Best Memories Poems
It's quiet whisper stirs my languid mind
Inviting coffee colored memories
A young man's face with future yet defined
Each vapored breath a page in history
Familiar apparitions reappear
Whose images I dare not chase away
The roads they traveled, washed out by my tears
This morning's chill a bridge to yesterday
Then as the welcome sun breaks o'er the trees
I find myself attended by a smile
Their goodbyes echo in the rustling leaves
As I walk back alone those last few miles
While standing on the porch I get a chill
Although the morning breeze has now grown still
Sept 11 2016
Traveling through the doorway in my heart
I emerge
Gently closing it
I place my palms on the worn hinges of time
I lay my ear near its surface
As I let my lips hover close
Grazing the wood with a gentle kiss
I turn and walk down a few steps
The mist ~ the moisture ~ the fragrance
Of a million greens
Grass so tall and lush
Beckoning me
The ancient pines and redwoods
Towering above me on both sides
Whispering their secrets
I make my way
Stopping to press my nose
Against their soft bark...inhaling
Tickling my face
Bringing me back...back in time
I breathe in love
I breathe out gratitude
Opening my eyes, I see you in the distance
As shadow puppets dance and frolic
Upon rugged steep rock walls
The inner cave glows
The smell of mesquite
Rising sparks of pain and happiness
Leap from the flames
Your quiet silhouette calls to me
“Come little one...come”
I crouch down timidly at first
It is dark and I feel alone
In my nakedness
I slither along smooth stones
My belly brushing their surface
I make my way close to you
The fire alive with its dancing shadows
Sitting in silence
I gently embrace your blanketed form
You are me as an old woman
You are my lover
You are my friend
You are all of humanity
I kiss your weathered cheek
Tasting salty tears
Embracing you allows me to let go
To fully surrender to the moment
Hoo-hoo-hooooo
Crackle
Owls above
The sky illuminated through
The exposed top of the cave
Surrounded by whisps of fables and folklore
We rotate and spin
Slowly rising upward
Higher and higher
As ashes in the night
Reaching the lip of the cave
We are greeted by moonlight
Cold crisp air
A burst of light
As I spread feathered wings
Gliding towards treetops
My heart opens
My eyes open
I am here
To laugh ~ to cry
To give ~ to receive
To rejoice
To break bread with others
To love
Another day
(Dedicated to one of my childhood friends)
You were one of those charming lilies
that bloomed, so fresh, in my springtime pond;
when my homesick wings of longings flutter and soar,
and my mind alights
on the periphery of the playparks of the past,
I reminisce all the little fun we had
along with our other friends -
as we strolled through the narrow trails
in the verdant flowery meadow
that sprawled near our school
during the tender years of our lives.
The giggles and the laughter
the chuckles and the chatter -
those shrieks and the squeals
that baffled even the needles of time
to forget their own pace
and hop and waltz along with us.
Then roads diverged, new air we breathed
as we took new paths to pursue our purposes in life.
Years later, you arrived once very near my place
yet we could not connect and get ourselves to meet.
That day when we talked on the phone
and I heard your voice after a very long time,
my mind leapt for joy and soaked for some time
in a summer drizzle of rainbow memories -
of those I had long forgotten
as you reminded them to me in our chat -
they linger on like pleasant petrichor.
Later, I tried to recollect and sing our childhood songs
rhyming it perfect with the
unrhyming clamor of our choruses.
When commitments in work and family responsibilities
seem to have rusted the gate to my nostalgic dam -
your call was the key to open it - and when creaking opened
wistful emotions gushed forth
to form an ocean of yearnings
to be a child once more.
You revived the puddles of my mind with paper boats
that carry leaves, stems, and flowers of fond memories.
I felt like a gleeful kite in the vast blue,
fleeing for a moment from the humdrum day.
You will forever be the same charming lily
adorning my little lake of most treasured blossoms.
My bestie, my soul-sis.
I reach onto the bookshelf
Carefully removing the photograph album from the top shelf
We nestle together on the sofa
I slowly turn over the pages
Yellowing photographs that capture precious moments frozen in time
Suddenly you become animated
Hidden memories begin to return …
We laugh as you recall stories from the past
You lovingly stroke the faces of those now long gone
Wishing they were there by your side for real
Tears fill your green eyes as you reach out and gently squeeze my hand
Nostalgia Contest
Sponsored by Nayda Ivette Negron
11~25~16
Memories Of Bygone Days
O' yes, how well I remember her still
giant black oak atop big wooded hill
Those treasured days now long flown by
our free spirits flying so very high
Summer days within Nature's fine realm
majestic views that did so overwhelm
Cloudy days in the meadow far below
flowers galore, O' what a great show
My lady and I went up there to park
glorious scene set our hearts to spark
Under canopy of that old massive oak
she sweet words of undying love spoke
Our tree saw our love start to bloom
picture of that oak in our bedroom
Two years it watched our love grow
how was it to ever see or dare know
Life came and flew on us so fast
love came deeply but failed to last
Fate sent us onto far different treks
love destroyed, both lives were wrecks
Now I pass that massive tree on the hill
memory recalls her beauty , what a thrill
Time destroyed the scene it ruled then
O' the love of what should, could have been
JULY 2015
When I close my eyes I hear the sound of your voice floating in the
air like dandelion fur, catching the breeze and dancing upward.
