Submissions by atarliss
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I wish I had the strength of a tiger, but in truth I'm as fragile as glass.
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
25th Feb 2016 4:45pm
25th Feb 2016 4:45pm
Pride of the Tall
Ancient crooked knuckles punch, defiant of clouded sky
Heavy, ragged hulk of rock does not bend for black wind's cry
Biting ice and howling gale shriek and slap at pockmarked face
While lichen spreads its gray-green fingers like acidic lace.
Grey blizzard wind screams sharp as knives through scraggled piney beard
Tearing out its grizzled roots, leaving crags as limbs are sheared
Fierce orange thunder roars and rips at cloak of crusted ice
Vicious sleet-drops sting and claw, coating rocks like freezing lice
Red moon glares as feeble air thins and cracks...
Heavy, ragged hulk of rock does not bend for black wind's cry
Biting ice and howling gale shriek and slap at pockmarked face
While lichen spreads its gray-green fingers like acidic lace.
Grey blizzard wind screams sharp as knives through scraggled piney beard
Tearing out its grizzled roots, leaving crags as limbs are sheared
Fierce orange thunder roars and rips at cloak of crusted ice
Vicious sleet-drops sting and claw, coating rocks like freezing lice
Red moon glares as feeble air thins and cracks...
820 reads
5 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
25th Feb 2016 4:43pm
25th Feb 2016 4:43pm
Ode to Summer
Dim purple morning fog
Twining soft and damp
‘Round silver strands
Of dew-dropped birdsong…
Blinking sun yawning,
Stretching golden arms
To burnish laughing leaves
In sweet green glory…
Blazing azure sky,
Tall and tin-roof hard
Arching high above
Red-wind gliding hawk
And dusty heat-cracked earth…
Summer
Is here
In force.
Twining soft and damp
‘Round silver strands
Of dew-dropped birdsong…
Blinking sun yawning,
Stretching golden arms
To burnish laughing leaves
In sweet green glory…
Blazing azure sky,
Tall and tin-roof hard
Arching high above
Red-wind gliding hawk
And dusty heat-cracked earth…
Summer
Is here
In force.
784 reads
4 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
11th Feb 2016 4:24pm
11th Feb 2016 4:24pm
Wait for the Rain
Oh silent sky,
Waiting hard and still...
Dusky iron clouds
Swirling, choking
Gritty iron lumps in
Sour green wind...
I'm breathless
Alone
Suffocating in these
Wide open fields of
Dusty grass jerking in humid seizures,
My eyes and ears
Pressed closed against
This muddy hair,
Skin tingling
Electric stinging
Trembling in sullen energy
Before the oncoming storm...
Oh precious silver rain
Break these sweating chains
Wash me cold
And clean and free.
Waiting hard and still...
Dusky iron clouds
Swirling, choking
Gritty iron lumps in
Sour green wind...
I'm breathless
Alone
Suffocating in these
Wide open fields of
Dusty grass jerking in humid seizures,
My eyes and ears
Pressed closed against
This muddy hair,
Skin tingling
Electric stinging
Trembling in sullen energy
Before the oncoming storm...
Oh precious silver rain
Break these sweating chains
Wash me cold
And clean and free.
934 reads
3 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
11th Feb 2016 1:20am
11th Feb 2016 1:20am
Winter Light
Soft blue winter dream
Settle silent on my
Dripping eyelids...
Cold clean feathered snow
Drift like muted angels,
Swaddle broken Earth in
Heavy quilt of cream...
Tired aching sky
Sigh and fade gentle
Into silver-studded night...
Winter
Is here
In force.
Settle silent on my
Dripping eyelids...
Cold clean feathered snow
Drift like muted angels,
Swaddle broken Earth in
Heavy quilt of cream...
Tired aching sky
Sigh and fade gentle
Into silver-studded night...
Winter
Is here
In force.
775 reads
1 Comment
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
17th Nov 2015 4:38pm
17th Nov 2015 4:38pm
Old Man Pine
The solitary silhouette
Of a lonely pine
Struggles its twisted way
Toward the buttery
Mountain moon—
Its crooked inky shadow
Stands with rugged windswept strength
To block out a handful
Of the high, cold stars—
This ancient lord
Of the rocks and crags
Proudly holds his hard-won place
With the toothy resilience
Of an eternal uphill war.
Of a lonely pine
Struggles its twisted way
Toward the buttery
Mountain moon—
Its crooked inky shadow
Stands with rugged windswept strength
To block out a handful
Of the high, cold stars—
This ancient lord
Of the rocks and crags
Proudly holds his hard-won place
With the toothy resilience
Of an eternal uphill war.
818 reads
1 Comment
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
26th Oct 2015 1:40pm
26th Oct 2015 1:40pm
Autumn Breathes
Thin gray fog
Crumples like wet paper
As the rising sun licks away the
Last icy tendrils
Of soft, heavy night...
Freezing sun bursts
In roar of red and gold
Across the blinking sky,
Then shatters, falls upon the aching trees
Like gleaming shards of bloody fire,
Drowns their
Sweet warm summer green
Beneath a red deluge of joyous death...
