Best Starkly Poems
From far a cool wind gently blows,
There's a pleasantness in the air.
Harsh summer heat steadily slows.
The leaves of trees, new colours wear.
Autumn has come in time to cheer
From far a cool wind gently blows
The season brings everything dear
Stock in squirrel’s granary grows
Leaves fall ending their sprightly shows.
Some go fluttering in the air
From far a cool wind gently blows
Some trees are going starkly bare
Flowers begin to fade and die,
As the season’s about to close
Many birds in flock southward fly.
From far a cool wind gently blows
Categories:
starkly, autumn, creation, leaving,
Form:
Quatern
We don't talk about it, I was mutely told,
Schooled in your nonverbal narcissism, I Attest
I became a linguist in the language of silence;
The tightened line of your mouth when a speck
of childhood play leaked through the Aperture
of your wall of control; the Nuance of your slit eyes,
the stiffness of your shoulders when I disturbed.
The famine of your brevity, starkly juxtaposed with
the Proclivity of your friendly words for the neighbors;
Your perfunctory weak praise, more to lessen your guilt
than lift my esteem.
Even as I write this Saga under the weight of betrayal
nearly undone by our mutual oath of avoidance, and
after decades of delay, you have the Temerity to now
charge me with building the distance, keeping the barricade.
I am bluntly surprised, by your surprise; to accuse me of
this Barren contact, is to blame the clay for the cracks
in the hands that molded it.
And you dare say, why am I this way?
When I inherited the Marrow from you-
10/27/18
for John Hamilton's Eight Word Challenge contest
required words: Aperture, Attest, Barren, Temerity, Saga, Proclivity, Nuance, Marrow.
Categories:
starkly, father daughter, hurt, language,
Form:
Free verse
After we met
I thought we really had something,
Really hit it off.
It wasn’t the words we spoke,
The easy fluorescent trail they made.
Maybe it was the Japanese lantern
Glowing over your bare shoulder
Or the smile you threw
To the side-
To someone.
Or maybe it was the cool damp air,
Slight seduction of rain
But no rain.
Perfect, cool molecules,
Layer on layer,
Air sitting on air.
But after, I couldn’t find you.
I couldn’t find you
In the heavy-sitting valleys,
Behind the cool barriered hedges
With stone guard dogs,
In the palm shadowed boulevards
Or the canyon mazes.
I couldn’t find you
In the final exhalations of space,
On sun baked, cracked cement plaza drives.
I couldn’t find you
In the starkly lined avenues
Amongst the serious-expressioned manikins.
It really is a desert here, huh?
Had said the pale cheeked waiter from Wisconsin
While we waited for you to come back.
Yes, I thought, touching the sweating water glass.
A stage set in a desert
Filled with mirages and promises
And doors that no one answers
And roads that curve toward the sun.
We both knew you weren’t coming back.
I won’t find you again
But I will keep looking
And looking
And looking.
There is always that chance.
Yes, to find someone like you.
That chance.
I leave alone,
Tip under plate.
A dog barks at my steps,
Waits, barks again.
We are both close,
Yet impossibly,
Far from home.
Categories:
starkly, longing, love,
Form:
Free verse
Quite overlooked...
Such lovely things
So fragile and quickly fading, they are...
Into precious forgotten memory
A candle flame,
extinguished by a breeze
A petal
as it flows gently upon the wind
A flock on geese
starkly silhouetted,
against a white cloud
These things that leave us behind
And in their passing, how soon we forget
The wonder of it all...
Categories:
starkly, introspection
Form:
Free verse
Once upon a midnight, ghostly,
Partied many, dead ones mostly.
Feasting in the graveyard, sprightly,
White eyed werewolves gorged, engrossedly.
In the bone yard, drab and squalid,
Apparitions (staring stolid
Neath the veiled moon, clouded lightly)
Sought fresh bodies, lean but solid.
Fiendish eyes shone, light and sparkly,
Ghouls and demons danced so darkly.
