Best Greyness Poems
Lost in a wistful arbor, where malaise blooms,
Mists flower in hypnotic bleak violet dusks
Shades of brooding melancholy
Bruise my treasured bouquets of dreams
And plod through ponderous mists
In metamorphic doldrums
Cold inertia spirals into lamentations,
Midnights drugged with stupor
Lean heavy on my homeless hermit heart
In withering labyrinths of tangled voices,
Atonal buds of plaintive paeans,
When pensive lethargy pierces dawn.
My rose, in apathy, sees no reason to bloom
As shades of gloom birth shadow seasons
And pale fretting’s unbroken gaze dulls dawn’s hues
Clouds of sighs ravish new shoots
Born in sweet trances of possibility -
Each breath a tedious indecision wrapped in enigma.
Dullness shrouds each new growth in greyness
A slow march into inertia’s bower of cathexis.
Categories:
greyness, garden, sad,
Form:
Free verse
Wildflowers
Your words scream out the relative cynicism
Of an age that doesn’t believe
In anything –
Not God nor Goodwill
Nor possibility:
You label me a Pollyanna,
Mary Sunshine,
And a fool
For believing –
For grasping onto every positive mystery,
For staking claim to promises
Made in an ancient land of promise;
But,
Remember, my friend,
When we both awaken
In the same morning
Weary of the greyness
Deep
Within that place
Where life breaths life,
I will look up with a wrinkled grin
To laugh out loud
Embracing life
In the wind
Blowing through early summered trees
Keeping watch for the coming of the rain
Nourishing
Wildflowers of the fields - on mountainsides -
Blooming in August.
Categories:
greyness, faith, flower, poetry,
Form:
Free verse
The promiscuous length of daylight
in the month of June,
spawned from a sunrise that
allocated a childish franchise.
The moorland breeze; that, to
rely upon when indulgence in dewy
pastures, leaves one reminiscencing
in how once the silvery moon shone.
Gildersber wrapped in winters
relentless white blanket, a pledge of
sledge irons to polish in youthful
exuberance, before life to
cherish in tracks of sheer delight,
when profound in greyness
the sky gave one a reason
for happiness.
This simple memory of one’s
sentimentality, somewhat indistinct
yet a zest of devotion in life
across the deep ocean.
Although elsewhere in this a
time warp of evanescent
I only have to dream
to be with you again!
© Harry J Horsman 2008
Categories:
greyness, nostalgia,
Form:
Free verse
this place of living
where foliage and grass grow...
i talk to headstones
as the breeze whispers to trees
and the greyness of clouds part
written 2/2/2023
For writing challenge
'C' word poetry contest
sponsor Constance La France
HMS used to check.
Categories:
greyness, devotion,
Form:
Tanka
winter wellspring
greyness dyes white clouds
brittle gales howl ice and pant ~
still meadows shiver
sequoia trees thirst
fog mists bathe redwood giants ~
rose petals gild snow
cold delirium
in frenzies of snowflake squalls ~
silver forests gleam
ice castles glitter
with gems of furious fire ~
fields of frost bouquets
twilight alpenglow
coral shadows dance on hills ~
nordic neon show
wellspring of winter
on white wings of solstice dreams ~
winter streams gurgle
1-26-23
Syllables checked with www.howmany syllables
Categories:
greyness, beauty, winter,
Form:
Haiku
Cardinal and the Rose
As greyness dyes white clouds
When icy fingers rattle wind chimes of icicles
A shiver rustles still meadows of frost bouquets;
Through brittle gales that howl
Like exiled banshees
A tiny golden cardinal seeks
The last yellow rose of summer
That still blooms in shades of sunlight,
In hues of joyful perfume,
To catch her falling petals etched in sunbeams
As the solstice savage delirium casts them
Into the consuming crystal fire of frost;
Before they whither into forgetfulness
This tiny symbol of devotion
Gathers memories of warm afternoons
To line her winter nest with petals of hope
And the fragrance of joy for golden fledglings
As gilded buds return on new stems
To repeat the cardinal’s warbling song.