I remember the day when we camped in the rain and wrapped
ourselves in blankets to keep warm, hearing the acorn size
drops pelting the tent and feeling the rain vibrations explore
our coupled bodies.
How could I have known then what I know now …. the ancient
wisdom that you have carried with you since the beginning of time.
You speak to me …
Your words rise up in my soul
filling my being. I feel you gently
cupping my heart in your hands,
caressing it tenderly. Lifting your
arms above your head I feel the
warmth of the sunlight on my
heart. With eyes closed I bask in
the moment.
I am transported to flight as a white hawk
stretching my arms out into my new wings and alighting
on the warm current that lifts me higher.
I am surrounded ……
It is quiet as I glide. Looking downward
I dip one wing and then another. I let
myself be enveloped, conscious of the wind
on my feathers. I am free. Free to fly. Free
to take in all that surrounds me, all that is above me,
below me, the scents, the sounds, the silence, the
memories of past, and the vision of the future.
I am one with you.
Below winding rivers and streams make S shapes
and figure 8’s, dancing, curving and rolling
with winking glitter on their surfaces.
Dry red rocks dot their shores and a heat ….
A heat rushes by.
Onward, upward past towering pines reaching to
the sky whose tips call me with their green beauty.
They call. They sing. I hear their ancient voices, as
their seeds fall silently on the ground.
Leaning into a turn I dip one wing and
see water before me falling in the distance.
I am being called… beckoned onward.
There are answers ahead.
The mist clings to my feathers and
moisture coats me as I fly closer. The
water is my soul, my heart, my life.
Whiteness and sound thunder around
me and yet a peace resides within.
I am home.
In dreams of yonder, wishes wistfully conceive,
A cradle of lost tomorrows, where shadows sway;
To a realm unseen, where hearts believe,
Past where twilight’s lulling lullabies lay,
A world where reverie and reality secretly play.
Through the veil of verity…
…Aisling nocturnally creates,
Mountains of moonlight, rivers of rhyme,
A world untouched by changing tides and capricious fate.
In this land, where we lose track of all time,
A place where voices harmonize; oh, so surreal, so sublime.
A city of silence, a forest of fears,
The cloud-kissed towers, an ocean of sorrow,
Beneath twilight's gentle, silent tears.
An ephemeral world free of yesterdays and tomorrow,
A dreamscape unfolding where sleep freely borrows.
A tremor runs through castle walls,
A sigh escapes the forest deep,
Twilight's tears turn into calls
Of roosters waking from their sleep.
The ocean's sorrow shimmers pale
A canvas primed for sun's first brush.
The mountains, caught in morning's veil
Dissolves to silence, whispers hush.
As a new dawn dances
the dream dissipates
The illusion shatters
reality reinstates.
For the land was an Elysium delight
A mere mirage in the moonlit night.
Dissolving in dawn's delicate dance
…like a mist in morning sacred light.
Fading Starlight sifts through leaves, painting emerald shadows on the ground.
Lost in the morning's mellowness,
a sigh escapes,
the dream departs,
unrenown…
Though dawn reclaims the waking world,
a yearning in my heart resides,
For Elysium's lost melody,
where time and sorrow gently subside.
I want to wander inside Grandpa's mind
drink in multi-hued core thoughts
intimately lounging there--
glide with wild violin notes as they
light evening's way;
listen to this troubadour who prances
through the flourishing roots of music,
sway with flashing sparks of desire
as they hover just above me--
And all my passions will reveal
themselves , lavishing secret dreams
on me which only I have the access to
his inner sanctum where my private
thoughts become rivers of rhythm ,
nourishing the hungry desire to be me
and partly him --tears and all --how we
held each other's arms as tunes from
breaths snuffed his charmed life.
Nayda Ivette Negron's Memories Contest
Memories on branches live on and on -
multiplying since the world’s first dawn.
Fresh and beautiful in spring are we -
buds that blossom on our family tree.
We all need a place to build upon.
Memories on branches will still live on
even though - like summer birds - one day
we may leave our nest and fly away.
Busy we may be, but in the fall,
we’ll look back and tenderly recall
memories on branches have still lived on -
bright like leaves that decorate our lawn.
Winter’s snow covers us as we grow frail.
