Poetry Ring - Poetry by Daniel F Mitchell

Tangerine Evening Song

Daniel F Mitchell — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Tangerine Evening Song

Sing, tangerine evening breeze,
Verse of reflection composed,
Of long-bygone memories,
Whose tune only evening knows!

Croon of glowing sunsets of yesteryear,
Of lost words whispered in the ear of night;
Secret oaths once sworn in earnest desire
By poets enthralled to transient cheer,
Empowered to sing by some godly might
That fills the heavens with ensouling fire.

O radiant tether!
O undying endeavor!
Our souls whisper together
Of song now one with never.

Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever?

~ Daniel F Mitchell

How Drear!

Daniel F Mitchell — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 05:20:27 +0000

How Drear!

Brothers and sisters of yesteryear,
Asleep beneath the wistful trees,
Can you feel my mortal fear
Born upon the timeless breeze?

To you beneath those mounds so bleak,
Reposed at your eternal ease,
Sacrosanct in thought I speak,
With heartfelt but unspoken pleas.

How drear to think the worth of breath
Is measured by the girth of death!

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Life is but Once

Daniel F Mitchell — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:23:40 +0000

Life Is But Once

Where are you going?
What do you think shall come of you?
Time is quickly slowing.
Do you think your dream will come true?

I know that today
Is more certain than tomorrow.
And who can truly say
That happiness outlives sorrow?

Don’t wait for the bell
That rings for the regretful dunce.
Live every moment well.
Breath is dear, and life is but once.

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Allah Smiles Tonight

Daniel F Mitchell — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:06:17 +0000

Allah Smiles Tonight

Allah smiles tonight
With a jaundiced eye,
Too blind to consider the maxims,
Too stingy to bestow a flask of oil
To anoint the gaping wounds
His scimitar has slashed wide open.

Allah’s smile is barbed tonight,
Another wakeful night wresting
With his magnate bearing, his knavery,
Indulgent in the impunity of power,
Licking his lower lip in lustrous denial -
His only innuendo, a reflection of his fiery soul.

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Dictate of Oblivion

Daniel F Mitchell — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:34:52 +0000

Dictate Of Oblivion

O dictate of oblivion, master of eternal never,
Almighty judge, omnipotent magnate,
Damn my wretched being to fate -
This existence expiring in a rush towards forever.
Blind are my eyes to all but your face.
I await your dreadful kiss,
Your utter embrace -
Precarious my soul, resigned to totter at the edge of the abyss!

~ Daniel F Mitchell

I Must Go Alone To My Bed

Daniel F Mitchell — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:56:43 +0000

I Must Go Alone To My Bed

I am a weary wanderer
On a lonesome and winding road.
I am a daily ponderer.
I bear a ponderous load.

My shoes are worn down to the soles.
My pants are rent with gaping holes.
But I still maintain my feet
And earth as a temporal seat.

I have nothing to call my own.
All I possess, I do on loan.
All my possessions I shall shed
Down to the last verse in my head.

And whether I’ll taste victory
Before I face my last defeat
Is an unrecorded story.
But gain and loss I shall both meet.

I have a few more miles to go.
I have a few more thoughts to know,
And my destination to see
When I arrive at destiny.

Shed no tears when I pass on by.
We must face both drought and rain.
It is only torture to cry.
Perhaps our paths may join again.

Every road eventually ends
As love passed far beyond our tread.
Each friendship leads to parting friends.
I must go alone to my bed.

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Someone Painted Stars

Daniel F Mitchell — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:50:32 +0000

Someone Painted Stars

Someone painted stars on the ceiling.
Someone put lights into the sky.
Someone made little points of healing,
And hung them for a poet’s eye.

Inside, I have a warm feeling
That someone with incredible might
Painted all those stars on the ceiling,
So that we would not fear the night.

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Misconceived Notions of Right

Daniel F Mitchell — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:38:09 +0000

Misconceived Notions of Right

When shall human nature at last perceive
Peaceful coexistence nailed to a cross,
Whose failed ideologies achieve
Little more than retribution and loss!
That humankind might turn the tattered page
That advocates intolerance and blame,
And fancies of self-emulating flight
That discard life in suicidal rage,
As moths flutter headlong into the flame,
Martyred to misconceived notions of right!

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Fellow on the Sidewalk

Daniel F Mitchell — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:49:06 +0000

Fellow on the Sidewalk

Fellow on the sidewalk,
Is it so unbearable below?
What blindness makes you so ride?
Senseless, I dare say!

Rain will not hold the sun
Away an hour more.
Best make for the daffodil bed,
Moist soil beneath the weeds at least.

Bold friend, show some prudence!
Your track seems precarious,
Too slow, I fear, to beat the afternoon.
There’s no future here.

Soon meat for a swallow you shall be,
Or baked by the rays hard as tack.
The heat of this day is not yet begun,
And the crack ahead a deep canyon is.

Turn away from this ill quest!
One grass is as green as another.
What difference forward or back?
There is no end to your folly!

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Echoes of Past Voices

Daniel F Mitchell — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:04:01 +0000

Echoes of Past Voices

Overhead the setting sun hangs motionless upon the sky,
Thinking of the scenes it shined on yesterday;
Time that passed away in wisps like smoke before a blinking eye,
The who and why just left along the way.

I stand before the rising tide, and cast my gaze to open sea,
Beyond the waves that stretch before my finite reach of hand.
Here I dream of what has been, and what in coming days shall be;
That passes between my fingertips like grains of shapeless sand.

High above, the fleeting clouds, in shapes I can’t identify,
Float listlessly across the painted eve.
Swooping low a seagull cries an ancient dreamer’s lullaby,
Whose notes forgotten memories aggrieve.

Soft against the rising night, the lingering thoughts of daylight bring,
From distant shores, and yet so very near,
Echoes of past voices that in melodies of chaos sing,
As wind might whisper unto a listening ear.

~ Daniel F Mitchell