Best Lonely Poems
Black Diamond Night (a coal miner’s cemetery)
Where the ebony, we call “NIGHT”,
Old black rocks sit under the twilight
Diamond shape eyes unclear and lonely,
Sinister through hostile spirits only,
I stumble across these stones without a bone
A solitary confinement alone,
From a barren zone the light transcend
Only in time, our minds will mend
Endless valleys and limitless stones
These bones- these bones they sit alone
The abyss, of rotten cavities with no fill,
A system no power can unwell the drill
The blood that passed over without a spill
Peaks collapse into a spellbinding chill
They are trapped! They are trapped!
Another diamond in the rough
Is what they left
Obsessed with the dead without a death
A death that impatiently awaited their last breath
Gushing, into the gems of dead chemistry,
Diamonds holding its own intensity,
These lonely graves, on top of sycamore hill
Coal mining hearts that will never heal
If only shiny eyes could see?
These lonely bones inside of me!
Moving in every direction possible
Flowing in every direction noticeable
Sockets without eyes.
Stones hiding under the cobalt skies.
The mad sparkles, the madness dies.
Throughout this mess, we held in the blasphemous
Intervening lots of gems so miraculous
Into a stone of self-religion,
A black night filled of legions
Acknowledging the soul's capacity of free
Near the frail bones that sit alone,
Alone they sit in a morbid home.
Through a path unclear and all alone,
Troubled by the visions of my own stone
Where the night takes place in the dark
The ebony rides under the diamond bark
Along with the coal miners who never got to see the;
“Diamonds of another day!”
"I wandered lonely as a cloud." William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a boat
a shallow dingy left behind,
alone in marsh of reeds remote
my paint now faint so unrefined,
my only hope the next high tide
on brackish water then I’ll ride,
in aimless drift left up to fate
the wind and wave upon the bay
on rhythmic swells, I’ll grow sedate
with naught to see through mists of gray…
on ripples pale so soft so free
my destination out to sea;
that distant place where lay the sun
across the sunset waters west,
the ambiance of cirrus spun
to brush with colors every crest
where I can bathe in shades so bold
of melting solar marigold.
Yet — let go I must of wishful dreams!
My lifeline dispossessed I strayed
and followed streams with other schemes —
now lofty tide cannot be swayed,
a rustic wreck in reeds reposed
their wind-song whispers I’m imposed.
There’s no escape their soldiers’ lance,
the blades of green so tall and crisp,
with waves they undulate in dance
and breezes ruffle tassels’ wisp,
though swans find beauty mid the reeds
—a wistful coward’s bitter weeds.
Susan Ashley
January 14, 2023
~ Second Place ~
Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 25
Sponsor: Mark Toney
~ Poem Of The day ~
January 16, 2023
Poet’s note: this poem was inspired by, but not written for, the contest: “I Wandered Lonely As… Challenge”, sponsored by Natasha Scragg and judged on September 24, 2022. Thank you, Natasha, for the beautiful William Wordsworth quote and for the poetic inspiration.
Photo: gettyimages; Jay Fleming
How fast to wiles I fell my damask rose,
awake from slumber slept untold ages.
To gaze so deep in ocean eyes repose,
and print whispered prayer on mind's pages.
Your soul in gleaming shadow found complete,
a thirst no other want or wish contrived.
Nor cherry grown upon the branch so sweet,
without cold and dark of Winter survived.
What heart loved without a madness looming,
secure from injury sure to tarnish.
Unbroken, though lone in sadness' glooming,
and held away from love's fruited garnish.
How true the dove devoted in flight still,
that lasted in love, more than ever will.
Life Spent All Alone
I felt such joy when first my hull met sea.
'Twas years ago before my shattered shell
Was tossed and ravaged, fisherman and me
As we grew old together, now I tell
The story of our lonely life at sea.
There was a maiden who he loved in youth.
A lightning strike took her, 'twas destiny.
He never loved again, that is the truth.
Daily he sadly fished in sun or rain,
Her memory and me his only friend,
Kept company in tune with heartfelt pain.
I remained with him 'till the very end.
I spend my days alone, my time is cast,
Thus I know, he is with his love at last.
