Cheerless Poems

She Looked At Me

It is National Happy Cat Month (September). Please consider adoption.

Cat: An incomparable companion that smoothes the bumpy road.
She looked at me with somber eyes
enchanting with her wily guise. 
Hesitant love became her stance
as she wondered at her sole chance
by blinking lovely golden eyes.

Living life with abuse and lies
never knowing what love implies
cautiously observing askance,
	she looked at me.

Asking only for warm allies
and love that her bearing belies
hopeful that this is no mischance
and she may enrich and enhance
my cheerless life with loving ties
	she looked at me.

demise of my horses

demise of my horses

I had been away for a few days
visiting an aunt in Cascais
on returning home
my three stone horses are gone
a cheerless hole where they 
had been tethered
Widening the  road, they said
for this beauty must go
the enlarged road can carry
more and more cars
until the enlarged road is
too small, they decide to
build a motorway 
with toll booth
The other side of this new
the road will be impossible 
to cross on foot
Neighbors often visited
becomes strangers 
Sun or rain, spectacular
my horses were
before turning into grit

The Poet

Once upon a dreary time
A boy set out to note a rhyme
Pen in hand with paper lined
Prepared he was to share his mind
But thoughts lay barren and confined
Without sense, reason, or rhyme
Suffered he did this weary time
Both his soul and cheerless mind
His eyes grew dark, his face grew lined
And tho he sought to redesign
Something, anything it need not be fine
But the words would not align
And in his room he did confine
To seek and pray for some sweet sign
For the intercession of the divine
To show, to prove verse sublime
But chaos reigned and nothing aligned
And so he collapsed under weight of his crime
Chained by shackles of his own design
Weeping tears by misery primed
The poet thus became the sad mime.

watercress loving friend named Bess

Bess’s expressions were grotesque
Most usually weirdly cheerless
She is under unusual duress
Her family is an utter mess

Bess is playing poker more or less
Her deadpan expression not needless
A stickler for rules more or less
My watercress-loving friend named Bess

A Prayer List

Lord, I come to Thee with :
lachrymose eyes
sorrowful heart
an empty lap
a barren womb
babe-yearning hands
an open mind
a wounded soul
a silent cry
a longing core
heartfelt prayers
life void of joy
dejected mood
downcast spirit
cheerless feelings
blue emotions 

Lord, help me overcome :
wipe Thou my tears
grant joyful heart
fill lap with love
open my womb
soon hold a child
mind full of joy
repair this soul
hear Thou my cry
give smiling core
answer prayers
renew laughter
uplift my mood
cheer my spirit
grant good feelings
colour my life

Gemini Garden, Silent One

“We are all petals of imperfection sharing the same sun.”
                              -	Silent One

No one is flawless,
So there’s no need to be cheerless,
Our petals may not align,
They’re still nature’s design.

We’re under the same sun,
Until we’re gone,
Until we become yesterday,
So let hope fill today.

Let love find a home in us,
As we embark on the dawn bus,
Today will bring light
 when we walk out of yesterday’s night.

Look into the mirror of freedom,
Embrace the ornate celestial kingdom,
Imperfection is our bane,
Hope keeps our feet on the optimistic lane.


June 24, 2024.

Night and Day

Night was covered in pitch darkness.
Looked fearful without a ray of brightness.
Through wilderness, moved beasts monstrous.
Nature looked so terrifying and cheerless.

After a night’s sleep the sun woke up.
As a mighty king he climbed up.
The East, like a neon bulb got lighted up.
Bright rays from the golden globe came up.

Soon darkness from the earth moved out.
Men from their homes merrily came out.
Birds from their nests, into the sky, flew out.
Sweet songs from their beaks flowed out. 

Clear and cool was the morning air.
Men set out for work  with plans clear.
Buzzing with life, the day was back to cheer.
Earth turned once again a lovely sphere!

Soon Winter

Soon Winter

Clouds
Rounded mounds piled 
Ever higher and thicker 
Heavy, hang deep gray low —
Threatening snow
— If not tonight, then tomorrow —
Over all here, upon this gurgling, burbling 
Creek, which sparkles rushing
Downhill 
          From
    		Hidden
		      Waterfalls…

The clear creek’s muddy banks
Hardening after
Two weeks of cheerless, chilly nights,
While the collected rocks all along 
	  the ceek’s grassy, 
             weed-lush, blue-green flanks, 
Are refusing to sing out to the universe
		before the solstice comes
				to turn the light back around —

As through the amassed evergreens’
Extening shadows 
With the slinking-in of dusk’s earlier
Hour’s setting sun.




