Best Shadow Poems
My shadow flirts with the sun
As I caress the darkness
We are one and separate
As my shadow smiles
Anxiety suffocates me
The shadow will soon fade
I shall die
One happy, one not
It was a long time ago, in another age
Where the shifting of the wind
Knew where I began
A place so far away,
Somewhere distant, in childhood country
Before the fog had set in,
Before time lost all trace of me
Where have they gone?
Those merry dancers with whom I played?
When we were queens of the carnival, kings of the parade?
Before being dethroned to mid-life corners
Hearing the music, without playing the drums
They tell me to take this age with grace
Yet everywhere I turn, is young
I'm still the same, I have not changed
I lived a time where love was wild and thoughts were too
With high regard, when eyes were glued
Now inside I'm torn in two...the old and the new
Trapped between this nowhere place
Myself and someone else
Until each barrier becomes a bridge...
Have I been shaped too square by passing years, to fit in circle's place?
My memory recalls those beautiful tomorrows
Now long buried in yesterday's ground
There are other ways to measure time
Besides growing older and graying hair
Recorded music fills the room
Left playing from an earlier time
When October skies showed fading traces
Of empty days and sad old faces
The "others" of whom I had no fear
Now those shadowed remnants from my past
Are stalking at my heels
Will somebody care to ask? Will anyone need my mind?
Is there something they want to tell me?
Will they patronize, or just be kind?
Care enough, make me useful, give me value, call me beautiful?....
Not yet the age I'll someday be
Still, I feel the sting of losing me
How I ache for all those love songs
How I ache for someone needing, someone pleading...
For advice....for my worth, for an answer, will they want me?
How it haunts me.....Will they see me?
Touching me....reminding me of who I am................not just who I was...
__________________________________
Let me own the Night
Let the others play on bright sun-filled days,
in song and merriment, play on.
Let me own the shadows that seep into your soul,
yet still promise hold, a promise of sleep 'til dawn.
With the morning pray.., bring them on gilded and gossamer wings,
for bright is their future with warmth of everlasting hope, and hearts lifted.
I long to be as cold and silent as a blanket of new fallen snow,
to spin webs, translucent, with life ebbing and borne of tragic past.
When, at last, clouds part and ominous foreboding dread flees,
into the corners, hiding..sinless, without remorse or regret.
Let me own this cloak, beautiful as rough-hewn stone,
I no longer seek acceptance, nor call another's fate my own.
May Calliope sing and lull them to a blissful place, redemption their's to keep,
for it was always said that it must be so.
I will continue to turn away from the calamity of the sun,
for what's left unsaid remains unsaid, what's left undone, undone.
No tears will be shed that will be seen where shadows lie,
the dark will hold them, it would seem, and so shall I.
I have a friend I rarely ever see
I can't remember when I saw him last
It's funny, but he looks a lot like me
Regardless of how many years have passed
I do recall one morning years ago
I woke and went outside before the dawn
The sleepy moon was hanging full and low
When he appeared beside me on my lawn
And just like that, I was a child again
The mystic moon had cast it's magic spell
I leaped and danced with my moon shadow friend
Until he disappeared with no farewell
The sun came out to start another day
But in his haste, he chased my friend away
Daniel Turner
Silhouetted in the early morn
Five black crows await the breaking dawn
Sitting still and silent in a row
Their shadows cast a forbidding glow
Dusk turns to dawn as daylight breaks
Dark skies fade as the world awakes
The moonlight pales in the morning light
Soon to rise again and welcome night
Jan Allison
24th March 2015
form used - Ekphrasis
Black and White film Photography – A V Giorgio
~awarded 3rd place~
Once, side by side, they walked the moonlit beach
in silence- each alone and incomplete
in disjoined worlds- linked only by the reach
of tiny, lapping waves upon their feet.
As silver beams of moonlight iced the ground
and blotted out the heat of sandy gold,
their warmth of humanness was hidden- bound
beneath blind souls that shivered in the cold.
Yet, on the sand, their shadows danced along-
a silhouetted couple synchronized
in motion- forms united clear and strong
against the blankness which the moon devised.
Dark shadow puppets sparked romantic light-
gave living souls new vision in their night.
December 18, 2014
Shadow Puppets
~8th Place~
Premiere Contest: Silhouette
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Judged: 09/16/2017
Shadow Puppets
~7th Place~
Premiere Contest: Mid-June
Sponsor: Brian Strand
Judged: 06/15/2017
Behind our house, below the deck
with its pleasing benches and sylvan view,
the back yard we have descends steeply
to a little stream called Chimacum Creek.
It is September, so the Creek’s waters
are shallow, so shallow that
little music from its ripple and flow
rises to meet our eager, listening ears above.
Any day now, the waters will surrender
their serenity and in noisy salute
yield to thrashing thunder,
as salmon spawn and meet their demise.
Sheltering us there from summer’s heat
and winter’s chilled and rainy drench,
a little family of barred owls often call and beg,
their nocturne nearly undisturbed by our home's intrusion.
Outside, my wife stands in solitary contemplation,
for this is her temple, and she its worthy guest.
Yet the minutes and hours pass so slowly now,
as grief stands weary watch with her.
We had grown so accustomed to our dear child’s
heartened ways, as ever eager to greet us
at morning’s hesitant, uncertain dawning glow
as at evening’s surrender to curl upon our bed to sleep.
Jet black hair and soft green eyes—her special dance
each moment to delight us so, we had never ever
thought today would bring us only fading echoes of
all we held so dear in this sweet and tender form.
No matter that she had a tail and two more legs than us,
she lived and loved and spoke with such eloquence
and grace, the best of us were shamed.
Angels withheld not their envy and begged for her return.
