Best Snuffing Poems
I see the future
in the constellation of my crystal tears
as you siphon the sparkle off what’s left of my joy.
Heavy is my heart where you spread your composting ego
sacrificing my fire.
Your unwillingness
to ascend from darkness
on wings of breath and light
is not lost on me..
as you strut your fan of peacock plumes
snuffing out any hope
for my flickery flame.
Susan Ashley
July 19, 2018
~ Third Place ~
Contest: Any July 2018 Poem
Sponsor: Dear Heart a.k.a. Broken Wings
~ POTD ~
July 21, 2018
the Sun in the west
smoldering with fire inside
afraid to explode,
jumped into the waters below.
over this impetuous act
the Day, in deep regret
snuffing all her grace,
flickered out.
under the cover of darkness
the aquamarine sky witnessed,
the birth of a crescent Moon,
with angelic glow.
cradled high in the vast expanse,
with sailing seraphs for company
the little princess born,
would soon be queen of the night sky!
to celebrate the royal birth,
innumerable lights were lit
in the firmament
like burning chandeliers.
the Earth was seen lying dazed,
by this astral illumination
wondering what drama
would yet unfold.
April.11. 2023
~ Placed Eighth~
Brian Strand Contest.No 1212
~ Placed First~
Simply Poetry 2 Poetry Contest
Sponsor- John Lawless
Feeling smug about its certainty,
night anticipates the day's demise.
And as scattered clouds of grey gather;
blue finds sanctuary in your eyes.
As twilight colors a stained-glass sky,
a scarlet sun reluctantly sinks.
And dusk dilutes the essence of light,
scribbling silhouettes in blackened inks.
Vermilion tints the far horizon,
as flashing fireflies light up the night.
And nature inks magical moments;
choreographing their dance with light.
Darkness descends like a shroud of smoke,
snuffing out the last lingering light.
And in the fabric of time and space;
stars confetti an ebony night.
A golden moon shines down from above;
gilding ripples in a wishing well.
And silence mutes the beat of two hearts
held captive, in love's hypnotic spell.
You frolic with playful abandon
Oblivious to obligation
Such wobbly legs prove hard to stand on
Chameleon charmed by temptation
I don't know why your halo's all bent
Your soul's complaint argues so brassy
Can't pay rent when your money gets spent
Once vibrant jewels bloodshot and glassy
Butterfly flapping with tart contempt
Degenerate goals rot away hope
Your daughter grieves with each failed attempt
She cries each time you roll down that slope
Cheap glutton for wanton attention
That hot spotlight withers your pert face
The clock chimes with mortal dissension
Until there's nothing left to erase
Snuffing your fire while quenching your thirst
You disconnect from honest matters
The mirror displays why you've been cursed
Indolence shreds your core to tatters
I was a vibrant vanda thriving
in a wondrous place ~where orchids dream~
and you were a wandering gardener.
Each day you came around
persistent as a bee
murmuring flattering words to me
until at last . . .
you decided to pluck me up.
No longer was I simply captured
by your gaze.
My precious petals then lay open
in your hands.
You could feel my heartbeat
for we became as one,
and ~trapped in your pulse~
I could read the poetry that palpitated
inside your strange but fertile mind.
Mesmerized was I, yet I also knew
I tantalized you.
For a time, our story was not that of
garden variety.
You were my sun, but what was I to you?
Many were the other exotic flowers
of your fantasies.
Caressed and kissed by you,
I was at first in bliss
but passion is ephemeral,
and what you took for love was something
that I grew to see as something else and
overbearing -
later on . . . even as perverse.
As you pressed my pretty petals to you,
my fragrant essence you were
snuffing…. OUT
No longer did I even want to know you.
Freed from you now,
I’m restored to normalcy,
a part of me aware that
~I am the asylum of your ache~
even today.
But ~I taste your truth~ of toxicity
a nasty reality when laid bare
and which at long last
I SPAT OUT
you can have your putrid poems.
They are now
for me
~verses in ash~
We played
Scrabble until the word Bali came up-
and you were gone.
That night
your pillow
smelled of ocean breezes, coconut and
heliconia.
When you came back-
I want to be free.
I built a body balloon
around you
and filled it with helium.
I let out the tether
and you went up and up
and up
to the jet stream.
I released the tether.
A man in a 747,
business class,
saw you float by.
I want her-
he wrote in his day planner.
Soon, you fell and fell
towards the African forest
and into a tree.
A leopard started to climb
up to you
but you dropped onto the back
of an elephant
who carried you
into a brightly lit
camp
with a table, tablecloth, candles, wine
and gold silverware-
Ah, there you are, my dear.
