Best Starker Poems
An old lady sat near a window, near a window looking out.
With her radio going she sat there sewing, with an occasional look about.
On her thumb she wore a thimble, as she pulled the thread so nimble, enjoying the
light,
While the weatherman’s voice was blaring, declaring a storm in sight.
She began to hurry, and to worry about her Sam.
Had he heard the early morning warning from the weatherman?
While she sat there stewing, the storm greater brewing, she thought about her
man.
“He could work much longer, if only he was stronger— he does the best he can.”
The skies grew darker and her thoughts grew starker in the afternoon.
“Upper air disturbance; expecting turbulence with night coming soon.”
While she debated, the storm accelerated from the north.
With clouds unloading her thoughts grew foreboding, as she paced back and forth,
Qualms of duress she expressed about her Sam.
“Was he wet and freezing? Was he cold and sneezing? Poor old Sam!”
The northern air was gusting as she began thrusting shut the door,
From freezing rain fast falling, while for Sam she was calling as she paced the floor.
Back at the weather station a strange situation was spreading forth.
Not so far away an arctic foray pushed from the north.
It hardly took a wizard to see the shaping blizzard hiding every star,
A whirling cloud formation showed its concentration on the isobar.
Suddenly she started walking, while talking to her Sam.
Once she stopped to listen, ignoring the snow that glistened— then she ran.
She must’ve been unsightly as the lights shown on her brightly from a car,
Driven by her daughter, doing things she taught her, searching near and far.
“Mother! It’s me, Mabel. You know you’re not able to be out in the cold!
Look how hard it’s snowing with the wind so cold and blowing. Forgive me if I scold.
Finding you not there, I looked everywhere up and down the street.
You’ve come too far, so get in the car and dry your feet.”
“Mabel . . . Pa went out this morning . . . but he had no warning the weather would
be severe.”
“Oh, my mother dear, please come here, come here. Dad’s been gone a year!”
Suddenly the old lady was weary, her eyes old and bleary, her body weak and cold.
She had no coat nor jacket, but in her hand a packet—Sam’s picture she did hold.
Categories:
starker, confusionold, morning, old, storm,
Form:
Narrative
A CHILD’S EASEL
We bought it used at an art store
And cleaned it with soap and water.
Then stood it on the living room floor:
A child’s easel for our daughter.
You would draw on it with a marker,
Or write messages we could read;
The letters were always starker
If there was an important need.
It straddled the dog’s kennel cage
Throughout seven years of growing,
Your knowledge we could always gauge
By the drawings you were showing.
We never wiped it’s white board clean
Of the creative things you drew,
All those years till you were thirteen;
That’s what a parent’s pride will do.
But now that you’re growing older
The easel stands alone and bare.
You’ve given it the cold shoulder
And quit drawing things to share.
Soon we’ll give it to someone new
Because now it’s mainly ignored,
So someone can write notes just like you,
And draw pictures on its board.
Categories:
starker, growing up,
Form:
Ballad
There is beauty in your absence
there is greatness in your silence
there is pain in your wishes
In your innards, there are dreams
Poetry and you are synonymous
I am synonymous with love
how I love you both.
Poetry is a susurrus
that tickles the nooks
and crannies of resourcefulness
every recourse, every nook
and cranny, and life itself
the shadow lives inside me
an almost flawless replica.
It moves when she moves
smiles when she smiles
all is well, a shadow says
shadows from the past
stretch longer when the sun sets.
Weaning from the breast
of grief and tears
becomes starker and harsher
Mother, you are long gone
yet in the fading light
I suckle on your memories.
5th place contest winner
Written: January 28, 2023
Your Pick Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Categories:
starker, analogy, appreciation, memory, mother,
Form:
Free verse
These bright summer days
present a world starker than
fall's greyest hours
8/14/22
Categories:
starker, death, grave,
Form:
Monoku
spiral darker
deeper down
ever starker
viral rounds
sing out somber, to the seas
of tears of floods, uprooted trees,
the flotsam the jetsam
the waste and ennui
barred walls of this cyclonic me
this caged vortex of the sea
this maelstrom of my
infinity
for Bacchus loved Neptune
and they both hate me
Categories:
starker, loss
Form:
Free verse
Cycles of life stream reams of joy and pain
Alternating nets and magnets of sunshine and rain
Sifting through rest and strain
When by default I favour a fault
That in my right sense I should halt
Meaning I should let go of the colt
I caress and mount to relax
Despite burdens of the tax
I endure to service the fax
That conveys messages of heightened hope
To bless, stress and trace amity angles of the slope
I negotiate to survey the scope
My love, my faith and my attitude
Scale in a hail of ingratitude
I abhor as to my rescue galumphs fortitude
To cleanse the miasma of despair
In which I sometimes declare
In a rampage as I attempt to repair
The mixed image on the visage
I project in the virtue village
I visit when hackers pillage
My reserves of preserves of humility
Blown, sown and grown with malleability
To prop up ropes I master to the best of my ability
When from despair I cringe
Despite my back swinging on the hinge
Of neutrality sauntering on the fringe
Binge can’t conquer
When hunger, thirst and deprivation in darker
Shades and hues contrasts starker
Than frustration, repression and revulsion dare to wear
In coats and coasts of boasts that tear
At my conscience as chivalry challenges dare
To nibble
Scribble
Dribble
Past endeavours and labours of disbelief
To sow and throw mischief
On the thief whose whiff and grief
Can no longer massacre
My anger protector in whose acre
Rises my invincible backer to slay and waylay the sucker
Who invades my stamina space
Concealing weapons of disgrace
That float and gloat to race
Away in shame
As my angel and I claim
Their scalps on which I place heaps of blame
To put an end to a shameful saga
Renew and revitalize my vigour
With reborn rigour, so eager for good to augur.
