Best In The Dark Poems
The sunset clouds are pinks and greys
in tattered strips, in rips and frays,
in feathered flight at end of days,
in summer skies that fill my gaze.
And in the pines beside the sea
a hundred birds talk endlessly
and shooshing waves lap hungrily
as we eat fish and chips for tea.
Before the day turned into night
the pinks were burned by dying light.
The birds were still, the moon was slight
when day had gone and it was night.
And then my eyes could hardly see
the scenery in front of me.
Sitting In The Dark, With Darkness Covering Me
Sitting in the dark, hearing voices in the hall
remembering my many lovers, one and all.
Some that sent my heart aloft, on heavenly flights
others that kept me company on lonely nights.
Sitting in the dark, seeing true beauties once known
then, the fairest of gardens, never overgrown.
Night waning, those echoes, their honey-drenching calls
also remind me, of my many faults and falls!
Sitting in the dark, with darkness covering me
begging each, please forgive me, what I did to thee.
Silence, as each lover then slowly fades away
Ah yes, we mortals, for our sins we have to pay!
Dawn's morning rays, broke me from that dreaming trance.
Were we wrong seeking too much in youthful romance?
Robert J. Lindley, 8-07-2018
Sonnet, ( Recurring Dreams)
Syllables Per Line: 0 12 12 12 12 0 12 12 12 12 0 12 12 12 12 0 12 12
Total # Syllables: 168
Total # Words: 120
Note: Woke 4 am , decided to write this one as it was fresh on my mind...
As you all peacefully sleep
My heart is awoken by the darkness of the night
I slumber through this empty house
For I carry in me a heavy heart
I light a candle, then a few
The movie of my past now flashes before my eyes
I stare at the empty walls, where pictures once hung
I hear the ghostly voices of lovers past
I hear the silence of dreams escaped
A sad faced mime touches my shoulder
Whispers of I feel your pain drift out the open window
Alone
In the dark of the night
Marquees are bright with neon lights, where crowds line up for movie night
Holding hands, we're in 'The Strand'. The velvet carpet guides us in
Popcorn smokes, .. we're drinking cokes,... and cracking jokes with Bing and Hope
Lamour's along with more sarongs,... , her luscious lips, and cigarettes,
She fills ashtrays with smoking tips, and tosses guys like poker chips
'Movietone' intrudes with news, and soon we're in somber mood
Third-Reich goosesteps march again, ... an evil presence in the wind...
Cary Grant , (a news reporter), loves his girl, and his typewriter
"His Girl Friday", plot is witty, sometimes crazy. But Cary loves this ditzy lady....
William Powell and Mryna Loy..., Asta barks, and finds a toy, ...a ploy? a clue?,....
...an earring gold. The mystery is clearly solved.-- A crimson sun, is rising cold!
Movietone in black and white,... graphic scenes, where soldiers die
Another night, suspense on chart. 'Correspondent' , Joel McCrea.
Saves Lorraine, and claims the Day. BUY WAR BONDs !! They'll pave the way
Bogart, Bergman bring to light, a valiant flght , within their grasp
Airline ticket, in her hand, they must part, and do what's right, no questions asked
----
It's movie night, but you aren't here, a troopship took you far from here
Allied troops are moving tanks. I wait for you..God give me strength
I'm in the Strand, within the dark, there's no one here to hold my hand
I'm all alone...........I heard the news....................You left it all in Anzio
_____________________________________
For Contest Chopped III Sponsored by Craig Cornish
11/23/14
In the Dark Night Sky
In the Dark Night Sky, a “Pale Moon” now arises suddenly,
With clouds of ice sparkling in a frozen-cold ring around it;
While your bright, rosy-cheeked face appears as a paste-like
Image of a grinning and laughing White Dwarf so happy!
A Million-Times-Brighter-Hell-Hot Supernova emerges now,
With a colossal colored-array of jewels firmly fixed upon the
Trajectory of a brilliant star trailing and exploding its waves,
As it shakes its cosmic dust on all of your light-filled dreams!
Divinity travels through my veins like warm blood free-flowing;
And as one radiant supercharged beauty kisses God’s very face,
She finds His divine and infinite picture—His view of our Cosmos,
Where the souls of Mankind seek the final spirit of their being!
Wild Moon Dogs howl joyous echoes bouncing into an infinity,
As they choose to dance to an ancient song of peace and love.
This is the final message of the pale moon’s image cresting now
Lonely across the Dark Night Sky as it reflects God’s Starlight!
Gary Bateman and Liam McDaid – A Collaborated Poem
Copyright © All Rights Reserved – November 17, 2015
(Unrhymed Quatrain)
A Kiss In The Dark
You light up in the darkness
With the Heaven woven stars
In velvet tones of stillness
I calmly watch; night is ours.
Chill wind swirled rhythmic chanting,
Cocoon those well-chosen words,
Pleasing closeness, enchanting
A taste of natural bloom.
Closed eyes met a world of dreams
amorous scene into dance
A kiss in the limpid dark.
Warm silence serenaded.
Tears trace ebony stains across the smooth skin on your cheeks.
Early morning thoughts in early morning darkness,
clouds of confusion and pain fog your mind.
Life, so heavy, pushes you down, deeper and ever deeper,
until you feel your soul squeezing through every pore in your body.
The tears bitter on your lips, your thoughts dark
no love can you see, the flame has become ash
no sound of laughter, the quiet deafens
nothing remains but darkness, loneliness,
sadness.
Drops drip slowly between your shadowy fingers
pressing tightly, pinching your skin, pain, it's something.
Your bottomless pit swallows you in depression.
Gentle sobs disturbing no one, no one will ever know.
I know.
Your crying in the dark I feel
mirrored so closely by my own pain.
