Best Yesteryears Poems
Golden days of old
when times were hard,
Yet, families did things together.
a ghostly story on the radio to make you scared.
Or maybe if you had a piano
a sing song was heard,
No television in those days
Families talked, today that sounds absurd
Golden days were tinged with sadness
When a person dies much too young.
Medicine wasn't at its height
the young children weren't strong.
Food was not a plenty
yet was organic, as you see
no money to buy pesticides,
so pure fruit and veg for tea.
Card games were the norm
Whist and rummy comes to mind.
Snap for the children to play.
Match sticks for money was used you will find.
No fruit drinks for the children on this day
tap water was what they will have
Adams ale was what it was called
sounded better to the naive.
A bottle of beer for father,
Mam had a cup of tea.
Gran lived with us also
So was a happy family life for me.
As you grow up you remember
the best thing in life were free.
Those happy days were not full of strife
Just wish your family are as happy
As in the golden days of your life.
Penned April 1st. 2015
Tales of her young life as told over the years by my late mamgu (grandmother).
Hope I related them correctly.
Salubrious salutations, new age
gradually old made voyage,
Living was perfunctory and now it’s stale,
Can the memory sway?
You yelled but no one heard,
Maybe tide was chatty with time
and now you are here, no quarter to hide;
Speed of time is high then it flies.
Many have come and gone but, all is saved to the core,
Not by alacrity that one lives, but by the almighty;
In the earliest times, the past began,
lessons taught through the odds.
Yesteryears were better, but not for the years after;
Hay have made its way today; can the sun shine then?
Old was new so is new; what is anew?
You kept your call, known was it,
step by step, the old fumbled in whole pit.
There is “do” so is “redo,” make your staying perpetuate gusto;
Everything has two sides: old and new, far and near, cry and laugh,
good and bad, greeting and farewell;
That which is good is sweet, and that which is sour is bad.
If moments leave scars,
will your past glitter?
As you stay, do ring the grotesque bell;
Your days shall be well.
Sometimes when I sink in my thoughts
I see the enchanting face of gone by years
In the wide open window of my heart
With my eyes blurred with gushing tears
When I take out my old albums to dust
And aimlessly turn over its pages
My mind is swept with a wave’s thrust
Drifting to the time of saints and sages
The time of serenity, peace and love
The time that is frozen in my album
Like glittering gems in a treasure trough
Like a fragrant rose’s ravishing blossom
Men and women with hearts of gold
Love, loyalty and purity of soul
Times when fidelities weren’t bought and sold
Amity and friendship were cherished goal
The glorious past now nowhere in sight
Greed and lust in forefront of mind
Licentiousness and lewdness give no respite
Kindness and sympathy nowhere to find
The earth plagued with demons of ugliness
Leaches and vultures, oppressors and tyrants
Sucking the blood and devouring with greediness
The flesh of oppressed, the infirm and infants
It is time for tyranny’s elimination
The call of vision is for me and you
Be a sword to slaughter the demon
Life to be spared of affliction and woe
February 20, 2011
Granting no reprieve for myself,
I continue this journey.
This madness began moons ago
I let you have what you so willingly took;
My power. My self-worth. My sanity
As of this very moment, I rescind my yesterday
As of this moment, I revoke my power
My self-worth. My sanity
As you sit in the cracked and worn orange leather chair,
The sun rises behind you casting shadows all around.
Visible shadows, more than what remains in my troubled mind.
As of today, I'm taking back what you thieved from me;
My will. My strength. .My sanity
The sun continues to rise as it thankfully blinds my weary eyes
For I no longer wish to see what I once embraced.