Maggots munching mush unsightly,
Black blood streamed like ink, quite starkly.
Fetid flesh oozed, flowing freely
Through the crypt doors, cold and steely.
Shadows, ashen, pranced contritely,
Ebon serpents slithered eely.
As it happens, all too often,
Zombies dimly closed the coffin –
Ra, the sun god, rising slightly
Hunger pangs were soon to soften.
If you ask, I’ll tell you blankly,
When you’re feeling dark and dankly
Come to where this happens nightly.
They’ll enjoy the feast, quite frankly...
Categories:
starkly, fantasy, horror,
Form:
Rubaiyat
rose bush starkly bare
snowflakes shimmer on branches
roots dream thrilling days
January 16, 2022
"Winter Haiku" Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Tania kitchin
Syllables (5-7-5) checked by HMS.com
SECOND PLACE
A Brian Strand Hiku Poetry Contest
FIRST PLACE
Categories:
starkly, nature, winter,
Form:
Haiku
When distance circles the shoreline
Painfully , a numb breeze decries
How our lackluster glance mirrors
Frail changing of hesitant eyes.
Across night’s starkly blunt edges
Fondness dangles like threadbare reeds;
Knowing warmth is not forever
When moonless summer’s rapture bleeds.
~
My spirit homeless now admits,
This fleeting affair… love resists.
10 Lines, 5 Words: Rhyme II
Sponsor: Laura Loo 1/17/2018
Categories:
starkly, loss, romance,
Form:
Rhyme
Written for Ink Empress' 'Unwritten Absence' Poetry Contest.
C(ulpa)ble
Your unwritten absence unravelled much
Disrobing piteously your impure intent
Starkly exposing a ravaged soul as such
Cocooned in dark yarns of deceit, I lay spent
In golden gilded cage tarnishing from neglect
Plated with cosmetic veneer for society's consent
Yet, you were oblivious to the storm brewing, most perfect
Bidding the right time to sound its thunderous dissent
NEGLECT, tacitly accepted afore, HENCEFORTH NEVER GOES UNCHECKED!
Categories:
starkly, anger, emotions, hurt, judgement,
Form:
Rhyme
Our first date
to bridge a poker-face divide
conversation with a touch of fantasy
till thunderbolts compose themselves
in questions
"How do you define yourself?"
"What is your idea of beauty?"
"What pushes your boundaries?"
Questions to unearth the enigma
of not knowing
to map the labyrinth
to light the starkly lit palette
obscure
For what is safely hidden can be toxic
Secrets disclosed to set sparse love in motion
sometimes improbable
like catching a fly in flight
Our initial discovery
an excavation
that un-earths a new reality
to weave a narrative
fragmented
Poem composed July 15/21
Categories:
starkly, angst, inspiration, relationship,
Form:
Free verse
He was an ancient warrior from times of old
back in the days when the sun was new
and the stars at night were brilliant blue
like the Canopus star he once knew
Often, he was found rummaging the forest
looking for the rarest mushrooms
as the eagles flew he counted tree rings
indenting the roots of his ancestry wings
Then one day, he was reborn again
in an era of squabble filled with wars
silence became an oddity full of slew
and "The Sacred" a rarity hidden in full view
They tagged him "bipolar" with doctorate degree
this was a world of medicine & mental deficiency
yesterday he howled at the moon * starkly stars
today he is a sad man, longing for a trip to Mars
He, ancient warrior of days of old
fights the good battle everyday,
mistletoe on oak, he holds his staff
all the time knowing time does pass.
Written by: Mystic Rose
Dedicated to a friend, who suffers from bipolar.
Categories:
starkly, analogy, sad,
Form:
Rhyme
The Amber Light Of Dusk
What power does it have?
