Best Open Eyed Poems
Open eyed, long tearless, foul silvered orbs
have you no pity? The aqua tide rides dry.
Blind staring scorches, accusing twin barbs
who burrow inward, a destiny to decry.
Scattered rendering, puzzled pieces aligning;
"Please mercy has a place, why can't I cry?"
Remove the cataract veneer, stop my pining
"Have you no place for maddened souls such as I?"
Nailed to the boards you see a canvassed psyche
dabbed upon a casein shroud in hues most bright.
"How many lamp lit days will you seek to find me?"
The light betrays me and I live in eternal fright.
Eternities unfold in Lovecraft Tales
upon the silvered side within my eyes; hell wails.
Categories:
open eyed, pain,
Form:
Sonnet
I once awoke into a dream
And there I saw a sight.
Adrift, a draft of Daffodils
Breezed on a hard day's night.
Still looking up and at the sky,
A Dandelions nest,
Shone down like rays of Buttercups
Alighting up my vest.
“Hello,” I bellied up to it.
And smiling like a wave,
Hoped hoping as I climbed inside
That it was well behaved.
Abound with hobnail boot astride
It turned and travelled on-
Until it reached another place
Where I had not come from.
“It's like a well know strangers face,”
I mused in thoughtish utter.
The one my Fatter used to wear
Before he ground my Mutta.
Then leaping like a jumping bean,
I landed open eyed,
And spied a sandy cobbled shore
where nothing did reside.
“How long,” I said, “have you been here?”
And in a mock reply,
It answered with a knowing look,
Then flew off on a pie.
Alone, I sat beside myself,
For company of course,
And listened while I hummed a song
In tones that made me hoarse.
And then, I swear, as fast as fast,
Beneath a sea of hands,
An orchestra of weeping fish
Grab grabbed me from the sands.
They sat me on a flying Whale
That soared beneath the sea,
And took me home to where he lived
To make us both some tea.
“Oh, what a lovely Plaice you have,”
I told him over grubber,
And with that, getting on all fours
He let me pull his udder.
“Please don't do that!” A Fishcake cried,
“You don't know where he's from.”
But having learned this lessen once
I noticed I had gone.
Categories:
open eyed, humor, humorous, nonsense, daffodils,
Form:
Rhyme
Awaking from deep slumber
she peeps at the crimson sky
her loose tresses wet with dew.
Shyly, loyal to the rising sun,
on a naked stalk she spreads
her striking petals washed in blue.
Growing in confidence she smiles
cheerfully exuberant.
Open-eyed, she whiles time away,
listening to the soft whispers
of the breeze and young lovers,
their every secret shared
willingly...they trust, they know:
A daisy never tells!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Contest: Blue daisy
Sponsor: Mystic Rose
© 17th June 2017
Categories:
open eyed, flower,
Form:
Free verse
Open eyed I stare at the simple setting
waiting for the day to start,
the bread-baked scent of morning warms.
The grinder whirs and whirs,
beans fly, grounds brew, cream chills,
will you come?
Rose nails tap, finger wish to wrap
arms to bend as heart shaped chair backs
about the trunk of you, my Valentine.
Will you come?
Ah yes, you come, croissants in hand
reclaimed from the waiter, pull back my chair,
lay down a single rose. And we sit where love is wrought
encased in iron, all motions chaired by Cupid's bow.
2/2/14
Contest Café Musing
Poet Debbie Guzzi
Categories:
open eyed, love,
Form:
Free verse
O, to be a cloud and wander the skies untethered,
freer than any bird, as free as the wild winds,
changing shape endlessly, effortlessly, easing
from a stallion to a lion to a bear in the minds
of open-eyed children who love the clouds and
love to watch the clouds as they dance the sky....
Children and clouds, clouds and children--
a love affair that ends as childhood ends
and the once children, now grown-ups can
no longer see a living menagerie way, way
up high where only the purest hearts may go.
Categories:
open eyed, appreciation, beauty, childhood, imagination,
Form:
Free verse
A Sad But True Thought
When racing world pales deep, its darkness takes first stage
evil parades as good, soon becomes all the rage.
When humanity walks blind, rather than open eyed
graveyards will fill with those, that far too early died.
