Barbo Bio: My pen name is Barbo, and I am a writer/poet/painter/singer from Maine. I am 36 years old and as yet unmarried. REMORSE Black and white all shades of gray this moment of this yesterday and grayer still the birds of prey converge upon the bare Renee' - Inside tomorrow's memory - Her soul as soft as morning rain as quiet as a hidden pain that stirs the settled heart again leaves only wisdom here to gain - Inside tomorrow's memory - Temptations gathered one by one as careless as a loaded gun and blinding as the brightest sun have left this child unloved, undone - Inside tomorrow's memory - Without remorse and without end indifferent faces failed to lend the comfort of a thoughtful friend upon who's care dreams do depend - Inside tomorrow's memory - A frightened child alone at night her innocence a tethered kite and once released a bird in flight is fleeting ever lost from sight - Inside tomorrow's memory - * * * * * * * * * * ROMANCE If not for stars as you, which glisten and illuminate the darkening skies within my heart If not for words of kindness I embrace within my soul, which you impart If not for simple smiles and subtle laughter that you find the time to share my dear Then I would truly be a lonesome, brutish animal, beside myself with lovelessness and fear Though many less enchanted, boorish fellows find me to be lost in fleeting fancy, too romantic And though they sneer at dreams of worlds beyond there cold and rigid lives, pedantic Though all it seems, would rather I be shaken to accept their so called realistic view I say to them their judgment is unscrupulous, for they have never felt the tonic warmth of you * * * * * * * * * * VAMPIRESS (prose) Under cover of the night you appear, lurking silently within my soul and tease my consciousness awake...drawing near and nearer still. You snuff the candles and the light, yet somehow luminously stare into my tortured heart. With lustful breaths you fade to black and leave me there to contemplate your dark desire... My eyes grow wide yet fail to focus, hands and brow perspiring, cold. With tightening throat attempting speech, the dryness of my lips deny me simple words and mock my thoughts. And as I ease my head to rest again, I find you overhead and laughing... I reach to touch you but you live inside the things which dreams are made of. And I shall never sleep again. * * * * * * * * * * FUTILITY Oh what cruel fate has led me to reflect in somber rhyme Of painful woes remembered over wind swept fields of time And what fools speak of promise in the calming light of day Then huddle in cold shadows as their hope lies in decay Oh shame on them for teaching me of words so loftily spoken And shame on me believing numbed to what my tears' betoken No contemplation thoughtful though it may be practiced here alleviates the pain beneath this tenuous veneer No good can come of this I know for none has come before And yet I pause and look again as if for something more Oh tell me why I torture so my own relenting soul I peer inside this vessel and unto my grief behold Still furthermore I speak of love and quiet bliss therein Once never have I captured such Yet seek it out again The most contented creatures never once a poem cast If ever would they anguish over incidence of past And nothing in these words I find and write in simple phrase relieves me of this agony I live throughout the days No verse so carefully arranged has ever eased my mind What fool am I believing herein happiness I'll find The above pieces are owned and copyrighted by Edward Daley, © 1999.
Reprinted with permission from the author. GotPoetry.com. All rights reserved. This page was last updated on October 27th, 1999.