Why must you bend in the wind of indifference?
You were once strong and impenetrable.
A granite boulder that moved deliberately and slowly,
Gashing out your path,
As the glacier of youth receded.
Who made you so cynical?
I ask that, knowing the answer.
Your accusing finger always points through me,
And attaches to my naivety and sullenness.
Did my questions wear you down?
Did my jealousy offend you?
That interminable wall you built,
Which I must scale every day,
Alone with my terminal misery.
Why did you bend?
"In those vernal seasons of the year when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth." - John Milton
Valleys, fields, meadows and hills take on a sunny glow.
Everything is fresh, and nature’s new creatures flourish and grow.
Rains pour down; mountain streams joined to rivers flow.
Never at least till fall must I worry about streets filled with snow.
Abloom are various flowers and trees; they put on beautiful show.
Life renews and songs fill the air as spring’s birds fly to and fro.
this man, that man, thee man
my father stood salient before my eyes
and like Louis over Schmeling or Ali over Liston
without cheer from onlookers
who bet everything on the challenger
the cool, cool silence of anger was deafening
still, I knew love when it shined
and on this day love melted past the horizon
leaving me to wonder in sullenness–why
the participants whom I thought were just like me
in love with everything, in hate with nothing–froze
as if this were the end
this woman, that woman, thee woman
my mother lies on the floor
legs askew, arms likewise
her gaze blank, her mouth ajar
crimson flowing free from her being
and like Schmeling under Louis
or Liston under Ali she lay
victory a mere misnomer
this man, that man, thee man
I stand before my son’s eyes
and like Louis over Schmeling
or Ali over Liston I hover–my wife
the mirror image
of my mother
“But woe is me, oh lament!” ~ Roger Whittaker.
Since you’ve been gone, my love,
Lo, my mournful heart…
how it pines for you!
This melancholy dusk
this smothering loneliness
this bewailing wind
and this foreboding mists,
As the shadows deepen
my longing grows deeper.
Since you have been gone
in the quiet, I lament.
O my love, I pray
do come back
to soothe my hurting heart
to console my sorrowful soul?
If not to appease my yearning heart,
At least come
to lull this moaning moon
for the teary stars of the night skies
Oh, do come back
to enliven this mournful milieu.
When a wayward gust of wind sweeps by
the rustling of the leaves
startles me and in a fit of sullenness
I begin to wonder…
Did you just pass me by?
~03/14/23
~Contest: Writing Challenge "L" words
~Sponsor: Constance La France
As darkness fell with suddenness,
the sun slid behind the blood moon.
Sounds of nightlife emerged off tune.
You flaunted your unevenness,
emboldened by dark drunkenness.
Your twisted mind a fierce monsoon
as darkness fell.
You came with sulky sullenness
and brought your foul humor jejune.
You played the part of grisly goon
and had lost all your humanness
as darkness fell.
laden in the semblance of the lifeless
i curled my mind, nesting in the umbrage
of memories that haunt more than touch
unable to soar within the wind's of time
she begged me to fly, wrap my wings around faith
offer her comfort, make promises she knows i can't keep
yet my words fall darkened like november days upon her deafness
my shoulders carry her weight as her silence screams aloud
i see the bony fingers of darkness pointing
at yet another encompassed in my coalition
she knows he's come for her, i see the fear
in her downcast eyes, as tears trail my back
i pretend to be tethered on strings of hope
ensconce my fears with factitious smiles
praying she doesn't see the forlorn looming
as i suppress my own tears through a stammer of words
while cursing death beneath my breath, unsettled within
i clamber the ground on deflected knees, hands enclosed
in sullenness my words are uplifted on a zephyr of last breaths
bore of a dozen souls lost as i withdrawal in this unrest of fate once more
November 11, 2019
When lonely is the path,sorrow is amiss
When nothing appeals
No company liked nor sought
Dreads ones own company
Takes recluse in some deserted place
Only to disdain one self
No flowers no birds hold interest
Drowned in self-pity one moves
All joy has come to a standstill
Wonder what people find in life
So worth living
What's there amiss!left to wonder
Is there something that
Escaped your notice
Perhaps detachment was the cause
To bring about this sullenness
To live to breathe
Attachments are required
Attachment to self ,to others and surroundings too
Only earning and living
Won't suffice
Only they should not entice
Be warm let not your feelings
Turn to ice.
It was time to let the bygones to be bygone,
And this they meant from the cockles of their hearts.
They felt that the injuries they had to endure were done,
It was too much to think over again about the hurts.
They avoided any thoughts bearing a grudge,
To start stressing over the bitterness would be crass.
Thoughts of unforgiveness would once again make them judge
And this will start the sullenness from the grass.
It was too much to think about the hurts again,
After all they felt that it was weakening.
They had absolutely nothing more to gain,
Because they realized that it was time for healing.
They understood that to bear the hatred would confine
Their inner peace, but to forgive would be divine
There is a poignancy in boyhood...
The high voice, and ineptitude,
The yearning to be free of mother's strings;
The awkwardness of age fifteen, to wit
A boyish sullenness.
There are some things lost when manhood gained -
And mothers cry on thinking.
----------------------------------------------------------
3/10/2015
Featured poem of the week commencing 8/13/2017
silhouette visage
scare awake the silent dead
on Allhallows eve
weird sounds penetrate
wildly woods so dark and deep
making one cower
a cold eerie chill
overtakes a breathless evening
waking dead spirits
fears manifest great
sullenness apprehensions
scaring one to death
little children lurk
the streets full of kindly houses
with fun faces that awe
Copyright © 2010 By Caryl S. Muzzey
Love laps at the shore of my heart.
Kinetically connected to kindness
my soul basks sumptuously in the
sunshine of creation.
All thoughts of bitterness dissolved
and washed away down the drainpipe
of despondency, mingling with misery
and disappearing from view.
All is as new. Blank page uncluttered
with the disarray of disillusionment.
Clean slate unsullied by the sullenness
of sulky solemnity.
Tradition tempered with tantalizing
innovation. History harmonized
with modish originality.
Awash with adoration of the sentient
I make a new vow of vociferous
worship to the universal source
of our invention - for the grace
of a God who loves unconditionally.
The architect of my soul.
The author of existence and the great
writer of this infinite infinity
called Life.
Let love always lap at the shores
of my heart. Make me part of
this new inception. Make me an instrument
of a new resounding peace -
a piece in the jig-saw of perpetuity;
A herald of an innovative message
of hopeful anticipation; a bearer
of the torch of tranquility.
To all the world - truce, treaty,
an armistice in Armageddon - Amen
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