"undimmed" poems
The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.
He named the nameless hills and dells;
He drank from yet untasted wells;
He stooped and looked in Mirrormere,
And saw a crown of stars appear,
As gems upon a silver thread,
Above the shadow of his head
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall.
Of mighty kings of Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away;
The world was fair in Durin's Day.
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright.
There hammer on the anvil smote,
There chisel clove, and graver wrote,
There forged was blade, and bound was hilt;
The delver mined, the mason built,
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale,
And metal wrought like fishes' mail,
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
And shining spears were laid in hoard.
Unwearied then were Durin's folk;
Beneath the mountains music woke:
The harpers harped, the minstrels sang
And at the gates the trumpets rang.
The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge's fire is ashen cold;
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls,
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls;
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dûm.
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere;
There lies his crown in water deep,
Till Durin wakes again from sleep.
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Wellspring of blood and gold
In flame and glory ever
Doest thou faithful rise
Cast off thy vapor shrouds
Radiance of ancient godhood undimmed
Magnified by singing ice
As prophesied in the late darkness thy
Hoped triumph heralded while
Bearers chained on metalled rails
Muttered protest under
Hoary breath of polar air
But lo! The brazen promise of thine
Image graven in beholder's eye
Rings hollow in the bitten ears
And the stung flesh
Feels thy boasted fire
Not at all
Above thee stands the city's goddess proud
So virile once thou smilest
Upon her white clad shoulder now
Ceres scorns thine impotence turns not
But fixes her steeled gaze
On the frozen north
Jan 25, 2019
Jan 25, 2019 at 10:46 AM UTC
A life hangs painted on the wall of the world
made in brush and texture on the canvas
the hills and trees and rivers of experience
are drawn broad and large.
Bright points of detail shining in brighter colour,
memories sparkle like sunlight on water.
Standing out in jewels are snooker and cribbage and beer.
Jokes and stories are picked out like light on leaves
and mended bikes and late night lifts glow as flowers against the shadows.
No more trees or hills will find their way onto this view.
No more flowers or rivers will gleam or wind.
It is complete and we must see
though artist's brush is stilled and colours dry
the memories will remain undimmed and firm
and love will keep the picture clear.
We stand here now and mourn the artist's passing
but our heavy hearts are eased by the gleaming landscape before us.
And it is to our own pictures we must turn
and save that we keep the memories bright
and at the close we ensure our lives
may at least approach the beauty of my Father's painting.
Aug 2, 2010
Aug 2, 2010 at 6:51 AM UTC
some of our teachers were awful nice
and the harbour of sweet peccadillos
(having to deal with us every day
would make anyone crazy..)
and i suppose they took refuge in
their insect collecting in abyssinia..
(pasttimes tinged in the exotic
and a nod to the sadistic..)
but love of keats and wordsworth (etc)...
miraculously remained undiminished..
(while demonstrating lethal aims and
a plethora of different pain..
one used the leg of a chair and another
gave his weaponry girl´ s names..
i guess they were just as bored as we were
how the season´ s waxed and wained..)
they still retained their soulful natures
a wonder of testament to the great genius
of elliot yeats and so forth..!
their fundamental faith undimmed...
Aug 19, 2018
Aug 19, 2018 at 8:40 AM UTC
Gold or silver, every day,
Dies to gray.
There are knots in every skein.
Hours of work and hours of play
Fade away
Into one immense Inane.
Shadow and substance, chaff and grain,
Are as vain
As the foam or as the spray.
Life goes crooning, faint and fain,
One refrain:
'If it could be always May!'
Though the earth be green and gay,
Though, they say,
Man the cup of heaven may drain;
Though, his little world to sway,
He display
Hoard on hoard of pith and brain:
Autumn brings a mist and rain
That constrain
Him and his to know decay,
Where undimmed the lights that wane
Would remain,
If it could be always May.
Yea, alas, must turn to nay,
Flesh to clay.
Chance and Time are ever twain.
Men may scoff, and men may pray,
But they pay
Every pleasure with a pain.
Life may soar, and Fortune deign
To explain
Where her prizes hide and stay;
But we lack the ***** train
We should gain,
If it could be always May.
Envoy
Time, the pedagogue, his cane
Might retain,
But his charges all would stray
Truanting in every lane--
Jack with Jane--
If it could be always May.
1.7k
Not in thy body is thy life at all
But in this lady’s lips and hands and eyes;
Through these she yields the life that vivifies
What else were sorrow’s servant and death’s thrall.
Look on thyself without her, and recall
The waste remembrance and forlorn surmise
That lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighs
O’er vanished hours and hours eventual.
Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair
Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show
For heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago;
Even so much life endures unknown, even where,
’Mid change the changeless night environeth,
Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.
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I woke up that Christmas morning,
that year that I turned five.
Everything was blurry
due to an infection in my eyes.
The Christmas tree with colored lights
cast an aura in the room.
A half warm teabag on my eye
gave some relief from haze and gloom.
My brother set up his Lionel trains
on a wood board on the floor.
Any other brother might have resented
that I had so much more
than he did when he was little
growing up in times of war.
We all heard Mass at nine o’clock
at Saint Ann’s on the Hill.
Then back home to break the fast
Presents would have to wait until.
Simple gifts were cherished then,
not all bought in a store.
My parents were the working class
we had enough, not more.
The gifts may have been simple
but love came brightly wrapped.
Before sleep my father told me stories
as I nestled on his lap.
I’m thankful for the memories
which remain undimmed by time.
but my eyes still get a little blurry
when I think back on Fifty Nine
Dec 25, 2011
Dec 25, 2011 at 5:30 PM UTC
In the darkness of a long Friday night shift
Making 100 pizzas an hour
my energy drains, my mind wanders
I leave my body behind to cut the pies
and I happily flip between dimensions
memories, lives and possibilities.
3 physically grueling hour later,
I return to find my poor body exhausted
Ordered to some random task.
The REAL me responds out of my broken body
with a ******** quip about linear time
and temporal mechanics.
Suddenly, I hear myself!
Suddenly, I see myself!
Suddenly, blindingly, I feel a light!
Bright, all encompassing, radiant light
Like the North Star,
but undimmed and unhindered.
In all its splendour, it shines
a leaf-covered path
suddenly clear as day!
What I would love to do
is to study physics
and obtain a master's degree
in Quantum Mechanics.
Energised by naught more than this realisation
my body works effortlessly on a record long shift
while my heart sings
and my mind dances happily
and I, the true me rejoices
For finally, I have realised
and allowed myself to accept
what excites me!
Aug 16, 2014
Aug 16, 2014 at 8:37 PM UTC
(dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827)
The inexpressible expressed
In the indefinable.
A reach undimmed by time, soaring,
Falling, twisting, rolling, tugging.
One moment skimming lightly, poised
In fragile marble, shattered by
Mere observation; then standing
Tall atop the world, imperious
Like the hero who betrayed you -
A monument to yourself.
Giving your life to the very
Joy in which you could not share.
The music that entered your head
In your youth never left it,
Reverberating through silence.
Your legacy is victory,
Only enriched by tragedy.
Your struggle echoes across time,
Connecting you with me, and all
Who seek to know and feel, through the
Universal language of the heart,
What it is to be truly human.
Jun 12, 2012
Jun 12, 2012 at 8:21 AM UTC
Substantial reward
paid for the following lost items:
sense of endless time,
boundless ambition,
athletic body,
presumed omniscience,
undimmed enthusiasm
and blind optimism.
Former owner wants to
restore original self
and has not yet lost hope.
Mike T Minehan
Nov 9, 2014
Nov 9, 2014 at 9:45 PM UTC
See
by Michael R. Burch
See how her hair has thinned: it doesn’t seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are gentler now; see how each wrinkle laughs,
and deepens on itself, as though mirth took
some comfort there, then burrowed deeply in,
outlasting winter. See how very thin
her features are—that time has made more spare,
so that each bone shows, elegant and rare.
For life remains undimmed in her grave eyes,
and courage in her still-delighted looks:
each face presented like a picture book’s.
Bemused, she blows us undismayed goodbyes.
Keywords/Tags: Elderly, woman, grandmother, thin, thinning, hair, airy, emu, moult, soft, plumage, wrinkles, laugh lines, frail, gaunt, bones, winter, grave, eyes, courage, laughter, family, gathered, bedside, kisses, hugs, goodbyes, farewells, life, death, photo album, pictures, photos, photographs
Published by The Eclectic Muse, Love Me Knots (an anthology of the top 100 contemporary love poems), Nutty Stories (South Africa), Black Medina, The New Formalist, Better Than Starbucks, Potcake Chapbooks, Strange Roads, Sonnetto Poesia, Litera (UK), Poems About, Poetry Life & Times, MahMag (in a Farsi translation by Dr. Mahnaz Badihian), Somewhere Along The Beaten Path (Anthology), Freshet, Life & Legends, Famous Poets & Poems, Short Quotes & Poems (listed in the top 10 short poems) and Victorian Violet Press. “See” won 3rd place in the 2003 Writer’s Digest Rhyming Poetry contest, out of over 18,000 overall entries, and was published in Writer’s Digest’s The Year’s Best Writing.
