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Best Poems Written by Darrell Saunders

Below are the all-time best Darrell Saunders poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Snow Dancing

Snow dancing
across misty morning mood,
winter laughs.

Copyright © Darrell Saunders | Year Posted 2009



Details | Darrell Saunders Poem

Dad

I dreamed you alive last night
a revisit of our Sunday drives
to Ladner seeking blackberries
I came running back to the car
my ice cream bucket filled 
with blackberries, my wrist
full of red cuts. Blackberry juice
some still trickling from my mouth,
I grinned at you.

I dreamed you back to the river
where you took me fishing
a black slimy bullhead
my first trophy fish
I was proud 
you looked at me with disapproval 
as I poked my fish with a knife
till its guts oozed out.

I dreamed you back to the pear orchard
the biggest pears where at the top
of rotting tree limbs. You shouted
a warning at me to be careful
I was eager to please you and ventured
far out on fragile limbs 
Septembers crisp chill reddening my face
but it was your branch that snapped
and you crashed heavily to the ground.
You broke your heel.

I dreamed you back to Fraser Street
you on your nightly walk
I drunk out of my mind
swearing at two girls passing by  
and I saw your face, that look
and I tried to walk straight
tried to apologize, 
tried to make things right
but you quickened your pace
as if I was a stranger.

Copyright © Darrell Saunders | Year Posted 2009

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Egg

Egg so fragile
new creation
new heart beating
in the henhouse
bird that might have been

Egg so fragile
nature’s wonder
beneath its mother
warm and cozy
bird that might have been

Egg so fragile
fresh and faultless
I salute you
I salute you
bird that might have been
	
Egg so fragile
my creation
humbly proffered
in my kitchen
bird that might have been
	
Egg so fragile			 
crack it open	
fry with bacon	
over easy
bird that might have been

Egg so fragile
cracked and emptied  
on the compost
void of promise 
bird that might have been

Copyright © Darrell Saunders | Year Posted 2009

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Swirling

Two strife torn lovers adrift in a boat 
enveloped by circling currents 
torn by dark separation 
the fragile veil of words
exploding 
into tears and threats
emotions like storm breaking 
silence separating two worlds
turbulence fills the boat 
nothing left to say
the boat drifts towards the rapids 
unattended

Unattended 
the boat drifts towards the rapids 
nothing left to say
turbulence fills the boat
silence separating two worlds
emotion like storm breaking 
into tears and threats 
exploding 
the fragile veil of words 
torn by dark separation
enveloped by circling currents
two strife torn lovers adrift in a boat

Copyright © Darrell Saunders | Year Posted 2009

Details | Darrell Saunders Poem

Shoes

Yearning to dance, he went
to a discount store with
very little money to spend. 
He needed new old shoes.

He’d been saving to buy beer
that evening, and aftershave,
and a ten dollar ticket
to a singles’ dance.

Loneliness would sometimes
crowd out the need for food,
but he couldn’t dance without
leather soled shoes. 

He needed to buy black shoes,
inconspicuous ones that hid
poverty and social class and 
help him fit in at the dance.

Of fifty or so pairs of brown
and black shoes, a pair  
of black loafers still shined, 
appeared almost new.   

He wondered briefly whose
toes had shifted in those shoes-- 
Was he a dancing man?  
A rich man? A lonely man?

He slipped into the mystery
man’s shoes: A perfect fit.
A new confidence,
A feeling of wealth.

Tonight in the dance hall,
dancing away his blues,
will be a man with
inconspicuous black shoes.

Copyright © Darrell Saunders | Year Posted 2009




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