A poem about the nature of an artist's soul by David Tombale: Every season

This piece was written for contest that addressed how every work we produce is often a reflection of ourselves. That idea just gave birth to this poem that in a way describes the person I've always been and the hope I've always kept a secret.
Every season

I change with every season so
Every season is my own, a
Room of mirrors, a soul that
Shivers, shivers to the bone,
I paint a crazy picture of the
Landscape of my mind and as
I lean a little I see the people
Hidden in the back,

I change with every season so
Every season is my own, the
Hobbled man, the vagrant, dirty
Nails scratching at his skin, I
Feel sick so I sat beside the
Bar stool with a whiskey in
My hand and listened to the
Music of an old out of tune
Piano,

I change with every season so
Every season is my own, that
Is why I build my houses on
Shifting sand and keep my clothes
In a bag beside my bed, I want
To leave here but I don't know
Where to go, which is why she
Holds me all silent as I cry.

A poem written in honor of all soldiers by David Tombale: Who watches over

I know there are female soldiers out there serving their countries honourably but originally this poem was written for a contest dedicated to a specific male soldier's family. I think it still stands as a testament to the pride we take in all soldiers regardless of gender who fight for their countries. Regardless of if you are in favour or against any war what remains undeniable is that there are brave men and women who give their lives daily for something bigger than themselves.
Who watches over

I have no words left, my frame shakes
as I find myself imagining the faces
that remain, that stay waiting for
my feet to fall upon the porch because
somewhere out there far from here
lies my home;

Oh fellow traveller let us while waging
wars for home and hearth never forget
the ones we are fighting for. Oh mother
I will be back someday, whether flesh
Or spirit for you I will always be your
Son;

Oh broken road do not stray from me
because someday I will walk your narrow
strip, light of heart and happy to finally
be going home;

Those thoughts they keep me, they are
my prayer spoken over the sound of guns.
A litany that keeps me strong as I mention
each word out loud, father, mother, brother,
Sister do not cry for me because from where
I sit I will always remain your soldier, your
beloved boy watching over each and every
one of you.

A poem about child abuse by David Tombale: Years

To be clear this poem about child abuse does not address my own personal experiences. I have never had a hand laid on me by anyone in my family instead it touches on things I've learnt from friends and classmates over the years. With these new influx of interest in gender violence there should at least be one voice still speaking up for helpless children everywhere.
Years


It took me years to realize
That there was nowhere where
I could hide, there were not rooms
Enough, not enough closets to
Hide my tiny frame in, their
Shouts would find me every time
And his hand around my slender
Wrist dug in deeply, too many
Times when I thought to run but
I was so afraid, afraid of starving,
Afraid of street corners where
People died,

It took me years to realize
How to stay silent, how to take
My beatings, I was ten when I
First hated, fifteen when I
Contemplated murder but it never
Happened, fear once more
Wrapped around my hand so
I'd hide inside my school until
It grew so dark that it made me
Think that I could get lost but I came
Back again to that windswept house,

It took me years to realize
That he was sick, his heart the
First of us to turn, he couldn't
Breathe that Sunday morn,
Perhaps some dream stole the last
Of that hateful man, all I know is that
It's getting better now, I turned
Eighteen and there are no bruises
On my back, perhaps there is no
Love but I know there are no bruises
And that's all I think I want tonight.

A poem about heartbreak by David Tombale: The last train

This sad love poem doesn't just address losing someone you love but also touches on travelling to escape a life you can no longer stand. It's not only about heartbreak, it's about and self.
The last train

My train is late again,
I hear its wheels rumbling gently on the rails
as it travels near to take me far away

I have to go you see,
there is nothing here that I’m living for
so I think I’ll ply my trade there out at sea,
lifting my sun burnt face to watch the stars
sparkling in the sky

I’ll tell the wind someday
of all the places I have been,
my sojourn amidst the catacombs in Paris,
my time spent sketching the skylines in New York
and when I’m done
perhaps I’ll find my way back to that place where I was born
but I have no hopes

I lost them on that last day in July,
the seasons turned and you were gone
now I’m going down these famous roads
trying to find some meaning in goodbye,
a riddle answered by my thoughts.

A sad poem about drug abuse by David Tombale: The Devils

This sad poem was written for a contest about addiction or something like that. It's one of the few that I've written about my less than admirable past and the reckless behaviour that defined it. It's not meant to be an excuse but I think that people might relate to some of what it's meant to represent.
The Devils

Something about the spliff made
An old man new and a new man
Old and turned my brain around
Until I could see the trail my thoughts
Blazed, man it was beautiful, the
Highs were so high that the ground
Was just a surface upon a surface
And it moved;

Something about the spliff it moved
Me, made those quiet moments
Profound until I couldn't even see
What it I was running from;

Hey man I was running, too scared
To lay my battered body down with
My heart leaking like sieve, the spliff
Don't save me but baby these devils
Got me down.

