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Michael R Burch Mar 2020
Redolence
by Michael R. Burch

Now darkness ponds upon the violet hills;
cicadas sing; the tall elms gently sway;
and night bends near, a deepening shade of gray;
the bass concerto of a bullfrog fills
what silence there once was; globed searchlights play.

Green hanging ferns adorn dark window sills,
all drooping fronds, awaiting morning’s flares;
mosquitoes whine; the lissome moth again
flits like a veiled oud-dancer, and endures
the fumblings of night’s enervate gray rain.

And now the pact of night is made complete;
the air is fresh and cool, washed of the grime
of the city’s ashen breath; and, for a time,
the fragrance of her clings, obscure and sweet.

Published by Poetry Magazine, Poetic Reflections, The New Formalist, Carnelian, Little Brown Poetry, Poetic Ponderings, Poem Kingdom, Net Poetry and Art Competition, The Best of the Eclectic Muse 1989-2003, Romantics Quarterly, Sonnetto Poesia, Poetry Life & Times and Trinacria

Keywords/Tags: Sonnet, night, darkness, violet, hills, rain, fresh, cleansing, fragrance, perfume, clings, clinging, obscure, sweet, concerto, dance, dancer
N Mar 2020
My fingers used to
always smell of her,
her scent would linger
on my clothes for days

Now that she has left,
my fingers reek of cigarettes,
and my clothes remain unwashed

All I want is for my skin to
absorb her scent once again

But this is not a poem,
and she has changed her perfume
Daisy Ashcroft Feb 2020
Her perfume
I just love it so

Her perfume
Where she got it I long to know

Her perfume
It now clings to me

Her perfume:
The last memory of her that will ever be
I am writing a story with a character whose girlfriend goes missing. Just really felt that if she wrote a poem, it would be like this.
Maria Etre Dec 2019
The musky smell of cigarette smoke
your cologne
my hair
yesterday

*The ingredients of my morning's perfume.
LC Nov 2019
my love carries
the scent of vanilla perfume.
it drifts through me,
then dances with the wind
until it finally reaches him,
the man a thousand miles away,
and brings us closer together.
Dominic Mason Nov 2019
Shalimar

Turquoise, luminescent
The waves pound tirelessly in
A coated fossil / gleams
from just beneath
And/ as the firs bend in the steady breeze
The light skewers the clouds, boldly.

Your laugh has a razor edge today
And your eyes are marbles, too
Reflecting the embers of the fire
Now growing cold
You light another match
it blazes gold!

...then blue hue returns
as if undisturbed
I watch closely
as the sands are submerged
Laughing still...
You always were a showman

It was then that you leaned toward me
and pronounced your love
Coral meets coral
I await a bountiful coronation
Doused in Shalimar and kisses
Silk transgressions/Cotton-made roses

This brings forth another memory
Equally jarring, though sweet all the same
Magnolias lined the walls of our house
Where Ivy once tried to climb
A glacial winter saw them off
Leaving our fragile home unbound

Your thin, tragic heart
Weighs heavy in my supple hands
But I cannot muster for long...
Enshrouded by moribund fingers
Time slips on, falling deeper, again
Velocity/pulls against my bones

You call against the hammering wind
Noiseless words halt like statues
My wordless adversaries hunker down
In my delirium they offer no solace
I reach for the glass/blindly
Seeing only sun and rain  

This is where I tread backwards
Fearing the mantle you now bestow
And as I do my love rages
For it knows I must relent
The (multitudinous) seas have consumed me
The waves took me in, gladly

Yet another memory -vivid this time
- Is fired into my sleeping mind
Diving deep into the cosy bay
You said fortune favours the ‘old’
But in these trees you are lucent
In my tears you are bold

My haunted love was your epiphany
Between the luminaries we shared
Impervious to any real pain
False soirées and canapés
Ignite the reverence swelling within me
Delight me again before I can remember

Your arms obstruct the light
A new day calls me/A harbour is prepared
The firs are swaying again
Do I take the Royal Path?
Or follow your cardinal ways?
Reflections are not always this real

I shifted out of the sun
And as I rose my feet left the earth
I spoke but my words hung in the air
Fashioned from the depths
Waiting to be emboldened
Then, they traversed the oceans between us

Reaching you as you turned to stone
Some lay dormant, forming a quiet valley of death
Your ghostly eyes looked at me, earnestly
And though my words were still ice
several burst through the void / and
even to my own surprise, said - "I love you too"


This poem is one of the poems to feature in my upcoming release 'Recollections Vol.2'. It will also be included within a fictitious story that I am publishing.  Thank you, Dom.
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