Best Sifting Poems
If I had but one last sorrowful day of my life left,
there would be words I would say without delay.
Too long have I struggled, uncertain and bereft,
my tongue silent as though mired in a pit of clay.
Until now, I found myself sifting sand from my soul.
Now, willing to bare my heart's unavowed affection,
I must find the bravura to proclaim it and be bold,
and yet I find myself fearing your gentlest rejection.
Time warily squandered shall never be returned.
So, I'm seeking courage to reveal what I am feeling,
while hoping my sweet ardor shall not be spurned
nor the love for you that I have long been concealing.
Gleaming are stars hovering aloft in evening skies,
but if gathered together, never could they outshine
the luster I descry in the fulgent light in your eyes
when the beat of your heart and mine finally align.
When the pale moon rises to Heaven at zenith height,
its glorious beauty shall emerge from a lunar eclipse.
Not as seductively alluring to be with you on the night
when alas I shall feel a kiss from your sensuous lips.
Thereafter, sunlight shall yawn on the edge of dawn
but your love shall warm me more than his golden rays.
No greater fire is there to be compared with love born
by your searing touch that easily sets my heart ablaze.
If this is but a fantasy, I dare not lift tremulous eyes to see
the response to my avowal, if on your face it is defined.
I shall not bear the heartache if you turn away from me,
for then it would be a benediction, if my eyes were blind.
January 29, 2023
2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 26 Contest
Sponsored by Mark Toney
Originally written in 2016
for a contest sponsored by John Hamilton
No one scoops up the vast subtleties
Of my mind's water
Quite like the hands that adore me most
There are no holes,
No overflows, nor spills
This soul does not filter away the essence,
Does not pluck the bloom before it has shown its worth,
Nor does his powerful hands have a heart to ever remove it
From its marshy field of poetic influence
But when it rots,
He simply refuses to discard
And instead regards pollution with avid wonder
For he knows with a nod I have it in myself to teach
And I have it in myself to heal these inner hells
So when these waters flow freely again
In search of new blooms and clear horizons,
I will find his precious hands sifting, provoking the currents
Admirably never losing sight of our love's purpose
to my son, Tito
A handful of sand in the angel's palm,
how often you strummed and sifted the metaphor
of Long Beach (since you were four and rolled
and unrolled and jotted down the specks of time
as if you knew what was behind the flimsy skies
that threw your quantum song asunder).
Children have gone, house settling down;
sitting and sifting through memories found.
How quickly life passes--a grandma now
I wish I could reverse the clock somehow.
I didn't know how quickly they would grow
into their own lives--a world I don't know.
November 28, 2021
Bite Size Poem No. 28 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Line Gauthier
First Place!
What more could I have done? I'd already taken far too much.
There was no more gentleness in your voice, nor in your touch.
Your cursing and verbal abuse eroded all my respect for you.
I tried to help fight your demon; something only you could do.
Our home became just a house. We lived under the same roof
but stormy weather poured in from your bottle of 100 proof.
With a sob in my throat, I walked away from you while crying.
Your lies and accusations ripped me apart and left me dying.
life is sifting sand
I still wear your wedding band
upon my left hand
There was no getting back what we lost when you caused my fears.
How did I swallow the disappointment? I washed it down with tears.
The finale' came the night you slammed my hand in the door.
The only broken bone I ever had; I couldn't take it any more.
What else could I have possibly done to keep from losing you?
It was too late when you lost yourself, and now we're through.
Sometimes I wish we'd never met. You deceived me from the start.
I will never regret loving you, and I've forgiven you in my heart.
life is sifting sand
you removed your wedding band
gone from your left hand
Once my world revolved all around you, my sunny days and skies of blue.
Now you're just a stranger, someone I once loved, someone I once knew.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
2/1/2016 The Dark Side of Love
Sponsored by Shadow Hamilton
Sun invades fall leaves
Dividing rays and shadows
Forsaking summer.
sifting through nostalgia
not in form but ingrained
upon this map so twisted
to retrace again.
the displacement that i felt
the lump and nausea
in my own vomit I knelt
and i wept for her.
gracious god you turn me
from fruit to worm
what horrors have i dealt thee?
which perversions must I learn?