5-13-19
Choices Poetry Contest ~First Place~
Sponsor Sara Kendrick
Picture # 2
Life Spent All Alone
Etched in my soul
is the peace of a lonely ruin,
an old chapel on the skull
of a hill surrounded by pastureland
and wind-swept trees.
Below a lake stretches into the distance,
its waves lapping the mottled shores,
its waters harboring a variety of fishes,
its surface mutating according to nature's whims.
I lie on my bed in my urban hovel,
a small window opened ajar,
I smell the effluvial stink of the dirty alley,
I hear the hellish hustle and bustle
of the mad world outside,
the world that rejected me, leaving me jobless
on the verge of homelessness
on the brink of famine.
Like a somnambulist, I walk away
like a drugged addicted old man,
and limp towards my haven far away.
The way is long, and torturous, and steep.
I fall, get up, knees bleeding, but keep on
until at last I reach the top where silence reigns.
What did I expect to find here?
I look down as the earth stretches before me.
And wonder what must He had felt
with a panorama such as this
as He hang on a tree,
blood dripping from a thousand wounds.
There was no silence then but only jeers.
Here on the skull of my haven is silence and peace
and I wonder: would there have been
silence and peace, had He
not died so many years ago?
I watched it fall
In spiralling flight
This browned yellow leaf
A saddened sight
For not long ago
It was alive and so green
In a canopy of cover
Above the stream
I watched it meander
Around rocks and through eddy's
On the stream it continued
Becoming more unsteady
It's protective coating
Now a shadow of it's past
As the water moistens
It's out on it's last
It came to rest
Between two rocks
As the water cascaded
To the bottom it dropped
The end of it's life
But it's journey goes on
For nature will use
This leaf that roamed
.
Proverb 12:25 "Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up."
a stray lost
in her thoughts
i saw her
sitting there
nursing a frown
so i
reached out
compelled
to offer
a warm hello
no reason
no motive
simple
unadorned
unpretentious
the smile
on her face~
it startled me
made me forget
my troubles
suddenly
all seemed
so insignificant
it was a smile~
that changed
in one instant
the color
of my sky
AP: Honorable Mention 2020. Honorable Mention 2021
POTD November 15, 2019
posted on November 13, 2019
Poetry
Is not the poem
Is not the poet
Is the observations
Is the emotions
Is the diversity. entwined
Opposing views always sought
Is the love
Is the hate
Is the sadness
Of losing to fate
Is the laughter
Of a child’s dreams
Is the love
That is sometimes unseen
Except by the poet
Who in his lonely sadness sees
The beauty of all
That surrounds the depression in he
In Poetry
I died
Long ago
My heart something broke
I became cold
I cried
For childhood days gone by
I died
A million ways
Now I write
From down below
Where darkness is the sea
That I sail in eternity
Of in the distance
I heard the notes of a symphony
So now as I sleep
A thousand deaths
I hope
For that one musical note
To wake me up
Heart and soul
I sit alone as evening claims the day,
with common crow my only confidant.
I watch the sun sink slowly in the bay
while musing life and love so nonchalant.
As night descends upon my humble soul,
my furtive feelings ponder kinship lost.
I’m missing precious love that makes me whole;
my dearest darling gone at such a cost.
And woe I say, why did she go away,
and leave my heavy heart in agony;
behind, my shallow spirit here to stay;
she cast our love away so damnably.
Alas, I rue thee, my ascetic life,
and long to lance my heart with wretched knife.
January 17, 2018
Poem of the Day - January 18, 2018
Poe's darkness calls to such as I, an ember,
a velvet covered wing chair's grasp on dark nights.
I seek the maudlin moan of his December
to nurse an aging form and love's lost delights.
As Poe has said, "distinctly I remember..."
his sweetest kiss and the wound he left in flight.
So, by the hearth sit such as I in shadow,
Raven in hand by the firelight's ruddy glow.
The easel beholds a half finishing painting
The paints beside have all hardened
Pain reflected in the partial emptiness
Staring back at that gathered crowd
The sun melts on the canvas page
Creation explained in elapsed rage
Notions and pleas from dried paintbrushes
Strewn across the almost barren floor
One to the other in whispered voice
I wonder if this would have been his choice?
