Long Affright Poems

Long Affright Poems. Below are the most popular long Affright by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Affright poems by poem length and keyword.


Premium Member Tragic Wisdom

Dreamer
In my boyhood I waded shoal creeks;
Veins of living waters swirling past my
Ankles; returning home, grinding stones. 
I asked: How are rain drops like millstones?

I watched a stream of black ants scaling a tree
Through the crevices of bark; Antennae stiffened.
Above, a wily woodpecker whetted his long, nose plier.
I asked: How many ants to voice a flicker?

The grooves are worn, the needle no longer holds. 
I station a toy soldier near the spindle, he turns
His post slowly. Deployed, his pace quickened,
Could not hold at the edge. 
I asked: How far from the spindle before I fledge?

Awakenings
A huge arm snatched me back. Startled, affright,
By the sight of a man twice mine in height shouting 
“Boy, don’t never be drinkin’ from theirs again.”
I asked: Does “colored” water not flow from the same vein?

Legs stiffen straight back when the BB
Entered the frog’s spine, each time. A boy hones
His skill for the man who would be sent to hunt men. 
I asked: How many to pith before wars end?

Fear reverses relationships; opposites repel,
Likes attract. Tolerance, inclusion have no
Currency as long as pols pervert polarity. 
I asked: Can we long survive the insularity?


Copyright 2018 Paul Thomson


Premium Member The Ballad of Clifford Griffin

In the spring of 1880 young Clifford Griffin immigrated from England to Colorado.
The death of his fiancee left him bereft and he was searchin' for his El Dorado.
He settled in Silver Plume where he and his brother bought the Seven Thirty Mine.
Clifford and his brother Heneage became very rich from ore that assayed very fine!

With all his riches, Clifford chose to live in his lonely cabin above the town.
His only companion was his treasured violin which he played with some renown!
His melancholy melodies wafted down from his mountain aerie 'most every night,
To be heard by the whiskey-guzzlin' hard-scrabble miners to their delight!

Clifford always dressed in black, enjoyed fine cigars and was quite the dashin' bloke!
He seemed content with his solitary life and in business was as solid as an oak!
Alas, death cast its gloomy pall high above Silver Plume one moonlit night.
Instead of sweet violin music, a single shot was heard that left the town affright!

Next morn his mortal remains were found in a grave he'd dug for himself alone.
His heart-broken brother found the pistol with which his brains he had blown.
A grand monument was erected atop the mountain just above Silver Plume,
At the very spot where Clifford lay midst the ponderosa and Columbine bloom!

Mysterious events now occur on that lonely mountainside accordin' to local lore!
'Tis said on moonlit nights sad violin music is heard below on the valley floor!
Folks have seen a black-clad phantom smokin' a cigar and drawin' a bow,
Playin' melancholy music and a wraith in Clifford's likeness a-swayin' to and fro!

Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
(c) All Rights Reserved

Entry for Carol Eastman's "Story Poem" Contest
Form: Ballad

Premium Member The Inner Shrine

I choose to freely write, you see
though readers have audacity
to tag their labels onto me
I smile and simply let them be

what lies between each single line
though but a shade of something fine
a merest sip of finest wine
is rhyming sign to inner shrine

these words: a place of sacred light
that's safe from words that mar and blight
no evil enters to affright
each poem stands, a heroed knight

and peace pervades, for all is well
a paradise to counter hell
the stories of my life, I tell
no single soul this joy can quell

so read and stay with me awhile
forget the ones whose words are vile
embrace this time, and choose to smile
For words we share make life worthwhile

Eileen Manassian
Form: Rhyme

Abrasive Hawk

What gallant form from vaunted perch doth alight
Leaving tailwind that unassuming gawkers affright
Whose tawny shadow the sun's rays doth blight;
Swarthy silhouette shading glint so erudite
Whose tan-welted oars the azure seas doth smite;
With swift strokes the ethereal waves doth unrequite
Whose beige shield occludes satin rampart's line of sight;
O'er satin folds his opaque image doth highlight
What spindling machine doth wind's billowy currents spite,
With each sweeping motion a cylinder doth ignite
What grainy visage doth earth's footstool beknight,
With majestic crown his diminutive subjects delight
What predator drone spreads its cerebral kite;
Soaring fowl, creeping ermine safe sanctuary to slight
Whose steely eyes sky's tenants doth frivolously indict;
His insatiable, rapacious appetite to expedite
Form: Rhyme

Premium Member Scary Rhyme

SCARY RHYME

Walking on talking screaming boards
Throat gurgling blood slashed from behind
Repugnance revulsion bodies ignored
Frightmovie disgust shocker fear combine
What's it to you zombie slasher mayhem 
Apocalyptic phobia fear affright scared frighten
Bizarre ballerina bloodcurdling cemetery eerie incandescent
Enchanted evil eyeballs fluorescent,electroluminescent 
Cut your throat 
A killer's joke
Crown chilling ghoulish glittered beings
Morbid moonlit mysterious mausoleum
Mysterious midnight nightmare crest
Phantasm phantom poltergeist 
Wizardry wicked wizardry Satan watch
Limbs dangling daunts
Tangled bloody bodies cry find
Symbolic SCARY RHYME

10/04/18

For Scary Or Spooky Poem Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
Form: Rhyme


Premium Member Aubade Reprisal of Light

Admire, exult, despise, laugh, weep for here. There is such matter for all feelings: Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear.

