Most Liked Ballad Poems (504)

you and me
in a little car shop
buying dreams
with the money we got
but dreams are free
at the break of dawn
one by one
we let them go

ninety nine cents
ain't a dollar
your daddy's rich
and I'm blue collar
floating down
the highway high
ninety nine
red saloons go by

ninety nine bucks
in my pants
limits us
and our romance
you wonder why
I even try
as ninety nine
red saloons go by

ninety nine
is a soft ice cream
I watch you eat it
like a queen
and we sleep beneath
the blanket sky
as ninety nine
red saloons go by

black the haze
in a mug, soft chair
we wonder if there's
something out there
"you're so cool"
you'd sweetly lie
as ninety nine
red saloons go by

stepping stones
your every word
your beauty
made me look absurd
you lit a fire
beneath the sky
as ninety nine
red saloons go by

bivouaced in blonde
you dream
a smile that silenced
every scream
cantankerous,
I said goodbye
as ninety nine
red saloons go by

yet every now
and every then
I pay my bills
and still have ten
you smile
as on my skin you lie
as ninety nine
red saloons go by

all our dreams
are in assembly
in the valley
of our memory
another girl.. another try
as ninety nine
red saloons go by

there's a golden sun
on a spinning wheel
there's a yellow fleck
in a pan full of steel

there's the fire I spat
and the breath I once drew
there's work that I'm doing
and the work that I do

there's a girl, half fish
singing songs about love
there's a man with no arms
with a drawer full of gloves

so what.. fair darlin'
have I figured so far?
"never play poker
with a blonde in a bar"

there's a rope and a saddle
there's a trail and a gun
but the trail ain't no different
when your pony ain't young

still the camp fire burns
in the chests of a few
and you sleep with your dream
and you wake up anew

so what fair darlin
don't I know I don't know?
"when fixing to stay
you should probably go"

it's the seas are rough
and the trail it is long
and your pony
has heard mostly
all of your song

well heaven knows
and heaven lies
I'm driving down this road
under stationary skies

distances are vast
I can see no end
it's easy just to cruise
it's easy to pretend

if my truck was an angel
if my truck had wings
I'd fly past the corners
this world brings

I'd fly down to Texas
just to say I did
I'd hold the world
in a coffee jar
then I'd turn the lid

but my wheels are rubber
and my truck ain't new
so I turn on the radio
and I think of you

at the end of every run
that I've ever had
there's automatic balancing
of good and bad

I don't always get it right
like I did with you
a part of me never smiles
when the sky is blue

I'm told there's a mountain
at the end of this track
I won't be needing anything
I won't be coming back

if my truck was an angel
if my truck had wings
I'd fly past the corners
this world brings

I'd fly down to Texas
just to say I did
I'd hold the world
in a coffee jar
then I'd turn the lid

but my wheels are rubber
and my truck ain't new
so I turn on the radio
and I think of you

At yelping speed she travelled
across an emerald lawn,
pursued by gnarling nightmares
as the darkness nipped the dawn.

Her ears, amber triangles,
bush glittering crystal dew,
body sleek with rivulets,
glowed red with exhaustion's hue.

Her heart palpating bass drums
and panting loud, fit to burst,
'glimpsed a shadow by the gate,
Her escape route surely cursed.

A lolloping great mastiff
of the Herculean type
roused apathetic eyelids
to investigate the hype.

No options left, the vixen
hugged the ground, then made a leap
to clear canine and gate and
safely saunter home to sleep.

when the clinker fails
in the boards of your heart
when the gunnells dip
and you lose your chart

when you sail alone
through the seas of steel
when your sails are drowned
by a broken keel

when the wind dies
and your spirit's corrupted
when you inch ahead
with your pace obstructed

when the will to fight
is made weak by thirst
when your clothes are skin
and your hope is cursed

when you reach your end
and you are still alive
when ascending angels
turn to birds and dive

when the clouds part
and you see God divine
when all shapes of memory
dim to a line

when you fight to retain
the metallic of blood
when the last of your senses depart for the mud

when the comfort of death
tempts like a liar
when the last thing you own
is belligerent fire

when the heart of darkness
offers his hand
when you can't see heaven
the sky or the strand

when you see him smirk
with his ancient sigh
you ferociously snarl
and tear out his eye

carrie walked out of the diner.. her shift was nearing its end.. and the trees made love in the darkness.. and her eyes to a smile did pretend

talks about music and college.. did rise and fall on the air.. and a heart that once loved another.. for no reason began not to care