————————————————————
(c) sally young eslinger 11/24/2023

My Stroll In September

It's the beginning of colorful Fall,
many chilly days are expected ahead;
tall pine trees don't heed the call,
they are green and warmly dressed!

Their slender images draw twitching shadows
on the wild grass where a pink Lotus grows,
no Monarch comes around to seep pollen;
how cheerless is the voice of young Allen!

It has rained for days, dogs don't bark,
they need to catch frogs at the pond;
no umbrellas today, sun rays abound,
music is heard, Paul plays soft rock! 

Even my pace seems too sluggish, 
I pause sitting on a rock to wish;
it's the perfect day for planning,
I grab my guitar and start singing!

Clouds

Cottony, Cumulus 
Clouds dappled on blue can
coalesce into banks;
creating a dull, drab,
cheerless, depressing day,
consistent with rain and
children's disappointment.

Five O Clock Shadow

I feel like a dusty blade
with nothing to cut
You said I didn't have the guts
to fill the neon skies
A cheerless languid
five o clock shadow
You stole my castle
and that I hadn't the paint
A cheerless restlessness
with words I tossed 
were like the envelopes of yesterday

The Problem With Polaroids

Memories of my childhood
are Polaroids of nostalgic cards
instant colored snapshots of my every action
from the day of my birth to the day I took my first steps
from the day I first started school to the day I learnt to ride a bike
I believed my childhood days would always be unfathomable
the most colossal deception about life living
that’s the problem I have with Polaroids 

Birthday number eighteen
was the most unfavorable day of my puerile life
the once flashy, picturesque Polaroids of my childhood
slowly vanished into the dark and foggy stockade of heartbreak
before my very black eyes, while drizzling
unsweetened tears of a cheerless adulthood
that’s the problem I have with Polaroids

Ode To the Passing Cloud

To move on as thy born nature has been, 
Pass on, O Passing Cloud, with all thy blight,
Let every dark despair deliver hope,  
Let every cheerless gloom smile as delight.

Come if ye may, unto my dry drab life,
Let rainy days no despair to me give,
Nor strife to me, born who's in sunny land,
I love to see rainbows at sunset eve. 

Come, Passing Cloud, teach me to stay afloat,	
There’s no joy like soaring high in blue skies,
Come as a rescue boat in stormy sea,    
Try, bring back cheers that oft fail to arise. 

Remember, Passing Cloud, there’s no failure,
As, to pass on be thy innate nature,
Each failure fertilizes seeds of cure,
As bright dream oft follows a bad nightmare.

Life too is much like thee, O Passing Cloud,
Be it so dark, or bright and silvery,
Every day’s born with a new hope from sun,
All things pass off-- times stormy or breezy.

If what moves on is world, to let go's life,
To stay put, a sure death-defining strife,
Clouds drifting slowly from vanishing sight
Be my moment, eternal that alights.

S Bahn

(the overhead railway in Berlin with a stop either side the Wall, one in the East, one the West, to be ridden with caution.)

I never took the S Bahn
you could end up on the other side 
if you missed your stop and
unintentionally extended your ride.
There were so many stories
about the treatment you could get
when the train was searched 
and you and the comrades met.

Every coach was checked 
as they did their security round
with very little chance to sit quietly
and hope you wouldn’t be found.
The Stasi were the bogey men 
the true inspirers of fear
always aware of the lure 
of the west so enticingly near.

Escapees tried so many ways
lured by the call of democracy
ready to risk everything
for the chance of living free.
They said the beatings were severe
with not least the threatened hell
of unlimited hours confinement
in a dank and cheerless Stasi cell

and then the double jeopardy of
posted absent without leave
with the additions punishments
erring squaddies could receive.
No I never rode the S Bahn
that potential magnet to all
to try and sneak on board and
get to the Western side of the wall.

Christmas Tears

Hello, said the Christmas tree bulb to the boy,did you come here to see the toys?
The boy just stood there and he began to cry, 
“no you see, for my father has lied,he promised he'd be here to share in this day.”
“Yet he was here but couldn't stay,
  Mama says he's gone forever this time, I don't understand the reason why.”
There's tears that run down the little boys face,
as he turns away from this cheerless place.
The little boy just walks away, and the bulb winks good-bye on this Christmas day.
No longer will the bulb shine bright, for the little boys father, passed away that night.

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