She brewed it slow,
the thistle steeped—
a greyish brown
in porcelain grace.
Each sip, a sting—
a bitter bloom,
but she smiled,
claiming peace.
At first, a wince,
then less, then none—
until the taste
was home enough.
No sugar added,
no honey balm,
just thorn and grass
and quiet aches.
“How did she bear?”
they often ask.
“It’s the way I like it,”
she often says.
But bitterness
never just begins—
it’s learned,
one sip a day.
Until bitterness
becomes a friend,
and even the sting—
a kind of warmth.
Categories:
greyish, anger, emotions, feelings, poems,
Form: Free verse
Come, loved one... stay sunlit grand
Let birdsongs from those lips croon to me,
Of radiant morns holding your blooms
And leaves aglow winging carefree ,
These lustrous scenes...gifts of revelry.
Lady, Lay...endow air with languid tunes
These hands brimming with flowers
While charmed presence speak of magic ...
Your enchantment flaming my hours
Till cloudscape fondle us with late showers.
All through seasons, dance me tenderly
Dare not vanish, trail off, or depart;
These springtime dreams are nestled
All through weaves of my mesmerized heart,
Awaiting your bridal nod ...from the start.
Then when life's greyish clouds billow
Tousling remnants of our younger days--
Will you caress and shake off my tears ?
I'll race us into old twilight's grace
If only to meet our lasting embrace.
Categories:
greyish, devotion, love,
Form: Rhyme
Spring Rain Hiku 17
/ / / / / /
spring greyish c ~l ~ o ~u ~d ~s / / / / / /
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ d o / / w
n / / p
i a
rain knocks at my w s e n
a call from h e a v e n.
Categories:
greyish, dark, heaven, rain, spring,
Form: Haiku
Just how green is my valley
Below those dark satanic hills?
How many familial bones
Lay there molding to greyish dust?
Do the words of my forefathers
Echo on beyond my ancient head...
So that future ears clearly hear
What wisdom they actually said?
I long to see the rain fall
On those grey slag built mountains,
Where trees are straggly specimens -
Sometimes misted by the clouds
So low that their moist kiss remains
On my upward stretching hands.
It's where the belly trembles
And my heartache truly resounds.
But how much better would it be
Were this a sun drenched paradise,
Where everything was plentiful;
Where everyone was fulfilled
And could afford their daily bread,
Where cries of pain became instead
Joyful smiles with ease instilled?
© Allen Ansell 2025
Categories:
greyish, emotions, mountains, nostalgia,
Form: Free verse
I always long for winter,
Cold but not the rain.
And enjoy the fluffy white,
Covering the road and lane.
the icy woods would sparkle,
In the hazy light of sun.
Greyish the skies shall be,
After the storms have gone.
My eyes enjoy the beauty,
Of nature in all the lands.
But my thoughts refuse to leave,
The warmth of my cozy hat.
Categories:
greyish, beauty, february, january, rain,
Form: Rhyme
HAPPINESS
Happiness is like an exultant state of mind
A temporary escape from the daily grind
Sadness is blown away by a timely breeze
And it’s certainly about time, if you please
It is such a feeling of joy beyond measure
One revels in that most welcome pleasure
But one wonders if there’s a price to pay
Maybe sadness will return to have its day
It’s a balance then, between up and down
White or black, and not that greyish brown
With a dull life lived in that in-between state
Waking each morning and it’s not that great
So, be one to seek and experience extremes
If you don’t get it yet, rely on your dreams
Categories:
greyish, happiness,
Form: List
MAGNIFICATION
------------------
Close up, the rare metal
shows me its greyish form:
no dots or dashes here.
A disappointment,
for I heard once a scientist say
that under microscopes
the dots and dashes seem to bleep
a Morse code that would save the world and more.
Categories:
greyish, fantasy,
Form: Free verse
What Is It
1.
The man who was my father sits
Wearing the face that will be mine,
Brooding in a place I cannot reach
In a time and space I'll never know
And speaks, when he does, as he never did before.
And so it comes to this, in the end
At least for far too many;
Live long enough,
And the mind wearies of its ceaseless
Chasing after things,
Turns in, settles into the greyish No-Mans' Land
Of its Long-Ago,
The attics where the past lives on,
Where the fond and familiar reside.
