In City of Grey Mists and Unfulfilled Desires

A shade of forgotten dreams,
an hour
before sunlight hits the stream
here the water is emerald
darker in the shadows and restrained
in light,
I want to withdraw agony
and give it voice
witness stories unfurl from painted lips.

To the fury of gentle yet audacious heart
darkness is a love letter silvered
with legend,
its shimmering sentences like frost
at dawn
like the lost days of January,
my words catch fire only when I write
of you
when in a moment of weakness I drown
into your skin,
fear no more than a blank canvass
extinguished.

When the last rays of the raspberry sun
melt into grey
that’s when the cardinals begin to pair up
and sing,
sometimes I watch them for a while
as the blood runs cold through my veins
and I remind myself
you are now a breath dissolving into decaying city.

Darkness is longing
darkness is standing beneath a fragile sky knowing
you can never be mine
and when the moon arises right before soft lullaby
banishes the storm,
I shall surrender myself to the night. 

 

Photo credits: Pinterest

Posted for “Midweek Motif” @ Poets United 

Posted on Tuesday Platform @ Real Toads

38 thoughts on “In City of Grey Mists and Unfulfilled Desires

  1. Sumana Roy says:

    Oh Sanaa, this is such a deeply felt poem! From the very first line to the last. Beautiful image of “the raspberry sun / melt into grey” says everything. “I want to withdraw agony / and give it voice” Love the grit every word exudes.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Sumana 😀 so glad you enjoyed it ❤️

      (and thank you for the lovely prompt) 🌹

  2. I love “its shimmering sentences like frost at dawn”. Beautiful, Sanaa.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Sherry 😀 so glad you liked it ❤️

  3. Deep and dark are laments of unfulfilled desires. So, well written. I had to reread just to enjoy the elegant flow of your pen.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Awww gosh! ❤️ Thank you so much, Khaya 😍 so glad you enjoyed it! ❤️

  4. Susan says:

    I see now the dark is yearning itself. Thank you for linking the emerald stream, the silver love letter and the raspberry sun–each of which darkness magnifies. Seeing through your eyes is amazing.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Susan 😍 so good to see you ❤️

  5. gillena says:

    As per usual your images are stunning. But what i love most is this call to voice the words.
    “I want to withdraw agony
    and give it voice
    witness stories unfurl from painted lips.”

    I would luv to hear this poem read aloud by the poet

    Much💟love

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Gillena 😀 so glad you liked it ❤️

      Much🌺🌼love

  6. Marja says:

    Absolutely beautiful I especially love “before soft lullaby banishes the storm” and “its shimmering sentences like frost at dawn” I have known the darkness of longing so I could very much resonate with this

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Marja 😀 so glad you enjoyed it ❤️

  7. Rall says:

    Apart from being inspirational for poetry, unattainable dark longing is futile and destructive… a dark force only fully realised when one finally emerges into the light.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Definitely 🙂 thanks for stopping by, Rall ❤️

  8. Old Egg says:

    How beautifully you wrote this Sanaa. I was especially touched by the words “you can never be mine”. Love is such a rich field to harvet ones poetry isn’t it?

    1. Sanaa says:

      Awww gosh! ❤️ Thank you so much, Robin 😀 so glad you liked it! ❤️

      (it most certainly is!) 🌹

  9. Thotpurge says:

    Darkness is longing- very nice Sanaa.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Rajani 😀 so good to see you ❤️

  10. Phillip says:

    Loved this poem.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Philip 😀 so glad you liked it ❤️

  11. Yours is a romantic darkness full of unrequited love, Sanaa. I love the lines:
    ‘To the fury of gentle yet audacious heart
    darkness is a love letter silvered
    with legend,
    its shimmering sentences like frost
    at dawn
    like the lost days of January’
    and
    ‘Darkness is longing
    darkness is standing beneath a fragile sky knowing
    you can never be mine’.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Kim 😀 so glad you enjoyed it ❤️

  12. “Darkness is longing”. What a throat filling line. I can almost see her not being able to truly breathe, hoping for release, surrendering to what might help…

    1. Sanaa says:

      Awwww gosh! ❤️ Thank you so much, Magaly 😀 so glad the words resonated with you! ❤️

      (she’s resurfacing from the depths and healing) 🌹

  13. One can feel the longing, and the loss, in this poem, Sanaa.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Sherry 😀 so good to see you ❤️

  14. the real cie says:

    Beautiful and melancholy. A feeling I fear I know all too well is expressed in this work.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Real Cie 🙂 so glad the poem resonated with you ❤️

  15. Thotpurge says:

    when in a moment of weakness I drown
    into your skin,
    fear no more than a blank canvass
    extinguished…. that’s lovely, Sanaa.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Rajani 😀 so glad you liked it ❤️

  16. Rommy says:

    You’ve got all of the ghostly and ephemeral imagery that really drives home the absence of the subject’s beloved and that the relationship’s shelf life was destined to be brief.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Rommy 😀 so glad you enjoyed it ❤️

  17. Kerry says:

    This beautiful description of water stands out for me:

    here the water is emerald
    darker in the shadows and restrained
    in light

    So hard to capture the visual effect of water, but you have done it so well.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Kerry 😀 so glad you liked it ❤️

  18. Bjorn Rudberg says:

    The longing and the end is so strong.. love all the use of colors in this.

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Bjorn 😀 so glad you enjoyed it ❤️

  19. Jim says:

    I am liking all the figures of speech that you used here. It followed Lee but you were writing so much clearer than he, his thoughts seemed to be veiled watermelon juice with seeds.
    I wii claim the first half of your last verse,
    “Darkness is longing
    darkness is standing beneath a fragile sky knowing
    you can never be mine”
    Then the writer drifted into the darkness. End of poem, all for naught. Sort of a romance that did not begin.
    I wish to thank you for your thoughts this morning as I put into a reply for you in my comments.
    “Thank you Sanaa, I do miss my parents still. This came to me after seeing the nice poem you found for us. Dad died in 2007. I’ll add that to my note. Its okay now, we all have to go”

    1. Sanaa says:

      Thank you so much, Jim 🙂 so glad the poem resonated with you ❤️

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