A poem about love and regret by David Tombale: Where the palm trees stir

Where the palm trees stir is largely about trying to run away from your problems and learning that you carry them with you.

Where the palm trees stir

Some days the words will not be spoken,

some nights the thoughts will not be shared

but I was there and you were there when

the crumbling walls we built went down,

in the earthquake of too many fights and

the stubborn will of a silence kept and kept

still, for I won’t begin to talk, I turn the key

and the lion’s roar of this diesel engine will

only ask for more.

I will hide my tears amongst the gravel stones

of the great outdoors, hide my love and the crimes

I did in a stolen kiss some place far from here where

the palm trees stir, but when the miles have blurred

and I have loved and left every place I’ve found

I fear I will only mourn us more. 

A contemplative poem about love by David Tombale: All Good Things

It is the nature of most romantics to have tried their hand at writing a love letter at least once in their loves. This is my attempt at a love letter.



All Good Things

 

I have tired of writing love poem after love poem

 to these winter leaves as the cold winds blow

 around me numbing hands as I sweep yours

 beneath my own to warm them, as I’ve desired

 to lift that chill that hardens your lovely eyes,

 they darken and now I know I’d made you mad-

 

that memory spilling from my pen as I sit before

 this dark oak desk and drink all in, the odd

 surprises of images and scents I’d thought forgotten,

 this letter somehow started sad but now it opens to

 reveal its whiteness, its summoned glow of silence

 and compassion and I think I loved you best in

 the cracks and pieces that remained, I loved you

 best when I have known that our love is dewdrops

 upon the leaves, now the sun has come and all good

 things must have their way and go.

 

 

 

A poem about friendship by David Tombale: Promises

Promises is a piece I wrote that reviews my relationship with the friends I've made over the years. In the end it might across as regret for the way time has shaped how some of these relationships evolved.

Promises

I have loved these things in moderation

from early days to withered age as if the

seasons had told me all, of the passing glory

of those summer days, of baking heat and

violent joy, of yellows, greens and purples

that inset themselves behind these eyes

like the curves around a fallen oak

There are screaming trucks that scare the birds and

whooping cries from pre pubescent lungs coated

gray and black by the cherry red of these after

meal cigarettes

It all looks so new to me flipping through

pictures of us in these Instagrams,

too much pollen and beer cans crushed by us and

in the wake of it, in the midst, sitting somewhere

behind us she waves, a vivid figure there to remind us

that some promises do fade.

A poem about regret by David Tombale: The weight of my heart

The weight of my heart is about the regret that can sometimes result from a breakup in which one or both of the lovers still carry a torch for the other person. It's one of the worst things that can happen to someone who's trying to move on and I hope I managed to perfectly capture that situation.
The weight of my heart

Heavy as the morning that
Peeks beneath my shades,
Heavy as the evening that's
Come and gone filled with
Shades of moments past;

Heavy heart I pray you shall
Not break, little tear begging
Me to let thou fall but I shall
Not, I allot no time for misery,
I know he wants to rest here
Once again;

How heavy, like spilt paint
I tried to fashion into a scene,
She and I someplace warm,
Silhouetted against the horizon
Of a falling sun but the image
Shatters as I try to stop it;

Alas some things failed to
Happen, a forever now long
Betrayed, so heavy is this
Moment when I think of thee
And fail to brush away the tear
That tore itself from my
Stubborn grip.

A sad evocative love poem by David Tombale: You and I

You and I came out of my frustration at my cowardice when it came to a girl I'd had the biggest, biggest crush on since I first started liking girls. She was my ideal, beautiful, confident but a little self conscious as well, every girl I've chased since was always a reflection of her.
You and I

You have come once more dour misery,
you and I alone have said the words
that I alone would not utter, her
name I whisper into the early morning
winds, only to hear the owl scream
them to the night.

A shadow falls across my heart, her
lips brush against mine, and then
I wake; cruel morning sun, you have
torn me from my lovely dream, you
have brought me back to this, to
longing, my secret I share with my
Misery and hear him laugh at my
discontent, have her he laughs,
have her.

Should I say her name? I have only
Misery as my witness, should I?
Say it he laughs, it shall not
change our fate, I catch a glimpse
from the corner of my eye, she
walks on past, her fragrance follows
in her entourage, a servant like
my heart. My heart I've sold into
servitude, sad betrayer say her
name one last time

Natasha.

A poem about regret by David Tombale: A girl in Sunderland

A girl in Sunderland reflects upon a relationship I had with a female poet. It touches upon the mistakes I made and the wasted hopes that arose after the relationship's end.
A girl in Sunderland

I met a girl in Sunderland who wrote me letters
And poems, it's a shame I didn't mean it, I didn't
Mean all those letters I answered back, promising
Marriage and all of that, I met a girl in Sunderland
So beautiful, so strong, she loved me, I look back
At it and know, I wish, I only wish I'd loved her more,
But I love her still! I cried but in truth I was alone,
Talking only to these mirrors as if they could hear
My woe, I kept her letters, and I reread them every
Saturday as I sat at my window watching as it
Rained, she loved me I know that now, that
Girl from Sunderland, I only wish, I wish I'd loved
Her more, maybe then I'd have her now, white
Picket fence, a small dog, maybe a little boy or
Girl but those are just memories and images,
Leaves upon the river, I sit there at its bank
And watch them float away and lay some of those
Letters I wrote but never sent beside them, like
Paper ships perhaps sailing to lands I'll never
See, and maybe one might find that girl and she'll
Think of me, think of us and perhaps come on home. 

A love poem by David Tombale: Like Cherry Blossoms

This love poem was actually written for a poetry contest I entered once and deals with a lingering memory of a girl I used to love. This is one topic I think a lot of people can identify with.
Like Cherry Blossoms

Her beauty’s like summer days and cherry
blossoms in winter and I still miss her. I still
think of her when the sun rains down
consumed with rage, infernos meant to burn
all down while the dark rain clouds flee into
the night. It’s these aches that write you messages
that sound too sweet to be believed
so don’t linger here if you aren’t longing for
my love.

Her beauty’s like the fall of Rome, almost like
promises kept by old lovers’ hands while
Greyhounds are still raring to go. She watches
as he turns to go but that memory of her teases
him, it tumbles round like ice on the floor of
his glass, he can’t flee from her, his wonderful
girl of honeyed words and wicked eyes
now he’s breaking doors trying to raise
her broken heart cause his love of her is
all that makes him whole.