Free Verse Poems (29,570)

The leaves on the trees
are starting to change and will soon fall ...
Can feel the chill in the air more and more ...
The hope of spring and warmth of summer
for me , gone forevermore ...

I held on to my heart's dreams ..
still wished to the very end
on Love's grace, it seems ....

But winter is slowly approaching ,
days when snow starts falling ...
And yet, here I am.... all alone ...
my heart grieving
for even Love's pains
have not turned it to stone ...

Like Arwen , a year from losing her love ...
but for me , only in my mind & heart ,
I walk in solitude
through the fallen leaves ... amongst the trees ...
feeling sorrow I can not fully speak of ...
Only comfort is the caress on my face
of a chilly autumn breeze ...
And like her , with cloak around me,
I lay on the forest floor ...
With closed eyes, in my imagination ...
I behold my longed for Love
as in a vision ...
Waiting ... at me smiling ...gently inviting ...
with hand in his, together, to enter Love's door ...
no more desolation ... only joyful anticipation ...

Daffodils


rain trodden daffodils
faces inelegantly
quashed to the wet earth

appear the picture of
abject defeat, but
appearance here belies

a purpose unseen
for they bow in praise
of the lifeblood rain, satiated

within their hollow stalks,
until the god of sun
radiates to bless them, then

lifting elegant faces,
they adorn the wonderous day

The shifting shadows
Of the past
Cast by the burning bridges
Over the luggage
Of unsettled grudges
Abandoned on the shore
For the ravenous splashing waves.
The broken spears
Put to rest
No fights
With windmills anymore
Coming back
From the silence of solitude
Carried with ease
By a refreshing breeze
Above the bounding walls
Away
From the shifting shadows
Of the past
Free to explore
Spontaneous sparks
Of alchemical reactions
Triggering affection

We can try our best.... like I really do ....
But it seems , many times,
the one we most badly want,
we simply don' t get to keep ...
And with a heavy sigh,
before the ache gets to feel too deep,
that hopeful heart is, once more, put to sleep ...

For each instance,
it eats at one's resolve ...
The steps a little slower,
the smiles with less sparkle , a bit fainter ...
The laughs grow fewer ,
the trace of sadness in one's eyes
become undeniably clearer ...

Yet there is precious life to live productively,
Remaining years that
can still be spent more meaningfully ...
These are all nevertheless doable,
though, perhaps,
with a spirit more subdued,
reflective and humble ...

Many things in life
are so fluid, unsure, and everchanging ...
But one thing undoubtedly is immutable ...
That the human heart is made for loving ,
thrives better when giving & sharing ,
however one may waste time in denying ...

Maybe not this time ...
Perhaps in the next lifetime ..
When sought after happiness from affection
is placed within grasp
in my next reincarnation ...

Maybe next time,
to my favor, the stars will finally align ...
I hope to be open and aware
so I won't miss the clear signs ...

Maybe next time,
I won't anymore experience Goldilocks' quandary,
that feels like Tantalus' story of mockery ...
Too hot ... too cold... too soft ... too hard ,
like a game of chance with a handful of bad cards ...
Can smell and feel it,
almost within my grasp...
Only for it to, in the end,
sorrowfully unclasp ....

Maybe when I'm least aware ,
not so much anymore thinking or looking ...
For all we know,
when Life is simply allowed to flow
like a precious cask of good Merlot ...
that's probably when the rainbow finally starts appearing ...
that's perhaps when the dreary heart, once again,
begins glowing ...

bottle black
like Miles
sketching Spain
somewhere
back in the files
I dwell some

Kind of Blue
came on true
listless days
JazzFM plays
London fun
England 1991

I bought Tutu
'86 when he blew
sounds of the street
tapping them feet
not quite the same
'60 was top of his game

Just as it is a person who , before,
has deeply hurt and mangled us ...
So it is most likely
that another individual's love,
belief in us, support & trust...
will carry us along farther & further
to truly move on
and let Healing's might move on faster ...

Just like that robust tree branch ,
one's salvation out of that
fatal quagmire ...
before we grow fatefully weary of struggling and tire ...
The extended hand for you to take ...
the loving arms that are yearning to embrace you,
to compel that dense looming darkness
to finally break ...

It is almost always more daunting
to survive heartwrenching upheavals alone ...
So much more difficult to medicate
when excruciating pains are one's own ...

Nobody including me
is pristinely without scar ...
But even so,
walking that path forward
will be more fulfilling and joyful to do ...
If we journey not as solitary one ,
but together ... hand in hand ... us two ...

I went to Las Vegas on Valentine's Day
This was my love gift to myself
I was supposed to go in 2002
But I got sidetracked by Yellowstone in Wyoming, Devil's Tower
And Mt. Rushmore
So I flew this time
The last time I flew was in 2019 out to California
This time I has to wear a mask
No boxed lunches this time around either
So I also had to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina, then onto Vegas from there
This took me from 2 a.m. getting up to drive to Madison
Then I was late by five minutes which made my flight passes invalid
Luckily I had nice people that still accepted them
I got to my room around 4 pm at Circa by Freemont Streeet
I ate at the Heart Attack Grill around 5 pm
I almost got run thinking Freemont was a closed off street
It's not, there is cross traffic about half way down it
I went to see the Statue of Liberty and the Strat
I went on a ride that shoots out over the edge of the Strat at over 1,000 feet up
Then I got off the bus about 2 miles too soon and walked and ran
Through dangerous streets of Las Vegas, ate at White Castle
And flew the next day
It was an accomplishment, but it was exhausting!

Some people in your lives
simply come then go ...
At the end of the day ,
the "why" often doesn't make sense
as we really deep inside know ...
But so is life...
Many you meet along the way
just don't seem destined to stay ,
regardless of your well-meant efforts and hopes
that perhaps they still may ...

With online dating and social media,
you really cant truly foretell
what most people you come across are all about...
And then you have to learn , the hard way,
when you, at last, get to find out ...

Because although you may put forward
your genuine self while out there,
Many walk around bearing a chip on their shoulder ,
or have skeletons in their closet ...
Could be wearing a mask in their true self's place,
or still struggling their own demons to face ...

And then there's those who genuinely want to,
but so afraid ...
Held prisoner by tight gripping fears deep inside ...
Conflict between desire & hesitation
trying their best to hide ...
Too frozen with dread
for that great leap of faith to take ...
So for now ... unable that wall to break ...

I love openly with my heart,
like a gushing river free and unbound ...
But this is not a dance I can do alone ...
I hear it say from deep within
with a sad sigh and muted moan ...

Surely, I was not born to give so much ,
only to end up with a lonely empty space beside me ...
Surely, not only in books and movies
exists such ...
I still believe it is so ... and to be ....

Upon reading Viggo Mortensen's words
about living with his longtime partner in Spain ...

(" I feel happy living there , because she's the woman
I love. I am totally hers and I'm delighted.")

I realize such unashamedly romantic,
intensely devoted men still exist ...
With nothing but everything to gain,
to live with your chosen love
and find it utmost fulfilling,
not, therefore, in this lifetime,
impossible to attain ....

What more can a loving woman
    desire to hold in her heart beating...
No other than exactly words from a man 
    such as these ....
to turn into warming sun ....
      the seemingly relentless rain ....
And never more to wrestle
    with such  musings and questions
        now nor ever again ...