Best Loss Love Poems
Evergreen flavored mantras
did nothing to purge bitter bile from my lips
nor slake the smoldering thirst for a Rosary remedy.
Tick-tock petals unfurled one by one
as your poppy shed its last sepal
releasing a scarlet sigh across sunset skies
whilst I placed a tender kiss upon your twilight.
If but for your gossamer bloom in persimmon perfection,
I would not hunger for your ambrosial whispers
nor rue the earthly drought of undying nectar.
I stray, a waif lost with my armful of loss,
blind behind the tear-rusted folds
of a weeping veil’s eclipse.
My psyche a pauper
rich in the poverty of penniless promises,
empty as echoes in hollow holes
ringing with wringing reverberations.
In the grasp of atheist fingers I clasp Holy beads
tilling cries and whys.
Every tear a sorrow sown in brambles,
whose sloe fails to ripen sweet redemption
in the fertile sham and barren sand of my humanity;
crushed by the tusk of this damnable dusk.
Susan Ashley
April 13, 2020
~ First Place ~
February 5, 2023
2022 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers' FINAL Placement Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
~ First Place ~
Premiere Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 9
Sponsor: Mark Toney
~ Third Place ~
Premiere Contest: Your Best Poem Ever
Sponsor: John Hamilton
~ Seventh Place ~
Premiere Contest: Crushed
Sponsor: Anthony Biaanco
~ First Place ~
Standard Contest: Your Best Free Verse 2020
Sponsor: John Hamilton
Behold Death
Behold Death in your loving arms.
Embrace it as you would the loved
one who passed…entering another
realm, as they are still hovering near
and can hear, see and feel
your grieving emotions.
You may not be able to visualize
them, but may sense their presence.
Feel the comfort they are trying
to offer by crossing the boundaries of
linear time from one realm to the next
in the beauty that residing divinely on
the other side affords us.
We are able to sense their essence of
spirit that will remain with us always
until we too join them in their existence
that has no limitations and is bound only
by collective souls living in harmony.
Behold Death in your loving arms.
10-13-18
~Poem of the Day October 15, 2018~
Thank you Poetry Soup Team and Members.
Shadowed in the silent room, the daylight's nearly gone
Dusk climbs in through window glass, with one last ray of sun
I start the task, climb on a chair, reach up to shelves so high
to mother's boxes neatly stacked, and dust gets in my eyes
I take one down, to look inside and sit upon a chair
I find some musty linens, laces needing some repair
Discovering old photographs, the year was '42
Her face was smooth as porcelain, unblemished, young and new
Old documents and letters, a history unveiled
Her letters, torn and yellowed, such stories they would tell
The next box held small china cups, so lovingly embellished
And then I found a book of verse, inscribed with poems she relished
Some dresses stained and wrinkled, their fabric thin and tattered
Were once a thing of beauty, as if they really mattered
Her jewelry, gold and silver, some lovely rings and brooches
A warm sensation circles me, her presence now approaches
I sense a change come over me, and fleeting leave of gloom
The darkness of the evening lifts, as sunlight fills the room
She wraps her warmth around me, her fragrance in the air
My loneliness is free to go, I know that she is there
Among these things, I find the last, the smallest box of all
Inside it are the baby clothes, I wore when I was small
A letter there to tell me that she knows the tears I've cried
Her words of love that never died, they fill me up inside
These treasures speak her words to me, and now that I am grown
She wants to tell her story, those parts I've never known
I've heard her voice, while sitting here, among her china flowers
I"ve found such peace, she's next to me, to spend these quiet hours
____________________________________________________________
Written 6/8/2008
Submitted to Contest: "Old Jewelry or Just Old Things or Old,
Old Poems/Poetry Contest "
Sponsor: Broken Wings
My hands are tired, so I let my brush rest,
unable to paint Autumn's loneliness.
How much I miss you can never be stressed.
August has left behind blank emptiness.
Sitting by the window in the corner,
watching the world in its colourful hues.
I search for your face among the murmur,
but all I'm left with is a muse with blues.
In simple stillness your voice echoes loud.
Each stitch I weave I see you before me.
Memories remind me of what we vowed.
Without you there would be no artistry.
My palette is dry without your pastel,
all that's left is an indigo inkwell.
Sunlight falls in breezy dapples
across your lichened stone,
solace now I seek in chapel’s
old yard while we’re alone.
It brings my heart back, being here -
love; that I remember,
the autumn brings a tender tear
season of September.
Neath supple sways my prayerful praise
I offer you a hymn;
may dreams evergreen be always
blessed to soulful brim.