A contemplative poem about life by David Tombale: Transcendence

Transcendence is a contemplative poem about the changing natures of social relationships following the invention of social media and what it means to be human in this century. It was originally titled Transcendent Human but Transcendence seemed a better fit.

Transcendence

Cables spooling round my knobby
Knees, head bent low to breathe
The scent of ozone and twisted chips

Transcendent part of me, talking emails
And the internet, in space and out of it,
My eyes revolving in chat rooms and
Movie blogs, game forums and the
Intranet

My body slipping off me like flesh and bone
As my mind is left in the places in-between

The Facebooks flick their tongues at me,
The Twitters coiling around my feet and
I’m rejecting halves and quarters of me,
The loneliness, the longing, the kisses transmitted
In molecules from A to B, B to C until they call it loving
And I’m losing some sense of self and us which
Is why I’m giving up.

A poem about heartbreak by David Tombale: Beautiful summer days

This poem was written for a contest about memories of summer. This sad piece covers another personal memory picked from my mind about a girl I used to know long ago.
Beautiful summer days

I spent my summers by the river
Whispering these sweet sweet
Words to that laughing girl,
Captivated by the loveliness of
Her smile, honey gold hair and
That carefree laugh I likened to
All the warmth the sun could give.

We lay by the bank of that
Quiet river as the larks sang
In the trees and she made me
Smile as she stroked my cheek
That girl in her Sunday dress,
It clung to her as I clung to her,
Touching rounded curves so
Damn slowly.

Those beautiful summer days filled
My world with so much light
I wish I'd captured them in my
Granny's jars. I loved that girl
All summer long as we ran
And fell and danced in places
That only lovers knew.

Eric tells me that she is happy now
In another Sunday dress with rounded
Belly, a little present lies huddled
In mother's warmth, little baby
Did you know that once your mommy
Loved a boy in the sweltering days
Of summer that we thought would
Last forever?

A poem about heartbreak by David Tombale: Only In A Dream

This poem was inspired by a personal experience of losing someone I loved to someone I didn't even know. The idea of watching someone fall out of love with you while you find it hard to let go was one I felt I just had to put down on paper.
Only In A Dream

Tis for love
I wandered down these halls,
played merry games from
summer down to fall
but now the merry making has
made too much of us,
the weary heads,
the empty beds,
I've grown sickened by it all;

That's why her laughter rid my
battered heart of all its cares,
that's why her words were sweet
music in this toneless hall,
she was my saving grace,
the amber nectar I only remembered
in my youth;

Too many things
I thought I saw in her,
my lover,
my promised friend until
she told me that she was leaving,
his face in all her dreams,
I caught a hint of it in the words she said,
is it any wonder that I am hurt?

I am wounded while he is happy
grasping a dream I wish
I'd never dreamed, still another's in my bed
staring at me with eyes so much like hers and
it only makes me wonder
how long before this fades?
Even as I try to linger in our kiss
still I wonder
how long before this too must go?

 

A Sad Love poem by David Tombale: My Best Friend's Sister

This sad love poem was written for a contest about the secrets people keep. It's a mix of fact and fiction but how much fact and how much fiction will remain my secret.
My Best Friend's Sister

I have loved I think in truth,
Though with her I knew it would
Never be, some thoughts they
Shudder when nights grow cold and
Crimson wine begins to stain
Our lips;

I have loved in truth but hers is
A name I never say, I uproot
A feeling we sowed in battlefields
So far from here, where belly
Rumbled and friends split and
Broke what they held dear;

I have loved in truth another's
Sister, caressed her cheek and
Kissed her lips, I tried to speak
But no words were spoken, I could
Not countenance the peace I'd
Doomed with these hands, with
These eyes! Lo with these eyes.

I have loved in truth but some
Minor angel happened here upon
Our scene and bid me stay, stay
Thy hand and slay not this love
Between two brothers but still
I wondered while I turned my back
And chose to walk away if I'd ever
Love another girl the way I loved
My best friend's sister?

A sad life poem by David Tombale: Untitled

Untitled was written in that period between one breakup and long before the start of a new one when writing was my only solace and it hardly seemed adequate at the time. I think a lot of us can understand not being able to tolerate our own thoughts when we're alone.
Untitled

I cannot write for all the sounds
that boil inside me alas for my
final stand I raised a placard I’d
devised in my adolescence, an image
of her I’d carried like a charm against
the fury of these storms.

I measure peace and made a place
here for the way I’m feeling, a scarlet
wonder I have come to ponder, graceful
much like a careless child tracing faces
out of clouds that laugh to see that child’s
smile.

