weavers
harvesting in the trees of Changsha
to highlight the sanctity of the moment
and the purity of body as she spoke, “I do”.
The daughter
She lay sleeping gently
doing the little sucking moves
which every new babe makes
with her tiny lips.
Her once wrinkled face
now smooth with traces of
resemblance to her mother.
Unafraid on his arm
her eyes reflecting
from the white silken train
made from a wedding gown
already hallowed by promises kept.
She looked up and smiled
as the water placed on her head
promised things of which she knew nothing.
The marriage
She stood in the vestibule
waiting for the crescendo
to signal her entrance.
Trembling slightly from anticipation
she fidgeted with the train of her long white gown.
That same white gown from Hunan province,
a tad shorter now to accommodate
so long ago, her christening.
She touched it lovingly,
knowing that tomorrow,
she would carry another to feel
its texture, smooth as baby’s breath.
The grand daughter
She was above the pulpit of the church.
From some place of which she did not know,
she peered down upon a small casket not open.
Within which she knew her earthly flesh
lay draped in silk from Changsha.
She somehow sensed the family bond
and the import of having a constant to lean on.
Lying upon the same soft weave her mother felt,
the generations entwined helplessly impressed into its folds,
a grandmother, a mother, and yet another babe into this life line.
Surely the expectations of man, do often go astray,
and nothing lasts but the silk from Changsha.
~//~
For Catie's Free Verse Frenzy contest
After days of fog
Moths eat away the slip of winter
Pieces of the New Year
Drift as ash into spring
Eyes waiting abhorrently
While midnight clasps the last remnants
Tomorrow becomes the butler
Escorting the sun
Rays peel open the solstice
Tattered wings flutter towards
The lamppost of February
Sealed in pocket mirrors…
In decaying fall,
They, deadened colours abound
Leaves granted leave, gown
.
Lifting heavy stuff was not my intention
To save a few bucks I'm puffing like an engine
To keep the price down
So I can buy a new gown
To wear at my company's next convention
© Jack Ellison 2015
You stood there beneath the taunting man on the cross
Yet you stared at the stained floor
I was walking in the dreaded aisle unnoticed by the groom
The bouquet left no petal
For the fluttering flies took them as the bell rang
But you remained unmoved.
I was there almost
I even took the veil
But instead of taking my hand
You lit the candle
Then sprinkled water
On to the glass
Then laid a rose on my breast.