The soft light slowly starts to fade
Where shadows erewhile softly played,
A PENUMBRA begins to spread,
An ELIXIR sets out to head
IMBUED with a magical shine
That seems to lengthen one`s lifeline
With outgrowth of a tender grace
Seeming to fly in time and space
With onset of a feel of peace
And a sense of distinctive bliss.
Written: August 17, 2026, for a contest sponsored by Nette Onclaud
***************
Penumbra veils the verge of mind—
half-light leans along the whispering wall,
where silence shivers, silver-thin.
I imbue the dusk with breath,
an azure ember kindling in the throat of recall.
Elixir bleeds from fractured faces of clocks,
time tincturing itself drop by dulcet drop—
each pulse a bruised, stripped wound.
Storms spiral in the marrow’s moaning,
yet love lingers—
remembering what the mind forgets.
penumbra gathered at the edge of evening,
that quiet border where outlines loosen
and the world seems to reconsider itself.
I walked through it without urgency,
letting the muted light imbue each surface~
a fencepost, a drifting leaf, my own breath~
the dimness offering a wisdom untouched by light.
a quiet drift of air brushed the understory
as if uncapping a bottle of elixir
mixed from resin, cool bark, and the faint
metallic scent of approaching night.
nothing reached out for meaning~
yet the moment felt quietly inhabited,
as if presence itself were enough.
You're on the wall - a shadow.
Only in this way dare I address you,
frequently pretend that you are here,
yet say: but you are a shadow,
a shapeless shadow.
And yet I know who you are as that shadow
creates a shape, even a penumbra,
within my mind's eye.
Should such curiosity prompt misery?
Should this misery prompt pleasure?
(written 15 Oct 2025; placed 23 May 2026)
She moves catlike
her ebony braid
swishing majestic
in pearly moonlight
and vaporous penumbra.
Raising a chalice
jade and bejewelled
the lithe shadow
samples golden droplets
of honeyed wine
anointed silently
at a feast
of grace.
Everything is normal
so not much to sing or say.
No summer thunderstorm,
the snow was magical only for an hour.
Old men
aren’t removing women’s panties with removable dentures.
A belly laugh now and then,
an empty belly’s holy.
With simple joy
mortals may forget to fear their deaths.
Simply put,
we do not survive. But what an adventure!
I heard an archangel cry
Don’t hurt the trees!
Also, save democracy.
Also, stop barking, believing in that higher power.
What’s Ken doing today?
Watching TED talk lectures,
planning next Spring’s garden.
It’s Death, not the Jewish king, in your rose garden.
As climates change
species escape predators
and predators chase down prey.
Choose sacrifice or blame.
I look at faces
and they look at mine, mute, animated spirits,
black wet rocks,
victims among flames.
I embrace my anonymity,
lost in my own city
in the shade of a gazebo,
walk the streets and say hello.
the fins
of human
quake tremendously
spills grotesqueness while dumping
the ox cosmos in the middle of smoothly
mirrored
ocean Walls
where ones choice is fixed
at dawn stagnantly brimming
in obsolete enviable damp colours
woven in a volcanic
oasis of anguished circles embraced in
loneliness fronted
with shuttering frozen stars
moulding through a sunny cheerful darkness
reinvigorated with
strident current in
waves staring
hovering and invading through the thorns of
the barren mountains
wrapped in swings of an
encroached moonlight piercing in
the vacancy of
my enchanted soul
channeling through my so preceding exist
in steam of redolence reek
from the garden frowns
and grins
call me a piscine
but even as a sly tamed fox hereafter
I would soar on footprints of
ceaseless fogs
to unveil your gleam
leap through the reflection of
sunlight to sway you
exasperatingly siren my scales on
your prime lips
fading with a spin
submerged in a longing savory passion
PENUMBRA
A semi-hidden place
Out of the limelight
Hovering in shadow
And almost unseen
But still a dim copy
Sometimes cast large
And sometimes not
Its own shade of grey
Moving in synchrony
An indistinct identity
As if self-conscious
Yet knowing its role
To echo and follow
Like its black cousin
Faithful until it’s dark
By a roadside a tattered insult!
Pierced Paul swore not a soul consult.
Why then had he joined case-ending cult?
And who's claiming he can't one assault?
" This guy shall like a car somersault
And like Reeves' Volvo wear horrid fault"
Remembered Reeves is now in a vault!
Penumbra he'd hurt and got result,
Assured a death not difficult:
Reeves to heaven quickly catapult.
In their Penumbra:The stinking rich!
Time to swell bank account of their witch.
It wouldn't count that Target is bony
Or others scaring with face stony;
Witch's sole job to show that Penumbra
Shall her Rivals handle like used bra...
Pierced Paul his foes quit through accident
And on telly watches The Incident.
Penumbra, It's when day and night
succumb together
in a dark kiss...
Virtual Town Square
David J Walker
The marketplace is teeming with noise
From the beginnings of early morning meetings
Rumors and warnings about
The strange faces from places you
Never heard of before
The penumbra provided protects the
Interpretation of selective vision
Mnemonic recitations guide
Approved cogitation
That gather communities together
Into their one true form of a
Virtual town square
Where
Freedom of thought disappears
Poetic Form :: Paiku
Umbra
Innermost
core
part of shadow.
~x~x~
Penumbra
Space where part
of
light source obscured.
~x~x~
Antumbra
Seen bright ring
round
eclipsing source.
~x~x~
When life
becomes a shadow,
the sun will not reach
the night...
The night will not create
the morning...
There will not be death
there will not be born...
The world will be obscure...
and will be silent...
The one who never lived,
never again will glimpse...
Who did not receive light
will live forever in penumbra...
Exactly the way i live... !
colour of the trees
on the edge of green high peaks
view the cyan haze
He writes, pouring down his words of glory
Disclose the echoes of his wondrous dream
Down into his soul her untold story
Boundless desire; her tears, her eyes gleam.
With strokes of rufous and cherry and wine
Erasing the dark shadows from her eyes
Canvas of ivory their love entwine
Surround them believe, O Eros, Arise!
Her heart she bore in a penumbra wakes
Of all the galaxies vast, he chose hers
Loving arms hold her still, is what it takes
His gaze, his touch, his love he then whispers
His words are robins of dawn in her heart
They fall, no they fall and never to part.
(C)2017 Maricris Cabrera
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