Dark Poems | Poemist

Popular Dark Poems

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

......

My Guardian Angel

by Robert William Service

When looking back I dimly see
The trails my feet have trod,
Some hand divine, it seems to me,
Has pulled the strings with God;
Some angel form has lifeward leaned
When hope for me was past;
Some love sublime has intervened
To save me at the last.

For look you! I was born a fool,

......

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.

......

Disabled

by Wilfred Owen

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,-

......

The Victims

by Sharon Olds

When Mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
took it in silence, all those years and then
kicked you out, suddenly, and her
kids loved it. Then you were fired, and we
grinned inside, the way people grinned when
Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South
Lawn for the last time. We were tickled
to think of your office taken away,
your secretaries taken away,
your lunches with three double bourbons,

......

Recent Dark Poems

Winter Winds

by Kailey Norris

Winter winds,
Chills sent through my body.
Falling leaves,
Memory of what once was
Frosted glass,
A reminder, I am outside the window.
Chattering teeth,
Secluded from the warmth inside.

Winter winds,

......

dreaming of kaleidoscopes

by Chris Wind

whirls a storm
of scarlet and crimson
the cobweb drips
and black and blue

black blue shrouds
the bleeding petals
torn
ragged
scabs and scars

......

Dead Tree

by N Jacob

I was sitting under the Sigillaria Tree.
For I have been set free,
So I scream with glee!
While the stitching made me bleed.
I am forced to concede.

Forced my arms to my chest,
And I hold me close with no rest,
For I am trapped in this stitched arm unrest,
I am the court jester.

......

Darkness

by Aryan Bhardwaj

Darkness being an introvert, has
a different meaning for me

It not only means no light
but a world away so bright

Darkness, the absence of people or
a crowd so large...

it prevents a busload of feelins

......

... am I?

by Brandon Saulter

I woke up in this place. It's dark, I can't see. I don't know where I am.
I call out for help. Can anyone hear me? I don't think they can.
Fear sets in. I freeze.
My breath gets shallow and I drop to my knees.
Are my eyes closed? Are they open? Why can't I see?
What is going on? I need to stop and to breathe.
I breathe in. I breathe out. I breathe in. And out.
Is this a dream? Am I dead? What's this about?
My heart is pounding. Like it wants out of my chest.
I can feel it, so I'm real. But what about the rest?

......