I drove down there about midnight.. past farms that seemed to be free.. but I knew in the end that I'd buy one.. and that would be the end of me

now the birds still sing in the tall grass.. on the earth where she once loved me.. but it spins on an axis so different.. and I've learned to let certain things be

but her car.. her car.. is a dream

I knew she was getting tired of me.. my work it was getting her down.. and what good is a roughneck on dance night.. when there's a banker's hand in town

"will you see me on Sunday..?"
will you smile your smile and look nice?.. but you know that a question is worthless.. when you gotta ask it twice

now the river flows down like always.. from the mountains that once heard us sing.. but its funny how something is nothing.. when nothing was once everything

but her car.. her car.. is a dream

her small talk began getting smaller.. she spoke to a script I could see.. and her eyes that were warmer than summer.. did look to a place beyond me

feeling like an oak that's been hollowed.. yet my pride it still rode next to me.. and when she asked if I could say something.. I said no and just let me be

and the roads they took us homeward.. in my daddy's truck through the dark.. and I looked in the heavens for answers.. and saw nothing but stars and a lark

"I heard she married a Doctor"
my friend Jake did tell me years on.. and I smiled like it meant nothing to me.. and got sick when I knew he was gone

now the sparrows play in the cornfields.. where we used to make love all night long.. ain't it funny how some women linger..
and you can't seem to outdrive their song

and her car, her car.. was a dream

I met her in the winter.. in a bar upon the hill.. when the dark was carved from starlight.. and the moon had paid the bill

I came in from the wilderness.. from the howling wind and rain.. I was weary from my journeys.. around other people's pain

"You are bearded broad and ugly".. said the prairie girl in fright.. not one for moralising.. we shared our bones that night

I told her of my story.. from the famine ships I came.. from a world of madness hunger.. where I killed men.. to my shame

corruption took our homelands.. our humanity and our dead.. I hated a world that priced our lives.. in the currency of bread

I left her at the dawning.. as a coyote fought the moon.. one night was our forever.. she'd be over me by noon

my road ís a lonesome one.. thrown far by a devil's hurl.. so I bellow out a fire.. for the prairie and the girl

(or the unwitting brilliance of someone who didn't know it)

you never walked.. 'twas more the curve of the earth.. found a mooring.. in the shape of your foot

you never sang..' twas more a distillation of vibrated yearning.. and what emerged.. saluted a starved ear

you never smiled.. 'twas more the agents of joy constructing.. permanent dwellings.. beneath your eyes

you never painted.. ' twas more you sketched what joy displaced.. and a magic kissed your brush

you never sought numerical truth.. 'twas more the starling cloud of value, settling.. on the branch of your logic

you never carved out a career.. 'twas more the align of the heart.. synced with restless thought

you never swam the spring tide

'twas more the sea inhaled.. and the normal laws of physics.. let you pass

be it in the tumble
aft the winch
or out the bow
in winter's pinch

my heart oft seeks
the raven tide
in floating cabin
I reside

bearded, wild
quick tempered be
my natural place
is on the sea

my northern star
her memory
the anchor locker
and the quay

pots they sleep
as nets are shot
my hands are claws
my body squat

born rough
to warp and splice
my heart in summer
full of ice

net mending
as the season grows
needle dancing
through the rows

all was as before on strawberry hill.. spiders gamboled in spoiled air.. a feathered note from the grass troubled a horse.. and the city looked up at those walking down

all was as before on strawberry hill.. brothers made sweets in their father's shop.. and at the median of a work day.. figures opened doors to buy milk and bread

all was as before on strawberry hill.. sounds of play rose and fell..
settling behind weathered walls.. forever bivouaced in happiness

all was as before on strawberry hill.. lovers met under clocks and archways.. steeples punctured slate grey skies.. and arias were sung in the minds of dreamers

all was as before on strawberry hill.. boats ebbed and flowed from a visible moon.. a mechanical sound waxed and waned.. as a songbird exited.. and listened

all was as before on strawberry hill.. pale light folded over the ancient roads anew.. the curve of the earth found a mooring in feet.. and a woman made of prayer, smiled

all was as before on strawberry hill.. save bracken was cleared from the boreen of thought.. and you wore new the ring my labours bought