Best Yesterday Poems
On cold evenings
Surrounded by friends
Warm and
Safe
I could stay up forever
Taking strength
From the blackness
Talking
Dreaming
Feeling that I could float upward
And walk with the stars
On their lonely journey
Through heaven.
There was a girl
I was with then
Tall
Graceful
And beautiful
When I first saw her
I wanted to feel her softness
Her breathe on my cheek
Her hand
Brushing against my thigh
When I held her close
And even closer
I wanted her
To say she loved me.
Together
Our love
Had a perfect balance
Of
Teasing and challenge
Spontaneity
Courtship
And seduction.
A subtle change
That I never understood
Came about
The closer we became
The more anger
And resentment followed
When she smiled I was envious
When I laughed she was angry
We broke up
We were young
It was my fault
Her fault
Our fault
Or blame it on the times we lived in.
Outside my room
Footsteps echo
In a long and empty hallway
And like an undeliverable letter
A message scrawled
To no one in particular
Haunting visions are
Returned to me
The slenderness of her waist
The way she arched her back
The touch of her hand
The way she kissed
I feel her presence
Yes, I relive all that.
Bha e brèagha an-de
(It was Beautiful Yesterday)
There was a sailing vessel
With many a sail proudly lapping in the wind
A flag of the Celtic honor, in ruin an rented
As all the sailors sing
Of my love for you
From long ago
Before death became our friend
Oh would I be sailing from stormy seas to the Scottish glens
To lay some flowers at your side
Your beauty is now far under
My love ill wait for all eternity
For loves resurrection’s stormy thunder
Our bodies may be under stone
Our memories long lost in tales and fable
Let no man ever lay any such claim
Our love was not the gift of briny seaworthy fame
We be only stones, in a meadow blue
When you come upon our fate
Tiss with this verse, I state my case
The life that escaped our sadly date
Love though was true as sky
For long ago, she bid adieu
Her sadness at my drowning departure
As I her lover was told to be
Buried deep and under sea
Both sadness and the tossing waves
Took the life out of her and me
So when you look at fading stones
Remember the love that used to be
The sun is the sun
It rises we run
When it turns the nighttime to day
It's hot when it's cold
And never grows old
As our time slips quickly away
The sun remains the sun
The wind is the wind
It lays and it spins
And on, occasion will rage
Be it warm, be it chilled
Whether gusty or stilled
It changes from page to page
The wind is still the wind
The seas are the seas
Just water no trees
Yet harboring life below
They rise and they fall
But nothing forestalls
Their predictable to and fro
The seas are the seas
We think we see change
Ordinary looks strange
Perhaps, something new has begun
In the grandest of schemes
We're all chasing dreams
There's nothing new under the sun.
By Daniel Turner
5/7/2021
This is my interpretation of
Ecclesiastes Chapter 1 verse 9
...what has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again
there is nothing new under the sun.
Just yesterday
I was crying
Leaving home for the 1st grade
7th, 10th, 12th
Just yesterday
I threw that cap in the air
Bright eyed
Facing the world
Wow, who is that girl
My wife
The mother of my children
Just yesterday
Our babies were born
Responsibilities
Doing what had to be done
For my family
Bad job, good job, great job
My career
Just yesterday
The children are grown and gone
With the grandbabies
Busy lives
Of their own
I see them every once in a while
Just yesterday
Retired
People look right through me
I am a ghost
My body is failing
Cant remember
Like I use to
They put me in this wheelchair
In the hall
That girl
My wife
Went on ahead
I hear her calling me
Just yesterday
God said it was ok
She has waited long enough
The house slumps against overgrown yards
Where gardens wilt against the ground,
Begging for sleep beneath gray skies.
Vines move through weeds
Like brittle fingers,
Reaching toward a sagging door
Where paint peels like weathered skin,
Curling in agony against the grain.
Once vibrant, now fading
Like all doorways to yesterday.
This is where memories flee,
Lying in wait like dormant ghosts
That walk through the walls of my mind
As I walk through the door.
The hinges creak in protest,
Rusted by the rain of forgotten days.
The floors squeak in upset,
Unaccustomed to my timid feet.
The dust is stirred, the silence snaps
Like twigs used for kindling
To spark my tepid heart.
A decade becomes a moment.
A moment becomes a lifetime.
This is where memories live,
Trapped in time like restless ghosts
That walk through walls and haunt the halls
Of doorways to yesterday.
Though broken, they open
To swallow me whole.
~
She woke with the joy of her yesterday smile,
her eyes opened up to the day
The morning sun rose in its wonderful style,
bright apricot beams on display
Though clouds came to spoil this magical view,
when news on a breeze filtered in
Then darkness her happiness seemed to undo,
as life sent her frowning again
When there on the edge of a whispering stream,
with arms ever opened and wide
As if on a wish someone painted her dream,
he motioned to her, come inside
She took a brief step and then sat for a while,
his friendship just took her away
She no longer needed her yesterday smile,
he brought her a new one today
~
Why, Momma, why?
Was I not deserving
of you?
