Best Icarus Poems
In the nighttime hours
As the world deftly creeps by
I summon my powers
Spread my wings and fly
Past cotton clouds,
Snow-capped mountains, white
I am lost and I am found
I am beauty and blight
Past the midnight chimes
A soul searching for home
Tangling myself in rhymes
So as to not feel alone
Catch the updraft of hope
Friendship sun on my face
My place in this world in scope
Loathing, with love replace
She said,
love gives us wings
therefore lover,
we belong to the heavens...
Let us abandon
this frozen world
and fix ourselves
among the ceaseless blue stars...
Higher and higher
into the sky
you and I
will eternally fly...
Let us not
come too close to the sun
we may burn the tips of our wings
stay and be safe with me...
For in your eyes
is a burning sun
within you I find the end of space
and my wings are unpinned...
~ ~ ~
they warned me
against extremes
intensity must not be indulged
"Flying in between
is your safety scene
not too high
not too low
don't look too longingly below
don't fly too close
to the sea of his splendor
the blue green of his eyes
hypnotize, mesmerize
desire will dampen your wings
weighing you down
nor must you fly
too close to his passion
blazing bountiful in brilliance
his sensuality, a searing sun
will melt your wings; you'll come undone."
I should have listened
I should have known
Icarus ignited was I
My hubris lifted my higher
nothing seemed dire
overconfident in my ability
to fly away if need be...
your sensuality seduced me
drew me closer and closer
solar combustion on display
you would have your way
rays of radiant heat
in wave upon wave
emanated towards me
doused in desire
you set on fire
melting
melting
melting
burning turning twisting
writhing rigorously
pain and pleasure
came upon waves together
spiraling me out of control
seared straight to my soul
I fell
Oh, how I fell
from the apex into the swell
of the blue green sea of your eyes
sizzling fire subsiding
subsiding
awash in wetness
about to die
you hear me cry:
"I would do it again
and again
and again
today and any day
molten passion in my core
consuming, always wanting more
I know
you'd have me fly
again...
Icarus ignited
right up to your sky."
Eileen Manassian
"In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Often depicted in art, Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun, when the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea." Wikipedia
I wonder, have we come to the end?
The world in chaos, in downward trend.
Is this all of our beautiful tale?
There's magic to ponder and regale.
Icarus led us so close we burned?
That's a lesson needing to be learned.
Is innocence tossed on ships of hate?
Temptation lingers beyond truth's gate.
Is majesty wondered or turned frail?
That's found in all, large and tiny-scale.
is a place found for wild in our world?
There's hidden magic in manes unfurled.
Imagining, where is beauty found?
The sunsets, stars, gentle evening's sound
Is life an illusion and then gone?
Trust in your heart, find forever's song.
Is earth to survive the tempest's wave?
That's on our shoulders to try to save.
August 23, 2022
For Dot Your I's and Cross Your T's Contest
by Hilo Poet
howmanysyllables=9
It may be one of the most poetic ending of all
Icarus’ fall, that is
Stupid, prideful Icarus
The boy who flew too close to sun and expected not to burn
He learned that things can be beautiful
But intangible and fatal
Everyone talks about his death
How greedy he must be to have the opportunity to fly but give up on a wistful whim
But they forget his joy
For Icarus laughed as he fell,
teeth barred to the world as they say
Maybe everyone saw him fall
But in his mind he always flying
Even as the melted wax scorched his skin
His wings, poetically enough, prevented him from swimming to save his life
Even though, it is still the undeniable fact that Icarus Flew
I’d call him a lucky bastard
While you’d call him a fool
And there is a possibility that I am wrong
For another fact is that he is dead
But that matters not to him
For, you’re not in hell if you like the way it burns
WAX & WISDOM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I carved feathers sharp and white,
This brittle world is mine to mend,
I thought, and leapt beyond the bend
of reason. Sunlit roads unfurled
beneath the wings I built to change the world.
Oh, the height! The thinning air
that tasted like Icarus’ own dare!
Below, the patchwork fields grew small—
The ocean shrank to tarnished tin.
This, I breathed, is how I win.
But wax remembers it is wax;
the first plume slipped—a golden drip—
then molten shame began to strip
my borrowed glory, bit by bit,
the indifferent sun burning my pride.
With shattered quills and cooling wax,
I fell. Not toward forgiving seas,
but onto city streets I’d deemed too low,
where broken things forgotten go.
Hubris? Yes. But deeper still:
the lie that I could bend
the river, star, or human will
with my cleverness alone.
The sun’s fierce kiss
taught me a different kind of bliss:
Now, I mend with quieter hands.
No skyward leap, no bold demands.
I change the vessel, not the tide—
the wax within, not wings outside.
How high can we fly?
(After all, we must try!)
Like the mythical Icarus
Can we touch the sky?
Yo, the answer is 'Yes.'
We've already done THAT
Soared into space
Returning and landing
Without going Splat
Yet the question remains
Just how far can we travel?
Will we achieve Intergalacticity
'Fore the Universe unravels?