...church bells black -
they toll the hours
mourning time
since you’ve been gone.
Losing you
and laughter ours
wrong side of Heaven
I am on...
Green leaves that sigh like grieving silk
have not yet turned to red,
memories sweet as mother’s milk
will nurse through snows ahead.
It brings my heart back, being here -
love; that I remember,
the autumn brings a tender tear
season of September.
Our Love Language
We have our own love language we both share
A squeeze of the hand, a half smile, a glance,
It’s the unspoken passion within our romance
Like lava beneath that may unpredictably flare.
That magnetic attraction that began from the start
It drew us together, though obstacles abounded,
Devotion grew fast but we kept ourselves grounded,
Then after two years you surrendered your heart.
When mates have lived together as long as we two
There is bound to be thunder and lightning born
With a flood of issues that pour heavy, storm torn,
Yet we wait out mal weather until skies are blue.
This promise I give you until one of us must leave
I will share in your happiness, be there in your sorrow
No matter what life dispenses in days of tomorrow,
Should I pass on first I don’t want you to grieve.
Death is but a station in a more peaceful dimension
I will wait for you there and I will watch over you,
Should you get there first please watch over me too
For our souls have no restraints upon our ascension.
8-21-19
~Second Place~
Writing Challenge 2, August 2019- Enclosed Rhyme
Sponsor, Dear Heart
A Revelation
Sunrise greeted me through a purple haze.
The softest cooling breeze caressed my cheek.
Mauve filtered into rose clouds to amaze
As prayerful meditation I did seek
Communion’s Divine guidance in my mind.
Did I hear the flutter of angel wings?
Your answer, to just release I did find.
When wrapped in Your agape love my heart sings.
Today I will begin my brand new start.
I leave my sorrow of loss in the past.
I let Your bright light fill my soul, my heart,
Let worries flee in calmness that will last.
As dawn fills morning skies in ev’ry hue
I know my great salvation lies with You.
4-26-22
Poem of the Day April 28, 2022
Thank you very much Poetry Soup Team.
A BRIAN STRAND PREMIERE CHOICE ~Sixth Place~
Contest Judged: 4/29/2022
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
“The Queen-Sized Bed”.
A queen-size bed was coming slowly,
down the rough dirt track.
As it drew closer,
The wheels clumsily mounted on the base of each leg,
rattled like a hospital gurney on the stones.
The bed was being pushed slowly,
ever so, carefully.
By a weary old man in tattered clothes and worn-out shoes.
as he drew closer, and closer,
I saw that he was pushing his dying wife who was,
lying in a dressing gown under the covers,
in the Queen-Sized Bed.
He pushed carefully trying not to shake the bed,
excessively.
His wife's head was supported by four pillows,
she had wispy strings of silver white hair.
She was dying.
Several I.V. Bottles dangled off a hook,
And dripped painkillers into her arm.
She was awake but barely conscious,
I wondered where they were going,
but in my heart, I knew...
privacy for an hour,
I came back as the sun was setting.
I found them together sitting on the bed,
Looking over the ocean.
The old man was holding his dying wife,
in his arms… stroking her silver hair under the sparkling,
southern cross.
They were sharing her last sunset as,
the dying embers of a fiery sun faded into the ocean.
Night fell and I walked home alone,
I had witnessed love real love,
something I had never experienced,
something I had never known.
If you’re near Cowell and you look hard enough,
You may just find the queen-size bed,
with a tattered mattress and exposed springs,
quietly rusting away outside a decrepit ruin of a barn.
Take a closer look at the legs and you will find four rusting,
gurney wheels.
and if you approach quietly on a moonlit night,
you will hear soft sobbing in the whistling wind,
as it dreams of that dying sunset,
under the southern cross...
and the milky way lights up the sky,
soaring into the heavens
as the angels sing.
I wrote this non fiction poem
For Debra Jean..
(C)London F. BuSS. 2022
[Verse 1]
I grew my farm roots beneath your starry-eyed loam
In soils of silence where dreams slip by, lost and unknown
But you were the willowing wind pulling you far away
Took to the stars as if you never meant to stay.
[Pre-Chorus]
I’m buried deep in the earth’s embrace
But you’ve spread your wings into the endless space
We were worlds apart from the very first start
One foot in the soil, one foot breaking my heart.
[Verse 2]
I watched you chase the meteor storm in your eyes
Like a red comet lost in the blackened velvet skies
I was the snow-capped mountain forever standing still
And you were the restless west wind chasing every thrill.
