Best Stillborn Poems
there's a little dog that's laughing
at a cow jumping the moon
and a cat playing a fiddle
on the wall of a bright room
where a mobile's hanging silent
waiting patiently to turn
like the pages on the bookshelf
that proclaim it's fun to learn
and there's a bible on a small crib
with its cross depicting love
for a child born sadly sleeping
into arms of those above.
YOUR EYES SEE THROUGH
THE WALL BETWEEN US
BUT YOU CAN'T REACH IN
AND GRAB ME
SOLACE IN MY SOLITUDE
MAKES MY HEAVY BURDENS GAIN
THE FALL OF OUR MADNESS
WAS WHEN THE WORDS WERE FROZEN
THE SPRING WAITS
FOR THE SHADOW.
1997
Chloe Broadbent
Stillborn 1899
My simple soul, my eyes,
Have never beheld the jewel of the night,
The morning star that ushers in
The dawning of a new day.
My brief inner heartbeat has never felt
The gentle pelting of the rain,
As it descends downward
Gently, peacefully, magically,
Like the mist of a cascading waterfall
Hidden deeply
Far away
Somewhere in the distance
In the mysterious grottos and crevices
Created by God,
My only friend.
Dearest mother.
Although we were together for those nine months,
I never knew you.
My simple soul, my eyes,
Never beheld your soul, and your eyes.
And although you held me,
I never held you.
Citizens of Earth:
You have no idea.
You have no idea.
As I closed my door and lay down to sleep,
A poem came and violently knocked at my door.
Being quite late, I put a rein on my desire to admit it in
Even in my sleep I could hear the faint sound of a knock.
In the wee hours of the morn, as I sat up to house it,
Only scattered phrases and broken lines floated around.
A crazy excitement made me trap them in ink.
But nothing worthwhile showed up on the writing pad.
I found I had only violated the virginity of the paper.
After hours of spasmodic labor pain
What came out was a stillborn with no heart beats.
It lay limp before me and all excitement died down
It's still body, I found had closely resembled me.
Something of me was there stamped on it.
How could I who had parented it,
Callously discard it in a dustbin?
So, I carefully stashed it away in a secret place.
Where no one’s prying eyes would ever fall over it!
April. 6. 2023
~ Placed Third~
Free Submission Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Sotto Poet
Her mother looked with tears, heart leaking with pains
As the silent body of her newborn laid there
Skin peeling off with every touch
Skull losely packed with pieces of bones
Feeling like a jelly in one's hands
A heartbreaking goodbye it was to the daughter who never lived
Macerated stillborn she was called, MSB for short
Weight less than one killogram that burial was not an option
But only incineration was allowed
A pregnancy terminated before term
Life ending before it could even begin
Mother's eyes watching with aching heart
As hopes bleed beyond resuscitation
A sad day it was
Gone but memories will remain
Her image shall forever exist in her mother's eyes
A story to share and an experience to strengthen others has been created
Tears have flowed, a heart has been broken
Africa has lost but life the journey of pains proceeds.
Welcome to this darkened earth,
brightened, briefly, by your birth.
But soon enough covered again
by darkness born from souls of men.
We have left ourselves forsaken,
ghoulish rituals partaken.
New life eclipsed by endless death,
nightmares live in every breath.
Your vibrant eyes won't light for long,
degenerate from weak to strong.
Enter life and enter death,
exit light with every breath.
But soon you'll see the darkness of the soul,
never seeing any light, fall into the abyssal hole.
Drowning in the darkness of our strife,
cuts short your nonexistant life
Once upon a time
A baby girl was born
But not a tear she cried,
Not a whisper could be heard.
The baby sleeps in peace,
So gentle and undisturbed.
What beautiful harmony -
That precious little girl.
Once upon a time
A baby girl was born
And through the air she flies
With little wings and a halo.
Through the sky she flutters
Searching for her home
Where she will live forever;
Where she will always belong.
Once upon a time
A baby girl was born.
The happiest baby alive
Smiles at her family below.
I never seen your smile
I never heard your cry,
You where here only for a moment,
and only God knows why.
A piece of me you took with you
on that tragic day,
In pieces I am left
because you could not stay.
A thousand are in memories
that we will never make,
Until we meet again
at that golden gate.
Sweet little one
how dearly you are loved,
Your eyes open for the first time
in heaven that's above.
I'll never get to hold you
or kiss your precious cheek,
I'll never get the chance
to sing you fast to sleep.
All these things without a reason
are stolen from me,
Left unanswered are my prayers,
and unheard is my plea.
I long to smell you sweetness
and gaze upon your face,
To hold you near to my heart
in a motherly embrace.
I weep without comfort
for the baby born so still,
How silently you came and went
you presents I long to feel.
