They said grief was loud.
Mine came in whispers—
soft as moths
chewing through my ribcage
one memory at a time.
There are rooms I can’t enter.
Not because the doors are locked—
but because your ghost
sits there,
drinking my silence.
I carry you in the ache behind my smile,
in the second spoonful of coffee
I don’t pour anymore.
I still sleep on one side of the bed.
The other stays cold
out of respect.
People ask how I’m doing
and I become fluent in lies.
“I’m okay,” I say,
while my hands script elegies
into the folds of my jeans.
I wish I could mourn you loudly,
like the sky does with thunder.
But instead I break
in small, polite
catastrophes.
The worst part?
You didn’t even die.
You just left.
And somehow,
that feels more violent.
Full moons fill you with joy, seldom the New,
And pleasure you conceive as good, not pain,
Let me like New Moon that stars can I view,
As some poets devise ways pain to feign,
Which, helps them pen dirges and elegies,
Funeral hymns and odes of laments long,
Let them. Days-nights on an eternal lease,
One can’t be sans its endless twain on song.
You know, this world is made of dancing duals,
We mortals go for one over the ‘ther,
We tend to choose one of them and fight duels,
The twain though in its dance go together.
So, let us enjoy full moon till it lasts,
Even new moon, you’ll see fair magic casts.
E’en God could not have cast coins single side,
Yea, joy without grief, what a groom-less bride!
_________________________
Sonnet (tongue-in-cheek) |02.06.06, revised December 2024|
Poet’s note: A couple enjoys its togetherness under full moon, which the lady liked more. The husband also liked the new moon for a reason. He has his reasons to fall in love with both, or none. Finally, the lady sees the point and adds her own additional couplet at the end of their sonnet.
and in darkness ~
when the music of
love is muted
her thoughts b u
r s t
into a
constellational
c o l
l i s s
i o n
of confetti tears ~
emanating
esoteric embers
dusted with
c o l l
a p s e d reveries….
as the somatic space
between the stars is
not empty~
never silent,
forever fluorescent
reverberating
in euphonic resonance
there within the
sparks of
electric heartbeats
where promises
f l o a t
like hourglass pearls
you’ll find an
astronomical
abomination~
unfinished
metaphors handwritten
in
moonstone melancholy
like forgotten elegies
to the jasmine skyline~
woven
with radioactive ink
but will the
atomic warmth
of the
bluest flames
from the hypnotic
sea of nothingness
illuminate fervent
f l
a r e
s of soulmates
tangled in
ephemeral effervescence
tied to
clandestine dreams
lost in the luminous
arms of
deceased
desires?
We eulogize our parents, kneel before teachers,
Pay obeisance to idols, and praise every benefactor...
Write poetry on our love, lyrics to our heartthrob,
Elegies in the heartache and play Endymion for a Selene,
Making rainbows out of our pale inane existence.
But when it comes to thanksgiving, some never figure on our list,
And of the few, we are prudent, tongue-tied, and grossly inadequate.
Connate with this corpus from conception
Oh my senses and sensors! You have made me what I am.
But for you I would never have travelled the distances I had,
Nor perceived and indulged in this spectacular world!
Oh, me!
It grieves to leave, yet a new stint is equally tempting.
And before I am dragged out of this housing reluctantly
And watch dumbly, you being impaled and consigned
Let me thank you with all my heart,
Dear senses and dear limbs!
And as a tribute to you, dear frame,
I shall leave behind ... the name!
Elegy – 7-17-24
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elegy for Old Growth
Through measures of metered melancholy
The tattered winds sing a rent elegy,
A pensive wail for pristine old growth,
A drifting chant in pure pitch of final farewell –
The mute tongue howls in eulogy
For virgins of a thousand turns around the sun
For helpless giants surrendered in atonal sacrifice.
Gentle titans with feathery boughs lifted their faces
To embrace misted melodies of summer and winter snows
Forest zephyrs sang lullabies for sparrows
Nesting in their rustling wombs
Then shared the secret lyrics of their song
With robins sheltered in their lofty grace of red bark
In evensongs, matins and spring symphonies.
The myrrh of burial mixes with their lingering fragrance
In desolation and in their exposed flesh,
Nude hillsides of purple rage
Scream in final dirges of farewell
Modulated into anthems sung to saplings in circles of renewal
Little ones, like half steps, change elegies to odes
The threadbare zephyr now chants paeans to remember.
True
Golden
Is the light given to write
The words that lovingly depart
Gleaned from the collection of moments
Watching the dance of life on a limitless silent stage
While the multitude of days fold in-between
A ream of poems on blank paper sheets
Rehearsing years of storied elegies
That churn and spill upon a new
Light of understanding
Recounting hope
Enlightenment
Wisdom
Love
Elegy of the River and the Sea
For life and death are one,
like the river and the sea.
In grief, our tears taste different,
our ways of mourning unique.
You weep; I compose elegies.
My brother, high on marijuana,
the island battered by hurricane Beryl.
As the sea crashes upon the land,
seaweed lashes out like demons.
Are we prepared for this?
To whom it may concern,
do not call me early in the morning.
I am not yet awake for words.
Give me time to sip my coffee,
to savor the warmth of intimacy.
Let me read “Good Morning, Sunshine.”
For life and death are one,
like the river and the sea.
My daily poem whispers:
"Leave me alone in the morning
with my thoughts."