Was I not good?
Was I too frail?
Did you send me away
Because your own life
derailed?
Why, Momma, why
Do I still secretly wail?
Asking myself what did I do so
wrong? How did I fail?
What you called rebelliousness
Was the only way I knew how
to stay strong sometimes, I'd
stay up all night looking after you
Got banged and bruised so that
he wouldn't hurt you
No one else did that
Isn't it true?
Did you ever think about my wounds
That was the only way I knew to
protect you
Instead of helping me
You banished me through lies,
Stripped me from my home,
My siblings, my life
Withheld your love
Because I tried to take my own life
But did you ever stop and think that
Perhaps something in me wasn't right?
Why, momma, why?
Does your absence whisper in me
A forever sorrowful lullaby and
Although, I miss you I love you more
each day that goes by
I forgive you wholeheartedly
Despite that yesterday, I cried
I wouldn't hesitate to wipe
The tears from your eyes if they
ever again were to meet with mine
Bring a cup and fetch my Tears,
Because tomorrow has been for Years.
Life challenges, my favorite Seat,
As my fear dances to my Heartbeat.
Day and night, I don't Care,
As poverty, the cloth i Wear.
Happiness travels in Dreams,
Yet with hope,possible it Seems.
Drunk, a way to Forget.
Yet once awake, it's time to Regret.
Questions, i ask Myself,
Even though no answers on my Shelve.
Here i am slowly Sinking,
In that ocean called Thinking.
As a new day keeps Wishing,
Maybe Faith is what's Missing.
After all is said and Done
Like the rise of a new Sun,
The hope for a better Tomorrow,
Is the path i have chosen to Follow.
Yesterday, your beauty enamored me,
your whispered touch so soft against my skin,
your face glowing like sun beams on the sea.
Why did you fill my soul with such chagrin?
Today, you linger only as wisps of
fragrant memories and lost lonely love
that haunt me and taunt me throughout my day.
Why did you have to leave and go away?
Tomorrow, brings sorrow of you unkissed.
As time turtles on you will move along,
without the thought of knowing I exist.
Why are my feelings about you so strong?
Yesterday with beckoned promise we met.
Today we dance in a strange pirouette.
Tomorrow the sun will refuse to shine
never knowing that you could have been mine.
Lost in your world of ever changing hue,
white to blue, no one can ever know you.
10/20/15
What if yesterday, today, and tomorrow
Came together for one day
Would they all dwell on their past mistakes
Or live life for today
Would they dream about tomorrow
As today's dreams fly away
If they had it all to do again
Would they relive yesterday
Life can be confusing
My hope is that you'll find
That after yesterday, today, and tomorrow
have had their say
You'll live one day at a time
As past words ring, lost in hollow emotions,
I find each thought in my head but commotion
like the endless roar of the waves in the ocean.
OH, go away yesterday.
Moments that pass leave me lost and breathless,
through sleepless nights, my mind muddled and restless,
I pray for the end, yet I am left deathless.
OH, go away yesterday.
With ages past and resolve that's been shaken,
my all I have given and all you have taken
but now you have left me forlorn and forsaken.
OH, go away yesterday.
To the future I gaze in search of my destiny,
as time passes slow and I walk through gethsemane,
these retrospect eyes leave me dark as ebony.
OH, go away yesterday.
04/03/2018
Yesterday
Yesterday I forgot the shade of your eyes
I struggled to remember your touch
Today I forgot the sound of your voice
Each day I don't miss you so much
In the end you only brought me sorrow
I wonder what I won't remember tomorrow
A porch is buried
in wet leaves and broken twigs...
Quail scratch at the dirt
looking for a sign of life
in front of the empty house
A squirrel climbs high
while ladders rest against trees...
Fragrance of apple
greets me like yesterday's child
as I lean against old dreams
From grimy windows
I watch the breeze stir whirlwinds...
My thoughts spin like leaves,
as I rest my head against the glass
remembering yesterday
~
Moody Blues is playing through my speakers
And my mind
A gentle tune of yesterday that feels so
Very kind
Tuesday afternoon, a fairyland
of awe
Plays scenes of yesters' visions
From youthful dreams
I saw
I close my eyes, time drifts away
Aloft a tune,
of yesterday
#2 Rumi Quote:
If you are irritated by every rub,
How will your mirror be polished?
________________________________________
Be not perturbed when life presents hurdles,
Nothing worthwhile comes sans struggle;
Do not tag every challenge unjust or unfair,
Blemish on your mirror, not a reason to despair.
Read not a rub, always, as a rub of critique,
If it’s uninformed, there isn’t much to heed;
Stay the course, amity speaks for your deeds,
Judge not harshly when repentance pleads.
Endeavor mindfully, to learn from mistakes,
Sow in every failure, seeds of sweet success,
Find your happiness on other side of regrets,
Be not irritated by life’s every give-and-take.
Reject ego and pride; introspect, reflect,
Mend your ways, adapt to realms of change,
Look in the mirror, measure your progress:
Is your today, better than your yesterday?