— Lord Byron


Morning love sought with riveting pink and amber foliage.
hunter-green mask
encapsulated service
fanfare from afar
elbow-high fives

Twilight burned hue of leaves behind charcoal trees; mood
that familiar pink
dissimilar dusk
cephalopod ink
blackened windows

swings like a pendulum — hopefulness holds tight,
suspended 
above rhyme and season
legs dangling
affright coyote’s moon

waiting, spellbound for the aubade reprisal of light.
regale of a New Year
trumpeting 
cloud nine
peacock-breath

11/22/2020
Sunday
Form: Verse

Premium Member Bridges To Nowhere and Between

It seems, I much prefer my dreams
though times of consequence pass fleetingly.
It seems, I know while in those very dreams
of all that passes in between.

Matching my realities to messages
left within the ‘seems’ of fear and fantasy and light
of the umbilicus cord which snaps when I’m affright.
Yes, I’d say it often seems, 
I’m so a home when wrestling with my dreams.

The I sees “I” , and oft compresses screams
Munch-like in hues of blue and green
on bridges to the nowhere and in-betweens,
ear-covering, muffling, silent screams.

Mesmerized, am I, by what can be, 
reality dissolves within the ever-after seams.
Clocks melt, trees morph to faces, Dali emotes 
tattle-tailing signs that float on reels
in rooms off kilter, windows bricked without.

Can you hear me?
Can I hear me, shout?
I’m right here, I just asleep
Please let me out!
Form: Verse

The Bells In Honor of Edgar Allan Poe

A Revised Edition      
From The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. II, 1850

In the icy air where the stars do sprinkle bright 
keeping time, keeping time 
with the jingling bells of night 
it is there I lay my heart, my lonely heart  

Hear the mellow wedding bells 
the golden bells of happiness, ringing to foretell
Through the balmy air of night how they ring with such delight
from the molten-golden notes, the liquid ditty floats

A gush of euphony within her dwells
for a future that foretells of the rapture that impels
from the swinging and the ringing of the bells,
to the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

Later how they clang and clash and roar in the throbbing air
hear the tolling of the bells, the bells, the bells 
in a world of solemn thought, their monody compels
in the silence of the night she shivers with affright

And the lover oh the lover, dwelling deep inside the steeple
all alone,.. tolling, tolling, in that muffled monotone
turns her heart to solid stone, as she listens to the bells  
the bells, the bells, the bells...

Premium Member I Am African

I am African, I affirm that i am Original African 
untainted, unblenched, unsoiled. 
I am African, 
with all the dignity of the first human. 
unashamed, unbowed, undaunted.  I am African.
unique, culturally so. 
I am from the people whose origin birthed all others, 
the first creatures of Earth. 
I am African, 
Boldly I declare,  
with this strength and sinews affirming, 
though they obscure my origin with fabrication, 
and contorted the fact with lies,
Yet, my spirit aligning with the truth undeniable, I am African.
Though the glare of calumny opposes,
and unvoiced spite rent my melanin, 
I stand unfettered declaring, I am African.
unrestricted traversing the globe, 
from this climes to India, 
I carry beauty across continents
sowing seeds everywhere. 
I bore the heat unblenched.
I retain the goodness of Gold.
This sun does not affright. 
it leaves no particles with the scourge.
When you see me touring the Land with strength,
Remember,   
I am African.

Premium Member Halloween Fright


Shadows fade into the night
Eerie darkness – oh, what a sight
Gloom and gore are my plight
Heart is racing as I write
Dreadful horror I try to smite
Fear falls heavy on hindsight
Terror trembles, it will ignite
Alarm at the grieving despite
Comforting thoughts that excite
Delaying the scare that is affright
Leaning into sorrow to unite
Worry, panic and distress at midnight
When all the nightmares come to light
Inside the one who knows the fight
Between life and death by candlelight
When everyone sees the oversight
Of forgetting that Halloween’s might
Is to frighten hearts to take flight
Leaving behind the hope that does delight
With guarantees of solace, oh, so bright





Halloween Monorhyme Contest Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Caren Krutsinger
October 14, 2021
Form: Monorhyme

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