You ate and drank
and awoke
covered with golden shackles.
The leopard slept beneath you
snuffing as though in a dream.
Above you
a taunting helicline made of gold keys
lead back
to
our little room
under the eaves,
and the rain
and days filled
with nothing.
So many times you’ve shuffled the deck,
I don’t know which card will turn up next
So many times you’ve poisoned the well,
I don’t what lies you’re going to tell
It’s not fair --
Your keepin’ us all in the dark
It’s not fair --
The snuffing out of every spark
So many times you’ve dumped your oil --
A truly dead sea and no arable soil
So many times you’ve tilted the table,
With a heart of steel you made our lives unstable
It’s not fair --
You promise renewal and repair
They’re not there,
But to you everything is fair
Fair game
Against your false visions
And lying divinations,
Let us raise up our hands
As a unified nation
So many times you questioned our minds
As though it were us and not you who is blind
So many times you’ve tilted the table,
Your heart of steel made the machine unstable
It’s not fair --
The way you shattered our promise
It’s not fair
‘Cause it’s too easy to be dishonest
Once long ago, when Kings and dragons ruled the Earth,
there came to be that a golden Fairy Queen
was pregnant and about to give birth to a radical child.
All the King's court knew this child would be gifted,
destined to do great things, for a prophecy spoke of its coming.
When the nobles heard of this pending birth,
they promptly reported it to the ing.
In those days, ignorance had a grip on the land
and change was strictly forbidden.
All thinkers and learned folks were feared and despised.
The King was evil and ordered his knights to find and
kill the Queen and her golden child.
The Moon turned blood red with horror, snuffing out Her nocturnal light
so the people were cloaked in darkness at night,
and once the Moon stopped shining, the tides no longer came.
The scared villagers panicked and begged the King to call back his knights
and spare the Fairy Queen.
But the King was driven mad with anger
and vowed he'd slay the Queen and her golden child;
nothing they said could dissuade him from accomplishing this.
The people turned to the dragons and tried to persuade them with flattery
to stop the King, or no one would gaze at their serpentine beauty again.
But the King got wind of their ploy and banished all dragons from his land.
And still, to this day, every dragon has stayed away.
But the knights stumbling in the dark could not find the Fairy Queen,
so her child was born amidst their chaos, and She named it Democracy.
The Moon was so relieved; She beamed with joy,
and Her light shone again upon the land.
The people denounced the King when Democracy was born,
and as prophesied, a brand-new era came into being;
one where dragons and kings would eventually fade into memory.
What if I told you that I was weak
Eyes bleak;couldn't reach even the companion I seek
What if I told you I was insane
Riding in the pain; Bonnie and Clyde stunt till no part of me remain
What if i said that I was falling
Darkness calling; funeral dirges echoing from the night until the morning.
Space and time couldn't bring it down
Til you shot through the defence ;holding it by the throat snuffing the life it had.
The arrow I sent to the skies wishing it all the best
Has reversed with an increasing speed until it hit it in the chest.
Dim glow;blood flow
Eyes wide; soul go
Darkness isn't born,
It is created by snuffing out the light,
Sorrow does not exist,
Except in the absence of happiness.
Dark people with dark intentions,
Appearing as a sheep but with the heart of a wolf,
Evil things lurking in the shadows,
Lying in wait to devour the sons of GOD.
But just as the light illuminates and vanishes a shadow,
so also when we gather every knee shall bow,
For love, Hope and Faith is our symbol of strength,
No weapon fashioned against us shall prosper.
BECAUSE,
WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
04/10/2018
She drifted past the spiral arms in white,
A shadow snuffing galaxies to dark.
She held the dying pulsars to her breast,
Like children, singing chaos into sleep.
"Do not be frightened," hummed to worlds of ice,
"The dark is velvet-deep, you are not lost."
She swept the dust of nations into glass,
Preserving lovers' vows before they broke.
There is a beauty in the sudden halt,
Perfection in the stop, like gravity
That waits to catch the ocean in its fall.
She severed light from heat, and form from mass,
A cold tranquility beneath the storm.
So infinite her mercy, grace so strange,
She wiped the seat of life from Nature's face.
For eons she has walked, the gardener,
Who plucks the solar systems like a bloom.
She does not take with malice or with hate,
She only opens wide the iron door.
And now she stands before your yellow sun,
To answer with a kiss the final call.
You tremble at her silence?
Fear the end?
You think she brings the night to kill the stars?
She weeps to see you breathe, knowing the truth.