1-5-22
Contest: Cardinal and the Rose
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Categories:
greyness, bird, devotion, rose, winter,
Form:
Free verse
You look sideways at me
I look straight on at you
You glance towards me
I stare at you
memorize the stiches of your coat
they are uneven
it must have been handmade
You look up at the sky
I look at your shoes
They are slim and obviously Italian
You've been traveling in Europe
I look at your cheekbones
You stare off at a tree
It is a beautiful tree
though I cant see why it has captured you
I' look at your hands
they're nice hands
expressive hands
strong enough
big enough but not too big
kind hands
You turn to the left to look out over the gray blank sea
I know we're not going to see each other again
Even the stark greyness of the Cape in late November is more compelling to you in this moment than I am
I am dancing colors
I am a fragrance
of clean smells
I am sauce and sassiness and ideas and concepts
and wants
God how I want you
But you would rather look at greyness
I will never see you again
Thank you for the kiss on the dock
Thank you for the dinner and the dance
Thank you for the moment in the library when you looked into my eyes for one very long minute and I felt alive
Just before you asked me to the dinner dance
But you seem to have lost your moorings
You are like a boat
A buoy
or a wooden raft
floating
you don't know North from South
East from West
Now your sails are not catching the wind
You are sort of flapping
carelessly
aimlessly
I watch you like watching a crab scuttle up the beach
Fascinated
I will never lose my way
( That's a lie)
Tonight
You were simply a dock
that I pulled up to ...tied off
Tomorrow the sun will rise
and I will feel full and excited
I'll move on fast
throw off your bow
You were like the wild north wind for me tonight
for about 5 minutes
The wind is fickle
When the wind changes I tact
While you were in my sails I did love you
Like any sailor is impassioned by the beautiful wind
that suddenly drives him forward
the exquisite unbelievable .... unspeakable
tarp full sail pulling hard
I will miss you
But only like I always miss the wind when it dies
No more and no less
my sails will be full and my beautiful ship will be headed out to God knows where
But you my questioning friend will not know enough to follow
You will be still looking left and seeing only the gray of Cape Cod in Winter and
Categories:
greyness, love,
Form:
Free verse
I have a grey shirt, grey short pants and grey socks.
The grey school with its grey toilet blocks and grey nuns
made my mother buy them,
which was understandable, because folks like us
were supposed to only buy grey clothes, and live in grey towns
for fear of going color-blind.
If ever we had understood
that the grey faces that ruled us
were all working for the Ministry of Greyness,
we would have run.
The Queen, the B.B.C. and all our betters
felt that too much color in our lives
might lead us to seek impossible rainbows,
and so, we were taught to know our place
on the color chart of life.
At ten, mum bought me a pair of long blue jeans.
I felt like I could ride a horse, or rock and roll
as good as Elvis (he was an American who lived far away
in a world of razzle-dazzle grace).
The girl next door, without prior warning,
took off her long grey dress and put on
a red short skirt dotted with colorful butterflies.
Neither of us being grey that day,
we gravitated together dangerously.
Dad warned us not to be too flashy,
but we went to the park anyway.
As we walked in a hand-held gentleness.
We saw the flowers turn their blooms to us.
We knew then that we were in an English poem
a poem that had never been grey,
but was forced into shapeless muted tones
by those who kept all the words to that English poem
for themselves.
Categories:
greyness, poverty,
Form:
Free verse
Amber-brown sea oats stand tall -
whistling as ocean breezes gently
blow them in unchartered directions
Voluminous waves impact into jetty rocks
inducing sea urchins to lose their tight grip
from a place of safeness
Watercraft rock recklessly in
turbulent waters. Fishing lines
snap as hopes of a good day's
catch are quickly diminished,
while winds grow intensly
& skies darken to an eerie black
Fears of a possible funnel cloud
now begin to form in reality
Anchors are regained as boat captains'
gear themselves towards safety upon
these waters, aspiring towards
safer havens as ferocity passes
As quickly as darkness has appeared,
radiant rays of sunlight penetrate greyness
of clouds, cutting into glistening waters
like a silver bladed knife cuts thru many
layers of a wedding cake
Life returns to slower pace of normalcy
as a large sea turtle surfaces catching
a bit of solar warmth cast upon this
magnificant world of azure water
Sea oats now stand erect, like small
soldiers protecting their beach,
restrengthening -
for the next tumultous reign
of inclement weather
Categories:
greyness, seasea, sea,
Form:
Verse
Windless, the somber winter shore is welded
imperceptibly to the ashen water, the
horizon hemmed by distant dams of fog.
Advance, advance.
Gloveless, the chalky hands stand out
starkly in the pervasive greyness,
charcoal vestments completing
the monochromatic movement.
Disperse, disperse.
Gritless, the soft sand absorbs all.
The solemn sea tastes of tears,
warmer water, almost amniotic,
the all-mother's hypnotic allure.
Recede, recede.
Relentless, a distant bell dutifully tolls.
The shivering figure rises, reluctantly
trudging to the waiting limousine.
Return, return.
February 5, 2016
Categories:
greyness, beach, death, sea,
Form:
Free verse
It is February and the air still stings,
But stirrings of spring can be found.
Atop a telephone pole a bird sings,
And little things move in the ground.
It is a time that surely heralds hope
That the greyness will turn to green.
It is earth’s sweet, solemn note
Warmer, softer days will be seen.
Late snowstorms are water-laden
Bathing buds on bushes and trees.
Nature is an awakening maiden
With coy promises in every breeze.
This twixt-seasons time is a part
Of the ribbon that wraps up a year.
