Tweetspeak Poetry

Night Poetry: Playlist and Prompt

By 34 Comments

Night poetry easily lends itself to being love poetry. Take this classic favorite from Lord Byron…

She Walks in Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

—Lord Byron

Where Lord Byron left off, modern song-writers have picked up. Enjoy our new themed playlist, with its share of night love songs!

Poetry Prompt

Try your hand at a night love poem, wherein you compare the beloved to some aspect of the night. Take it further than Byron (he mentions only the stars). Or, if you want to mention the stars, get specific. There is more than one kind of star shining in the dark of the universe. If you like, grab a line from one of our playlist night songs and use it as the title of your poem.

Thanks to our participants in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s a recent fun little poem we enjoyed from Nancy…

cool cat
barely tame
says that poetry is her game

—Nancy

Photo by Beshef, Creative Commons, via Flickr.

______

Sometimes we feature your poems in Every Day Poems, with your permission of course. Thanks for writing with us!

Browse poets and poems
Browse more writing prompts
Browse moon poems

T.S. Poetry
Latest posts by T.S. Poetry (see all)

Try Every Day Poems...

Comments

  2. Richard Maxson says

    After Dreams

    In the mornings as sleep leaves us slowly,
    we are one body, like the waters of the oceans.

    Your fragrance enters me the way light entwined
    itself into the fabric of night and, while we slept,

    found its way through louvers and lies unseen
    in the folds of yesterday’s tossed clothes.

    Even before my eyes open to the room
    as we had left it, I am listening to the first birds,

    like sailors, long at sea, listen for the gulls.
    I do not look into the night of the room,

    I wait for the first whisper of your voice,
    like morning waves breaking softly on a new shore.

    Reply

  4. Elizabeth W. Marshall says

    All Night Long, All Night

    She slept in search of pillow’s cold side
    Alone, on her own
    Side, of a great divide
    Invisible line drawn down
    The middle
    Of the night, all night long, all night

    She slept, he slept, they slept with rings of gold
    Dreaming
    Together, held, crossing over from sleep
    To wake
    Lines between the two blurred now, down
    The middle
    Of the night, all night long, all night

    And still, the darkest part
    Finds her dangling between
    Asleep. Awake
    Alone, not true,
    There are two
    Sides of a pillow, the warm, the cold.
    The dawn’s light breaks through window
    Pane,
    Right down the middle of their bed,
    And she awakes remembering
    Her thoughts, her words, her poems
    That kept her working, writing through the night
    All night long, all night long, all night.

    Reply

    • Maureen Doallas says

      This calls to mind a friend’s post yesterday, in which she talked about her word for 2014: “onement”. I told her that the painter Barnett Newman had created a series with that word. In one work, Newman painted a red line down the middle of his monotone canvas (in others in the series, the line is a different color and sometimes the line is not vertical but side to side). For him, the line both divided and unified, was both of the space and not.

      There’s something of that in this poem: sharing a bed but experiencing an aloneness in it; sometimes a coming together, sometimes a being apart.

      Reply

    • Richard Maxson says

      The dichotomies in this provide marvelous tension:

      she/he
      warm/cold
      asleep/awake
      dreaming/working
      dark/light

      The blur of dreaming and working, as if she is working in a dream state, where she has to remember working. Somehow the title gives me a distinction between all night long (working) and all night (dreaming).

      I really like this.

      Reply

  6. Laura Brown says

    Thanks, Cyndi Lauper.

    Stray Cat Is Crying So Stray Cat Sings Back

    I’m wet and cold and shivery.
    I have a scrap of towel.

    There’s nothing here to huddle in.
    I have a cardboard box.

    I haven’t eaten a thing today.
    I have a turkey leg.

    The dark is a darker dark tonight.
    I’m under a halogen lamp.

    Sorry I hissed at you today.
    Forgiven, forgotten, yo.

    Will you share those things with me?
    Come. Now. Meow.

    Reply

  8. Marcy Terwilliger says

    Darkness has descended,

    Silence etched in my mind.

    As I peer out the window

    the moon is full of itself, like you.

    Can’t escape the feelings,

    the closeness that it brings.

    Like your warm breath on my neck

    as you pretend to sleep.

    You whisper softly in my ear,

    those words, you always do.

    Ones that make me turn over and

    face you.

    We become intertwined.

    You’ve always been my mystery,

    I always have the clue.

    Vivid visions fill my mind,

    Is it morning or is it noon.

    Reply

  9. Elizabeth W. Marshall says

    Not Your Webster’s Definition

    Somewhere between
    Morning has broken
    And Goodnight Moon

    Sometime after praying
    But before rising, again
    Breathing out and breathing in

    Someone said you can sleep when you die
    She never liked that, no not at all

    Sometime between dreaming
    And mind racing, chasing silly nightmares
    And monsters down the stairs

    Somewhere between comatose and rest
    Doze and snooze
    Linger and longing
    And counting sheep
    She lay me down to

    sleep

    Reply

  10. Donna says

    my love
    like the midnight sky
    is either with me
    or on his way

    my love
    like the starlit heavens
    speaks of endlessness
    without words

    my love
    like quiet darkness
    fills me with light
    to be held, not seen

    Reply

  11. mark says

    The Sun reflects upon the moon
    The promise of another day
    I close my eyes and dream of you
    Since you have been away
    I wake to a touch upon my brow
    The light has come again
    My eyes open and there you are
    My dream – the promise upon the moon

    Reply

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *