Best Sleepless Poems
Teardrops, bagged eyes, a way of sin
The mirror reveals a lost eternal soul
A conniving move against tonight's phantom glow
Voices circle the insomniac moon
Like magic and beauty, "She's Gone With the Wind."
The idea of love,
broken like yesterday's wishbone.
She is leaving today, her arms, my shelter
Her wings are now immense.
Beauty --- she's gone forever!
Never will she suffer-
Never will she return-
All I have are lost memories,
tracing what is left.
One final deep breath
tequila vice to wash away the pain.....
At Last, Now I See!
Under the drunken stars
I had an epiphany
Stricken like a match
A sunken treasure
At Last, I Knew
You did not belong in there,
you were there for the taking
Frail and sick, no longer sane.
Memories lost, no longer - her
My Mother!
What has become of her?
You're a demon, who played us all
Made us cry, while she slowly withered away
The way you laid waste to her body
Nipping both legs, feeding her through tubes
She rapidly forgot our names' our faces'
I hate you, Alzheimer
I hate the way you took her the first time!
I hate you, Death
I hate the way you claimed her final days!
Sleepless nights and pillowed feathers,
Caress a precious moment around my tender skin
Pretending my mother tucked them in
Anything to help me get past my sleepless nights
sleepless night---
the moon becomes
more familiar
© kash poet 2012
================
Placement: 1st;(Feb. 2012)
Contest: Any Verse Maxm. 12 lines
Sponsor: Brian Strand
From Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
"To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there's the rub.”
Perchance to dream. . . Ah yes, but first to sleep!
My little clock keeps ticking on and on.
I‘m long past even trying to count sheep.
Perchance to dream. . . Ah, yes, but first to sleep!
A creeping dread now makes me want to weep.
Dawn’s coming; birds are trilling as I yawn.
Perchance to dream? Ah yes. . . But first to sleep!
My little clock keeps ticking on and on.
For Carolyn Devonshire's Sleepless - Old Or New Poetry Contest
Sleepless
this
night.Every
time
I
try
to
sleep,
your
smiling
face
from
the
photoframe
wakes
me
up.So
I
pluck
words
from
my
heart
to
stitch
a
garland
for
you.Wish
my
every
single
word
could
touch
you
instantly.And
then
whispers
love
talks
to
you.
Never
do
I
beleive
that
only
these
three
words
'I
love
you'
are
sufficient
to
express
my
depth
of
love
for
you!
Only
for
you
I
have
bid
good
bye
to
the
full
moon.Jasmine
tried
to
invade
my
room
with
its
fragrance.I
have
closed
the
windows
to
keep
it
away.Because
on :)
my
pillow
cover
still
your
lingering
lavender
fragrance.I
need
it
for
every
moment.As
I
close
my
eyes
I
can
feel
your
presence.Even
the
wall
clock
seems
to
spell
your
name
with
every
second.Come
back
dear
soon,in
your
absence
every
night
a
long
sleepless
night.
Roving a youthful shadowed ebony heaven
as the earth is still on blissful spring night flight.
I fly through and over the enclosing trees,
boughs', and the susurration fluttering leaves.
I emerge to nesting Nightingales
and their cacophony melodious
of unfilled cries , calling me
to come to appease their needs.
Alighting and dripping down
for a short quick kiss to each one.
I woke to a vision of streaked ,wisps
of timeless gray clouds before the morning.
It's not a silent night, stars glitter and wink
in the dark as they look down on me.
Minstrels outside my bedroom window;
the birds were there somewhere
between the treetops and the cloud bottoms.
There will be no sleeping beauty upon these white linens,
as a result of reverberating sounds of those crying cuties.
7/2/2017
Sleepless Valentine
I took the pinkie blue cuddlesome bear
And by its blood scarlet bow
Noose tied hung it
Too soft
With its felted heart
And false cute sentiment
And with eyes burning hot
I tore it down
Fluffy bear
Thrown to the ground
Where
The petal shard-ed reds of rose
Lay dashed
On broken stems
Thrashed to the corner
The puffy pleading little arms
And big round mollusc eyes
And cutie pie smile
So in bare feet
I could trample flowers
In a Disney valentine
Till I lay on my bed
Groaning, shudders and weeping
And all the words I wrote
Of love
Couldn’t stop the pleading
Of my heart
Not to feel these empty arms
Riled against my pillow I did
And scratched and tore
At cold cotton sheets
While images of you
Lay my souls ever itch in my head
While my blood screamed
With dead Rosetta Rosaceae
And this nights sleepless toss and turn
Has not begun
Has not lifted an eye lid
And stolen my dreams
No
The long dawn has not even begun
To bleed its way through solitary hours
And find me capitulated
In the teddy bear whispers
Of the night still ahead
I must steal myself instead
And continue to hanker after the witches red
Of ringlet hair
And bend my will
To sullen acceptance
No
Not together
No
Not yet
The sky sneers at me through the curtain of clouds
I strain in vain to see if a star is flickering
The night stands stripped of all munificence
As I turn and twist on my bed,
I know for sure insomnia stubbornly
Keeps her reins on my poor self
As I lie sleepless with my torso weighing a ton,
Whispering my anguish onto my pillow
With darts of pain stinging out from my swollen eyes
I know I have lost sense of every passing hour,
But intensely feel every moment….