Mar 6, 2020
Mar 6, 2020 at 4:44 AM UTC
Gentle waves reflect
Star undimmed guiding my path
Still as Winter ends
Jun 20, 2018
Jun 20, 2018 at 8:57 PM UTC
I don't need vindication for my reasons of growing cold
You know just what you did, you don't need to be told
You called me names, and broke me down until I just shattered
You made me feel so unworthy, like I never really mattered
I was loyal, I was devoted, a quintessence to a fault
Always trying to appease you, and lost myself as a result
The person I thought you were was just a fabricated illusion
All your lies and all your games left me feeling helplessness and confusion
I made so many sacrifices and lost everything I had
You told me I was ungrateful and had no reasons for being sad
All the love and all my kindness you completely took for granted
Selfishly you clung to me so you could take advantage
All the anger and all the outbursts never once did you put me first
I strived to give the best of me and you simply gave me your worst
Your arrogant and manipulating ways I have become unlatched
Mentally and emotionally I am officially detached
No longer will I remain defeated, broken and tattered
My wings I have spread, my spirit I have gathered
As I mend my injured soul, as I slowly again become whole
I am blossoming and divine, though I will never be the same, I've undimmed my ******* shine!
Apr 25, 2017
Apr 25, 2017 at 7:10 PM UTC
shall I compare thee to burning hay?
thou art more highly and more plenty.
rough tokes do shake the buds of August, and summer's shake has all too long to wait.
sometimes too hot the high of heaven shines,
And often is the gold reflection dimmed;
And every hair from fair bud does decline,
By chance, or nature's changing course, undimmed;
But thy eternal sizzle shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that buzz thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in a daze,
When in eternal times to fine thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes get red,
So long lives this, the smoke do smell like burning hay.
Oct 28, 2018
Oct 28, 2018 at 6:12 PM UTC
Come the Hill
and contact notes
abound
arriving in their droves,
they'll sup the berry-blood
of hedgerows,
in the cheese-and-ale
mist that hove the woodlands
from their mooring
My love for this
remains undimmed,
if anything , intensified,
as in these clock-wise hands
I clutch,
both epilogue and origin..
Sep 27, 2021
Sep 27, 2021 at 12:24 PM UTC
I hear there’s no flesh in heaven. But I stopped worshipping the moon because its swell glares like a cruel rendering of your throat, and why should I kneel before a cold imitation when you exist flushed and undimmed for revering.
I heard (thought, once) that the carnal and the holy are indistinguishable in their earth-bound forms. in darkness your throat rises serpentine, devilish beneath the flesh. The night wails; isn’t the moon just the whitened fingertip of Michealangelo’s god, pale with aching in its strain towards Adam?
The blood moon tempts: a tender body, the forbidden fruit, and your mouth trembles in wanting. I’d like to think your throat would gleam in devouring, tossed back defiantly beneath the glaring moonlight; holiness only reflecting off the carnal; god, forsaken.
-Ari
Apr 27, 2023
Apr 27, 2023 at 8:01 PM UTC
Some emotions
I try
to have no time for;
jealousy just a useless worry,
run away from me with anger;
self pity in the dustbin
with regret
and has been:
but the looking forward to seeing you is naturally undimmed;
all your you and everything, your wow,
clear
in the now.
Apr 27, 2017
Apr 27, 2017 at 7:55 PM UTC
I know of a fire,
I know of a life
I know of a stirring, flooded through with light
I know of a weapon forged beyond question of might
I know of a will irrevocable with the stillness of MidNight
I know of the roots in the forests without trees
Webs that span the wide wetness of empty seas
I know of desires that are built on expected fears
And the cruel joys that then bring a person to tears
Those wretched happenstances that cannot be seen by seers
It is a simple life with a complicated weaving
A small cup with bitterness teeming
It is an odd duck of beautiful feathers shimmering
The laughter shows sharp teeth and you can just imagine that bite
A glaring light the truth of which we can only just perceive, but from which, alas, we may not hide.
But let me choose to set aside the eerie,
For my purpose was not to sound so dreary,
So said I that life is a Gemini feed,
It finds me unable to quite resist the switch
I spoke of fire undying, fire eternal was given to me.
I spoke of light undimmed, the sun was bequeathed to me.
I wanted to tread the halls of Olympus, the earth was created for me.
That I should never want for aught, take the very beat of mine heart for the flow of your blood.
For the thoughts that are my planets revolve around the mind of your sun.
But now all my thoughts are centred on you,
Ask me for the moon
Don't leave so soon
I know that fire, that life, that weapon,
I got them all from you.
There are no paths I wouldn't walk for you
Jun 22, 2018
Jun 22, 2018 at 4:57 AM UTC