Robert J. Lindley, 5-17-2018
Quatrain, ( World Racing Headlong Into The Dark Abyss)
Categories:
open eyed, character, dark, evil, humanity,
Form:
Quatrain
"Out to Sea"
In the immediate times
we rush to consume it all
before it is all swallowed, and out it all comes salty,
like an Ocean pummelling our crumbling sures
eating away our solidarity
insouciantly the sandy impermanent escarpment caves in
on our gossamer dissolving world
and in the eye of the storm
in the middle of it all
for a small moment all is calm
while the catastrophes move blithely around us,
hitting us brashly like we’ve been hit on a caffeine high
we are simultaneously aware of time standing still and then,
the swift pull of a rug unceremoniously out beneath our feet
some strange gravity slides
towards that ridiculous prophecised inevitability
of kingdoms come and gone
we thought we knew everything
the truth is we were the dumb awake
knowing little of everything
and much of what mattered little
and all as one
we are drowned soundly, gladly,
like into an open-eyed baptismal grave
we are forever and ever
naked as a child
washed clean
out to sea
Candide Diderot. ‘25
Categories:
open eyed, introspection, life, philosophy,
Form:
Free verse
this is me this is all
head down and open eyed
see us rise hear us fall
trapped in this earthly wall
terrified creatures hide
this is me this is all
each day brings a new brawl
fueled by jehovah's pride
see us rise hear us fall
for lucifer’s downfall
left wickedness denied
this is me this is all
with harmony unshawled
we’ll embrace genocide
see us rise hear us fall
now hope rides newborn wings
scorched by lies, father sings
this is me this is all
see us rise hear us fall
Categories:
open eyed, men, women,
Form:
Villanelle
Abhorrent those phizog few,
At times they flood his mind.
He did not even know why them his mind drew,
He has got to get down, reasons to find.
His mindly nib, she oozes memories,
Of old and new… far but few,but many ,that he knows not.
On papyrus his mind scribbles and carries,
And then drains encapsulated emotions that afore are now brought.
His heart bleeds of porous feelings,
Bleached and dried by furious despotism.
Of people he knew real close in life’s dealings,
Of the ones he had no knowledge of their absolutism.
Blood flows from his weary eyes,
Tears flow from his broken heart.
But he has not yet learnt life’s game of dice.
All he has borne is the fury of the tyranny’s dart.
My thoughts like his lie chained ,
My mindly nib brings afore,
Glued stuck and stained.
Memories of the past eon all sore.
Get up my Goa…..
Can one dare to hope…
Instead of all in this darkness grope
All he can hear is Empty voices….. cold… dark and sterile,
Shapless dreams , but sought in the midst of peril
Black mirrored roads and murky simmering waters,
Is no place for perfect reflections, but for our dream slaughters
Leaving behind a land adorned by hungry eyes…
Its beauty diminishing like wisps of smoke amidst populous cries……
Get up stand up….
ElseWe will run blinded in the dark,
And meet the hard embrace
Of whispered truth and scolding truth without a scenario of a worser case
You are watched and inspected,
Governed , directed , censored and corrected.
You are told what to do,
You are told how far to go.
Where is that haloed glow?
No more a part of your grand show,
Have they driven your thoughts to a tangent,
Oh then even your smile could shortly become pungent.
Your sanity unseen
Your senses now dumb that were earlier keen.
I still cannot reconcile as to why?
Why why and why?
You still walk in sheathed in tatters of pride….
Lips closed but open eyed…..
How long……..
Do we have to be forlorn
How long……..
Do we have to be forlorn
Categories:
open eyed, inspirational, introspection, metaphor, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
Faces void all passing by
open eyed yet emptied
like flashes of a vacancy sign
blank stares like orphans pitied
Caught in time
no plans to sketch
just colored pencils
with broken tips
Only the artist's see
painting joy on canvas
as if an apology
for selling a feeling - to what the living should be free
This city speaks of sunsets passed
and lakes that serve as portraits hung
rush for a weekdays check to cash
while natures gift remains outrun
For me I'd rather fish the sea
a humbled walk along the beach
fall upon a stack of leaves
but freeways and buildings my peace has breached
In love with a life of simple pleasures
unhurried by the next place to go
where hospitality is still the measure
not a life that's put on like a show
Where did all the soft eyes go
the patriots passion the pride
when did this world spin out of control
and kindness become something to hide?
To each his own the saying goes
but what of love thy neighbor?
When abnegation is no longer chose
it's no wonder isolation be favored
Categories:
open eyed, city, environment, introspection, journey,
Form:
Rhyme
Dine a la carte
with my secret sweetheart
a half dozen roses
in differing poses
champagne glass in hand
soft notes from the band
vows ever after
sweet smiles and laughter
eyes locked in stare
romance in the air
emotions a-brew
old blending with new
eyelids a-fluttering
to whispered sweet nothings
vows ever after
sweet smiles and laughter
Love ballad dancing
and sensuous prancing
a oneness of feeling
and merging of being
open-eyed nose-meet
wings on the feet
vows ever after
sweet smiles and laughter
Instead we are pained
to outsiders chained
with emptiness fraught
our love counts for naught
mere love poems writ
twixt two lovers smit’
no vows ever after
sweet smiles or laughter
*******************************
Categories:
open eyed, romancelove,
Form:
Rhyme
I know I've been here in this afternoon
4: 10 P.M.
Like lubricated clockworks in a perpetual machine
My life returns to this brown earth blue sky
Pressed in between the distance
And the silence and the cries of crows
Who gather, circle, and grow louder
In the rising dusk.