Learning to embrace it is an art
That keeps love of nature near.
Categories:
greyness, february, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
May the sunshine
Caress the harmony
Of your soul
To harness
The similar traits displayed
Placing bets squarely
Upon the eye-shine
Lost into costly greyness
But loving shadows
Living from the clouds
The depressive but striking
Long desired passion
Of days in the sun
Producing the clouds to cast
A darkness over-
Piercing the eyes
Lashing into oblivion
But loving timeless
Feel of shadow
Love glowing towards me
Leaping, lapping, grinding
Never sad – crushed
Like diamond dust
Sparkles, indestructible
But still sanded down
Towards the shards
Of her tenderness lost
Within my soul
I now harbor
The sunshine days of clouds
Shadows define me
Russell Sivey
Categories:
greyness, dark, november, sun,
Form:
Free verse
From earth’s deep bowels when flames spit forth
and thunder shakes the ground
a seething mass of melted rock
is strewn for miles around.
When red grows dark and searing heat
has cooled but all is torn
the darkest doom lies on the land
with greyness all forlorn.
In moonlike scenes the earth has changed
its rocks now look like seas,
an envelope of fluid mass
instead of grass and trees.
Remember this, when earth decides
to let its voice be heard,
not even gods can change the path
that destiny preferred.
Ivor G Davies
Categories:
greyness, destiny, natural disasters, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
Journey's End by Shane Cogan (September 2013)
Silently we stood tall
The sun’s dawn chill on our backs
We gathered our last few belongings
The grey skies swirled over us
Onwards and upwards we walked
Little to do, we merely talked
Oh, the endless array of colours
Oh, the senseless decay of society
The autumn countryside air fed us
Fresh golden crisp sounds under our feet, our hooting horn
Azure skies shone now, the greyness vanished
Reaching up high, seeking solace…we moved on
Teaching us it was, freaking us out…we moved on
But there is no escape ever for a nomad
A wanderer: she pondered…and I squandered
Oh, there it was again
Oh, the planet we sought
I breathed in the warm dusk air
She breathed in the moonlit sky
Ravens swarmed over us, creating one dark cloud
Bats vibrated, as feeding time commenced
Harvest gatherers signalled night time
A lonely police siren echoed sleep time
Then we both felt its glaze upon our faces
It stole our smile
It sapped our energy
Oh, we could not move
Oh, yet only approve
Resting, we had no choice but too stargaze
We shifted our tired bodies
We emptied our final belongings
The crystal full moon had hypnotised us
The sun’s distant tale had teased us
The endless blanket of stars now warmed us
An epic sky tale of foe and friend had begun
We gazed. We starred. We dreamed
Nothing could have prepared us
Nothing had been written about its glory
Indigo colours encircled its core
Hazy lights acted as a sky highway
Interlinked, interconnected, intergalactic
First our planet, then their planet
We gave way, we gave in
Our journey at an end
A new one to begin
We had found our planet
Our people
Our nature
We smiled
We blinked
We spoke
We said: Welcome home
For the EPIC (OLD/NEW) Poem contest
Categories:
greyness, adventure, autumn, color, hope,
Form:
Lyric
I am November, the chilling winds
blend with the conditions in my heart
My heart blends with 13 years of not
blending to the conditions very well
I am December, the morning shares
the same blackness as the nights
To which I divert from the light
calling for the morning to prolong its darkness
I am January, 5 days since you first said
my full name without a word being spoken
As my ice dispenses a single drop
unfelt before you appeared in a shadowy halo
I am February, too soon to whisper
three words into your untested by me ears
Though 14 days in, I find comfort there
while you reach for the top shelf of doubt
I am March, uncertainty keeps the ground
wrapped in snow and the lake waits for
Lovers to fall deep into its trap
one in which we barely escape
I am April, change has captured a soul
within the song of a bird that decides
Not to fly but instead make a home
of old leaves and unbloomed flowers
I am May, now into the 5th month
of finding a home, a shelter for brokeness
A hand to be unheld but very much held
in a quiver of complete togetherness
I am June, there is sun...vigorous sun
shining across ponds and glistening into
Conversations of a life to be lived and others
to be brought into our world, our home within us
I am July, I am tired and battered
by the maybes and some days
I am restless in a worn shell
that dreams of being in that lake still
I am August, gardens have given of themselves
and now drift into the acceptance of expiration
There in all that greyness of upcoming death we find
the tethers of a tomorrow bonding our ankles to the bedposts
I am September, how the moments now go do not
will not and can not matter because
I am you and you are me and from this month on
we breathe in the love and only exhale to the Heavens
I am October, I am blessed by the cool air
that rises from an imported breeze
that has taken this heart, the one once frozen
and given it a beat, a hop and always a skip
Categories:
greyness, i love you, i
Form:
Free verse