Best Umbral Poems
There’s an ancient
thing of wisdom
in a cavern
in the sea;
deep down in murky waters
lying, sleeping peacefully.
At times it will awaken
take a travel-contemplation
or perhaps a short vacation
to collect new wisdom-seeds.
Sometimes it peeks
out from beneath
those liquid silvery waves;
then it dives and waters quiver;
just like diamonds on a river.
Then the diamond dancers fold their
crystal wings above its’ head.
Throughout umbral brine it searches
for others of its’ kind;
often stops to ponder
if it’s all that has survived.
We may thrill to glimpse it
as it bobs amid the waves
of the Okanagan, Loch Ness
or some other distant place.
Perhaps its’ mind’s about to burst
with the knowledge of the past;
after centuries of living
in the dark abysmal mass.
We humans must not harm it
or let anyone alarm it;
for it could be that this dragon
is a wise and gentle thing.
Perhaps within its’ heart lie the notes
that will make this planet sing.
1-3-2022
A STRAND (1045) Poetry Contest
Brian Strand
Categories:
umbral, animal, fantasy, myth, nature,
Form:
Free verse
Lunar
Anisha Dutta
Full Moon closest to Fall is termed ‘Harvest Moon’
That’s the seasonal time to harvest
Next Full Moon the ‘Hunter’s Moon’ comes very soon
To go for hunting is the best.
In respective orbital path
On certain Full Moon night
Sun-Moon in-between Earth
Come in a line, just right.
Sun-Moon-Earth paired together
When come in perfect alignment
Lunar Eclipse will occur
Technical term ‘SYZGY’ has been set.
Under thinner-most shadow of Earth if Moon slips
Eclipse is known to be Pen-Umbral
If partially shadowed, it’s Partial Eclipse
Fully shadowed Eclipse is called Total.
Total Lunar Eclipse, now being called ‘Blood Moon’
As the eclipsed moon is not dull or dark losing glamor
But exhibits rusty red-hue glow looking boon
Sun-spectrum through atmosphere display reddish color
If the Harvest Moon shows Blood Moon at perigee
The closest position of Moon to Earth
One tenth larger and thirty percent brighter to see
Spectacular ‘Super Moon’ most worth.
If consecutive four ‘Blood Moon’ appeared
Rare occasions of lunar performance
The event is known as ‘Lunar Tetrad’
In between eclipse to come has no chance.
Watching ‘Super Moon’ I felt lucky
Then, have I gone lunatic?
Enjoying marvelous cosmos beauty?
No, I am just romantic.
Themes # 5 Poems on Moon Contest Honorable mention
Sponsor SKAT A
Categories:
umbral, appreciation, beautiful, moon, night,
Form:
Narrative
Sometimes I walk in shadow
Or do shadows walk in me?
For in their umbral, empty glow
The dark is all I see.
The distant light of hope appears,
A pin-prick in the night.
I find the weight of all my fears
Enough to block such light.
I reach out just for something,
But -- in this world of black --
I'll hold on tight to Nothing
Until nothing holds me back.
4/2/2019
Entered in 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 2 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
Categories:
umbral, sad,
Form:
Quatrain
My heart quite deep within me quakes
when darkness steals the sky.
The night rolls out its raven cape
and stars from shadow, fly.
Gray threadlike clouds adorn the deep
and look down as to spy.
The silence of each long, dark hour
is nightfall's strong ally.
Below, on earth, from our purview
we sleep, we work, and play.
Too often as our life unwinds
we miss night's grand display.
We move among the twilight spheres
with blinders, left and right,
yet high among the moon and stars
we find a guiding light.
The reverence we sense and feel
amid each nightlong fray
enriches and sustains us as
we wait for break of day.
Deep night is not some cryptic foe,
though silent, is a friend.
We live in shadowed, umbral realms
until the dawn ascends
Darkness Steals
1-20-15
common verse
Categories:
umbral, earth, moon, night,
Form:
Quatrain
Shadow trees
On gentle breeze, heave
and lip the edges of a sanctuary
Hallowed space, of union graced
In liminal hour
Protected
where dappled light plays cupid to our delight
Crepe paper garlands
Seek to adorn us
Fugitives in search of respite
No penetrating eye should moot
this canticle to umbral shine
nor prick the virtue of our plight
Unsteady mood of solace and peak
Shadow trees
In boundaries you speak
as we move on the fringes of the night -
Let me keep time
damned blue midnight
Categories:
umbral, imagery, introspection, journey, nature,
Form:
Free verse
In dusk's umbral mist
phantoms hover
across August's white embers,
humming their pale lilac chant
through bare trees
chiming with fledgling icicles.
Fields of vestal amethyst
splay past frozen fences
and sepia skeletons
of summer grass.
I listen
to diaphanous lyrics
of a mauve moon
from my gelid porch,
throwing coffee
from my hot cup
to watch it freeze
in mid air
and fall like rhinestones
on the waiting ground.
Categories:
umbral, color, imagery, winter,
Form:
Ekphrasis
ode to shadows
as i peer out the glassed portières
penumbral visitations mock me; dare they
deign to scare this parched crypt of
adrenaline and cortisol, usurped by unquiet
scourges over lifetimes' rebirth?
steps shifting in the dark, familiar and
beloved; the shushing and stirring, commit
to draw me near; umbral amici and i
provide a panoply o'bosky trappings f'thee
a joinin' we, or off to obscure pastures
to wee thee pants for eternity!
Categories:
umbral, dance, dark, night, pain,
Form:
Ode
Ocean in the umbral limbo
sea breeding of Plasticized fish garbage
it's not real hell but it seems
Categories:
umbral, abuse, allusion, appreciation, creation,
Form:
Free verse
There’s an ancient
Thing of wisdom
In a cavern
In the sea;
Deep down in murky waters
Lying, sleeping peacefully.