If for only a moment you would lean on me,
I would give the world to you, happiness and joy
if only it were mine to give... if only.
09/05/15
It is the night, in deepest dark, that death foretells
the demon heart in which all lonely feeling dwells.
Yet, in plain sight, our eyes can’t see what life impels,
emotion’s plea, our deepest sorrow love dispels.
Blind are caustic ink filled visions, all light repels,
like charred decisions, ash from crematory tells
a tale where quietus intrepidity sells
the silent impetus toward a life of many hells.
Walled inside this ebon murk, my emotion wells;
beyond they lurk, those who are sane, their tale retells
how life is to live, and the end but brief farewells.
Though my will may bend, it is I that death compels.
02/16/2018
It’s magic walking in the dark,
The sidewalks empty, shadows stark
And dogs have not begun to bark;
There’s promise in the air.
The birds are waking in the park,
Each chirp a beak-to-beak remark
And on the river, tugboats hark,
En route to who-knows-where.
When daylight breaks I disembark
From reveries the pre-dawns spark
As I confront the question mark
Of how the day will fare.
We sit alone in the shadows outside,
Blowing smoke rings in the dark;
Watching them rise and then divide,
The cherry just a glowing spark;
This is what living is all about,
I’m more happy now than I care to admit;
Talking, laughing, and hanging out,
Just sitting here with our cigarettes lit;
Blowing smoke rings towards the sky,
Your simple words tugging at my heart;
I lean on your shoulder with a satisfied sigh;
And watch as they slowly drift apart;
Doing all the things we shouldn’t do;
I liked being here alone with you,
Blowing Smoke rings in the dark...
It was meant as a lark -
walking with him that day in the park.
He was the boy who used to live next door
back in town revisiting his days of boyhood lore.
Kind of cute he’d been back then in a nerdy way -
that boy with whom as a child I always liked to play.
As we walked, I noticed how tall he’d grown
and his eyes so blue like the sky in which the sun now shone.
We strolled on over to the park’s small pond.
Of feeding ducks both of us always had been fond.
A gentle breeze wafted to us the fragrance of flowers.
We nearly skipped to the garden where we sat for two hours
chatting, laughing, reminiscing about
summer fun when we were young -
when I’d played volleyball far better than he.
But today his arms were brawny.
I bet at any sport he could now beat me.
Sun was surrendering its place in the sky
as we watched families and couples strolling by.
I felt the sparks of something that was kin
to the streaks of orange that heaven was painted in.
As we stood to leave, he boldly took hold of my hand.
We heard in the distance the playing of an oldies band.
As we walked to where old tunes filled the air,
It felt so right, so romantic and so rare.
My heart was throbbing as his fingers twined with mine.
I was feeling things that only the word delicious could define!
In the sky no longer was there a single cloud
as he twirled me in darkening twilight away from the crowd.
I looked up to see the young man gazing at me.
How did I never before this day see
how radiant his smile was.
Twinkling stars appeared. We were lost in a magical pause . . .
Beneath an old willow tree out of anyone’s sight,
our lips came together on that enchanting night.
Our day had begun as a lark in the park.
But what it ended up as was the beginning of so much more
than I had ever known before -
So extraordinarily sweet . . . a kiss in the dark.
In the hush between midnight and memory,
I drift—untethered, yet bound by the weight
Of an anchor, cold and silent, at my ankle,
Sinking me softly into an ocean of night.
The water is velvet, the darkness complete,
Yet I dream, I wander, I hope—
For above, far above where the moon used to be,
A single light burns, unshaken, remote.
I reach, as if my arms were made of longing,
Straining past shadows, through currents that pull,
Eyes fixed on that distant illumination—
A promise, a beacon, a fragment of soul.
Sometimes I wonder if the night will claim me,
If the anchor’s embrace will become all I know,
But even as I sink, hope floats beside me—
Whispering, “Rise. Let the light make you whole.”
For the light in the dark is the dream I keep chasing,
A shimmer that breaks through the black of the deep,
And though I am heavy with sorrow and waiting,
I reach for the light—and the light reaches me.
When city lights dim
and the sky becomes the inky canvas
God meant for it to be,
in the dark, silent night
I can go out and reflect on Him -
the giver of light and love.
Each little star, like grains of earth’s sand,
represents the multitude of good souls
who passed through this world
and who, upon meeting
the end of their mortality,
can shine now like
the celestial bodies of light
I see in the heaven above me.
By night, God is our moon,
and when my reflecting is done,
dawn comes, and God is the sun.
So clamorous in clouds of gray,
to shake once tranquil bliss astir;
reluctantly, it joined the fray,
a tumult tango beckoned her.
On every churning white-capped wave,
where breaths in howling echoes dwell,
they dance ashore and misbehave
where nature's fates forbade, foretell.
Fandango spins upon the seas
where tempests tease a tropic storm,
what once was born a peaceful breeze
now grows in yield, now comes the swarm.
Infatuation's flashing glances
aroused the night beyond the fears
to where once heedful caution dances
to where a love forgets the tears.
So brief, it seems, excitement dwells,
upon the crest of raptured swells...
As you cry in the dark and your tears find the pillow
You think I don't know, those tears filled with such sorrow
Are for that long ago love, then comes tomorrow
I wish for today, your heart I could borrow
Dreams filled with the memory of her face
Wisps of her hair, visions of ribbon and lace
The look in her eyes, another time and place
I wish this from your mind, I could forever erase
But war time came and took you away
And never knowing your fate, day after day
Time took its toll, as time will do
She went on with life, her life without you
As I cry in the dark and my tears find the pillow
You'll never know, these tears filled with such sorrow
Are those longing for love, again comes tomorrow
I wish for today, your heart I could borrow
©Donna Jones