Deathlike Poems | Examples

The Face of a Hero

Heroes have many faces

Despite their deathlike pallor

The sum of any soldier

Is measured by their valor

The fear they feel in battle

But never ever flinches

Is purely a reflection

Of courage in the trenches

Even with odds against them

Will still fight to their last breath

Ever stalwartly they stand

And march bravely to their death

Munch On This - 'Love and Pain' 1895

At first glance ...
Amid turbulent strokes
and vivid hues,
eyes mesmerized by
maiden's molten-red mane—
Love and Pain

Gently kissing
her lover's nape
in tender embrace,
while Pain's
lurking specter
overshadows their
intimate space,
threatening Love's
fragile grace

Second glance ...
Gent's deathlike pallor
portrays a chilling
alternative motif.
Is love really her goal, or
is she nosferatu feasting
on a submissive soul?
Dark eyes reflect the
lurking specter's desire—
Vampire

The Spirit of Darkness

the winds breathe in evenings soul of darkness
and night comes trailing a gown, black and velvety
  inky  i n k y  black, deeply mysterious and moonless
      an endless canopy
      a deathlike silence
      a nightingale song calls
           somewhere     a night owl hoots
                           hoot  hoot  h o o t  HOOT . . .
        lucid silence,
            a quiescence.
N I G H T-   a time for prayer and for weeping
the spirit of darkness comes creep   c r e e p i n g
  in the quietness and stillness my sleepy eyes close
                          and I pull the curtain of . . . . repose

_____________________
May 04, 2023


Poetry/Free Verse/the spirit of darkness
Copyright Protected, ID 05-1544-885-04
All Rights Reserved, 2023, Constance La France

A Broken Heart

I am the woman
Whose heart cried
Life began with love
Only to soon find
I’d be silenced 
By the pain
In shadows, stirring
Echoes of lost prayer
Fading like a gentle rain

Yearning for the lost
Love – that woman
Who always knew
Her dreams died
With the goodbye
Unspoken but burning
On lips he passed by
A deathlike kiss
Rejection, the twist

Love lost by a heart
Shattered and lost
That is the cost of
Love’s promise
When it is cracked
Poured out to the dark
No stardust to quiet
The tears pouring out
The sacrifice – a broken heart!

The Celebration

It was shifting night of eyes and things;
Of smoky fires and spells to sing.
Where witches dance and fairies prance
And night takes flight upon its wings.

October wind, chilled too soon,
Blows beneath the misty moon.
Drifting clouds like ragged shrouds
Enhance the coming gloom.

Within the woods a cat-like tread;
A hung-still moment of nameless dread.
A flash of light then blackest night,
And there stood they, the walking dead.

A crackling fire they quick surround
And dance a dance of leaps and bounds.
Black hair flying, voices crying,
The dancers from the graveyard mounds.

The moon casts forth a deathlike sheen
On these creatures from a madman’s dream.
But to childhood’s ghosts they drink a toast,
And celebrate this Halloween

''The Curtain of Sleep''

The winds sigh to the evenings soul of darkness,
and night comes trailing a gown of black velvet;
  inky  i n k y  black mysterious and moonless,
      is the endless canopy.
       Within this deathlike silence,
       a nightingale calls;
            and somewhere     an owl hoots,
                           hoot  hoot  h o o t  HOOTS . . .
        Such a lucid silence,
            and peace;
a time for prayer and for weeping.
The spirit of sleep comes to me creep   c r e e p i n g,
   s l o w l y  my weary eyes close;
                          and I pull the curtain of . . .  sleep.

_______________________________
June 13, 2016 (Edited July 30, 2018)


Poetry/Verse/"The Curtain of Sleep
Copyright Protected, ID 1021-076-0
All Rights Reserved.  Written under Pseudonym.


Submitted to, End of July 2018 Standard Contest,
Sponsor Brian Strand 

First Place

Brexit Sonnet 29 - Snake Oil

Brexit Sonnet No. 29
‘Snake Oil’
 

The tumbleweed rolls with silence across our set,
Saloon doors swing to access boarded walk,
As gunslingers stride their silent deadly threat,
And graveyard stones of next to greet do talk. 
The Sheriff’s jail is filled with drunks and bums.
Saloon plays not its upright western tune, 
While honest folk await to see what comes,
As stage pulls up in town at highest noon.
A pair of leopard-print shoes now peep out proud,
From stagecoach door as arrivals drop down stairs.
Their owner stands, surveys the gathered crowd,
And pulls from carpet bag their snake oil wares.
   To sell is easy in one crazy town like this,
   My snake oil offering for Brexit’s deathlike kiss.

 ©Keith Murphy

''The Curtain of Repose''

The winds breathe nights darkness,
and she comes trailing a gown, black and velvety;
     inky   i n k y   deeply black,
          from the endless canopy above;
          with a deathlike silence, yet,
          the wind breathes, and
               somewhere     a night owl hoots,
                               hoot   hoot   h o o t   HOOT . . . 
           Loud silence,
                  if you listen.
N I G H T -  a time for sleeping and for weeping,
     and darkness comes creep   c r e e p i n g;
in  quietness and stillness my sleepy eyes close,
                      and I pull the curtain of  . . .  . repose.