Your tiny kicks
are all the memory that’s left behind,
The thought of you at peace
I now try to find.
Sweet baby you are thought of daily
and missed beyond all measure,
You are my precious little one
your memory forever treasured.
Countless is the number
for all these tears I've shed,
So much left unfinished
and all the words unsaid.
My little daughter
until we meet once again
until I hold you near,
I can't say good bye
it’s much to hard to bear.
One day I'll cover you with kisses
and show you so much love,
To quickly your wings were ready
my perfect little dove.
My Dear little one
I loved you in this life
and in death I love you still,
In my heart you hold a place
that no other could ever fill.
I carried you every moment of your life
and ill love you every second of mine,
Together again will meet
only god knows when it's time.
Still born
but still you were born in deed,
Ill never forget you existed,
and that’s a certainty.
Dedicated to Baby Harper 02/23/17
Targatus had come and gone.
Heimann had had his fun.
Enchaptus wouldn't have gone so soon.
Still born are the reason of the emerging moon.
The still borns,
Inverses sorrowful dirge to fun.
Learning had had it that still borns are the born deads.
Learning had made her mistakes,for most alives are deads.
Born with silver spoon connotes nothing.
Ointment of blessing oozing from you makes you wanting.
Recycling in birth and death;
Nigeria is endowedly choked in still births.
17:22:08:11:58
"The stars beckoned her song to reach the crescent moon"
The song is sacred her heart broken black and doomed
You see the sun set upon her head making mockery
For her newborn was stillborn oh the hypocrisy
Her song was supposed to reach God and bless hearts
Instead it was one of agony and silver suffering sobs
The light of the crescent moon came through the room
As if death is beautiful weaving tears in a loon
As if her baby is an angel too soon
Moon willow baptized white light
Dance darkness dewy devine
Bloody babe stillborn
Once upon a time
There was a still born child
She didn’t scream
Just cried
She was alive
But dead inside
She was born to a woman
That had fallen from heaven
Who had married a man
That was living in sin
Little girl was born in a house
That never was her home
The house was cold
Not warmed with love
Only fire from above
May 20-16
The little girl was nine
She ran and she ran
Because she knew
She couldn’t hide
Fast forward four years
And 41 days
Her life laid out before her
She had no reason to stay
She wrote on a paper
To all those who love her
And all those who hate her
All the things she’d say
If she saw them just once more
Before she locked the door
Stuffed her throat with pills
And died on the floor
Doctors wouldn’t let her die
But the psychiatric ward
It killed her on the inside
Told her she was broken
As if it wasn’t obvious
So the doctors diagnosed her with
A giant dose of hopelessness
And there’s nothing more that they can do
Because they don’t know
They never knew
She screamed and cried
But sadly, she survived
The stillborn girl
Just wants to die
Her broken world
Has shattered her mind
She’s dead but still alive
And breathing though she’s died
Strung up by society’s noose
Of twisted lies and thin stretched truths
The stillborn girl
Hanging from the roof
Murmur.
Bloodflow. Heartbeat.
Gurgle. Whoosh. Burp.
Ma. Mom. Momma. Dada.
Hiccup. Thump. Hum.
Mommy. Daddy.
Pitch. Rhythm. Pattern.
Music.
Movement.
Mother. Father.
Scream.
Stillness.
Silence.
10.10.2017
Pain abates. A silent love zigzags
through his bullet wound. He is an
Indian mercenary fighting for the
Allies. He was born with a rusted
iron spoon in his mouth. Hunger
made him a soldier. He’s fit, fights
again for the alien cause. Her eyes
trigger his heart. For the first time,
he longs for an armistice. He seeks
for her in the surgical spirit smelling
reverie. A roaring war craft brings
him back from that French nurse.
A dumdum bullet pierces his chest
just before Germany signs! Streets
roar in rapture. Flags flutter above
the neglected agony. The stillborn
love is coffined. A war win is a
celebration over a variety wounds.
Lest We Forget Poetry Competition (Auckland War Memorial Museum) winning poem.
First published in The Literary Hatchet (Pear Tree Press, US).
Some Stillborn Child
Always seemed to be so sad
About someone I never had
Before and not here anymore;
Now can't open or shut a door.
Where could my child have gone;
Why did God bring this upon?
Me and would have to suffer so;
Not see a face that likes to glow.
Child once had been a part of me;
Soul floating in air finally free;
Will miss him or her very much;
Only for second I wanted to touch.
No! Child forever is incomplete,
From head's top to bottom of feet;
Outside day's weather is kind of fair;
Child's in heaven now high up there.
Could that be a boyfriend instead
He was in an accident and is dead,
To forget there is never any way
Another prayer for him started to say.
James Thomas Horn, Retired Veteran