Best Penumbra Poems
Foreshadowing’s Penumbra
by Odin Roark
In his darkened room,
The tick tock of scissors
Clipping flowers in waiting,
The voices chiming distant,
Even with his ear pressed tightly
Against the wall.
The florist and her customer
Prattle endlessly of grand kids
Of church sermons choked with tears
Black cars and dark veiled mourners.
Then…
Had they wandered off,
Further into the future,
Or merely hiding in the walls,
Crouched in darkly recess,
Deeper in his head.
“Patience, anxious one,”
Someone replies gleefully,
Her identity and origin
His nightly unresolved mystery.
Was he not ready?
Could time be stubbornly refusing him judgment,
Rendering instead another mistrial
As tomorrow’s sunrise breaks the darkness,
Setting up another day of foreshadowing’s penumbra.
He writes, pouring down his words of glory
Disclose the echoes of his wondrous dream
Down into his soul her untold story
Boundless desire; her tears, her eyes gleam.
With strokes of rufous and cherry and wine
Erasing the dark shadows from her eyes
Canvas of ivory their love entwine
Surround them believe, O Eros, Arise!
Her heart she bore in a penumbra wakes
Of all the galaxies vast, he chose hers
Loving arms hold her still, is what it takes
His gaze, his touch, his love he then whispers
His words are robins of dawn in her heart
They fall, no they fall and never to part.
(C)2017 Maricris Cabrera
inky black night
stars brightly sparkling
earths giant shadow
moon slowly fading
dark shadow spreading
a total lunar eclipse
a rare winter solstice
not to be missed
finally total coverage
only one light to see
a bright orange penumbra
meant for only me
colour of the trees
on the edge of green high peaks
view the cyan haze
the fins
of human
quake tremendously
spills grotesqueness while dumping
the ox cosmos in the middle of smoothly
mirrored
ocean Walls
where ones choice is fixed
at dawn stagnantly brimming
in obsolete enviable damp colours
woven in a volcanic
oasis of anguished circles embraced in
loneliness fronted
with shuttering frozen stars
moulding through a sunny cheerful darkness
reinvigorated with
strident current in
waves staring
hovering and invading through the thorns of
the barren mountains
wrapped in swings of an
encroached moonlight piercing in
the vacancy of
my enchanted soul
channeling through my so preceding exist
in steam of redolence reek
from the garden frowns
and grins
call me a piscine
but even as a sly tamed fox hereafter
I would soar on footprints of
ceaseless fogs
to unveil your gleam
leap through the reflection of
sunlight to sway you
exasperatingly siren my scales on
your prime lips
fading with a spin
submerged in a longing savory passion
Everything is normal
so not much to sing or say.
No summer thunderstorm,
the snow was magical only for an hour.
Old men
aren’t removing women’s panties with removable dentures.
A belly laugh now and then,
an empty belly’s holy.
With simple joy
mortals may forget to fear their deaths.
Simply put,
we do not survive. But what an adventure!
I heard an archangel cry
Don’t hurt the trees!
Also, save democracy.
Also, stop barking, believing in that higher power.
What’s Ken doing today?
Watching TED talk lectures,
planning next Spring’s garden.
It’s Death, not the Jewish king, in your rose garden.
As climates change
species escape predators
and predators chase down prey.
Choose sacrifice or blame.
I look at faces
and they look at mine, mute, animated spirits,
black wet rocks,
victims among flames.
I embrace my anonymity,
lost in my own city
in the shade of a gazebo,
walk the streets and say hello.
Virtual Town Square
David J Walker
The marketplace is teeming with noise
From the beginnings of early morning meetings
Rumors and warnings about
The strange faces from places you
Never heard of before
The penumbra provided protects the
Interpretation of selective vision
Mnemonic recitations guide
Approved cogitation
That gather communities together
Into their one true form of a
Virtual town square
Where
Freedom of thought disappears
By a roadside a tattered insult!
Pierced Paul swore not a soul consult.
Why then had he joined case-ending cult?
And who's claiming he can't one assault?
" This guy shall like a car somersault
And like Reeves' Volvo wear horrid fault"
Remembered Reeves is now in a vault!
Penumbra he'd hurt and got result,
Assured a death not difficult:
Reeves to heaven quickly catapult.
In their Penumbra:The stinking rich!
Time to swell bank account of their witch.
It wouldn't count that Target is bony
Or others scaring with face stony;
Witch's sole job to show that Penumbra
Shall her Rivals handle like used bra...
Pierced Paul his foes quit through accident
And on telly watches The Incident.
In the penumbra of life, a choir of lost souls dances,
Their ephemeral steps leave traces on the sands of passing time,
Their dreams, like night butterflies, crash into closed windows,
While the sea of existence churns under the moon, untouched by thoughts.
The scent of regret floats in the air, heavy with unfulfilled promises,
Their lives, like plastic flowers, crowded in vases of oblivion,
The music of the spheres pours over them, yet their ears are stuffed with cotton,
And their minds, labyrinths of banalities, spin in circles, with no escape.
