fawn breaks a glass pond
snoozed snout by a toad posing
gauged flight perturbed gnat
Jaded giving up on love
a butterfly lands gently on her hand
~ suddenly she slights her doubts
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
me and my loyal friend
we're dreaming of beautiful exotic faraway lands
~ one day we'll sail away
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 3rd place 2025
Perhaps the wind will turn today,
or perhaps it will drifts elsewhere,
keeping the echoes of what we never said
if quiet were not already there...
Perhaps the rain will choose to fall,
or perhaps it will hold its tears,
leaving the streets unkissed and all
our waiting hearts postpone in years.
Perhaps I saw your smile at sunrise,
or perhaps the night was weaving deceptions;
perhaps what is gone still lingers
and perhaps we gather more than we notice.
Perhaps, my words are not enough,
yet still I write, in quiet prose...
for perhaps a poem is just this:
a maybe that nobody knows.
step …
across the sill
this haunted house
walls of torn paper, dripping
crumbling plaster ceilings
hanging like rotten vines on a gaunt
and bony frame
dark, broken windows, the
empty eyes that stare -
once aglow with
the bright from within
life and light … and love
made a home
until …
just an ember -
one flame of your kiss -
and it was gutted
burned raw and ruined
with no thought to what filled these rooms
or graced the facades
or warmed the meager marrow …
now all phantoms
howling in the barren halls
sodden and saddened
for sake of the abandoned -
the threadbare -
dilapidated … desolate
welcome to the
vacancy …
your fool.
Copyright © 2023 Gregory Richard Barden
( artwork is a number two pencil sketch of the cottage from “Summer of ‘42” by the poet )
Love has many shades --
the methods we color our
feelings. Often giving them
faces and names. Times, the
mornings, afternoons and
evenings -- Which are more
the Passionate? Only Love
can decide.
Heart shaped glasses
Bottled sadness
The perfume of melancholia
Sold as aphrodisiac
Somewhere between
Smoke and rum
Between the sheets
All is fair
In love and
Other indoor sports
If you were a star, shining down on me,
You’d be the only one, that I can see.
If you were a diamond, found in a mine
You would be flawless, with perfect design.
If you were a flower, in a wild meadow,
You’d dance with grace, as winds would blow.
If you were a perfume, a bottle of crystal,
You’d smell divine, powerful and mystical.
You are my partner, the one I adore,
My star, my diamond, my flower and more.
I love you Layla, will all my heart,
Which you have kept safe, from the start.
You are my girl, with long blonde hair,
With deep endless eyes, full of soul and care.
You are my soul mate, my angel on earth,
My destined partner, since both our births.
Your smile infectious, your laughter the same,
A voice so comforting, when you say my name.
Your wondrous mind, your ambition and drive,
You are the reason, I feel alive.
Layla your presence, your warming glow,
Your soul like glitter, and the sparkle it shows.
Layla your love, so warming and bright,
You’ve never failed, to light up my night.
Tell you something
Something funny in it itself because
It doesn't sound to make sense.
I intentionally keep around you because
Deep down inside something tells me
"Someday it's going to have to be me to save you"
And I just want to be around you until that day
That's why I stay
Even when you turn a blind eye on me
Even when I pretend to be silent
I still want to be there
Be there around you
Even in the least possible ways that I can.
Who are you?
Where were you?
What’s the connection?
Why now?
My mind ponders,
In figment of imagination, it wanders.
Seeking truths in riddles better left untold.
As I walked in alone,
What was the calling, unknown?
Masked in a cloak, perhaps a riddle to see,
Waiting for you to appear, to help untangle me.
What is pure joy?
What is elation?
An infant cradled in mothers’ arm,
The embrace, the warmth.
The laughter of a child,
All innocence, free from guile.
The maiden glance, the nascent word.
Phew…Effervescent beats surged within,
A fountain of joy bubbling unseen.
Your aura, brushed in hues of rainbow’s gleam.
Your vibes, as pleasant as the memory of a childhood dream.
And I stood smitten, shaken & stirred,
Awoken from the slumber, my vision blurred.
Sometimes, a lifetime is never enough,
Sometimes, a moment is magic in puff.
Sometimes, words vanish, unable to explain,
Sometimes, silence sings what the heart can’t contain.
Walking in, I didn’t know my calling,
Saying goodbye, my thoughts and feelings were sprawling.
Blessed I am to have experienced you,
Pending tale, yet untold, will follow.
I remember a moonlit kiss
you and me seeking immortal bliss
Where is the sun hiding
I’m in dire need of a recharge
~ soak in its vital energy
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
My heart longs to have a poet
Willing to write with me a duet.
It was written on your body
written in your soul
to keep them all laughing
keep their small minds whole
you painted over it
you take it as it is
living off a captured kiss
to keep the neat bow tied
inside on a friday evening
what is it achieving
I know you want the relief
I tell you the secret
so don't forget
the night’s not over yet
The wind carries your name today—
whispers it through my ribs,
fills the hollow
where breath once flowed.
Is this you
riding the morning currents,
or just my chest
mistaking echo for arrival?
From distant shores
starlings lift and scatter,
their wings dark against the sky.
You ask why warmth abandons my skin?
Love is water leaving the body—
drop by drop
until only the vessel
remembers fullness.
Who opens their lungs before lightning strikes?
Who breathes deep
into a storm's eye
and expects to stay whole?
Your presence moves through smaller beauties
the way wind bends wheat—
everything golden,
everything changed.
My exhale trembles,
tastes your name
on its way to the waiting sky.
In these paradise winds,
between my last breath
and the horizon's quiet answer,
I almost catch you, almost become
the space where air learns touch.
Specific Types of Longing Poems
Read wonderful longing poetry on the following sub-topics:
desire, for her, for him, for you, for your touch, friendship, haiku, home, life, lonely, lost, missing you, pain
and more.
Definition | What is Longing in Poetry?
Poems Related to Longing
eager, yearning, languishing, craving, anxious, ardent, avid, hungry, ravenous, wishful, wistful, pining, hankering, hunger, wish, aspiration, thirst, yearning, ambition, craving, urge, itch, yen, pining, coveting, hungering, fire in the belly,