Empty wine bottles twirling in light
Beside the dead body, a painting just right
There lies Art
In repose
His final painting
His last prose
Abandoned in the fifties after the war
A freight elevator stuck between floors
Obsolete machinery, splintered old chairs
In a warehouse in Newark, New Jersey somewhere
Dead air presses down, stifling and thick
Something still dwells behind one of those bricks
Curled up in a ball, it waits for me there
In a warehouse in Newark, New Jersey somewhere
A musty gray vapor that whispers my name
It seeps through the wall and creeps to my brain
It sighs and it groans as my soul is laid bare
In a warehouse in Newark, New Jersey somewhere
It mumbles and moans and drones of ancient tombs
Of claustrophobic closets and dim, hollow rooms
I cry out for help, echoes answer my prayer
In a warehouse in Newark, New Jersey somewhere
The ghost of my lonely, my lost and alone
My hopeless and helpless, my can't go back home
It's looking at me now with a dull, vacant stare
In a warehouse in Newark, New Jersey somewhere
[Verse 1]
Yeah... I pretend I’m your man
You roll your eyes, but still take my hand
I laugh, “Girl, you're always hangin' around”
You just wink, like love doesn’t need a sound
So clear—love’s eyes can see
A fire we swore would fade? Never
Let’s imagine, you and me
Writing poems that live forever
[Pre-Chorus]
I get by just thinking it’s real
In your arms, girl, it's fate I feel
[Chorus]
'Cause I can't go on
There’s no tomorrow
If I’m alone
Breathing through the sorrow
Breathe into me
Tell me it’s true
Don’t let me be the fool
Who believed in “me and you”
[Verse 2]
Just love me now, through eternity
We could be something real, you and me
This feeling won’t be chained or tamed
A love like this can’t be unnamed
Can’t you see? I want to be
More than just a fantasy
We could turn this dream to truth
There’s a world for me and you
[Pre-Chorus]
Don’t need the world to understand
I just need you to take my hand
[Chorus]
'Cause I can't go on
There’s no tomorrow
If I’m alone
Breathing through the sorrow
Breathe into me
Tell me it’s true
Don’t let me be the fool
Who believed in “me and you”
[Bridge]
In a place where time stands still
Hearts can mend and dreams can fill
I’ve seen stars align before
Maybe love will open the door
To a place…
To a place called Always
[Final Chorus]
'Cause I can't go on
There’s no tomorrow
If I’m alone
Still breathing through the sorrow
So breathe into me
Whisper it’s true
Don’t let me be the fool
Who still believes in “me and you”
[Outro]
No, I don’t want to pretend
But I can’t let this end
So tell me it’s true
Say I’m not dreaming...
There’s a me and you...
There’s a me and you...
Gotta be… in a place called Always
Falling down into
a dense, tangled mood
darker than the skies
at the midnight hour...
Leaving me caught
in infinite space
by hands on the clock
that grasp me and pull
to where the time goes...
Out of the blue
water washes the stagnant clouds
drop by clear drop
and the persistent wind
brushes them white again.
All the while, specks of light
appear to shine...
Hues mixing as pastels swirl
with shades much deeper,
diluting them down until
the blues begin to fade away...
Thoughts are suspended
for the moment,
only to float in midair
finally free
and out of the blue.
Out at sea, facing a dark heartfelt storm.
Heading for a lighthouse, taking him home.
Looking at a lit place, over the Hill.
Music and laughter, the night was not still.
In a mood for company, He went in.
Walked to the bar an ordered a Tonic and Gin.
Slow music playing as He sat alone.
Finished his drink and was headed for home.
A lovely lady walked over to him.
Introduced herself, and smiled with a grin.
A once in a lifetime moment in time.
His love had arrived, could this be a sign?
Feelings he felt his heart couldn't keep pace.
He looked in her eyes, and heavenly face.
"Oh what desires you created in me."
"I was a lonely seaman out at sea."
You were the lighthouse that I searched for.
Holding you close and forever adore.
Michael Tor
6/12/2023