Best Ledge Poems
If you could relive one day of your life..
time lost, now retrieved for just a short while.
To thrust old scheming machinations knife,
or return healing to a lover's smile.
Such a fretted frittering those lost days,
though ones you and I will remember most.
Passions reared high in servile dewy haze..
soft breathe warm against skin from dearest host.
Moment waits untended a dreamer's call,
something I can never give you again.
Bodice caught on nail of new lover's wall,
though we may choose to return now and then.
Tarried too long look'g to horizon's edge..
promised heart unharmed, now pulled from a ledge.
I fell asleep it was day
icy and grey
bewildered on a ledge
protruding from the rock
no sign of mountain top
darkness round about
the abyss down below
deep and hot.
Leaning on the savage rock
menacing tongue and eyes
on the three by five
my wife
who had earlier died,
in the bottomless fiery pit
both careful not to slip.
Vapors slowly rising,
filling throat and eyes
dormant spite rising
smoke from hatred fire
torch devouring us dry
drunk for eternity on dripping
blood from gnawed flesh
on the ledge in the throat of hell.
On this ledge I sit
Contemplating tomorrow
Will it be a different day
Or the same old sorrow
Even the clouds
Look as gloomy as me
Grey and ashen
Soon we could both be free
Below me the waters
Image where I sit
A mirrored calm
As if it's knowing where I'll hit
Behind me there's a trickle
Drip drip, like the clock of time
My tears hit the mirror
So close to the end of mine
On this ledge where I sat
Out of body looks down on me
You really had to be there
To know what it's like to be free
http://www.thehighlanderspoems.com/life-8.php
A girl in a red hat, walking home from campus, looks up and sees an elderly man stepping out on the window edge of an aging apartment building. She considers the distance from the ledge to the ground and determines that the fall will surely kill him. She is busy memorizing the look of the man, slightly too tight clothes, patchy grey hair; a man notices her gaze upward.
He follows her eye-line, and upon seeing the old man he yelps, “don’t jump!” He dials emergency and explains the situation to an uninterested operator. A small crowd has gathered during his conversation, waiting for the man to make his decision. The girl wonders how old the man actually is, he can’t have much time left anyways.
A middle-aged woman joins the anxious crowd; she pats down her frizzy red hair while thinking of how great a story this will be to tell her husband. Tonight he will listen intently to her for the first time in months. “Do it man!” yells a teenage boy, approving of his show of rebellion against society. Quickly after, an old lady with crooked fingers thumps him on the head.
The old man sees the approaching brigade of cop cars. “I don’t have much time left anyways,” the man justifies his decision, and turns around ducking back into the building he draws the scarlet curtains, leaving a crack for sunlight to lay upon the dusty floor. A collective sigh of disappointment rises from the crowd and into his window. Its fine, what is one more upset in a life full of mistakes? The girl is the first to walk away; she remembers she has to pick up milk.
Sparrow on a ledge
Needed help but told no one
Vanished overnight
Her smile now missed by neighbors
Lights out again on Park Lane
Foreclosure’s victim
Few ever visited her
Had we known her plight
This senior we might have saved
Elderly and abandoned
*In honor of John's "Retread what you've said" contest
I sit at the end of the wooden pier
Near the river’s edge
As the current cool water veers
Unhindered away from the ledge
Watching the swirls on the water surface
As the ducklings swim, as they leave the sedge
Aware of my bare feet, splashing the blue surface
For bread crumbs as I stretch to feed them from the ledge
Lapping sounds echo against the pier
As river takes a breath from its creator
Then drew away without fear
Mixed with calm melody of nature
I sit at the end of the wooden pier
Near the river’s edge
As the current cool water veers
Feeding the ducklings from the ledge
5/4/2016
blue water on ledge
dribbling down vertical side…
mist forms at bottom
Russell Sivey
Contest: any haiku will do
Sponsor: Poet Destroyer A
7/17/2013
A rose bloomed.
A poem written in buds.
It offered its arms, illiterate to whats been written.
It fell asleep. A garden in thought.
Slipping from the ledge it grew.
In REM it whispered.
Wake me when we land.
For I will have acheived my dream
Every morning between 7:00 AM and 7:30 Am
I f you looked through the bathroom window
You would see a most beautiful sight.
There were three deer on the ledge;
Father, Mother, And Babe
They would stand there for an hour
Then they would go back into the woods
You could set your watch by the deer
on the ledge
Kindhearted and caring am I,
you've got the opposite on your mind
should've known cuz you're just a guy.
If I talked you off a ledge
you'd probably follow me
home wishing for a wedge
of my pie, wondering if I think you're sexy.
If I tried to save you from the crazy house
you'd probably try to kiss me and really louse
it up
for the both of us.
Cuz I'd be sick with disgust
that you'd even try to touch
me and I'd lose my focus
and we'd both end up
in an institution
where only you belong.
Guys like you leave girls like me
no other choice than to be mean.
Everyone seems to say
I should not feel
but no matter what I do,
no matter how hard I try
I will always feel everything.
Always talk you off a ledge
always save you from a crazy house.
Always feel.
Lone rocky outcrop
Isolated hardened heart
Cold wind scours surface
Strong sentinel on high
Beneath a mountain sky;
Called by name Bristlecone.
Twisted tree all alone
With green needles so dark
Life clings stoic and stark.
Worn wood with thin bark edge
Locked to a limestone ledge.
Thousands of years flowed past
‘Gainst snow and wind, a mast.
No sails with which to fly
You grew gnarled by-and-by.
Drought and quakes, you did face
Yet you held firm your place.
Despite all nature’s strife,
How do you cling to life?
Avidly watching for nigh on three weeks
A black backed gull protecting her eggs
Through gales and rain or heat from the sun
Whatever the weather thrown down from above
This truly was a labour of love
So open to the elements fearing for her brood
Already having lost two nests
prayed weather would improve
I hope it’s third time lucky ~ oh I do hope that is true
Each day through my binoculars the nest comes into view
Today...
sweet joy and happiness
Two pretty ~ spotty ~ fluffy chicks
are standing there brand new
The cutest ~ newest ~ spotty ~ babes
and the proudest Mum I ever knew
She gave the loudest seagull call
announcing their birth to one and all
My heart skipped a beat
when one ventured too close
to the edge of the ledge
from whence the chicks will fledge
But Mum was there ~ she was totally aware
gently nudging it to safety
with such tender loving care
I will watch them for hours until that final day
When they fledge from their ledge
and boldly fly away…
Written 10th July 2020 ~~ with tears of joy in my eyes
Contest Strand Completely New (8)
Sponsor Brian Strand
FIRST PLACE
I stand on this ledge… Teetering back and forth on the edge…
I weave precariously, slipping on my tears…
I look to the heavens as I swallow my fears…
A warm breeze gently caresses my face…
There is no more time, and there is no space…
I stand with my arms over my head…
I am not alive, nor am I dead…
A Lonely Ledge
There always appears to be a lonely ledge
We will reach before going over the edge
It really may not be obvious or clear cut
So ask how, when, where, why and what.
In progression, try to answer each word
Listening to way they have been heard
Which must importance be placed upon
And was it actually, deliberately done.
What evolved and eventually did realize
Was things in this world may antagonize
Now hard may have become your heart
Separating and splitting you all apart.
How can we forever feel comfortably?
And full of happiness with jubilee
When a tragedy recently passed by
To forget it how hard we all did try.
James Thomas Horn, Retired Veteran
There are always those things such as
tragedies to mar everything.