Withering Poems | Examples

Withering Heights

O breast, broke and bruised, hide your hollows
Tho tears will fall, the night will call...
Calling...calling from the shadows

Beam beckons, bent orb, O twisted smile
Ego chipped, firmly gripped, gripped denial...
Falling...falling far amongst the shadows

Woe, withered, worn, wind whimpers
Tragically torn, torn and twisted...
Wallowing...wallowing in the shadows 

White light, a new day born, still, I'm sworn
Hiding, hiding from the light...
Swallowed...swallowed by the shadows 



This was inspired by my first reading of Walt Whitman

Over And Under The Cuckoo's Nest

swimming
like lobotomized fish
in a psychiatric pond.

following to follow—
not following to lead.

following the leader,
following like sheep.

the pied piper
always made
such a fine shepherd
for those
who don’t 
think.

withering

verdant 
                 covenants
  w
     i
    t
      h
     e
        r
      i
        n
       g 
           on fruitless  v i n e s ~
taste of ashen blight

Withering moments

Everything comes to an end
 flowers wither and die 
leaves wither from trees
 falling to the ground 
our bodies wither with age 
and find their resting place

The Long Withering

This river is full of bodies,
dead fish, dead fishermen.

This river crumbles its banks,
it invades in trickles,
sluggishly it engulfs.

Once it deeply flowed
then death withered the water.
The bodies,
the dead fish, the fishermen,
all float upon its turgid path.

Where it goes no one knows,
for its long journey is too slow,
too polluted to measure.

Only the dead now catch each other.

Winter's Withering Reductions

Don't want to be reductionist
obeying only secularized rules

Would prefer to grow more
sacred inductionist
rediscovering golden win/win tools

For imagining
and re-membering
why win/win ancient relationships,
like space and time,
humane and divine
here and there
circle and square
pole and hole
purpose and goal

Feel more sacred
than win/lose dueling competitions
seem routinely dissonant

Despite StraightWhite Paternalistically Capitalist
secular indoctrination
disrespecting ecofeminist experiences
of resonantly resilient
compassionate relationship
elationships

Guiding sacred inductive curiosity
to restore eternal health and safety 
sacred communions
within each reiterative communication
string through holonic communities
of resonantly cooperative freedoms 
uniting wealth resilient experience

Lavishly conserving
future regenerators' trauma-healing
romantic re-memories
sacredly dramatic
peak and peaceful co-elationships

Replacing immigration threats
by Other cold colonizers
Restoring shared emigrant memories 
warmer strengths
with cooperative 
co-invested
mutually infested
creolizers.

Withering Petals

These falling petals 
Continue to write my story
Each one, has its own fragrance 
Some smell pretty, while other rot away

I'm slowly exposing myself 
As these petals fall
Landing where they must
I'm trusting the process of withering 

Soon I'll be naked and shivering 
All these flowers lay on the floor
One day soon, I will have no more
I hope that you just still, like my naked self...

The Withering Warrior

D  irections of our lives seem futile and our hearts obstructed.
E  very person, every woman, every child, every
M  an has lost the freedom that was promised - now corrupted,
O  bliterated by those whose rigid rules destroy our memories
C  asting our will, our dreams, our freedom aside 
R  elinquishing our growth as a nation to thrive freely.
A  fghanistan you lay like the wounded warrior that lied
C  alling out “I can no longer fight, I must hide” for me to be.
Y  ears have come and gone too long, as our history is no longer the prize.


G  lory to god to protect our children as they live with tyrants,
O  ligarchs and kings that take food from their mouths.
N  othing under our sun will shine in this moment of violence
E  xcept silver bullets shot with hate to scare our souls to bow


Sept. 2, 2021

Message in an Acrostic 2 Poetry Contest

Afghanistan Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Kai Michael Neumann
sponsored by Kim Rodriguez

Withering

Time…
Wilts away 

Memories… 
Fading moments of a better yesterday 

Life…
Constrict in place for your freedom  

Society…
Deterioration of its innocence 

Leaders…
Decay the ability to make a difference  

Friendship…
Shriveled from the distance 

Earth…
Wasting away

My soul…
Disintegrate

Withering Ruination

 
withering
flowers dying
crumbling to pieces
melancholy, anguish, sadness, grief
decay
ruination
summer ending
trees shedding rainbow leaves
swirling, twirling, whirling, spinning
withering
__________________
July 22, 2021


Poetry/Double Cinquain/withering ruination
Copyright Protected, ID 07-1375-126-22
All Rights Reserved, 2021, Constance La France

Written for the Standard contest, A Brian Strand July 24
sponsor, Brian Strand

First Place

Withering Away

Possibly, today,
I pray you and I don’t fade
Mold me like your clay

Oh, maybe someday,
I’ll no longer be afraid
Bolden me up today

After my sins be paid...
I’m still withering away
Clouds fade where I laid

I feel so betrayed
My day turns to black and gray
We’re flawfully made

Say, if I let go,
Will you save me from being ill?
Be still, that is so —

Very thrilled to be here
You gave me cheer beyond
Life’s withering fear...

I want to grow on
Spiritually better now
I’m a dawn flower!

Withering India Vanishing India

pandemic lockdowns withering india
pandemic lockdowns vanishing india

interst waiver with loan moratorium
head-on collision between economy and cities
public finance number game ending india
pandemic lockdowns withering india
pandemic lockdowns vanishing india

rent waiver urges
head-on collision between economy and cities
public finance number game ending india
pandemic lockdowns withering india
pandemic lockdowns vanishing india

millionaire unable to buy bread
head-on collision between economy and cities
public finance number game ending india
pandemic lockdowns withering india
pandemic lockdowns vanishing india

Farewell, Withering Autumn

Farewell to the withering of Autumn days
its bare branched trees and fields of maize
to the ripened acorns, hoarded by squirrels
and chimneys belchng black smoke curls

Goodbye to Fall's colors and pumpkin spice
Soon to succumb to Winter's sleet and ice
In silence, snow covers the ground, completely
I fold away memories of Autumn, discreetly

I find solace that fallen leaves are concealed
under blankets covering meadows and fields
In layers of woolens and my fingers in mittens
I desire to roam outdoors, like curious kittens

His Bright Withering

You can tell him no
but the training wheels on his head 
spin on,
he thinks you don’t mean it,
that you don’t mean a thing
even when that ‘thing’ is a
tense bubble of spitting camels. 
He just keeps on talking
as if you had never said so
or he had not glimpsed bared 
broad yellow teeth.

He is an old branch of my tree
his teeth clatter
as his stiff leaves rattle you
into a nervous tick and frozen smile.
Yet a part of him is child-like
not young but green stemmed
and river deep in its sap.

When I ply him with wine
thinking I might wilt his scratchy chatter
he can flick and startle jangled nerves
with a pliant and quick stepping wisdom
and a spry sly humor,

a wit sprung from a well deeper than mine,
then I wish I were also that fresh a watering,
and not a herder of fractious 
even-toed ungulates.

A Withering Wall

A wall in the wood now stands like a ghost, 
A red-brick snake-ghost, threatening to toast – 
To drown dwellers in a sea of dreadful appall, 
And wither them all by being a mending wall.



Oct. 14, 2020
Rithimus Divisa 10 Poetry Contest
Contest Sponsor: Gregory R Barden 


Original poem: A Wall in the Wood
Posted on Oct. 10, 2020 for the contest: A Wall in the Wood Poetry Contest 
Contest Sponsor: Silent One

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