Categories:
starker, poems,
Form:
Free verse
Careless talker
When emotions are
Bottle up in side
We long to be hug
But still make it hide
But comes a day
We let our guards down
And then some can use it
To do you so wrong
I read a verse from the
Bible on the shelf
Says be careful what you say
A careless talker hurts their self
We all have times
When we are weak
And some attention
Sometimes we seek
Some can use that
To brake your heart
And give you more pain
Than you had from the start
Not all who smiles
You can call your friend
If they betrayed you once
They will do it again
Then pretend its ok
To push you to the edge
And silently laughs
Pointing to the ledge
A really good friend
Is like a personal starker
Who will stop you from?
Being a careless talker
If you have a good friend
Who really cares for you?
Then appreciate them
For they are very few
This world can be cruel
But we must face the day
Never knowing what tomorrow
Is going to bring our way
Just be wise your words
Says the bible on the shelf
And a careless talker
Will only hurt their self
Categories:
starker, life,
Form:
Light Verse
the job is odd
its has to be
some have mabe three
head radio as the go
some have dogs that barg
and talk nd people starker
the
DOG WALKER
Categories:
starker, abuse, adventure, beach,
Form:
Light Verse
Trump Barker In Sideshow
Trump's financial records are n New York on file
Look like he is going through period of denial
Seems so rich and everything he can afford
Even made Daughter Chairman of a board.
If asking her a question why should you bother
Who would say anything against own father
No matter what he did or perhaps direction
Trump was pleasing and sign of pure perfection.
His perfection thought that we often perceived
But were ill-informed as well as misconceived
As reality daily did become much more starker
Trump did turn out to be a sideshow barker.
I am b-a-c-k.
James Thesarious Hilarious Horn
Retired Veteran and Poet
Categories:
starker, allegory, analogy, humorous,
Form:
Couplet
they lay some say
let go to the bay
get up walk the beat
on the there' feet
some or starker
call
SLEEP WALKER
Categories:
starker, adventure, mystery,
Form:
Light Verse
A lone black crow
sits on a limb of a tree
amongst a crowd of trees
that surround the townhouses.
The trees' silhouettes
are drawn on the brick;
on the shingled roofs;
by the Sun this Late January.
The dark shape of the crow
is starker than the trees' cast
of the night color; it is spectre-like,
within the arms of the spectator-like trees.
The branches are frosted with yesterday's spitting snowflakes.
Their bark is the tint of stones;
or the grains of sand on an Irish shore,
viewed on the one rainy day
of a journey so long ago.
A squirrel scurrying up the tree
is the same color-
of the rough or smooth stone,
bleached by the Sun;
of the wet sand of the shore in Ireland,
whose dunes crouch to watch the tides ebb,
to see the pull of the floating Moon.
The squirrel blends into the mourning dove
tinctures as if he were a captive
of the Winter day..
or brushstroked into an oil painting.
The crow, hue of a cold desert night,
lifts to fly away.
The shadows become new shapes
in the shifting sunlight..
they become charcoal spirits
in her sketch of an agued morn'.
Categories:
starker, allusion, appreciation, beauty, creation,
Form:
Free verse
be aware
they don't care
this i won't share
some or odd
smooth as lard
real starker
the never run out gas
real
FAST TALKER
Categories:
starker, addiction, betrayal,
Form:
Light Verse
Dad's voice in my ears,
After all these years,
Lilacs the color of dreams,
Reality starker than it seems.
The callouses on his hands,
Evidence of life's demands.
Too blind to see the truth,
He thought I had it smooth,
Not knowing what lay ahead
The road on which he tread.
The fallen lilacs only covered
The hardships I discovered.
Categories:
starker, childhood,
Form:
Rhyme
Some decisions must be made
And they could be the wrong ones,
Since opinions may not jive
With yours and might be strong ones.
Everybody’s comfort level
Varies so completely,
Even with the facts, the pros and cons
Don’t line up neatly.
Trust your gut is what they say
But you may feel conflicted,
Especially when hearing
Your conviction contradicted.
Life has always been this way,
Though Covid’s made things starker
And when decisions must be made
My mood gets that much darker.
Categories:
starker, how i feel,
Form:
Rhyme
there mind is fixs
theyer or a trick
for what they do
its more than a few
they are starker
some call them
STREET WALKER
Categories:
starker, romance,
Form:
Light Verse