Dear Annie Dillard,
Selling your shining self short!
You still hide pennies
In every radiant report.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton
Category Archives: Poetry
Weighted Gift
From early dawn,
Empath is my name,
Bright passion burning,
Burst forth from flame,
To carry your joy,
Pain, mirth, and sorrow,
Throughout this brief day,
Then again on the ‘morrow.
Copyright 2014. L.L. Shelton.
Put Them Up Wet
This ground is hard
And the effort is piercing my soul,
Weaknesses rule,
One thing to be sure of control,
Take me home
And don’t spare the horses.
Exhausted heart
And I don’t want to run anymore,
Resources low,
Mind aches and bones are sore,
Take me home
And don’t spare the horses.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
One Way To a Sunny Day
Clouds descended
Around my brain,
Engulfed my thoughts
In driving rain,
Then I remembered
Things He never said,
And a sunny day
Dawned in my head.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
Home Bound
The glint that bounces off your eye-
The one to catch you by surprise,
Skipping briefly freely by,
Brilliant as if to justify
The sparkling shining painful show,
It hurts to look but you don’t go;
That gentle stir among the leaves-
Closest to you, brings the breeze,
Lacey fluttering dipping down,
Never touching low the ground
Brings comfort and a gentle tease,
Wraps round you with tender ease;
Indicate you’re not alone,
Love has come to visit home.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
Hello Heartache
Hello heartache
You ugly bruiser, you
Always bringing these gray skies, too
I want to feel better
But so under the weather
Where do you live
I’ll drive you there
Just promise to stay…
Never look my way again.
But so under the weather
I know I’ll then be
That ordinary bit of humanity
Won’t love somebody
Cause it’ll only hurt me somehow
Then I’ll miss those sweet
Moments- defy gravity
Lift me higher- higher…
Than a body has a right to be.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
Where Evening Fell
One lie too many
Maybe it had to be told
Oh what a shame
Broke the fastidiously
Constructed mold
One dream too many
Standing in your faded gown
Oh what a pain
Pieced together delicately
Watching it all fall down
One day too many
Living against the grain
Oh go ahead
Remain a stranger to me
Bring on the pounding rain.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
Betrayal
Weariness sweeps over me
Like a thousand winters,
Refreshing river of life
In which I once swam,
Reduced to an icy stream
In which I now wade,
Angrily writhing waters
Rushing round my knees,
Where once I stood as firmly
Now threaten to topple me.
Copyright 2014. L.L. Shelton.
This Language Is Mine
The letters belong to me.
They move at my command.
They line up in curious rows
To express my poem and prose.
The words huddle together.
They make friends and hold hands.
They chat with one another
To put forth the idea I demand.
The sounds do sing my song.
They whisper and they laugh.
They weep and love and play
To render my thoughts of the day.
Copyright 2014. L.L. Shelton.
Parade of Waste
Our little girls:
Pile cake on the face,
Glitter in the hair,
We tell them they should stand
They’re looking pretty.
Then they’re tweens:
Wear thong ‘cross the bum,
Liner round the eyes,
We tell them they should lie
They’re Looking pretty.
Now they’re teens:
Guard the lives at the pool,
Washing cars
In their bikinis raising money
For the school.
They learn life
From fathers’ friends as they drool,
Hold them close
In their arm chairs on their knees,
There a tool.
When did they
Discover don’t want lives like
Their mothers’,
In their boxes feeling lonely,
There the fools?
Dilemma
Is as fresh as the garden
Uncovered,
There worshipping the honey
They are cruel.
Can they be
Returned to state of pardon,
Beloved?
They’ve made off with the money.
Blessed Fools.
L.L. Shelton, Copyright 2016.