Unfaded, though yellowed
Paper wrote on
Love's clear mention.
As fragrant, though musty
The box found in
Love's sweet meaning.
Stood between two realms —
imagination’s flight,
consciousness awake.
Through the storm of challenges,
still, I stood with one.
One man, no name,
anchored in grace,
holding the gift within,
unmoved by shadows,
still trusting the unfaded flame.
Ten mile peninsula in Queens, N.Y.,
nighttime jetties of moonlight white caps,
waves rising and ebbing.
My grandfather walking with me on the
daylight shore so many summers ago.
My dreams of Rockaway unfaded.
Watched the WTC twin towers being built
through binoculars.
Rockaway, in my soul's nostalgia
you still beckon.
Salted lips quenched by Coca-Cola.
The youth within me can still hear
the seagulls calling in the breeze,
and still see the amusement park
under 4th of July fireworks.
Dada, I miss you and Rockaway.
Do others often ask themselves,
" Are there days without darkness...
when another storm shows fierceness?
Has hope dimmed for selfish reasons? "
And the living pay little attention to events,
although they grin and appear to be perplexed;
and they miss every sign of the crucial times:
how can they not be aware? That's so absurd!
Are there days without darkness?
The evil ones embrace dark ideals
to accomplish a task linked to death,
to control and suppress each breath!
Anybody who holds the absolute power,
shouldn't neglect the masses with needs;
money is squandered on wars that drives:
brother against brother, sister against sister!
Lost is the concept of fairness, of humanness;
they silence the one who's forced to rebels against
the iron hand from the throne of false atonement:
they have built a dungeon fit for raving lions!
Are there days without darkness,
with limpid skies of unfaded blueness?
Are the paved roads free of thistles:
where all are safe from vile threats?
A beach ball stuck in the rafters of the pool,
been there for many years in the oblivion cool.
It contains the breath of an unknown person,
in the blowing wind the spirit still lives on,
as the vestige of the gone lingers in the obscurity.
I’ve been in many places as an anonymous entity,
people have seen me but haven't known my identity.
On the instances of time I left the footprint
with relicts of fragmented me that still might glint,
although the owning light has disappeared.
In the twilight hour the shadows of my presence
I perceive enwrap the indelible essence
I left in those places where I never went back,
but they got etched in some mind’s track,
keeping them engraved unfaded.
If I meet some of them now passing me by
I’d like to ask who and what was I
in that moment of my life when our paths crossed,
when they got pieces of me on a forgotten day lost
that perpetuates in the time continuum.
I find happy people weave nostalgia tapestry
of the unforgotten with the threads of memory
as I do with strands of the past in times of retrospection,
stitching the pieces left to make the collage of the one
who existed there and then.
Everyone is intelligent
Of this, histories are reminiscent
You know something I don't
And I too have something to front
Then comes the flowery ideal of the idealist
To be straight-faced by the reality of the realist
And you wonder as you watch in mime
Whether you were born before or after your time
Some assert their point across
And soft spoken reason suffers loss
Some claim to be a voice for the voiceless
Claiming to air the point of the pointless
Some know how, others know what
Some have the world round and others flat
Some reside in the serenity of thought and deed
Others on the podiums of herald and creed
All these are the plenitude of God's Grace
Our striving comprehension is His Master ace
As we behold Him doing a new thing
One time a lifting shout, another a jingling ring
The greatest of a time may become a hazy memory
Or a legend commanding some unfaded glory
But all in all be not he that the enemy mildly sifts
When you hold back your ministration by your gifts.
K. Muitherero.
In the twilight hour
we are by the window
open on the hued horizon,
see the sinking sky shimmer
with the last glow of the setting sun,
its flickering flash floods your face,
blushing with the touch of love
we fostered so long together.
I have not counted the steps,
but the unfaded footprints
I see entrenched deep in mind,
yours entwined with those of mine,
tracing the garden path
we travelled together
to where we are now complete,
under the serene shade of stalled time.
__________________
April 2, 2022
Contest : A Brian Strand Standard
Sponsored by : Brian Strand
Big Bang’s unfaded sound echoes in the universal core
In eternity the divine light transformed into matter
Material entities remember the hymn of yore
Resonating with the melody of the creator.
Everything born embeds the waves of primal sound
In all hearts it composes the music of the cosmos
With shared harmonic chord they’re all bound
From one celestial harp all the rhythms arose.
Life and nature create the classical symbiosis symphony
Oriental ‘ragas’ made melodic rain from melting cloud
Blazed the forest making dancing inferno in trees
Orphic hymns of rocks made the Greeks proud.
As strings of life’s essence play the music of genesis
In the heavenly ambiance of the perpetual beauty
Convivial man and animal transcend nemesis
They all listen to the song of infinity.
_________________
February 2, 2022
For Strand (1063) Contest
November 13, 2021
Title chosen : Of Infinity
Contest : This Or That, Vol 8
Sponsor : Edward Ibeh
What I’d like to give you,
is an ounce of my perfume,
as you saunter away through the haze
of my fragrance wrapping you in fervent film.