I have been sifting through a Shadow,
And only found it a shadow indeed--
The black tresses to outline its features,
Like waking at new morning's chime.
I greeted it as though my dark and its
Would be a shade indistinct,
And find in each a same-song toil
That needed no words for which to speak.
It cast upon my unaccustomed eyes,
And in earnest I rubbed to be sure
The light was not playing tricks on me,
But no light I saw but below my door.
The Shadow bemused itself with shadows,
As a bad mother to her youth,
And so much I thought it tender true.
True! The very word is like a mist
That hungrily clings to solid ground,
Though it is dark and none can I see.
The light beneath my door is waning,
So I must love the Shadow all the more,
But the night is born to bewitch the sense;
Love is an hour that has a minute's way
Where awake or dreaming, I cannot know,
If Shadows have form in the light of day.
always questions always apprehensions
in the process of getting through this life
begins with stunning realization
there is more to this universe than I
flows through doubt and self-examination
into a struggle to simply get by
following rules truly all that there is
why not search for something much more than this
try to find meaning within existence
beyond the needs for basic subsistence
reach for some form of common human cause
beyond doubs tears fears and need for applause
seeking that which is right which is most wise
avoiding the urge to antagonize
Sometimes it’s hard to remember their faces
Sifts away like sand sifts through the fingers
Daddy I made it sleep well I forgive you
Mom you could of found me or pretended to try
Sis I miss you but you cannot control me
Grandma I wish you could of used your heart just once
Living on without them no easy task to take
Created a wall and had a massive army to defend it
Spent all my time portraying someone stronger
Forgetting who I was and becoming someone else
Took years to pull me from the rubble
Sometimes it’s hard to remember their faces
Sifts away like sand sifts through the fingers
A father departed
A mother unknown
A sister's Perfection
A Grandmother’s malevolence
by: Virginia Frayer
Love left lying against a dated wall
Out there in the open
Awaiting another shoe to fall
Crystal beads of penance
Dripping from the bowl
Crosses to be mended
Splinters take their toll
Broke but not forgotten
Where words wore fancy robes
Homeless in a shelter
Empty are the roads
No fears nor tears
Torn straight apart
No sleep nor rest
You failed the test
Morning comes and Autumn leaves
Children weep and Mothers grieve
Families lost without a cause
So take your bow here's your applause
Love left lying against a dated wall
out there in the open
awaiting the other shoe to fall
Crystal beads of penance
dripping slowly from the bowl
crosses to be mended
splinters take their toll
Broke but not forgotten
where words wore fancy robes
homeless in a shelter
empty are the roads
No fears nor tears
torn straight apart
no sleep nor rest
you failed the test
Morning comes as autumn leaves
children weep and mothers grieve
families lost without a cause
take a bow here's your applause
late-summer sky, vast cloudless vault
hued blue as eyes first meeting mine;
soon autumn tinged fresh campus air
as flirting-glance to fondness grew
and verdant leaves donned ochre hues
then blushed rust tones when we would gaze
deep into eyes, hearts warm as spring
in dappled shade beneath spread limbs
of gold and umber, pumpkin-rind,
soft pastel sketches for the eye
while we held hands and strolled to class,
kaleidoscope of trickling leaves
adrift and wafting, sifting down
to skitter softly in north's breeze
while we embraced for our first kiss
in gloaming colored like the leaves
i emptied my heart, dug deep within,
peeled off the layers of dust
that smeared my life.
i turn this way – the dust
chokes my head.
i turn that way – the dust swirls
around, engulfing me yet again.
my wound stings, my head spins,
my heart aches.
NOW!
i watch helplessly
as The Hand erases all the fingerprints
from each page of lined paper.
Existence is swallowed by the rag
with which The Hand swabs viciously.
the pine fragrance lingers.
my wound raw, my head stuporous
my heart sore.
I sit here on the beach, seaside.
"Sifting sad shadows from the past."
Which like sand flats ebbing with tide,
Expose sadness, in blackness cast.
As I find ashes of loves died,
Sorting it all out, takes its toll.
Hands tremble, heart splits open wide,
Weighing the sorrows, drags on soul.
The shadows lengthen as day dies.
Soon to coalesce to black night.
I must get rid of woe betides,
Before I lose last rays of light.
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Quote # 4