Not so bad to settle there, I suppose,
Where everything moves through a better light,
Where the rough and uncertain
Goes smoothed and simplified;
The familiar rules, the strange is banned.
The price though, the loss, the erasure
Of so much of the Now;
All that which has travelled with you
Faded to obscurity
And you live among the unknown ghosts.
Categories:
greyish, dad, emotions, feelings, mental
Form: Free verse
There is a sadness in the heart of peace
An emptiness of bloodless, toneless hearts
Left stagnant in the aftermath of hope
Yet still we wave our tattered silent flags.
A rustle in the garden bids us – still!
Though greyish peace resides upon the soil
Through which the budding saplings dare to peek
To glimpse the golden hope of daybreaks dream.
A dove, eternal symbol of our hearts,
Encrusted in detritus of our souls
Lays motionless surrounded by both flags
Consumed by demons choking on its truth
For symbols are the bane of mortal men
The sound of crying doves, our greatest sin.
Categories:
greyish, eulogy,
Form: Blank verse
Blackish, brownish, and greyish clouds on zenith call,
The white lambs like the ones below, unheeding, crawl;
The immaculate white egrets in elation,
Mock the grey herons, in calm Zen meditation;
Kow-kow of cuckoos and the coo-ee of koels,
Sound and resound in the idyllic nature strolls...!
A sense of sadness, yet, surrounds my whole being,
A bit of depression evokes a forced fleeing;
Memories fly beyond realms of nostalgia,
And soon turn into terrible cephalalgia;
Your flight beyond the skies toward spaces unknown,
Comes to stay in the nimbus of my mind, forlorn...!
Those plants and flowers; butterflies and honeybees,
Those streams and rocks and mossy slippery tall trees;
Those frogs and fish and clams and mussels and wrasses,
Those fine foams collected around like molasses;
All these bring to my mind those golden days bygone,
Come back, if you can, dear, that I may find new dawn...!!!
20 June 2023
Any Poem Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Robert James Liguori
Categories:
greyish, life, nature,
Form: Rhyme
Yonder, not so “wild Blue” anymore, more a greyish, misty, warning.
©5/5/2023
Writing Contest - "Y" words Poetry Contest
Constance LaFrance - Sponsor
Categories:
greyish, age, perspective,
Form: Free verse
His fifty sleazy shades he conceals
Until his layout plans seal the deals.
I wish I knew
His greyish hue,
I'd run, but too late - I'm over heels.
February 24, 2023
Categories:
greyish, humorous,
Form: Limerick
A dark black, bright white, greyish hued rainbow in a rainbow-colored sky
Categories:
greyish, imagination,
Form: Monoku
Greyish mornings skies with tints of pink
Are signs that soon, the sun will wink
And fill the clouds a reddish hue
below the skies of colors blue
Blackish clouds near afternoon
Are signs that rain, will pour down soon
And bring to us some mid-day showers
To wet our beds of garden flowers
The evening skies all full in glow
Are signs that God, was here to show
That life is beautiful and to all take part
His precious gifts to warmth our heart
Categories:
greyish, beauty, god,
Form: Rhyme
I’ve asked you for love, but my heart
Is a playground of pains like matchsticks & veld,
I’m a broken-pieced soul.
I prayed for success, instead all I see
Is them whammies in numbers of mega bus,
All tight up blocking every hole to breathe.
I asked for this dear life but in it I see tears pinning my cheeks.
I’m inches away from crying such blood left in me,
Momma is with no degrees,
Father left in the ages of storm
And the shelter I have pours water when it rains.
My friends, the ones I grew up with, changed with lanes ‘cause
I fail to even get handwork to make a living in me.
My hair is greyish not by mistake,
The world I live in favours the sons and daughters of the rich,
Without connections I’m just moss in the middle of the Kalahari.
When I try to keep up, they are dragging me down
Like a prey impala on the canines of lion, why me?!
Why do I have to feel pain all emotionally, physically
Like I was bred with it hereditarily?
Why can’t I just get a hold of myself once?!
Guide me please!! I haven’t lost faith in you.
Categories:
greyish, prayer,
Form: Narrative
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