An amber disk rising in the eastern sky
Born when the world was young
It travels a never ending path
Bringing light reflected from a distant star
It brings light to the darkness of nighttime
Yet, its amber light casts a spell over the planet
Smiling down it looks over a sleeping world
Lovers look upon it with wonder just before their lips meet
Every kiss is better under that amber light
Moments later the amber light turns grey
The disk rises in the sky and shows its true nature
Grey, lifeless and starkly cold
Still, it inspires poems, stories and songs
But, it is no longer romantic as it passes overhead
It is just there orbiting a life filled planet
Sharing its amber light for a few moments
And then it is gone
Categories:
starkly, love, nature, light, light,
Form:
Free verse
when winter comes and skeletons of trees
stand starkly upon the snow
i will think of you
and your head on my lap before the fireplace
skating on the gaunt, deep pond
where we made love on brighter days
hot chocolate and fired brandies
and standing at windows while flurries fell
when it is spring again and trees bear promises
as islands of snow die slowly in their shadows
i will think of you
when all was alive again and you believed in us
within the world of nest-making and streams going home
making bouquets of foothill flowers
constantly profaning the word “forever”
and imagining that winter was forever gone
when summer is upon me with sweltering wrath
i will come to the forest where we walked and
i will think of you
where we were prone beneath the well dressed limbs
in a canopy above us, fitted into one another like lovers
by the quarry lake where you were covered in beads of water
and the sun loved you and glistened upon your body
where i looked at you as one would view sunsets or miracles
autumn will come with all its dark omens and i will walk
upon the crisp leaves made spectacular by death
and i will think of you
where the earth wore its gaudy colors while ours had faded
into the murky hues of uneasiness and fear
and soon the trees will awaken alone and naked to the world
and i will understand their plight in a box called home
where once laughter lived and life was wonderful
there was a time before seasons and sentiment
when small, gentle hands covered my eyes with giggles
and you gasped, “oh, i’m sorry! i thought you were someone else!”
i smiled then and replied, “i am.”
it was the spring of us that led into the caldron of summer passion
before time and treasons took their toll
before reality and reason tore the glitter from our eyes
and our autumn came that condemned us to our winter
Categories:
starkly, dedication, lost love, love,
Form:
Free verse
Green fingers
Morning light crept it's long laughing fingers
Around the edge of heavy dark curtains,
And cocooned, my chakra of pain lingers,
Not willing to welcome more of her sermons.
Pain, violently sweeps my darkened room,
Fingers scratching shards of glass, laughing,
And cocooned, my eyes tightly shut, I moan.
In this crowd of sorrows, I hear only her nagging.
Fingers, tear my hair, combed with heartless banter,
Her laughing words remain starkly imprinted,
And cocooned, tears flowing in vain, faster
Through sunken tired eyes, spiraling downward.
Withdrawn, into my inner self, seeking
Peace from those laughing fingers, weeping.
Categories:
starkly, betrayal, jealousy,
Form:
Sonnet
Coming over the hill this morning,
carefully crossing the Benicia bridge,
was magical, the sunrise was turning
lightening sky and clouds crimson, and the ridge
way across the bridge was still dark
and it seemed like I was entering
a magical city because the lights that mark
the way were starkly contrasting
to the black shore and the grey river.
I thought about who would most
appreciate this beautiful moment and never
doubted that was Mokihana, that lost
girl I used to drive to Waipahu and back,
and for whom I thank the universe daily, in fact.
Categories:
starkly, introspection
Form:
Sonnet
Windless, the somber winter shore is welded
imperceptibly to the ashen water, the
horizon hemmed by distant dams of fog.
Advance, advance.
Gloveless, the chalky hands stand out
starkly in the pervasive greyness,
charcoal vestments completing
the monochromatic movement.
Disperse, disperse.
Gritless, the soft sand absorbs all.
The solemn sea tastes of tears,
warmer water, almost amniotic,
the all-mother's hypnotic allure.
Recede, recede.
Relentless, a distant bell dutifully tolls.
The shivering figure rises, reluctantly
trudging to the waiting limousine.
Return, return.
February 5, 2016
Categories:
starkly, beach, death, sea,
Form:
Free verse