Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Peter Wyatt Dec 2024
I call her close,
relieving her, at a dose
of simple words,
uttered from a face,
one she cannot
rewrite nor retrace.

I want her to remember
genuine warmth,
when I place a single hand
on her heart, one that beats
in constant fear,
while the other hand
wipes aside her tears.

She'll drift back into
those uncovered shadows,
while I remember
her light, her canvas,
what color she'll desert
in greater favor for hurt.
Jeremy Betts Dec 2024
Obviously
Both comedy and tragedy
Feed on
And are fed by reality
With a savagery
So if you play nice
You might find the happy in strife
Both can
Take you by the hand
And lead you to the promise land
Your best guess of an afterlife
Slice the tension with a knife
To get the upper hand
Don't bite the hand
Try to
Stick to
The grand plan
But prepare to fall when you take your stand
Humble humility will get you knocked off the grandstand
Then where will you stand?
Honestly,
It all feels like quicksand
No buts, just and
I too don't understand

©2024
Mary-Anne Dec 2024
It’s winter again
The war is long over, but the nostalgic smell of gunpowder and snow still fills my soul
I’m no writer but today I sit by the window to calm my weary soul
I spent hours thinking of what to say to you
But all that filled my head were lingering thoughts of you.

It was on a day life this we ran into our special place in the woods
We laughed and played
We were young and merry
You were beautiful and I was grey
I remember how my heart felt when you smiled at my with your crystal blue eyes, framed by the gods, your pale skin kissed by the snow, the growing blush on your cheeks creeping due to your happiness with me

Those moments soon turned dark
As we made angels in the snow, our nostrils were soon filled with the smell of gunpowder and snow
Little did we know, we had called upon death
Given her our village on a platter of gold
We stood and watched the village burn like pillars of stone
The so the snow became home to our beloved
I’ll never forget the bitter taste of blood, gunpowder and snow
I’ll never forget how lifeless you looked as I made those gravestones
I’ll never forget how broken I was as I carved the names of my beloved on those gravestones
So I steeled my resolve and did what had to be done....

It’s been a month and three weeks since I joined the army
Every day a battle, both seen and untold
Every day a fight for my willpower
Everyday a fight to keep the promise of your tears
Remember the day I left at the train station
Remember when you decorated my coat with your tears
Remember when we made a promise with the locks of your hair
Remember how you couldn’t understand why I chose to leave you for this battle of wills
Today I write down the things I felt that I couldn’t say
Today I write down the feelings I felt when your pretty eyes begged me to stay
I’m sorry I left you
I did it to protect you
Now I haven’t heard from you
Who knew love could make one so fickle
Who knew such feelings could make one feel crippled

So I lay there
Matching my thoughts to the beat of my heart
Badump.....badump.....
And so it went
Then came the sound of a missile, followed by a ringing in my head
Badump......badump
So the beat goes
There goes another home
Once again the air is filled with the smell of blood, gunpowder and snow
The ringing in my ear increased
The drumming in my heart never ceased
The lifeless bodies of my comrades at my feet
Once again I bury my loved ones
Carve their names to gravestones and sigh in defeat
What am I fighting for ?
I remember......it’s you.
But every day gets harder
I wish I had stayed with you and started a life with Aunt Agnes
I pick up my pen in fear and sadness
I scribble some words down in utter madness
In good faith that you’ll accept what’s to come without sadness.

I’m down in the pits once again
In the middle of winter
When the snow determines ones fate
But I’m lost in thought wondering if my letter got to you safe
Most of all wondering if you’re actually safe
I wish you’d write to me, let me know you’re okay
But you leave me wondering and wondering
Going mental, I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t okay
Days later a letter arrives as if on cue
A strange feeling in my gut arises with happiness of finally hearing from you
But my joy soon fades
I’m pulled into darker days
You’re no more
Everything I’ve done is in vain.....
I feared for my life
But ended up losing what I longed for
You succumbed to illness, a thief
What am I fighting for ?
I lost my reason to live
All I have left is grief.

The war goes on....
But victory is ours
This isn’t the face of a winner
I see the Angel of Death grinning at me
“You couldn’t protect her, now wallow in shame, you pathetic loser.”
I beg for death
But she wears the crown
I’m at her mercy
She grins and I frown,
She wins and I’m the clown.

