Today I’m treating you to two nocturnal poems. The first one is a nontraditional poem by me. I wrote this whimsical poem many years ago when I was at college and studying the classics in literature. I rarely write rhyming poems, but this one came to me out of the blue, so I jotted it down with no changes. I imagined the protagonist as a child in a long-ago era, observing the coming of night. It’s called “Night.”
The second poem is “Night Falls Swiftly” and is dark and morose—it stands opposite of the first.
Night came tapping at my door,
But I with book heard not a sound;
It entered on its own accord,
Trespassing on my private ground.
Night crept about my house with ease
And darkened everything from sight,
’Til through my study’s door it squeezed
And skirted past my candle’s light.
I did not peer to watch its plight
Across my shelves and down my wall;
I know not if it bade goodnight;
I heard not if it spoke at all.
With book aside I pondered why
That one so strong as dark of night,
Who snuffs the life from day’s bright light,
Could not put out my candlelight.
Night falls swiftly on us—
It is the secret bits of life to do yourself the way you do—
A flash in the sinking sun,
Ten thousand years rebounded,
Vibrations—
It is hell.
Wild you are but ripe for life
In the gray and raging glee—
Nobody likes to die, but it is evening here all the same,
And there is silence.
No more color,
No Hawaiian girls dancing—
All the knots and softness are gone.
A girl retreats her gaze—
What lover keeps her song?
Do you prefer the lighter rhyming poem? Or do you like the darker, edgier free-verse one? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading. That’s all for now.
Steve, 10/26/2022
This post “Poems 003- and 004-2022-1026” copyright © 2022 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.
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