It is here that my art has failed me, here
where my heart is aching, catching sight
of something wonderful only to want to
stay here in the shadow of its warmth.
I am safe here, writing thoughts that curve
and bend, they sometimes mock me as
if our strength lies in my weakness and
my odd desire for the gentle crush of
thought and kiss.

Sad life poem by David Tombale: Clumsy

Clumsy tells the story of girls caught up in the endless cycle of social pressure and rebellion common to life in the city.
Clumsy

I only write poems in the quiet
stillness of night, thinking restlessly
of a girl I abandoned to the rigors
and violent tortures of these city
lights. Oh blue neon and amber
Spotlights a troubled innocent
bathes beneath your glare;

She was such a nomad, brought
before the heavy thumping of drum
beats and snares, the latest hot tune
danced by gyrating and swaying, sinuous
movements of sun kissed limbs and
sloppy smiles;

She slipped into his arms while
the liquor lay heavily upon her tongue
and I said nothing, watching from my
regal post leaning against the bar. I think
she’s laughing, his hands laying claim
to the flesh upon her lower back while
she tosses her black hair;

I do not see her much these days for
I have left the circuit. Grown tired of counting
bodies among the crowds of perfumed
dreamers and platinum stars that shine
so brightly for so short a time but I can’t
help but wish to catch a glimpse again.
Despite me I think fondly of that girl’s
smile even when it crossed a face caressed
by such clumsy hands.

Sad life poem by David Tombale: Runaway

This poem was inspired by the Bon Jovi song Runaway from the self titled debut album. Like many of their songs it remains timeless as do its sentiments.
Runaway

Little girl the old man coughed
why do you so often wander here?
Here among us vagrants there is no
love or merry cheer but she only
laughed at the old man’s dirtied hands,
she was tumbling, whirling round
amidst these streets upon unholy ground,
her father’s face lies in every frown
so she looked at him and smiled as
those pin cushioned arms wrapped
themselves around her childish frame
and pulled her into worlds of fireworks
of blue and gold that lit her soul but now her
father’s got no place to go, he like shadows
and ruined flesh is ever present here searching
still for some glimpse of his falling runaway.

A passionate love poem by David Tombale: From the sky

This passionate love poem concerned an ex of mine. She was an aspiring poet just like me and with her I was inspired to write many a piece. I present this poem as a way to treasure those memories.
From the sky

There is in all things a mystery
that can’t be solved, a riddle spoken
by our thoughts wrapped inside it
all, it’s a feeling I peddle often as
I lick the ink running from my pen;

I’ve traded in careless whispers but
hidden the honest flutter beating in
my heart, is it any wonder that I
come here every Monday to run
my fingers through her hair?

I am crushing, tattooing words
around my wrist, over hip and
chest, I’m writing a manuscript
upon my skin. She needs to read me
to see the sorrow shuttered by my
eyes, she needs to see me standing
here;

I am fiercely falling from the heavens
through the surface of its flesh, I am
falling for her deeply like a needle
piercing into my vein, blood and notion,
heart and soul have shattered, the pieces
float away, reaching, reaching out to her
across a burning sky.

 

A contemplative life poem by David Tombale: About a girl

This contemplative life poem was inspired by a song by Fort Minor, I can't remember which one but the contrast between the warmth and the cold experienced by these two characters as expressed by their settings just moved me.
About a girl

There is tonight a cascade of raindrops
that fall unloved upon this sun cooked
pavement. They fall and flow into gutters
filled with the refuse of the day and walking
silently beside them is a girl with skin
the colour of falling snow, questing and
oddly silent nobody knows where she
must go.

There is perhaps someone waiting
but the tears that run a trail up from her
dress speak of nothing, no one’s holding
out their hand.

I watch her from the warmth of a hotel
room. I put my fingers out as if I can touch
her and see her turning as if we shared a
moment but now she’s leaving, the shadows
stretching to receive her, I grab my hat
up off the dresser racing down the stairs
as I go to meet her.

I tumble out into the street but there is
nothing left out but an imprint of her feet.
I race down the alleys searching for a
girl as families make merry before their
feasts, I need to find her there’s a question
she keeps hidden in her hands, an answer
I want to understand.

A Sad love poem by David Tombale: The Castle by the sea

This sad love poem is another in the series I wrote for a girl I had a crush. It never worked out but I will always have these poems to remember her by.
The castle by the sea

Heart that binds me tightly
to the image of your lips,
a love that wraps itself around
this thought that I am dreaming.
Dreaming with all the yearning
of a child for someone distant,
someone perhaps who questions
the sombre mood that has turned
my face to stone but it is gravity
that knows me, the gravity building
between these suns, we create
a darkness here in the absence of
us. Shepard keep a vigil over this
mournful poet while I stand atop
this stage and reveal that I’m
engaged, I am marrying the sight
of you and stranger when you turn
to look for me you’ll find me waiting
in a castle by the sea.