I long to see myself as I once existed
Never to return to the vision of yesteryears
I long for the days of yesteryears
All the memories I hold dear
The way it was, my heart yearns
Lessons of life that I learned
Feeding his family, man labored
Helping hands for a neighbor
Compassion filled every heart
Every man did his part
Life was simple, without stress
One cheered another’s success
A man’s word sealed a deal
By a bed, a family kneeled
Life of the unborn was never taken
An innocent child never forsaken
Finacial status never mattered
Sunday services, a town gathered
God was welcomed in our schools
Children were made to follow rules
Creation was taught with Adam and Eve
Evolution, Big Bang, no one believed
A time when less was considered more
The sound of the opening of an old screen door
Children would play outside all day long
Children were taught right from wrong
Respect was demanded by the father and mother
Forgiveness was given to a brother
A man and a woman, marriage defined
Vows made, forever to bind
The Holy Spirit in every service
Every man sought for his purpose
Faith produced miracles far and near
The truth was preached to every ear
In the kitchen, everything homemade
Family gatherings on Sunday
Apple pies made from scratch
Oh, how I wish to go back
General stores everyone shopped
Old time machines with bottles of pop
Candies ten cents a bar
Garden vegetables in a jar
I wish I could go back to days of old
A dirt road, I would love to stroll
Only to turn back the hands of time
To push a button and rewind
But those days, gone for good
Like a fairy tale in a book
Visiting those days, I close my eyes
Dreaming of yesteryears gone by
Slowly slowly the brew is taking me over
She sits before me, looking into my eyes
Lost in the world of enticing indulgence
And captive consciousness, frozen in time
I am flying on wings of passion and ecstasy
Defying oblivion, down the memories lane
Earlier days have returned, all is not bygone
Sweet dreams unfold in silence and whisper
Melody of yesteryears resonates in the heart
Time flows like breeze after the hot summer
Mellowed with age, black turned into grey
Reflecting, maturity, intellect and wisdom
A perfect blend of beauty, poise and grace
Wrapped in solemn attire, and unchanged
The loved one affirms her earlier elegance
A playful, serene and shy mate in the school,
Vividly reminds the erstwhile forgotten days
As humming of a melodic song seldom sung
But lying cherished and treasured in the heart
As a symphony of vibrant and magical notes
Life is a force forward but the past is not
Always a history, it survives as nostalgia
Being revived by unexpected encounters
On the uneven journey of harried pursuits
Where clock turns shining youth into yore
The cowboys' farm is never free from till
Their order is communicated through the whip
To the horses that pull the plough
Yes! Their whips are long and dreadful
It reached them from every side
They scamper at the sound of their voice
It is heard like the sound of a wolf
In the ‘fool moon’
They hide their shriveled mind
Under the pelt scarred by the whip
As their voice ring back in trembling tone
They're overturned by a mightier force
A saviour they thought
A despot he turned out
He was born, nourished and suffered alike
He turned the table round, with fiercely strength
And snatch them from their masters
But on their backs he also rode
A bigger whip he raised
The bruises remain and the pain never left.
I REMEMBER (1)
Candles & nightlights
flickering bright
blackout curtains
shutting out light
Dripping setting
from Sunday's roast
spread thick
on Monday's toast
Paper chains
cut and glued
beer in glass
bottles brewed
Christmas puddings
with threepenny bits
Meccano kits
made to fit
Sunday school outings
upto Coombe hill
my first ever train ride
so quite a thrill
Summer walks
to the Bugle Horn
crisps & lemonade
upon their lawn
A weekly soak
..in a round tin bath
towelling off
by a fire in the hearth
I REMEMBER (2)
afterschool
on a
tuesday
my treat
awaiting on gran's
baking tray
a spicy aroma
filled
the air
t'was
freshly baked-
my
weekly share
bread pudding
piping hot
drizzled with honey
moreish&
yummy
a moist mouth
watering
confection
in
a
sultana delectation
I REMEMBER (3)
my clerking
ever on the go
the junior
lowest
of the low
the office
with partners just two
pens pencils
nearly-new
daily drudgery
reality soon shone thru'
the 'old man ' yelling
'ere lad
chop chop
get me baccy
from t'corner shop
tea-break brews'
in a stew
bellows of hurry-hurry
from the back-office crew
another task
to get done
this time
for the partner's son
no time to stop &chat
he'd forgotten the fish
for his wife's cat
the switchboard clicked
the doorbell chimed
&
skills to learn
juggle & prioritise
whew!
nearly half five
& knock-off time
just one task
still to do
fetch the 'boss's
evening news
was this really
the career to choose?
Yester years
and yester fears
remind me
of other things.
Hopes run low
and stars bellow
yet the sun will shine
on what is mine.
Yester years
know yester fears
because my legs felt
the breeze..
my body felt
the sqeeze..
my mind knew
its ease
and still smelt it pleasure.
i kno now...
what hopes run after..
but i shall walk instead......
Echoes of bright lights, furs disperse swirling across the waiting room
the inevitable day of the burning sun
the arrival of the yesteryears and present are already here
tears emerging from the memories of our matrix's painful sites
as we remember the footprints that our intercessors and forefathers left behind
their memories unfurl with sweating tears
along with the rose perfume scents on their favorite wears
we gradually hope to see them here
lost indelible unforgotten until our memories tear
forever in this planet we all will share
and witness a part of their energies knocking lurking near
for indeed they must have prayed to set a legacy far beyond their years ............
inspirational url - http://allpoetry.com/contest/2473581
On this dark eventide, tonight
the thrum of crickets chirping songs,
and the feral howling of wolves
have crimped any romantic thoughts-
until the pearlescent, silver moon
laid sparkling threads upon the lake
that shimmers alongside the plumb,
overgrown and abandoned beach-
arousing that exquisite tang,
awakened from our yesteryears
when, while waiting for your return-
our moon stoked fires for us each night.
March 23, 2021
~3rd Place~
Contest: Eight Word Bardenesque challenge
Sponsor: John Hamilton
JUdged: 04/18/2021
Required words in order of appearance:
eventide, thrum, feral, howling
crimped, pearlescent, plumb, tang
Twilight
Days have dimmed gray
Yester-youth, far away
Longing for the past…has made me
Grow old