Yet through our posterity, we know well
what we’ve lived through never will be gone.
Memories on branches live on and on.
For the Memories Poetry Contest of Nayda Ivette Negron
Spring chased old man winter from his place
And silenced him with her capricious face
Sometimes a tear, sometimes a smile;
She would beguile
My lazy feet
To dance in some leafy bowered retreat.
When dreamy delightful summer flies
And looks at me with laughing eyes;
She draws me to her clover fields
And my heart yields
To her winsome wooing
And her siren song is my undoing.
One day I saw the sudden flare
Of autumn's wind blown crimson hair;
She stirred the whispering leaves and then
I felt again
A yearning glow
Of years remembered long ago
And I lived the dream I never knew
Of lost memories and my love for you.
Trickle tender tears - those that take their time
born to bathe and baptize bereavement;
dew drops cling to fragile petals of forlorn feelings ~
aged and alone
sentiments from sorrowful soul slowly seeps
revived in rising rivers of rhythmic release
emptying from eclipsed eyes
in reverberant regrets and reveries ~
retrospective reviews with resilient realism
offered to an overdue oldster oppressed by outliving others -
reflections retrieved and remembrances retained
gifts given from the gravestone-garden of growing grief
watered with wept woebegone wine
cherished with chaste caressing care
memories and mourning ~
hallowed in a harrowed heart
Susan Ashley
March 24, 2018
~ Second Place ~
Contest: Alliteration Poem
Sponsor: Silent One
Memories of the sea wash over me
on days when clouds are drifting cottony
above my head through placid azure sky.
Such images flit like a butterfly
across my mind; I seize them gratefully!
They bring with them sweet thoughts of family
and times of which I now can testify
flowed out like tides to leave me by and by. . .
memories of the sea.
How young we were in days so summery!
Through waves we leapt, expending energy.
Sated, we lay sunning on the beach to dry,
till sunlight - like our youth - sank down to die.
But I will keep for an eternity
memories of the sea.
Life without you seems so surreal, so unfair that you are no longer here,
yet I still feel your strong presence, smiling while shedding a tear.
Although you've gone, so many memories reflect through my mind,
in times of trouble, you were always there, treating me so kind.
The amazing times we shared, forever live within my heart.
Physically we are not together, but mentally we are never apart.
Constant reminders of your unique fragrance still linger in the air,
especially in your closet, still full of clothes you loved to wear.
Ringing of your unique and contagious laughter still rings within my ears,
I know many more recollections like these will last a zillion years.
A white dove visits often, reminding me of your angelic grace,
every time I look into the mirror, I see your beautiful face.
Thank you for being my guardian angel, for showing signs that you're around.
Until we meet again my dearest, my love for you will continue to abound.
In days or sorrow, you always soothed with words of sincerity.
Even after death our special bond will remain for eternity.
Silent One collaboration with Cecile MacFarlane
9 November 2020
Cecile Macfarlane, is a poet who has been on Poetry Soup for a while, but her busy, busy life prevents her from posting regularly. A very talented poet.
Please check out her poems.
https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/poems_by_poet.aspx?ID=14189
As I slow dance with memories ,
haunting dreams of you gently glide through the grand halls of my mind.
Where you held me close in loving arms, their warmth I did find.
Fingertips play my heartstrings as you told me I belong.
As I slow dance with memories to a never ending song.
Two hearts that beat as one to the rhythm of love soft and low.
Memories of the night pirouette 'neath a lovers moon that glow.
You held me oh so close as our eyes did meet.
Tender kisses shared from lips so warm and sweet.
Fingertips play my heartstrings as you told me I belong.
As I slow dance with memories to a never ending song.
Earth whispers
I hear her
I am here to receive
Nuances of flight and discovery
My senses warm with anticipation
Fragments of hope and desire
Pain and loss
Arrive on moonbeams of broken glass
Shattered dreams sing
Delivering silky threads
Glistening with seedlings of rebirth
Opening my heart, I close my eyes
Leaning forward into the warmth of the sun
Wearing my vulnerability on my sleeve
I dive headfirst off the cliff
Opening my arms to capture
The energy of the moment
Fingertips outstretched, reaching out
Beckoning encounters with the here and now
How wonderous to receive you
Dear light and love
I journey into what was – what is - and what will be
Messages arrive from you
Feathered musical notes
Cries from the lonely ones
Howls from the night animals
Thunderheads boom in the distance
Piercing the velvet blackness
A warm wave caresses me as you glide by
Tickling me with your tailfeathers
Magic in motion as time stands still
Inside the teardrop I gaze outward
Immersed in the beauty of
What it means to be alive
Persimmon heartbeats envelope me
A gentle rhythm as we rise
To the downy envelope between
Earth and sky
Gliding in peace and unity
Through star crusted waves of
Lavender light
Exhaling gratitude