________________________________
September 24, 2016

Poetry/Verse/"The Curtain Of Repose"
Copyright Protected, ID 16-833-273-0
All Rights Reserved.  Written under Pseudonym.

Submitted to the contest, 100 In A Row, 16
sponsor, Poet Destroyer

Seventh Place

The Curtain of Repose

The winds breathe in evenings soul of darkness,
And night comes trailing a gown, black and velvety;
  Inky  i n k y  black, deeply mysterious and moonless,
      An endless canopy;
      A deathlike silence,
      A nightingale song calls;
           Somewhere     a night owl hoots,
                           hoot  hoot  h o o t  HOOT . . .
        Lucid silence,
            A quiescence.
N I G H T-   a time for prayer and for weeping,
The spirit of darkness comes creep   c r e e p i n g;
  In the quietness and stillness my sleepy eyes close,
                          And I pull the curtain of . . . . repose

____________________________
June 13, 2016

Poetry/Verse/The Curtain Of Repose
Copyright Protected, ID 16-800-095-0
All Rights Reserved.  Written under Pseudonym.

For the contest, Night Silence
sponsor, Nayda Ivette Negron

Third Place

Dead of Night

In the dead of night
I was looking for the light.
Finding nothing but the darkness
Engulfing me and my madness

In the dead of night
I won’t go down without a fight.
Fighting these demons in me
That is struggling to be free.

In the dead of night
I was hoping that I might
Break away from this chain
That bonded me with deathlike pain.

In the dead of night
Everything just doesn’t go right...
In the dead of the night,
Will I ever see the light?

Mother's Green Thumb

(A Shadow Sonnet)

Earth mother, now return to Mother Earth
for time has taken what you were born for.
Listen for its call, oh dear one, listen,
and answer, before it pulls both thee and
 
me. As rain washes earth's green over me,
I remember your thumb, stained green as I.
Sun brightened the hue, rain chased the sun.
hands tilled the soil, but dirt clung on hands
 
to flake from green fingertips, and thus to
spread the seed; bring back life to deathlike spread,
"green up" our world as your spade cast forth green,
too singled in purpose to compass two
 
who work together— as partners will— who
eye the same plot of land with reaper's eye.

Cornish Sonnet- These Sparkling Tears

These sparkling tears do tell a woeful tale 
Of sorrows hidden deep within my heart
They bring to light the heartaches I bewail
And speak of broken dreams I bury deep
Hear now this tale and vow to never part
Awaken love from this, a deathlike sleep

In answer to my tears, let love prevail
Reach out and comfort me with words so sweet
Protect me from my demons that assail
For none but you can bring back life to me
And gift me joy with which each day to greet
If bound to you, my soul shall be set free

These sparkling tears do tell a woeful tale 
In answer to my tears, let love prevail

For Craig Cornish
The Cornish Sonnet
March 10, 2014

Sanctuary Bells Ring

I blow the feathery brown corpse
of a moth gently off the window sill
misting gray rain outside adds to
the pallor of the moment
I think to myself - everything is
dying around me
and my life too ebbing with
each ancient breath
despite this revelation... I know
there is a forever part to us
I sense it in the still, deathlike
suspension of my meditation
my body an empty temple
one pointed cathedral steeples
pyramid to infinity
I kneel on the hassock within
reposing in the splendor of a Presence
undefinable, a hush of love
ushers over me
tears pour from
stained glass eyes
that unmistakable kiss
sustained caress
blessed assurance

The Human Seasons: Elements At War and Peace, Part Iv

4.

Each dawn, the cold steps back a pace,
In the lengthening light the cold steps back
As the lands rise fresh and free from deathlike sleep again,
To play the full young mother dressed in life itself,
Strolling through the warming, waxing sun.

Growth and generation give the lie
To the empty time, short before
Everything renewed proclaims exoneration from stasis
Breauty runs riot, freed from its long waiting
To declare its immortality again.

For he and she love grows anew
In  hopes reborn spring's thaw
The heart's slow healing gathers force with the blooming 
As they pull the threads of their lives back together,
Sewing them closer with trust and forgiveness,
Going on again in the thousand-odd ways
That make a single life of two.

Love trumpets again in smug triumph
Through the wakening world,
For it too is one of the old, strong forces,
The one that holds together what would fain break itself apart
To its own rack and ruin;
The ultimate surgeon,
Healing with slow steely cuts 
Cauterizing the strangely sweet wells of pain
With unquenchable fire
That burns,
Promethean.

Ubiquitous Deathlike White

The harsh season of winter
has its grip upon the land.
Strong gusty winds are blowing,
exacerbating the cold.
Precipitation is snow.
Tons of solid crystals fall.
They lie on the hardened ground.
Lakes and streams are not flowing
Trees are devoid of their leaves.
The ice hangs like stalactites.
Green growth is inhibited.
No flowers found anywhere.
Barren lifeless surroundings.
Ubiquitous deathlike white.
Come in from out of the freeze.

• Short Deathlike Poems
• Famous Deathlike Poems
• Best Deathlike Poems
• Read Deathlike Poems
• Long Deathlike Poems
• Deathlike Quotes