Dark Poems | Poemist

Popular Dark Poems

Rain

by Claribel Alegría

As the falling rain
trickles among the stones
memories come bubbling out.
It's as if the rain
had pierced my temples.
Streaming
streaming chaotically
come memories:
the reedy voice
of the servant

......

Pigeons

by Richard Kell

They paddle with staccato feet
In powder-pools of sunlight,
Small blue busybodies
Strutting like fat gentlemen
With hands clasped
Under their swallowtail coats;
And, as they stump about,
Their heads like tiny hammers
Tap at imaginary nails
In non-existent walls.

......

Waterfall

by Lauris Dorothy Edmond

I do not ask for youth, nor for delay
in the rising of time's irreversible river
that takes the jewelled arc of the waterfall
in which I glimpse, minute by glinting minute,
all that I have and all I am always losing
as sunlight lights each drop fast, fast falling.

I do not dream that you, young again,
might come to me darkly in love's green darkness
where the dust of the bracken spices the air

......

A Red Palm

by Gary Soto

You're in this dream of cotton plants.
You raise a hoe, swing, and the first weeds
Fall with a sigh. You take another step,
Chop, and the sigh comes again,
Until you yourself are breathing that way
With each step, a sigh that will follow you into town.

That's hours later. The sun is a red blister
Coming up in your palm. Your back is strong,
Young, not yet the broken chair

......

The Country Of Marriage

by Wendell Berry

I.

I dream of you walking at night along the streams
of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs
of birds opening around you as you walk.
You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep.

II.

This comes after silence. Was it something I said

......

Recent Dark Poems

Until the Music Spots

by Brendon Hall

Strolling in the evergreen park so slow
Head sinking to the speckled concrete
The cracks mirroring a broken sentiment
Press play and a sweet song blares
Then the black veil lifts ever so slightly

The feeling unsustainable yet welcomed
Vibrations echoing deep through each fiber of being
Melancholy holds no sway in this domain
The beat builds as runners pass by in cardiac bliss

......

Hell of a Life

by Brendon Hall

What a time to be alive!
Living in a world where morals have been commodified.
Will you be a leader that assists in shattering the oppressive cycle of societal decay, or will you be yet another redundant cog in this malevolent machine?
Most of us live in denial of the impending doom we’re marching towards, yet the majority fails to realize we’re already living in a dystopia of our own creation.

When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
I don’t know about you, but I see a reflection that matches our society as a whole:
An entity that’s almost unrecognizable, broken, and emotionally drained.
A being that wants to do what’s right, but is rarely incentivized to do so unless it’s broadcast to an audience in order to portray virtuousness.

......

Daytime Torment

by Victor Ambiguo

Such loudness is the king of day
Above the sky. Oh, what a noise!
No whiskey can subdue his pain
As sun rays cry like feral boys

When daylight rains, it pours for sure
When green trees sway, they breathe like trolls
His head pounds on, it begs for thoughts

Nature screams

......

A friendly fire

by Lyle Thurston

A Friendly Fire

A modest home with embers sitting below a fresh set pyre is the scene where our events transpire. There they burn but are not a fire. Though the right mix of wood and air is all that they require.For wood and air and heat conspire. When together they consume entire.

At a table two men sit in that low hue one of forty three and one of thirty two. Whiskey bottles and a can of chew sets the atmosphere I transcribe to you. Of malice you would find no clue for they wore happy masks while their irritation grew. A friendly discussion within this place fans the flames of unbridled hate.

Freedom, peace and an independent mind is my values entirely defined. You talk of slavey, war and indoctrination with intellectual names beyond your station. Who are you to question a nation a labourer with a poor mans education. Surely you haven’t the faculty of interpretation to understand these ideals which you give such adulation. That is why I disagree spoke the man of forty three.

The embers just then caught anew light flame in the hearth flew. Radiant light added an ominous glow though little heat did it through. Feeble flames danced and withdrew across the wooden surface it slowly chew. The sense of comfort that a flame may bring isn’t true for all things does fire undo.

......

Imagery 1

by Caulder Conroy

Fire tips jump higher
Dancing up and down
Backdropped by Abyss.

Light shines forth
Pushing darkness,
Illuminating.