Years later
The war is over
I’m old and wrinkly
Cursed with Alzheimer’s
Slowly losing my memories and becoming more sickly
As I sit by this window, writing about the old days
I pray for your soul and mine cause it’s on the way
I smile as I seal this letter and crown it with a picture of you from when we were younger
I smile remembering the better days
I’m no believer but I pray to God asking if you’re in a better place.

It’s winter again
I know this is my last
I miss you
I want to be home at last
As I breathe my last breath
I look at the world I fought to restore
I look at the letter I sealed with my blood
Hoping that my heart gets to you
Hoping my emotions made it through
And so I take my last breath thinking of you
The window my death bed
Now I can rest and make snow angels with you.
Dom Nov 2024
the truest tragedy
of all poetry
is the fallacy
that every line you write
must be saddening.
irony is the counterculture of poetry.
i write death
to the community
and without a breath
the work is granted validity.
i write life
to the people
and without strife
my work is deemed feeble.

a poem is not a feeling
it's a moment.
there is no emotion
there is no reeling
it's not hopeless
it's not devotion
it's not healing.

your poem is now.
C Oct 2024
“O, who hath done this deed?”
        
“Nobody, I myself. Farewell./Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell” ~ Othello V.ii
            
                                     *

The day my dad built my new bed, I cried for hours.
At last, a frame that will lift me up,
Not force me down.
At last, a frame that was fit for purpose.

No more hiding from the monster that lived underneath,
overhead and
in-between my sheets.

Somewhere to lie in without being lied to.

            (It’s just a bed, but it’s a safe place to rest my head.)

Somewhere to peacefully retire, not hastily retreat.

            (It’s just a bed, but it’s without him, so it’s without sin.)

There used to be so much silence after all the violence
          “And yet, she must die.”
You could use the very knife my life rested on to
Cut the tension in the room.

But now, Sweet Desdemona!
Now your rest is due.
He took your every breath away but
His chaos could not consume
Your famous last words.
He cannot reach you in your eternal sleep.

For months, I have thought you lucky, and envied your fate.
But now, at long last, I have found comfort in my own bed frame.
“Keep one eye open and your mouth ******* shut. I’m going to stab you in your sleep”
Yottalomaniac Oct 2024
pit...

pat..

So goes the Rain's silent ballad.

Each pit a pat,
a heavy pat on your sweet head.
Pittering pats of despair and dread
pointing toward tragedy dead ahead...

pit...

pat...

Each pat on your soft head
rips a pit into my stomach.
I gaze up... and then down.

...How many more can you stomach?

pit...

pat...

One too many... your lifeless body...
... with the Poet above I plead...

pit...

pat...

The ballad wets the pavement,
the scarlet a testament
of the poetic intent:
our lament.

pit...

pat...

...pit.
A ballad for the person I cherish the most. Some of the symbolism:

Rain: the dark and cold world. It almost feels like we live in a tragic poem written by it.

Raindrops: tragic events; the Poet's verses

triple dots: emotion; lack of words

Onomatopoeia: the raindrops cause pits inside of us, yet also pat us on the head in our melancholy
MetaVerse Oct 2024

The one flower
Outside the window
Has turned to dust.

anonymous poet Oct 2024
Don’t you feel bad for Grendel,
His mind is poisoned by the devil.
He is just a lost boy in a harsh world against him.
Voices in his head push him towards the brim.

He hates the world that he roams alone,
The Dragon’s charm; his flesh hard as stone.
The Shaper's voice; his head is aching,
Wealtheow’s beauty; his heart is breaking.

Grendel's mother’s embrace—a silent plea,
In her shadowed depths, he struggles to be free.
From Beowulf’s strength, he cannot hide,
The warrior's might marks Grendel’s tide.

Grendel's anger seals his fate,
Fatal madness will not abate.
His demise is in the mead hall,
“Poor Grendel’s had an accident. . . . So may you all.”
The final draft a poem that I wrote on my old account after reading Grendel by John Gardner. The original is reposted on my page.
Jeremy Betts Oct 2024
I'd rather completely lack a memory
That functions fully
Then solely have this rapid fire slideshow pageantry
Of anguish and agony
Spinning wildly
Come by and see
A life lost with no death genre of tragedy
And if it's like they say,
If this is the only way,
The way it has to be,
Then maybe
Life is simply
Not for me

©2024
Next page