Underpainting poems on Hello Poetry

Shannon McGovern Aug 2011

Each pad sinks deeper into the soft
smushy, slush that was once hard like
Oak paneling in an old farm house.
The snow melts into calm reflecting pools
but constant spring is not a blessing
to the pink skin underpainting
of the great white bear.

He is not in a gold rush,
or a hurry, but he cannot swim forever.
The rising tides will bring the whales
closer, and only leave oil
and Caribou behind.

What shoes should you wear
when the ice goes renegade
and leaves you all but stranded
on a liquid isle?
Polar bears do not dock their boats
in Bernard Harbor,

so check your snow shoes
at the door and be prepared
for pirates. For when deer
jump eight feet into
pools, predators
should still know how to hunt.

Rollie Rathburn Jan 2023

Color Field

I bring myself,
to your altar
open and ambiguous
focused softly with an underpainting
of dark teal blue.

Staggering in a self-conversation
neither entirely conscious
nor fully verbal.
For a moment
it quiets me just to be there.

kfaye Mar 9

Untitled

ever chasing the immaculately unfinished job
the work in progress / the
underpainting sketch

a breathing body

a story still being told around the fire

the f r o t h i n g beasts of Time’s chariots, all
sinew and glares :
*** on and in eachother
to carry the burden
henceforth

siddh 2d

Give Me A Reason

The salty stream of pain streaks across my face
And my mind lost in an ashen haze,
I yearn for an understanding gaze,
But the world is lost in their own maze.
Standing on the ledge of annihilation; screaming give me a reason

Was a child of the summer,  my soul used to shimmer.
The morning daylight that once made my heart  flutter,
Now charrs my back to the colours of dying embers.
Standing on the ledge of annihilation ; screaming give me a reason

I used to finger paint the world with vibrant hues.
This sadness, silent but wailing for rescue,
And its underpainting has dappled me blue.
Standing on the ledge of annihilation; screaming give me a reason

My heart is tired of flooding blood to this prison.
The cuts  now bleed crimson.
My own thoughts have committed treason.
Standing on the ledge of annihilation; screaming give me a reason

Trigger Warning: Suicide, Self Harm
This poem dives into the themes of existential crisis how one transitions from a playful child to one who sees no colour in the world. The last line of every stanza is the person asking is there any point of living itself

#sad #depressing #free #verse #emotional

— The End —