My ear drums are slit by the sirens of ambulances
Their blinking lights flashing in darkness
And scrawling strange graffiti on the walls
Down in the patio, I hear the swish
Of paper flung by the paper boy
Thank God! The night has ended.
But is it not for another night’s painful litany?
Yet I dream of a bright dawn
At the end of every night of distress!
Sleepless Nights - Limerick Insomnia Revisited
Limericks are so hard to write.
Sometimes, keep me up half the night
Spending way too much time
Just trying to rhyme
A word that’s just out of sight.
Written By John Posey
07/02/13
Insomnia, familiar friend,
crawled into bed this summer night
so once again, inflamed with dread
I wander now in pitch of dark
and touch the places, now by heart, that sprawl unstirred by weary minds
This lonely place, where I used to come
where armless grief, and headless doubt
and worry filled the rooms
I know you cold, my land of oz
So ruthless do you change your face
into a place I once refrained
But, don't pretend to make me fear, toxic robber of my sleep
I've known you much too long
You masquerade in shades of gray
And now I know that dark of night, is not the blackest thing
And room by room, I'll play the game
until the light of day
The shadows magnify your art
and though they magnify my loss of sleep
and while I've tossed and turned in vain
I've lost the lonely albatross
that pulled against the grain
From hooded thresholds I embark
to find a language of the dark
A liquid language of a mystic night,
that switches on the light
I've walked the halls of ghosts I knew, and those I hope to meet
I've felt the stares, and shared myself, no secrets left to keep
But not tonight, familiar friend
you bask in myth I understand
I'll fill the tasks that need my hands, until the light of day...
---------------
For Leonora Galinta's Contest
Fate
kismet
good fortune
pre ordinance
luck
Another sleepless night alone,
as thoughts raced through my head,
thinking about that day you left,
and the last words that you said.
I wake up several times at night,
reaching for an empty space,
hoping all was just a dream,
and I’d wake to see your face.
Never does a day pass by,
when I don’t wonder how you feel,
and when I start to really worry,
I just bow my head and kneel.
“Please god be his eyes,
when his duty is in the field,
bring him home safe and sound,
god please protect him, and be his shield.”
Every time i say those words,
a wave of calmness comes over me,
and I’m finally able to close my eyes,
to finally get some sleep.
I sleep, though it’s only temporary
Simple love exists there within my eyes
However it’s broken, quite unhealthy
I cannot sleep, I awake with disguise
Simple love exists there within my eyes
She holds all my thoughts firm outside and in
I cannot sleep, I awake with disguise
As though she holds me, she doesn’t begin
She holds all my thoughts firm outside and in
Confused about our love I wake again
As though she holds me, she doesn’t begin
Never can she grasp my heart, it’s a sin
Confused about our love I wake again
She has messed with my head from all over
Never can she grasp my heart, it’s a sin
What she has done to me, she’s no lover
She had messed with my head from all over
Such to keep me up all hours of the night
What she has done to me, she’s no lover
I can’t find sleep, it’s truly out of sight
Such to keep me up all hours of the night
I don’t know how you could do this to me
I can’t find sleep, it’s truly out of sight
I start off sleeping, a light sleep I see
I don’t know how you could do this to me
However it’s broken, quite unhealthy
I start off sleeping, a light sleep I see
I sleep, though it’s only temporary
Russell Sivey
Contest: Sleepless Nights
Sponsor: Leonora Galinta
7/2/2013
first sunbeams
on my infant's face
the chair still rocking
A spic and span barren bed,
soft pillow with blanket spread.
You're tired and bored, all hackneyed.
Ready to sleep, drop down dead.
But...a vigilant mind..alive in dread.
cacophony..chaos..thoughts unsaid.
Another sleepless night ahead?
Head and heart throbs, like burning cigarettes
Broken love haunts, rude taunts and threats.
Throttled throat breathes, playback cassetes.
Silent tears douse, debts and regrets.
There lies the pillow, waiting to get wet.
That pillow.....so much you miss ..
Where Santa hid .....those gifts of bliss.
An angel mom blew goodnight kiss.
The pillow fights of sweet reminisce.
Now all ruffled,.. restless,.. whimpers hiss
Somnolent sombre eyes,
in endless rhythm eulogize..
A Sleepless Lullaby....
Dawn bids night goodbye....
Sleep
sleep is afar from the eyes
For the mind is too busy
with many thoughts of you
Tossing and turning
staring up into space
Mad
am I gone mad
I've been trying to get over you
Yet memories of good times glimmering my mind
I can't help smiling
You once used to make me laugh
But
but time has changed and life goes on
Except here I am with another sleepless night
Pondering
Wondering
Fooling my mind
Exhausting my eyes
Playing with my heart
So
seems like I got too much of it
Reminiscing on what can't be undone
But baby No I don't need you anymore
These tears I cry are for the end
Because the sound of mid morning arriving
Signaling me to grow up and get some rest
Heavy lids drop and darkness swallow me whole
Smile
Akkina R Downing
8-8-17