She is not here to hollow out your soul;
She kills you now to save you from the Hunger.
By the river corner I sat and wept
Memories of the war flooding my mind
Imagines of rotting bodies everywhere
The smell of dying children pungent still
Starvation and molestation rampant
How did things degenerate so quickly?
At all turns reality hits me quick
In the gut, so full of the pain I weep
I spy times past when laughter was rampant
Stories about my childhood come to mind
Stories that my wife tells the children still
Of blue skies and green pastures everywhere
In these stories laughter was everywhere
The young ran around full of life, very quick
Young maidens abound then, gentle and still
Men in love at their feet threatening to weep
Gestures of love lived in the young man’s mind
And the giggles of maidens were rampant
Alas now, war cries have become rampant
Snuffing out the lives of men everywhere
Empathy has been vanquished from our mind
As the years pass by children grow quickly
Awakening into the horror, weeping
They seek revenge as bloodlust grows strong still
At last the war is over, all is still
Sadly not laughter but cries are rampant
Mothers, children, fathers, everyone weeps
The smell of decay pungent everywhere
Spreading diseases and plagues, quickening
The fears and apprehension in our minds
Daily horrible sights assault the mind
And all through the nights we have nightmares still
We awake with a start, screams echo quickly
And all around insomnia is rampant
Bloodshot eyes, frail faces move everywhere
And everyone knows that all night they wept
Quickly I run, tears flowing rampant still
Everywhere I go, lost friends haunt my mind
By the river corner I sat and wept
Which way leads to the
land of green white
green?
Which way are we
heading?
A country the wicked
bears the rulership, and
the people sighing
continuously.
A terrible thing sprouts
beneath the sun: a
pregnant woman
delivering not.
Imps come to lime-light
by snuffing air from the
goose that laid the
golden eggs.
The blind guiding the un
blind.
The weak suppressing
the strong-a terrible
thing.
Like the overthrow of the
gods at Mt. Olympus by
the Titans.
A country where also
thieves appear as men of
integrity.
Land of green white
green,which way?
A land where the
enlightened ones are
overshadowed and
peanuts given to them.
The masses are dogs that
eat the crumbs.
Which way to go you
Land?
Iliterates stand on
podium of power
bellowing orders as milk
of sorrow known as
dividends of democracy
is passed around.
The machine of progress
manned by the
unproductive.
"There is better
tomorrow" we hear.
Land of green white
green,my country
where rule of law walk
beside anarchy.
The proles are sentenced
to adversity,and there
endured death-like trials.
Chai! Aru! People
dancing on thorns
whimpering as they
throng
along.
I see a new sun rising
from the horizon,hope is
rekindled as its rays
grace on hopeless bodies.
Look!! there soon be
change!
Note:
This
is
poem
full
of
Nigeria
political
angst.
Sunlit porch dimmed by the sensation
Your alluring gloom, my fascination
Stark battle lines within me divided
The siren call of self-degradation
Serpent and preacher wrestling inside
Moving feet kill the negotiation
Ah, to circle your star’s periphery
Feel your dying light irradiate me
Drawn ever down by fell gravity
It chains me deep within my core
Snuffing out cool light of purity
A decaying orbit evermore
Light consumed by the fascination
Dank air, charred fragrance of damnation
Our baleful destiny is quickening
Eyes lock, ineluctable fixation
Within my throat, it rises, sickening
Yearning for ebony immolation
Entangled by the melodrama
Of this dying star’s miasma
In its final desperate brilliance
Inexorably rendering my heart
Falling, falling, for the killing
As the black hole pulls it apart
Deep in me swells her dark radiance
Cry desperate plea to other luminance
Every atom screaming temptation
Sweet agony of impending corruption
Yet it cracks with frosty hesitation
My supernova of self-destruction
Roaring deafness to echoing silence
Cold, vacant throne of inner tyrant
Flame of wayward desire’s treachery
Quenched by inscrutable mystery
Deepest soul plea answered, leaving me
Just cold embers of pitch black memory
6/1/16
© Thomas W. Quigley
I appear with the unbegotten
In the hollows of the seen
A shadow of the soon forgotten
I enter through the dream
Inhabiting the void
In the source of germ and seed
I bring forth the undestroyed
As time and space recede
In nightmares where the banished dwell
In spells inciting ire
I swallow up a newborn hell
Bound by wind and fire
Snuffing out a sun or two
As a galaxy expires
I take root in empty truths
With flesh as my attire
As ill-starred seers stutter
And oracles retire
I awake the muted echoes
In the ruins of desire
Written by © Raven Drake