"unwonted" poems
In these rapid, restless shadows,
Once I walked at eventide,
When a gentle, silent maiden,
Walked in beauty at my side.
She alone there walked beside me
All in beauty, like a bride.
Pallidly the moon was shining
On the dewy meadows nigh;
On the silvery, silent rivers,
On the mountains far and high,—
On the ocean’s star-lit waters,
Where the winds a-weary die.
Slowly, silently we wandered
From the open cottage door,
Underneath the elm’s long branches
To the pavement bending o’er;
Underneath the mossy willow
And the dying sycamore.
With the myriad stars in beauty
All bedight, the heavens were seen,
Radiant hopes were bright around me,
Like the light of stars serene;
Like the mellow midnight splendor
Of the Night’s irradiate queen.
Audibly the elm-leaves whispered
Peaceful, pleasant melodies,
Like the distant murmured music
Of unquiet, lovely seas;
While the winds were hushed in slumber
In the fragrant flowers and trees.
Wondrous and unwonted beauty
Still adorning all did seem,
While I told my love in fables
’Neath the willows by the stream;
Would the heart have kept unspoken
Love that was its rarest dream!
Instantly away we wandered
In the shadowy twilight tide,
She, the silent, scornful maiden,
Walking calmly at my side,
With a step serene and stately,
All in beauty, all in pride.
Vacantly I walked beside her.
On the earth mine eyes were cast;
Swift and keen there came unto me
Bitter memories of the past—
On me, like the rain in Autumn
On the dead leaves, cold and fast.
Underneath the elms we parted,
By the lowly cottage door;
One brief word alone was uttered—
Never on our lips before;
And away I walked forlornly,
Broken-hearted evermore.
Slowly, silently I loitered,
Homeward, in the night, alone;
Sudden anguish bound my spirit,
That my youth had never known;
Wild unrest, like that which cometh
When the Night’s first dream hath flown.
Now, to me the elm-leaves whisper
Mad, discordant melodies,
And keen melodies like shadows
Haunt the moaning willow trees,
And the sycamores with laughter
Mock me in the nightly breeze.
Sad and pale the Autumn moonlight
Through the sighing foliage streams;
And each morning, midnight shadow,
Shadow of my sorrow seems;
Strive, O heart, forget thine idol!
And, O soul, forget thy dreams!
5.4k
Quis multa gracilis te puer in Rosa
Rendred almost word for word without Rhyme according to the
Latin Measure, as near as the Language permit.
What slender Youth bedew’d with liquid odours
Courts thee on Roses in some pleasant Cave,
Pyrrha for whom bind’st thou
In wreaths thy golden Hair,
Plain in thy neatness; O how oft shall he
On Faith and changed Gods complain: and Seas
Rough with black winds and storms
Unwonted shall admire:
Who now enjoyes thee credulous, all Gold,
Who alwayes vacant, alwayes amiable
Hopes thee; of flattering gales
Unmindfull. Hapless they
To whom thou untry’d seem’st fair. Me in my vow’d
Picture the sacred wall declares t’ have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern God of Sea.
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#(a travelogue cont...)
Waiting for summer
just outside the tallest
mountain’s door
Where the emerald vale
streams spring glacial-grey
river waters,
west into the setting
midnight sun
Another resplendent day’s
paling whisper set free
in an unseen blink
and an unheard sigh
In these unwonted moments
eyes rise up to touch
the beckoning sky
like a bug drawn
to the light
Upward over
highest mountain's skies
abides everything
worth rising for
It's so rare
in this fleeting life,
when a dream
for a moment
comes true ―
you come to understand
how deep is silence
and ...
it doesn’t really matter
when there’re no words
harlon rivers
June 9th. 2018
11:55 pm Denali sunset ...
"don't dream it's over"
Jun 10, 2018
Jun 10, 2018 at 4:27 PM UTC
We all saw it
We all heard it
We all read it
And smelled it.
Meanwhile Deedeepee is rotting in jail
For probably having committed a similar crime
Some do the crime and others don’t do the time
Similarly, some go to Heaven and others go to Hell.
The world smelled it
The world read it
The world heard it
And we saw it.
Some people are above the law
Some people are found to have no fault
Somewhere, God needs to tight the bolt
So all can hear the unwonted song of the crow.
No jail time, no fine and no probation
However, we all felt the humiliation
For God’s sake, an Honorable Christian like Jimmy
Would have never been in such a gnarly quandary.
We all smelled it
We all read it
We all heard it
And the world saw it.
No further explanation
We wonder if justice was done
No further condemnation
History is always fair, just and fun.
The world heard it
The world read it
The world saw it
And we smelled it.
Copyright © January 2025, Hébert Logerie, All rights reserved
Hébert Logerie is the author of several books of poetry.