The clocks tick-tock ironically, counting the seconds of a dull existence,
While they chase after celluloid phantoms and yellowed banknotes,
Love, reduced to a mechanical act, loses its magic in routine,
And their families become gilded cages for birds that forgot how to fly.
Oh, how life slips through their fingers like the fine sands of the desert,
While they sleep with open eyes, dreaming of prefabricated happiness,
Death comes as a release for those who have not truly lived,
For there is nothing left to take from souls emptied of meaning and color.
And yet, in this symphony of desolation, a rebellious note resounds,
A muted cry of conscience that refuses to fade into the void,
For in every moment, life whispers its eternal secret to us:
Live, feel, love, create—for only thus can you conquer death.
Poetic Form :: Paiku
Umbra
Innermost
core
part of shadow.
~x~x~
Penumbra
Space where part
of
light source obscured.
~x~x~
Antumbra
Seen bright ring
round
eclipsing source.
~x~x~
In the penumbra of thoughts, dice dance on an invisible board,
Whispers of hope entangle among the trembling fingers of fate,
Echoes of lost victories clash against the walls of the abandoned fortress,
Where once, heroes with pure hearts raised the banners of illusion.
Now, in the oppressive silence, the harsh truth seeps through the cracks of time,
Dripping bitterness into the cup of knowledge that we all drink,
The unseen chains of destiny bind us to an imperfect reality,
Where dreams melt like the wax of a forgotten candle.
Waves of consciousness crash against the shore of common understanding,
Carrying with them fragments of unfinished conversations and unkept promises,
In this ocean of collective consciousness, we all float,
Clinging to fragile rafts made of false hopes and lost illusions.
And yet, deep within the soul, a spark of rebellion smolders,
Nourished by the memory of a world where justice was not just a word,
But a living force that pulsed in the veins of every person,
But now, only the faint echo of that memory resounds in the night.
Thus, we step forward through the dense fog of days to come,
With eyes open, yet blind to the uncomfortable truths surrounding us,
Wearing masks of willful ignorance and forced smiles,
While deep down, we all know the game was rigged from the start.
When life
becomes a shadow,
the sun will not reach
the night...
The night will not create
the morning...
There will not be death
there will not be born...
The world will be obscure...
and will be silent...
The one who never lived,
never again will glimpse...
Who did not receive light
will live forever in penumbra...
Exactly the way i live... !
In the penumbra of oblivion, I've engraved words of gold,
About flowers that assembled their petals from moments of beginning,
About storms, in which the lightning melted into dark forces,
And all that was here was but the gift of silence that crossed.
I've always drawn mornings that never embraced the dawn,
The story of a labyrinth where steps are concealed,
And two archangels crying tears in rasps of forgiveness,
In their hearts, the story penetrated beyond any thought.
I have constantly invoked love as a secretive star in the sky,
That retains its memory on the orbit of eternity,
And the rays of sunrise ascending from the blue waters,
Like a quest for answers that have yet to find their being.
In every quiver, I've lived life as if it were a dream,
In any wave that carves its path towards an uncertain shore,
And in the falling faith of stars in exalted heavens,
In anxieties without cure, the burden of questions without waste.
I sketched, without lamenting the cry that has extinguished in me,
The collapse of the world within me, caused by the complete whirlwind,
Where trees break away from the forest, in the silence that remained,
And their shadow persists, shrouded in the mystery that has become master.
And how wonderful it was to be with you in this mystical odyssey,
And how sad it seems to me to float alone, in an endless void,
When my steps wander on paths unknown,
And beneath my eyelids, I paint the calm from a universe stopped in a sigh.
Penumbra, It's when day and night
succumb together
in a dark kiss...
Penumbra Palimpsest
She leans her back into shadow comfort
not pitch black-
A penumbral meadow, behind a fence of flowers
not pure white...
Cool colours tattoo grey lace on face-
light and dark
link in mask's handshake with uncanny value
and micro expressions...
Suppression/Submission/Commission/Omission.
All too familiar.
Fiery eyes glower in dim gaslight-
Self worth lower -
Survival in flight
or feral fight...
Fireflies everywhere at midnight...
Contempt harvests hate.
Inhumane blows here or there,
Rampant thoughts she throws
in her own care less face...
Cruel price to pay.
Extort. Exhaust. Exhort. Implore. Ignore.
Struck by rocks and stones
on feet of clay...
Stumbles, fumbles in the blur
between night and day.
She falls further back.
Leans into deep shadow arms.
Away from lamplight stares
Backout blackout blots
shame spots, blame hotspots
on her unholy name.
Death maybe a gentler bed
to lay sins down to sleep undisturbed...
Life's forehead mark a stamp centre dead,
penumbra seal in perfect place.
Tomorrow is another day in time, in space,
to sew her self together,
true dimensions sown with grace,
Trace lines laid down in firm ground.
Erase....Retrace... Rewrite...Rescore.
Once more.
Aqua Marine.
23rd May 2026.
(When we can't forgive ourselves, remember this: "By this we will know we originate with the truth, and we will assure our hearts before him regarding whatever our hearts may condemn us in, because God is greater than than our hearts and knows all things." 1 John 3:19,20.)