Best Limbo Poems
Six steeple towers, cold as steel, drab daggers in the sky!
Their hallowed halls no longer call when breezes wander by –
for, filled with dread to wake the dead, they've ceased to sough or sigh.
Coiled candle sticks! Their twisted wicks no longer 'lume the cracks
with dying flame, subdued and tame, mid pendant pearls of wax,
since deference to innocence dissolved in molten tracks.
Above! The dismal ditch of dusk reveals a velvet streak,
through which the winter’s wicked winds will sometimes weave and sneak,
and faraway a cable sways, a bridge clings hushed and bleak.
Thin shadows shift, like silver shafts, across the cruel moraine
reflecting white a wisp of light in ebon beads of bane
which casts a crooked smile across a faceless window pane.
Wan neon lights glow through the nights, through darkness sleek as slate,
while lanterns (hovered, high above, in lurid swinging gait),
haunt ballrooms, bars and bare bazaars, though no one's there to fete.
The souls who come with jagged tongue won't sing a silent psalm,
nor paint pale lips with languid quips to pierce the deathly calm,
nor pray for mercy, grace deferred, nor beg lethean balm,
nor yet redress the emptiness that shifting shades embalm –
they've seen, you see, life’s brevity, and face it with aplomb.
[Verse 1]
I keep staring at the empty side of the bed
Wondering why you left without a word said
Was it the way I held on too tight?
Or did you just get tired of the fight?
[Verse 2]
You slipped out like smoke through my hands
Leaving me with questions I’ll never understand
There’s a song we used to play on repeat
Now it’s just silence that I can’t defeat
[Chorus]
Every moment’s a cell that I can’t break free from
I wasn’t there when you handed down the sentence, love
Caught between memories and what I never knew
This limbo’s a place where hope just won’t pull through
You were my lover, my closest friend
Now I’m chasing shadows that never end
Are we done? Or just frozen in time?
This waiting, this not knowing—it’s slowly killing my mind
[Verse 3]
You wanted freedom — maybe more than me
Took your Independence like a thief in the night, silently
I’m left in the ruins of all we planned
With nothing but ghosts and a ring in my hand
[Chorus]
Every moment’s a cell that I can’t break free from
I wasn’t there when you handed down the sentence, love
Caught between memories and what I never knew
This limbo’s a place where hope just won’t pull through
You were my heartbeat, my favorite sound
Now it’s just echoes I keep hanging around
Are we done? Or is this some cruel pause?
Girl, living like this is a slow, quiet loss
[Bridge]
If you wanted to leave, just say it plain
Don’t bury me in silence or leave me in pain
I’m drowning in questions, no lifeline in sight
You wanted your freedom — you got your Independence that night
[Outro]
Forever locked away, and I’m still here
Haunted by memories, haunted by fear
Longing for answers I’ll never get
In this limbo where I’m stuck — can’t forget
Winter approached
in hours of finality,
quelled midst midnight's
imperfectly lit enticement
of darkly notable
impressive spirits,
motioning a welcomed
goodbye gesture,
laying to rest
a chilled salutation,
as ghostly ambitions
commenced to play
a well articulated
empowering seduction,
chasing lullaby's softly
dreamt enchantment,
sleeping peaceably
unfurled beyond
destined reawakening,
condemned to limbo
Searching, ever searching, for something . . . for anything at all,
I wander the desert alone.
Lost; I am so very lost.
Fond memories I’d been clinging to -
even they are fleeing (did they ever exist?) and I am left
as barren of hope as is this desert barren of rustling foliage.
Oh, how I thirst, but beyond mere thirst for water,
I thirst for knowledge and for droplets of humanity.
Though the world be as a gigantic pot simmering with iniquity,
I can’t help but miss it; I miss even
the snap of brutal winters and the mayhem of mankind.
Everything the desert is not
is what I now most desperately miss.
Ahead of me, I catch sight of an oasis!
Beautiful palm trees and heavenly blue waters beckon.
I stumbled onward with mounting anticipation.
Has God granted me my miracle,
or has my very life and all my dreams
been nothing but
a mirage?
Oct. 13, 2018 for "I Wander the Desert Alone" Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Encased in darkness
neither here there anywhere,
locked in misery
a reminder each day
the devil keeps his promise.
© Harry J Horsman 2012
covid-19 deaths,
unemployment on the rise...
so is homelessness.
the pain very real
our ship of state is living...
a complete nightmare.
no relief in sight
not quite a happy new year...
lifeline held hostage.
Date written: 12/27/2020
I Into the void my eye peeks,
N Never faltering from it’s path.
C Cosmic dust
E Exudes etheric bliss, as I float
L Listlessly, into quantum bliss.
E Each soul is pure energy;
S Suspended in space in a
T Timeless realm
I Intrigued by
A Astrological myths among the stars,
L Longing to stay forever among them.
L Life here among the planets
I Is true euphoria; I am one with the all;
M Many-particles, energy
B Blending, bonding, with the all, the
O One.