Jan 12, 2025
Jan 12, 2025 at 8:17 AM UTC
You were unwonted to me
And I held you in high regards
How I felt about you was indubitable
I wanted you to make me yours
And your eyes
They shined with summer
Your heart
It glared with winter
And you starved me of your attention
You denuded me and refused to clothe me in your warmth
You left me in this destitute condition
But still my magnanimous feelings clung to you
Although you always drew a partition
That interposed me and you
Making us impossible
Jul 5, 2014
Jul 5, 2014 at 11:32 PM UTC
The Pretty Ones look away
When you catch their eye,
When you hopelessly hope
They give you the same look
Rather than reach the
Edges of their vision
To tear from your lustful leer,
To grace you mere moments
Of their time,
To recognize the prayers
You filled the unwonted air in between,
Those in reverence
Of their overbearing beauty
While you wait
To be swept away
In the powerful wake they cast
From oceans that never end,
While you dream of days
Spent merrily beside
Their ethereal body
To speak in their echoed ears,
While you work to
Build Kingdoms to excite
Their exotic eyes
And rest their petulant hearts,
While you love them in dreams
But never knew their names
Because they held their breath when
They passed you,
Because they move along with
Calculated indifference
To know many like you,
You who exist as
Nothing within their minds,
Who are ghosts
That stare but not to speak,
Who are designed to
Scare but not to touch,
Who are as ethereal
As the bodies they pass
In dreams,
When you walk by
To catch their eye,
It’s not your fault
The Pretty Ones look away.
Dec 8, 2016
Dec 8, 2016 at 7:17 PM UTC
don't be afraid
to bleed brains on paper
to plead pains unwavered
string sounds slowly
string sounds quickly
do so daringly
rhyme no caringly
do not balk upon the blind eyed judge judging unwonted
spray inky gouts
dare defy doubt
Jul 31, 2016
Jul 31, 2016 at 9:10 PM UTC
I can not be ok unless my world is crumbling apart.
I can only stretch my limbs around your calamity
tie them in a bow,
if my eucatastrophe catastrophically collapses.
The more my mind becomes at peace,
the more I stay awake at night staring out my window
into the ink shadow,
And tango with the shattered moonlight.
Nostalgia consumes
Slip and plummet into a cataclysmic monsune
So I welcome you,
I beg you, rip my heart to shreds
make my mind a mess.
Defile my body and brake my sprit, burn my tattered shreds
in the blazing fire of your hate.
Look at it insanity, everywhere, everything
I will drown in it, I will drown in the screams.
Humanity clings
But pain, the saviour the messiah
is the only thing that makes me feel okay
the only way I can tell fantasy from fiction
pain is the only thing that keeps my devils at bay.
I am the creator of my own catastrophe,
I am the designer of my own tragedy.
Agony.
I am both my antidote and poison, the repercussions of one are felt at magananimous magnitudes of the other.
A never ending cycle.
Estranged peace, unwonted quite. Lock myself in a small room let darkness take me,
insanity break me,
my demons create me,
the evils of the world dance in that room,
they dance with me.
This is my estranged peace,
this is my unwonted quite.
I smile,
a smile so out of place,
put on my mask to cover my face.
I gather my shreds and sow them into a terrorizingly beautiful quilt.
I can only be human if mayhem is raging
under the surface of the lie I built
bubbling over
pressure building
scales tipping.
There is something terribly irreparably broken.
There is a darkness that was terribly irreparably woken
I can only be ok if my world is crumbling apart.
Because something inside screams for chaos.
Jan 29, 2019
Jan 29, 2019 at 3:50 AM UTC
mass slaughter
of innocent kids aye abhor,
an undeniable chance, some and/or all
those slain Valentine' Day 2018,
would be alive borne out
in living color before
killing spree resulted in unwonted deaths,
when deputy Scot Peterson
abdicated his chief chore
and did not intervene (perhaps...
playing positive pivotal role)that fateful day,
but walked up to a closed door
then rode a golf cart February fourteenth
(appearing dumbfounded as Eeyore)
when seventeen people killed
(lying dead on the floor)
inside the Parkland, Fla. school
seeds bracketed speculation galore,
sans officer at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School did ignore
Shooting not "FAKE" baffles
and begs question, why bemused
mentioned deputy did not
strong arm gunman Nikolas Cruz,
Who unloaded his AR-15
inside the school settling revengeful dues
as said killer explained,
which no skew logic can excuse
as the latter indiscriminately
brandished barrel that fired
bullets at random youths
(unwitting targets) lighting a fuse
of explosive rage, and
(leaving no iota of doubt) lose
zing no chance against death penalty,
as surveillance video released into news
media Thursday (July 15th),
truth one cannot refuse
to see, where young baby faced assassin
blithely pumped bullets
dooming lives, whose shoes
unable to outrun as classmates got felled by ones and twos.
Mar 15, 2018
Mar 15, 2018 at 4:29 PM UTC
You concealed it
Were you ashamed?
I saw it in every thing about you
and for a minute it made me sad
You are not dimensionless
Though I once thought so
You dizzy the stars within me
but I think I make yours go still
-cj
Jul 19, 2014
Jul 19, 2014 at 12:36 PM UTC
i'm restless and unwonted, i don't think that's what you want.
no one really does.
May 26, 2014
May 26, 2014 at 8:11 AM UTC