Purple wind whines
And chokes on ragged scraps
Of sun-scorched leaves
As bare blackened branches
Sway and snap
Beneath a blazing moon... ...
Crumples like wet paper
As the rising sun licks away the
Last icy tendrils
Of soft, heavy night...
Freezing sun bursts
In roar of red and gold
Across the blinking sky,
Then shatters, falls upon the aching trees
Like gleaming shards of bloody fire,
Drowns their
Sweet warm summer green
Beneath a red deluge of joyous death...
Purple wind whines
And chokes on ragged scraps
Of sun-scorched leaves
As bare blackened branches
Sway and snap
Beneath a blazing moon... ...
832 reads
3 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
21st Oct 2015 2:37pm
21st Oct 2015 2:37pm
Autumn Leaves
Single leaf,
Ragged boat
Set adrift
In cold purple current of lazy autumn sky;
Swirling orange flame, bright and bold
Free among soft lonely wisps
Of silent twilight cloud...
Never will I rest
Till I find my death
Deep beneath the forest dirt.
For competition "something on nature"
Ragged boat
Set adrift
In cold purple current of lazy autumn sky;
Swirling orange flame, bright and bold
Free among soft lonely wisps
Of silent twilight cloud...
Never will I rest
Till I find my death
Deep beneath the forest dirt.
For competition "something on nature"
737 reads
0 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
21st Oct 2015 2:35pm
21st Oct 2015 2:35pm
Completely Free
I am free,
As wonderfully, wildly free
As the snowflakes that spiral
Laughing from sullen clouds;
Unattached,
Balanced
In solitary serenity
Perfect
In this beauty of symmetry...
I complete myself.
For competition "Single"
As wonderfully, wildly free
As the snowflakes that spiral
Laughing from sullen clouds;
Unattached,
Balanced
In solitary serenity
Perfect
In this beauty of symmetry...
I complete myself.
For competition "Single"
757 reads
3 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
20th Oct 2015 4:15pm
20th Oct 2015 4:15pm
Miraculous Me
I am a miracle.
I was knitted in the forge of breath and dust.
I put down roots
To the heart of the Earth
And blinked in the blaze
Of the same sun that
Bathed Eden in its light.
I drew a huge breath
From the cumulonimbi that
Have risen from the sea
And surfed the sky since the dawn of time
And I learned to dance
On the same land
Where the ancient kings made their final beds.
I wove my own words
And made a poem
That no one had ever read before.
I’m as weak as a wildflower
Here for just a moment
My...
I was knitted in the forge of breath and dust.
I put down roots
To the heart of the Earth
And blinked in the blaze
Of the same sun that
Bathed Eden in its light.
I drew a huge breath
From the cumulonimbi that
Have risen from the sea
And surfed the sky since the dawn of time
And I learned to dance
On the same land
Where the ancient kings made their final beds.
I wove my own words
And made a poem
That no one had ever read before.
I’m as weak as a wildflower
Here for just a moment
My...
769 reads
2 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
20th Oct 2015 2:24am
20th Oct 2015 2:24am
Firefly Night
The fading light
Of the Western horizon
Gleams on her corn-tassel hair—
Her face is creased
In a sunburnt smile
As she wanders home
Through the fireflies.
Of the Western horizon
Gleams on her corn-tassel hair—
Her face is creased
In a sunburnt smile
As she wanders home
Through the fireflies.
696 reads
0 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
15th Oct 2015 3:16pm
15th Oct 2015 3:16pm
The Color Pink
The color pink
Is quite nice
I think...
Hazy shade
Of bright-eyed sunrise
Giddy hue
Of teenage love
Smiling tone
Of sun-kissed cheeks...
The color pink
Is quite nice
I think.
Is quite nice
I think...
Hazy shade
Of bright-eyed sunrise
Giddy hue
Of teenage love
Smiling tone
Of sun-kissed cheeks...
The color pink
Is quite nice
I think.
782 reads
2 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
14th Oct 2015 5:55pm
14th Oct 2015 5:55pm
Sorrow Sonnet
Cold October wind, hear my lonely cry
Answer not with thunder, but with echoes
I do not ask for stars to leave the sky
But let me crave response from zephyr's flow...
My tears leave silent ripples on the waves--
Let them fall but raise not sigh nor moan.
Leave Spring's nascent seeds cold within their graves;
Flowers should not quit from where they were sown.
Let the white-haired moon be my only light--
The dew-cold grass makes sufficient pillow.
Do not call me forth from this darkest night;
Sleep will find my eyes beneath the willow.
...
Answer not with thunder, but with echoes
I do not ask for stars to leave the sky
But let me crave response from zephyr's flow...
My tears leave silent ripples on the waves--
Let them fall but raise not sigh nor moan.
Leave Spring's nascent seeds cold within their graves;
Flowers should not quit from where they were sown.
Let the white-haired moon be my only light--
The dew-cold grass makes sufficient pillow.
Do not call me forth from this darkest night;
Sleep will find my eyes beneath the willow.
...
880 reads
3 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by atarliss