This is how it has been, is, will always be.
This red clay bank where the road was carved
Has risen here forever.
That old capped well has always dripped and echoed
In the plunging darkness
And the far-off crack that is cicadas breaking from their skins,
These things have always been in motion.
That path that disappears just there between the trees
Leads now, as ever, to a grand but faded house
Drowsing in the humming shade,
Where my father's fathers lived and died,
Lay open eyed and wide awake
Through first bird sounds and whipporwhills
As grey ascended into daylight once again
And just as always far too soon.
A place where lost boys raged
And beat their hands against closed doors,
Is this my road, these shaded woods,
This certain path the only map that I can read?
Sometimes in the small hours even now
I think I hear the pounding of my father's desperate hands
On doors locked, bolted, and immune,
The ringing of his secret wars
Down darkened, pine floored corridors
Where secrets are piled thick upon each other.
The only sound I hear now on this narrow road
Is wind that hisses in the branches
In sharp swift gusts from long ago
Standing now beneath those branches,
Owning no locked door to pound upon,
I wonder why my clenched and aching hands
Are bleeding.
Thunder rolls and rumbles,
Distant in the fading afternoon.
Categories:
open eyed, journey,
Form:
Free verse
WHAT IS TIME CAPSULE
I am sixteen stealing my father’s cigarettes.
Learning an independent thought is not valued.
Turn the attention spin. This is a kissing game.
Pucker up. This is going to be a disaster.
A smooth whistle, I don’t think he will disapprove
if I drowned until there is a prince saving me.
Hold back all emotion or it will be dark dawn at noon
A whiskey fight because I keep telling people I’m fine.
Truth spin, whose turn to be in charge, give meaning
create order. It’s your turn to shine Stardust.
Humdrum routine bicycle backwards time skips and erases
An old tear heart breaks the weather like rain.
I’m getting too vague. Slow down to specific detail.
They used to call me, evil twin, Medusa, four eyes.
I need something good a new jacket. Bookkeeper
teach me how to live like an open eyed swan.
People tell me I’m not looking or listening. I’m overwhelmed.
Deep sob Let’s celebrate A sunny day
My warts are ugly and I want them to go away.
Let go of that Anger. Don’t get prepared for a scrap so quick.
I’m a young bastard that really likes Bob Dylan.
Categories:
open eyed, angst, anti bullying, childhood,
Form:
Carpe Diem
upon waking from a splendid plunge
into the depths of deep dreamy restful sleep
anchors away set adrift this body electric,
which succombed instantaneously
(without counting sheep)
nor joining the make belive rank and file world
with the likes of little bo peep
an immediate notion arose
to latch onto and ignore
this most delightful, flight of fancy deed
(not dirty nor done dirt cheap),
but a natural function
one cannot overdose nor excede
the USDA quotidian requirement,
where cares and concerns
of an uncertain world freed
yet an asolute bare necessity for stayin' alive
plus richly textured unrivaled vista devoid of greed
additionally cost and gluten free, NON GMO,
zero caloric effortless need
(words of caution to take seriously to heart),
and note that if one doth not yield, but sure to read
the small print affixed like a label each mind
forcing to squeeze out every metaphorical
drop of open eyed juice
perhaps resorting to meth or speed
that silent slurred speech, physical lashing,
head dropping fatique
will invite Halloween aparitions, delusions,
grand hallucinations, et cetera
as if one smoked wacky weed
the forces of anatomical and physiological
heft will take charge ahoy
and blast at top notch nautical surge,
will wrest control against blistering,
festering against withering heights
delivering balms away at feeble attempts
to retain losing battle to remain alert oh boy
no matter how much effort summoned,
(even feigning wakefulness as a decoy)
the trappings of oblivion
i.e. sinking into profound dreamland,
whether an individual ascribes to be Jew or goy
which Maxwell House maxim
“the key to better relationships may be more sleep”
no mortal ought to take lightly,
but pay heed lest the grim reaper doth creep
stealthily and scythe lent lee steal
a haggard skiff of flesh and bone
whereat corporeal essence no more
will there be for the soul to keep.
Categories:
open eyed, good night, introspection, journey,
Form:
Free verse
How many times have I written you a line?
Which often, it has brought pleasures from your heart to mine.
Will you ever try to give me your thoughts?
Shall I be waiting long? Shall I kill my doubts?
Do me in time, due my beats;
I feel joy, sadness and my soul weeps.
will you ever consider my conditional release?
will you grant me warmth, shelter and peace?
Consume my joy, agony and my sweet eager delight
Shine your courtly thoughts on me with your inner light.
Shall I ever feel your breath?
Would you lend me your strength?
Noise slept within cracks of my skull
as a baby open-eyed whilst the lull.
Will you boost my powers?
Will you bring down my towers?
Will you?
or in ever eternity you will?
Ali Adhab
Categories:
open eyed, art, beauty, confusion, deep,
Form:
Alliteration