[Pre-Chorus]
I’m stone and soil, you’re wind and air
I reach for your touch but you’re never there
I’m anchored to the earth where the wild things doth roam
But you’re out there flying, with no place to call your home.
[Chorus]
You were my earth, I was your sky
I held you close, but you wanted to fly
I buried my soul, you touched the light
We danced in the dusk, but never in the dark of night.
(Repeat Chorus)
(2nd ending)
We’re just earth and sky
Two separate worlds that’ll never collide
Live or die.
[Bridge]
I let go of the stones beneath my hands
Tried to rise like you to understand
But the stars you sought burned much too bright
Leaving me cold and shivering, in shadows of the night.
Maybe I’ll grow or maybe I’ll fall
But we’re two halves of a broken call
Earth and sky, never quite whole
Two songs unsung, forever lost…
two restless souls.
[Chorus]
You were my earth, I was your sky
I held you close, but you wanted to fly
I buried my soul, you touched the light
We danced in the dusk but never in the dark of night.
(Repeat Chorus)
(2nd ending)
We’re just earth and sky
Two separate worlds that’ll never collide
Live or die.
[Outro]
You’ll be the stars, I’ll be the ground
We’ll spin through the night
(1st and 3rd Time)
going round and round
Earth and sky
Earth and sky
(Repeat)
(2nd and 4th Time)
but never be found
Earth and sky
Earth and sky
(Repeat)
“Together, ever and ever alone... in the cold dark of night.”
Walking aimlessly through the woods
Searching for that spot we once stood
Pouring out my heart and my tears
Reliving memories of those special years
Red and orange and purple from green
Rich autumn colors, a sight to be seen
The winds of change quickly blowing in
With it a new chapter will soon begin
Not ready to give up, I can't let go
Where am I headed, where will I blow
Lost without you, what am I to do
Darling, my heart is still beating for you
They flutter and hover
And float on the breeze.
They shiver and shimmer
And weaken the knees.
Fickle and fragile,
They tickle and tease.
Fleeting and flimsy,
Deceptively free.
These frivolous creatures,
These knots of desire.
Once spindles of yearning,
Now spools of barbed wire.
Once pulling like petals,
Now pricking like briar.
Once soothing like honey,
Now burning like fire.
Violently thrashing,
It struggles to rise.
The truth comes up gasping
From whirlpools of lies.
Shed this charade
And discard your disguise.
I know you enjoy
Drowning blind butterflies.
I wiped away a single tear
That had fallen from my eye
(You told me simply we were friends)
You left me after only a year
(But you conceal your aching heart)
I often sit and ask myself why
Looking back on our time together
I remember those halcyon days
(My love for you it never ends)
I thought we’d be together forever
(You told me simply we were friends)
Now memories are a fading haze
Your hair so dark with eyes of brown
(Dreaming of you my heart ascends)
So full energy with a sense of fun
(Forbidden love keeps us apart)
Always happy you were never down
We’d go out together and have a run
(You told me simply we were friends)
You’d always reward me with a soppy kiss
(But you conceal your aching heart)
I’ll never forget the day you got knocked over
Never a day passes when you I don’t miss
How I loved my darling dog Rover
03~05~15
Do You Love me – Triolet ~09~26~14
How I miss you Rhyme - 09~22~14
Contest - Intermingled – Craig Cornish
Don't miss me for I'm never very far,
glimpsing your days from a secret star.
I'm among flowers that grow by your side,
resting on rainbows when hoping to hide.
As stars sparkle in the misty moonlight,
should a lone one capture a naive night,
or, if the summer breeze ruffles your hair,
it's because, for the moment, I was there.
Music you hear in a soft, summer's breeze,
is our song I'm singing to sleepy trees.
If not there, I fly in a peaceful place
where love can exist in a groundless grace.
I often meet you in whispers of air,
the song of a bird, sunlight on the stair.
I'll caress you when time gathers us nigh,
Together we'll explore the seamless sky.
March 16, 2023
for Brian Strand's Number 1199 poetry contest
POTD
Through My Porch Door Window. By Tania Kitchin
One night a guy & a girl were
driving home from the movies. The
boy sensed there was
something wrong because of the painful
silence they shared between them
that night. The girl then asked the boy to pull over
because she wanted to talk. She told him that her
feelings had changed & that it was time to move on.
A silent tear slid down his cheek as he
slowly reached into his pocket & passed her a folded note.
At that moment, a drunk driver was speeding down
that very same street. He swerved
right into the drivers seat, killing the boy.
Miraculously, the girl survived. Remembering the note, she
pulled it out & read it.
"Without your love, I would die."