So grieve with us a moment, for fled is now
that little feline snowflake in our hand.
My rhyme is vanished; my muse is stilled.
Shadow was her name.
A shadow walks
beside me
in the sun—
faithful companion,
mimicking my every move.
Through the
decades of my life,
I scarcely noticed
little changes
in his form.
He seems just
a bit shorter now
and stooped slightly
at the waist—moving
slower than before.
Now I find he is
also not so near
and one hand mimicks
the shake of my own hand.
Where does that come from?
Hardly see him anymore,
as I sit here in my room.
But friends and dear ones
gather round.
I seldom feel alone.
I tug now at my shadow,
for he shuffles more than walks,
as I spend more time outside,
walking in the sun, finding
purpose in my days.
Still my shadow struggles but
works hard as any friend—
never giving up.
Someday, I suppose,
I'll finally get a new one.
Everywhere I go my shadow follows
In the bright sunny sunshine
When the sunset is set
O' Shadow, This Soul Dares To Ask Of Thee
O'
shadow,
pray tell more
before midnight clock scores
and in its echoes lays to waste
souls yearning for life's sweeter taste
hearts pining to youth and romance's deep appeal
not those never ending sorrows from which this dark world steals.
O'
shadow,
do not delay
truth I thee pray
of dark clouds spinning now
about life, love and black ship's prow
shorelines weeping loud and in hot red-spit flames
pleadings from ravenous and ghastly pits, savage accursed games.
O'
shadow,
do not deny
terror and the why
your master in secret demands
death and pains grow upon bloody hands
as it tempts we of earth and sad mortal breath
through our desires even until our woeful and weeping sad deaths.
O'
shadow,
do these pains explain
waves of loss, life's stains
storms born from Hade's deep dark abyss
ravaging through our world as truth we dismiss
I beg do not laugh at crying heart and turn to flee
nor attempt to utterly destroy, small light flickering within me.
O'
shadow,
fear not its wrath
nor losing way in its dark paths
speak to me, let truth thy lost heart save
as wisdom dictates, hope rewards heroes truly brave
listen as grieving heart asks for this needed reprieve
and sets about sweetest of divine mercies, saving both you and me.
Robert J. Lindley, 7-14-2019
Rhyme, ( What The Shadow May Know But Never Dare To Tell )
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Shadow to shadow, shade to shade
In youth the Eden where you played
was left bereft, destroyed, decayed,
by trusts malignant masquerade
Shadow to shadow, shade to shade
No grass survives your fallow glade,
when opportunist needs invade
and bleed the lives from every blade
Shadow to shadow, shade to shade
First, victims surging song is brayed
but dirges of the wronged soon fade
and urges pant their serenade
Shadow to shadow, shade to shade
Agendas you arrange cascade
to keep your motives undisplayed
and cover cracks in your charade
Shadow to shadow, shade to shade
You planted with your soiled spade
these spoiled seeds in hopes that they'd
advance the rancid plots you'd laid
Shadow to shadow, shade to shade
In kind, your ruined past replayed
will find each bloom on whom you've preyed
entombed in blighted beds you've made
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A saffron sun sinks into
a sea of aquamarine.
And chartreuse shadows slip-slide
between frothy waves of white.
Night's ebony fingers dip
into the coral waters.
And Sol paints shades of crimson
upon pale lavender clouds.
Tangerine moonbeams gather
like fairies in the darkness.
And silhouettes trap color,
storing each pigment in black.
A watermelon sunset
marks the start of Sol's descent.
And lilac-scented breezes
tickle the leaves till they laugh.
Like a slippery shadow,
darkness spreads over the land.
And dusk unveils twinkling stars;
adding grandeur to the night.
Moonlight Shadow
Broken dreams
On purple flamed wings
Celtic rumors
Burning bright
Crosses and crescents
Knights and swords
In the mist of a weary mystical night
I saw her lying there, chest broken and bare
Picking her up, horse galloping away
We escaped the arrows and swords
She my sworn enemy lay half dead and splayed
My duty for not to tribes, but only to save
Slaved to the sword, this moment I escaped
Both bloodshed and grief
Freedom at last
In a hut in the forest
I dressed her wounds
I caressed her heart
Our eyes met over the firelight
I emptied myself into her
She, with lips so sweet
Drained the flood of tears and hate
From my very being
Shocked that love should strike me as an arrow
I held her, my first and only love
For three days and three nights
We whispered to each other foreign words
I touched her face and as she touched mine
In my arms she died
Softly and loved
I buried her
I buried my hate
I buried my sword
I buried my history
Celtic rumors
Burning bright
I, at peace
For the final flight
I held love within my arms
For that celestial moment in time
Now the final embrace
Wrinkled and old
I kiss deaths door
Knowing within
She is there to greet me
in the dead of night
moon reflects on rippling lake
shadows duck and dive
20th February 2015
Her eyes appear brighter
Her voice whispers low
Her head on the pillow has risen, somehow
She is somewhere without us, somewhere back home
Lost from the present, to a place long ago
She's been lost in the shadows,.......... of where?
We don't know…
A spark has ignited to cradle this moment
Exquisitely composed with infinite detail.
From the essence of recall, it seems to become
a virtual illusion, as if she's gone home
Once lost in the darkness,
it is briefly retrieved,
just for this moment, before it is gone.
She smiles as she holds it,
as if it has pleased her,
a small golden flashback
to fondle awhile.
It came from a closet,
like a small shaft of light,
on a small mote of dust that has tumbled in flight
Poised in the sunlight it cradles the moment
Too brittle and fragile, too soon it is fading
And quickly to vanish, it falls out of sight
No trace and her face, will lose all the light
crawling into the shadows
that cradle the night
____________________________________________________________
5/9/18