What would then remain with me though,
is the sea of innate redolence replenished
by the flavored rains of fervor,
poured by the aromatic sky of my yearning.
I’d follow your footprints unfaded,
to the edge of my loneliness dwindling,
find you enticingly transformed, waiting for me
to let me hold your hand once again.
Through the mist of my scent we’d walk
back in time, and I’d bring you home.
________________
September 29, 2021
Contest : Bring Me Home
Sponsor : Mystic Rose Rose
Unfaded colors of years enwrap you with grace,
like a leaf tinged by twilight you glow on birthday.
I float on reverie, encircling you on wings of zephyr,
I write this pulsating poem of heart just for you.
As we soak the glimmer of the emerald meadow,
you become the pristine patina of the dainty dawn.
Even in twilight hour the golden day doesn’t end,
for in my sky you’re the sanguine sun that never sets.
While the flowers wither in my autumn garden,
in you I see the blossoms of the everlasting spring,
where my yearning flitters like the beguiled butterfly
around your floral charisma that never wanes.
In the voyage across the tempestuous sea of life,
I don’t lose course sailing to the shore of longing.
I shall reach its silver beach lapped by waves of joy,
for you’re my alluring pole star that never strays.
In the desiccated desert over the dunes of despair
my satiated heart doesn’t chase the mirage of fervor,
for my soul has found the fountain of flowing bliss
in the delightful oasis that you’ve become for me.
September 4, 2021
Contest : A Poem To Your Spouse On His-Her Birthday
Sponsor : Funom Makama
In the backyard garden
I grew a mélange of flowers,
but the one that bloomed with gleam
beneath the shower of moonbeam,
you cherished the most, I remember.
Your favorite flower, Rajanigandha,
you wore in curls around your ebony hair,
gliding with the lattice of its pleats
to girdle your swan neck supple,
the image still unfaded, I treasure.
Every night now at the moonrise,
on your smiling portrait on the wall,
I place a garland of this snow-white satin flower,
feel you return to embrace me with the fragrance
of your beloved flower, I adore.
____________
(The English name of Rajanigandha is Tuberose
which is a night-blooming flower)
March 11, 2021
Contest : I Remember
Sponsor : Malabika Ray Chaudhuri
The journey began from the blue hills afar on the river called youth,
in the rolling vale it meandered in all directions from north to south.
In the flow of ardor we floated holding each other’s hands so firmly
in the torrent of time and across the wastelands, but never felt lonely.
Now at the dreamy dawns when in the sky we see the sunburst hue,
unfaded threads of love design in our hearts the colored tapestry new.
The river is flowing in sluggish pace toward the destined serene sea,
the lattice of sunset in the horizon our entwined vision waits to see.
We bloomed our love in grace and elegance in the valley of flower,
the patina of radiant blossoms lasts to this day in the twilight hour.
I gave you a bouquet of fervent flower from the garden of my heart,
it’s still unwithered after forty seven years, you’ll find before I depart.
October 23, 2020
Contest : From The Heart
Sponsor : Regina McIntosh
The sky falls with the snapped strings of stars
like the fragile kaleidoscope of broken dreams.
I write then lyrics of the sunburst dawn,
paint the day in colors of unfaded hope.
Spectrum resonates with the melody of heart,
I sing the song of beautiful life in silent twilight.
September 30, 2019
Contest : Brevity Poetry Contest Not More Than Six Lines
Sponsor : Caren Krutsinger
"When words become unclear I shall focus with photographs.
When images become inadequate I shall be content with silence."
- Ansel Adams.
A photograph with you in collage I found in old album,
the treasured snapshots of moments of stilled time.
Against the faded backdrop you shined in bridal attire,
from behind the motif of flowers and jewelry glitter
your blushing face I saw sculptured in
the silence of memory...
Alongside you’re in a blooming orchid garden
of the valley of flowers in the Himalaya.
The gold of the morning sun on the Kanchanjangha
reflected on your flushing face, glistening still in
the silence of memory...
its patina still unfaded, captured in frame of time.
In the fused frame you’re on the golden beach,
the moist face webbed by ebon hair in mystic design,
lips tinted by the glow of wispy lilac cloud,
the pearls of broken waves lace your ivory feet,
bringing the transfixed joy of the azure sea to
the silence of memory...
September 21, 2019
Contest : Writing Challenge 2, September 2019 - The Photograph
Sponsor : Wiishkobi Ode
Captured, beautiful thoughts
indescribable, breathtaking
indelibly branded to mind
enduring, unfaded
carefree summer days
swimming the cobalt ocean wilderness
rainbow fish, bioluminescent
purple, pink, orange coral cays
shimmering crystal waters
invigorated youth
heart skipping beats
crushing on you, following around
tantalizing flames lick along
my mind as I think of before
to one perfect day, a smile
that easy going laugh
you were magnificent
lightning struck my cautious mind
in that moment, I knew
my life would change forever
you were the one
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.