My mother outlived my father.
I aspire to outlive the sparrows.
In God, I entrust my life.
Monsoon mornings are like a seedless vase filled with paralyzed petals.
I sit reminiscing, the fleeting frequencies of his ancient clock,
now cloaked in coal cobwebs composing skeletal memories;
a timeless token of unblemished innocence,
when tiny fingers, tattooed with henna butterflies,
awaited the dawning strings of golden kites.
I ponder if shadows of the moving moon still caress chiffon curtains, forming a crescent spoon,
resembling five marbles of childhood that played hide and seek,
to his virtuous voice echoing down hollow hallways~
homing a trail of tender heartbeats from the swings he made for us…
For the empty room of a wise man is never soulless.
It shelters fearless footprints of futuristic art, painted with patience,
when fairies of twilight forget the lyrics of starry lullabies.
Tonight, I trace whispering wallpapers,
listening to the sound of my grandfather’s perennial promises~
that linger forever, embalmed in sandalwood serenity,
while nightingales croon eclectic elegies to the mourning sky.
Lost in a labyrinth of
Glistening sights
Infinitely out of reach,
Trembling amidst sweeping mistrals,
Fabricating a life of nostalgic allusions,
Caught in lapsed reveries, of
Restless arias and faint rustlings
Sequestering my rampant aura,
Bleeding in russet naivety,
Evaporating in silent elegies.
What is poetry
Should be discussed
Is it merely a garland of words
Or something else.
Should it be
Interesting or boring
Loving or disgusting
Or something else.
Should it be written interestingly
For the reader or the writers
For stire Or awareness
Or something else.
Should it be based on
Politics or history
Culture or arts
Or something else.
Should it be proceed surrounding of
Heroes or heroine
Villains or jokers
Or something else.
Should it be narrated on
Rural or urban life
Husbands or wives cat fights
Or something else.
Should it be discussed on
Both war or peace
Construction or destruction
Or something else.
Should it be
Concrete or abstract
Earthly or heavenly
Or something else.
Should it be related to
Humans or animals
Woods and cities
Or something else.
Should it be contained
Simplicity or complexity
Violence or romance
Or something else.
Should it be
Sonnets or ballads
Stories or elegies
Or something else.
Can it be
Sung or wrote
winter serenade
winter serenade
frozen crystal melodies ~
red cardinal chants
leafless boughs sing out
arias of roaring storms ~
snowdrops harmonize
blasts of icy frost
chanting plaintive elegies ~
daphne flowers bloom
short days intone night
with a solstice lullaby ~
fir trees wear white stoles
shadows of springtime
creep into amber twilights ~
bears snore rhythmic dreams
1-18-23
Syllables checked with www.howmanysyllables
Remembrance Day
Cold
Mists of
November
Gently embrace
Moss covered tombstones
In cathedral graveyards
Silent battlefields echo
Plaintive elegies of poppies
Remembrance Day for fallen heroes
11-10-22
Contest: November Nonet
Sponsor: Andrea Dietrich
I was in England when Remembrance Day was celebrated. People were wearing red poppies to memorialize fallen soldiers.
Night of Dread
“Halloween” night – “descending” “gloom” –
Lost in a forest of “living” “silhouettes”
Tangled branches obscure the skies
In veils of opaque ebony blackness
As phantoms of thick “dread”
Rise
From “open” crypts of “darkness”
Where “walking” echoes chant elegies of doom
And set a pounding heartbeat’s panic
As “creepy” creeping ghostly fingers
Graze the naked neck
To claw at crushed leaves
That snap like brittle bones
Under panicked feet
Looking –
Frantic searching -
For escape from this twisted labyrinth
Of screaming angst,
Where prowling wraiths with cold lips of frenzy
And souls lost to the daylight
Breathe from exile, musty breaths
In fogs on vanishing paths of vertigo
And torpid lethargy
Until ascendent midnight
Lifts up this vale of fainting frights with moonlight,
Shadows glinting through bare boughs,
For All Hallows Night.
10-25-22
Contest: Halloween 14-30 Lines - 27 Lines
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
Use ten words as written: creepy, descending, silhouettes, gloom, darkness, living, open, walking, Halloween, dread.
Chosen words italicized.
fall serenade
serenade of fall
nor'easters and southerlies ~
bittersweet in bloom
leaves sing with the winds
arias of rising gales ~
pumpkins harmonize
bare branches in tune
thrum rhythms of autumn ~
acorn symphonies
blast of icy frost
elegies for summer air ~
rainbow hued harvest
hues of country roads
chant scarlet, gold, umber notes ~
wheat fields intone fall
draughts herald autumn
fall ruffles and flourishes ~
corn stalks beat in time
autumn song resounds
carols of butterfly bush ~
chimes float on flurries
10-4-22
Syllables checked with www.howmanysyllables
Merriam Webster spells nor'easters with punctuation.
Night poet as, I create
Other poems possible
Tankas intimate
Heroic rhyming poesy
Iambic couplets plenty
Nursery rhyme tales
Greek elegy odes
Italian novellas fables
Mournful elegies
Poesy, sestinas, villanelles
Other verse lyrics
Short rhythmical compositions
Spiritual rhyme versifications
Innovative poetry stanzas
Book anthology prefaces
Literary novelettes
Epic narratives
Related Poems