The paradigm for success was laid out long ago
By a sci-fi writer whose name you might know:
Mr. Isaac Asimov, who created Hyperspace with his brain
As he never once in his life ever boarded a plane!
February 26, 2018
Ninety-three million miles
From sun to Earth’s Goldilocks Zone
Tiny Mercury and mysterious Venus
Torrid, too close to the sun
Carbon—based life prohibited
An Icarus Zone perhaps
But what of Earth’s neighbor?
Holst’s “militant” red planet Mars
Crimson star glows ominously
At 164 million miles from Earth
Theories abound
Scientists say Mars once had water
Microorganisms found
When man finally explores
Might evidence confirm speculation?
We may learn how species evolved
On a planet now dry and desolate
And what of the Sphinx head on Mars
Created by intelligent beings,
Or just a “natural formation”?
What changed to prevent Mars
From supporting life today?
Could Earth suffer the same fate?
Stay tuned to the news
Climate change is underway
*March 31, 2021
For Anthony Biaanco’s Goldilocks Zone contest
Wings, gifted to him.
Tools of freedom and one’s end.
Follow instructions.
With wax and feathers
Strapped to his arms,
Icarus took flight like a bird,
Escaping Crete,
The labyrinth far below.
Forgetting his father’s advice,
Feeling freedom,
Like a moth to a light,
He soared towards the sun.
The wax melted and he moulted,
Then down he plummeted,
To the ocean below,
Where the waves washed over his corpse.
Every day and night
I sit within my tower.
The sun scorching with all its might
Waiting to melt me and drag me lower.
The dream to escape my confinement
Avoiding the Sun’s wrath to make me trip.
I still have to fulfil the requirements
To break free of the haters’ grip.
"Wings of Icarus"
every angel for himself
the sky never falls
when love carries its
shining sword on clouds
walking on a blue Ichthys ocean
words each feather
waxing lyrical wings
enfolding the fallen labyrinth
opening golden grail stories
wings of Icarus
Michael held aloft
under morning star’s
rapturous warming
the sky never falls
when love carries its
shining sword on clouds
in a blue Ichthys ocean
every angel for himself
found in the rise of falling
(LadyLabyrinth / 2022)
“The Sky is Fallin’” /
Queens of the Stone Age
https://youtu.be/Iy4gMuOCx8I
“The sky is falling
Human race that we run
Has left me crawling
Staring straight at the sun
Oh, in a moment I notice
Every dog has his day “
golden grail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_King
Ichythys
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys
The Parable of the Net
Michael
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_(archangel)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Michael-archangel
LYRICS/ “The Sky is Fallin’”, Queens of the Stone Age
https://genius.com/Queens-of-the-stone-age-the-sky-is-fallin-lyrics
He flew
Close to the sun
Down he came with a thud
Failed to heed the word of the wise
Burnt wings
Date written and posted: 03/10/2018
If a skylark flies ten thousand
feet
above the uncaring world
Has not that lark ten thousand
feet,
faster with every whirl,
To fall
and smash in pieces on the
ground.
**~~**
She seemed to be like a delicate portrait
which had fallen from its gilded frame
Abandoned, lying face down on the cold winter floor
An elegant portrait once painted
In resplendent hues of indigo blue
Her eyes told a story of bittersweet
magenta colored sorrows bathed in tears
that etched themselves throughout
The frail intricately, woven canvas of her soul
Over time thoughtless hands had subtly
Contrived to manipulate the beauty
Of her painted portrait into a resemblance
Likened to that of a cold, chiseled statue
Carelessly molded by calloused fingers
Lancinating the fragile fragments
Of her spirit leaving her heart
With etiolated worn fabric - called her life
She dreamed of Icarus soaring down
on silvery wings of steel shrouded
in cobalt and lavender clouds
with outstretched, feathery fingers
lifting her up to dance a Stravinsky ballet
As it was meant to be - not how it was
She was a beautiful, fragile butterfly
bruised by a world much too harsh
for her diminished spirit
leaving her unable to fly away
from the skis thirsty rains
making it difficult for her to fly away
from the skis thirsty rains
It left her struggling to stay afloat
In the springs melting snow
Life had bruised her tender skin
Gnawing away like insatiable insects
On her delicate pink frescoed soul
Leaving her feeling
Like a fabricated manikin on display
For all to pose her as they may
Muddied soil was the blood that coursed
through her veins, holding her tethered heart
in fleshy, mounds of chocolate brown earth
It held her helpless in its hold
clogged by the silt which descended down
Into spaces of her soul…
Like murky strings of yellow tattered maize
Leaving their ragged tassels tangled
Throughout her life flowing veins
Choking off the blood she needed
To nourish her hungry heart
Mighty winds toppled her willowy limber tree
Snapping the delicate boughs
Of her outstretched arms
As they pulled at the tender fleshy bark of her skin
She stood cold and alone
In the icy winter night wrapped
Only in her wounded, naked flesh
With open, bleeding wounds
Under the icy blue mist of the winter moon
Her heart and soul painfully revealed...
In shades of indigo blue
**~~**