8-21-19
"Pick A Title, Vol 8 - Acrostic - Poetry Contest"
Edward Ibeh
lost in space
standing at
the crossroads
between Heaven
in that of hell
i stand
a lone fiddler
from the dust
of ashes
one breathes
a towering
heart burning inferno
which got burned
scorched hell
drawing magic
in a memory bank
now opening
the curtains
etched on
chamber walls
i play
a sweet tune
as the embers
begin breathing
drums begin beating
like the phoenix
a yearning inside
one soul
i arise
from the ashes
light of love
sparkle and shine
remaining in embers
awaiting loves call
I hear you in that limbo
in that place where the lost don’t land
where you’re begging for a lifeline
but life won’t extend a hand
Where sleep don’t ever visit
just memories that choke the air
and you lay there wide-awake
’cause your nightmares don’t play fair
Thirteen in a cell?
That’s trauma carved straight into bone
you didn’t break your mother’s heart
the world broke yours first alone
You ain’t “too much,” you’re haunted
and haunted hearts beat loud
you’re a storm they tried to silence
but storms don’t bow to crowds
If darkness is your only friend
then let me sit in it too
two shadows breathing steady
’cause I won’t walk out on you
You say you’re stuck in spirals
replaying every dread-filled thought
but sometimes the ones who survived hell
are the realest ones ever taught
So talk your pain, I’ll answer
I’m built to carry the weight
Your not alone in the fire
I’ll be right here…as I watch a strength
you didn’t know you had that I most admire
This was written in response to a 13 year old who could not see any light thru all her darkness!
Muffled mourning falls on deaf ears
that echo elegiac waves
from a transgressible past life.
Phantoms in an abstract limbo
where the living never enters.
***
Doctor, what is your prognosis?
I’m sad to say his futures grim
I doubt that he will last a day.
His reasoning is nearly gone
his hapless body skin and bone.
***
A new found voice sounds in this place
where immortal souls congregate
and faceless face oblivion:
the edge of hell, there’s no escape.
So here I am - Reincarnated
No more keeping up with Joneses
Free at last ! ... forgetting though:
They love to eat frog legs for dinner...
I was given a challenge to write a short poem by looking at a picture of a frog... :)
The limbo dancer, he so slim!
I think I might just fancy him!
His back so supple, his skin like brass …
But best of all is his little round ass!
Aaahh … limbo dancer! Limbo dancer, limbo for me …
Aaahh … limbo dancer! Limbo dancer, limbo for me!
The ladies love to see him perform!
That man can really limbo a storm!
They wonder just how low he can go …
Me, I don’t wonder … I already know!
Aaahh … limbo dancer! Limbo dancer limbo’s for me.
Aaahh … limbo dancer! Limbo dancer limbo’s for me!
This is a calypso rhythm.
from The John Poems
I tumble from a dream
into the nightmare of waking.
I claw my way back toward sleep
but can find no purchase.
So just like that, you are gone,
And my half-healed wounds bleed anew
As reality steals you away and, with it
my happiness and the
wish that dreams were mine to choose.
LIMBO
trapped between life’s choices
it’s been that way
too long
frozen firmly in the middle
a nowhere place
so wrong
the rollercoaster races
it’s lows and highs
ebb strong
weighing up all outcomes
consequences
prolong
promises lie unfulfilled
of pasture greener to
belong
what pulls us so to live in
‘home of free and land of brave’ ?
why resident ‘Green cards’
to us all with ease they gave?
© Kim van Breda—May 2014
(Our family have been trying to relocate to the USA from SA for the last 5 years since receiving our Green Cards.. it has been a really difficult place to be... in between here and there. The job market is really difficult to crack.)
Trapped behind these bars
I grow anxious and continuously scheme
For a way to get out.
But this cage is extensive
And its door is a long ways out.
I try to squeeze through, but they constrict
And ultimately I fail.
I am strong but these bars won't bend.
Its useless and I am spent
There is no more fight, my flame-extinguished
I am rationed-it keeps me weak
Eyes strained and muscles sore
I surrender.
With eyes closed, I give in to this abuse
Losing my conscious with every lash and lick.
Then I wake up from that nightmare
only to hit my head on an even lower cage ceiling
And it starts again.
But there is no door and I have no rations.
The claustrophobia sets in, and the air is heavy.
Like breathing in cotton, I struggle
And loose feeling; due to the lack of oxygen
My lungs stutter and protest but they can't be filled
Hardly the energy to produce a tear, I blackout instead.
Only to wake up, cramped in a stale box.
Its quiet and I can't breathe.
The only company I have is the sound of my heart.
The beats are slow and muffled, as it desperately tries to pump blood.
I still can't feel anything-But I think its cold.
I've been suffocating for what seems like hours.
Its been a week and my mouth is dry with dirt,
I can no longer open my eyes.
Its been awhile and no ones noticed.
The sound of my heart has escaped my ears,
I think its cold but i still can't feel.
I re-live death, Stuck in Limbo
By Nicholas A. Bello