At times it will awaken
Take a travel-contemplation
Or perhaps a short vacation
To collect new wisdom-seeds.
Sometimes it peeks
Out from beneath
Those liquid silvery waves;
Then it dives and waters quiver;
Just like diamonds on a river.
Then the diamond dancers fold their
Crystal wings above its’ head.
Throughout umbral brine it searches
For others of its’ kind;
Often stops to ponder
If it’s all that has survived.
We may thrill to glimpse it
As it bobs amid the waves
Of the Okanagan, Loch Ness
Or some other distant place.
Perhaps its’ mind’s about to burst
With the knowledge of the past;
After centuries of living
In the dark abysmal mass.
We humans must not harm it
Or let anyone alarm it;
For it could be that this dragon
Is a wise and gentle thing.
Perhaps within its’ heart lie notes
That make this planet sing.
Categories:
umbral, animal, nature, ocean, poems,
Form:
Rhyme
A sapphire moon has come to rest
upon evening’s blue lake crest;
faeries conduct concert crickets
and frogs sound bass among the thickets.
In umbral movement shadows weave
playing round about the trees;
a glowing orb of celestial light
upon horizon, sits with delight.
Tree branches wave their greening leaves,
whenever there’s sufficient breeze.
With songbirds settled in their nests,
in peaceful slumber, they do rest.
Hoot owls salute old Luna’s face,
basking in her mothering grace.
Such luminous resplendency
inspires me to transcendency.
Categories:
umbral, planet, poems, poetry, space,
Form:
Rhyme
Night falls with haste, endowed with dark despair,
and spreads its raven wings across the land.
The lifeless shadow chills the stagnant air,
and grips the world with melancholic hands.
Immersed in black, I wait for heaven's light,
for only sanctity can pierce this haze.
The fair nocturnal gem that purges night,
I bide for its unwav'ring pearly gaze.
They tremble, every shaded tree and lake;
their silent, fragile forms stir anxiously,
for soon their bottled silhouettes will wake
against a silver, silk-knit tapestry.
Moon mantle, rise and cloak this umbral earth
with all your splendor and translucent worth!
Categories:
umbral, inspirational, nature
Form:
Sonnet
Cast of shadows, courtesy of candle,
Light fading unfolds the same tale at dusk.
Soliloquized retellings of scandal,
Lengthy but worthy, as faults to unhusk.
Memories gone cold, my table setting,
Echoing attenuated laughter.
Plates piled high with the feasts of forgetting,
Still doleful hungers linger thereafter.
The flickering cloister of flames confer,
Enkindling solace in the solitude.
Tacit acceptance, no protest to stir,
Away from the noise, alone without brood.
Resigned, I dine on the remnants of day,
Umbral asylum, narrative decay.
Categories:
umbral, light, loneliness, memory, relationship,
Form:
Sonnet
Death be thy raven's blackened plume
And hunched in cape of sordidness
A tower's age of wealth's illume
Becries a pallid nothingness
Where scream escapes an umbral torn
Of ravaged souls in weeping due
The chill of wakes those come to mourn
From air to light the passage through
And mists deform the sense's glare
Bring void and hollow crushing in
Seek flame and sinew cursing there
To serve a time and realms begin
and judgement done eternal sight
in worlds therein to start their flight
Categories:
umbral, death, metaphor, moving on,
Form:
Sonnet
That's when day and night
succumb together
in a dark kiss ...
Umbral silence
wear the gray afternoon
of a fatal red ...
By day we do
the life
that at night sleeps ...
After the blue
exsanguine is extinguished
mirrored morning shines ...
It is not up to the world
say live
it's up to us to live it ...
Categories:
umbral, allegory, allusion, appreciation, extended
Form:
Free verse
Umbilical umbrellica of umbral phantanes
"Anjelsmoth Banjitreel Naievae"
These are the spasmodic words you cause in me,
dare to ascertain in my exotic condition
of your cusping contain
My darkroom carotodomy gastronomy
of infrareds and lightwinds, rushing in,
scouts of wrath seeking the four ends
As you pet pet pet care snap twang, mend
"your pretty thing"
KarmaSupra-Natural endear- in me how spooning
feeds bends at my thrashing and gnashing of teeth
where your purring thickens in my auditorium,
arouses condition,
echoes in sonar picture perfect verbatim,
ruins in salvatore partition
Your light-wound
Is it a seizure, a leash
Tourettes syndrome, speaking in tongues?
What is it called, may I know-
I need a name, give me your true name-
and what aim, what precision archery,
what kind of game are you hunting?
Bondfires burning in the Valley of the Kings
Stuck Pig, squealing and turned by your spiteful
rotisserie of baneful spit you leave to dangle
as an apple on your lips?
Mountain Ram, braving the rocks and the heights carelessly of crash-ward depths?
Did I lock horns a moments long locked
on a linger and caught in a snare
of your primal mating ritual of Astuan?
Challenge your beckoning finger
talons of Vulcan Eagle to soar me to the heavens,
how did we get here?
Why must I be your icarus of daring -
savage amusement, knowing
I cannot outstare the burning sun
The melting in your wax museum,
peepshow coliseum, of the lost, you are the acost
of my 'verted musement again and again and again
Libra is scaling taxation, purgatory perdeum owed-
to the shades of Shangri la,
I'd say we, you and me are more than even,
Nefertiri
Will our clashes ever die?
Our gashes ever sustain or lusts
or take the darts from our eyes?
We a gleaming the cube and porpoising the rift
on the lips of
evermore, Eigypsed in the swollen rains
with chariots on fire
At the steppes of our estranged world,
of the law, of desire
...You can feel them on the wind...
Categories:
umbral, art,
Form:
Rhyme