Chaos

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Restless Nightmares

"The morning after the battle of Waterloo", by John Heaviside Clarke, 1816. Image care of Wikimedia Commons.

For the final One Shot Wednesday at One Stop Poetry, and the grand opening of the dVerse Poets Pub, I would like to bring back a classic – the poem with which I introduced myself at the first One Shot Wednesday, in July last year, when One Stop was still just a glitter and a gleam in the eyes of a few good poets.

It is dark, and due to its age not the style of mine to which you may have become accustomed, but I hope you enjoy it all the same – and if you’d like to see the piece with which I more officially gave my ending salute to that wonderful art community, check out last week’s contribution: One Winter Morning.

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Restless nightmares break,

From wretched slumber do I wake

To a world of endless night—

Thunderous choirs make me crouch in fright.

High above us wraiths now soar,

Men clasp their ears to deafen their roar.

Over hills and shattered streets,

The bands come marching to woeful beats.

A hundred thousand voices cry,

Then all the singers die.

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A Gambol Song

Beneath our hungry shore

between life and grass

more skin blossoms.

Leap off moon–

man is wild,

a gambol

song.

* My latest submission for the great gathering of international poets known as One Shot Wednesday. Short but sweet, and more than little cooky to more than a few of you, I’m sure, I give unto you “A Gambol Song”, my latest bit of free verse.

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Dead Mementos

Statistics say that Death

came on in great demand–

and all the reels roll on

into the grim decree–

such madness in the flames,

the ponderous flight of man and steel

bidden, but unbound

could never be contained

by evil deep as soul was black–

but paper burns in fires bright

and names reduced to numbers

are lost beneath the ashes.

Memory is sifting through the dust

for dignity forgotten

by madder men than we.

The Dogs of War

can never be forgotten–

but the blood of the fallen

may never yet be found.

Screams echo through the halls

of history befouled

for all the lives we lost

and all the identities

we never may regain.

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Restless Nightmares Break…

A significantly darker piece than what most of my recent work has been, just in time for the first One Shot Poetry Wednesday. Once you’ve had a look, check out One Shot Poetry, too–a bunch of great poets, looking to form a community and support one another.  Enjoy!

Restless nightmares break,

From wretched slumber do I wake

To a world of endless night—

Thunderous choirs make me crouch in fright.

High above us wraiths now soar,

Men clasp their ears to deafen their roar.

Over hills and shattered streets,

The bands come marching to woeful beats.

A hundred thousand voices cry,

Then all the singers die.

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The Moment

FIFA eat your heart out:

Such fury in a moment!

There is a hush before the roar,

silent intakes, glowing hot

the eyes alight to see

the rush of bodies.

Tumultuous crash,

explodes in multitude of howls

as bones and blood are rent–

on, on, into the breach

spilling over fields of blood.

Dig in, draw back

the swing is in the air–

the crowd is nothing less than chaos,

buffeting the air

as hope and skill pours on into the mass

and presses to the

Goal!

There is no rage so great

as this running of the bulls.

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To Dream

I soar

Unmoving

Over Emerald Fields

A bird upon the wind

As mere Humans cannot be.

I am the Shark

Within the waves

Of Mystery,

Unbidden.

I see the Depths

No Man was meant to see.

I am a Man

Within the city,

But the city falls

And I float through Chaos

Without Fear—

But I am not the Order.

I Create but cannot

Control

The Madness of my Mind.

Neither Walls nor Chains

Can hold me back.

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Betray not my Way

Never may

I sing of Day

When I have gone astray.

The Night

Gives many such a fright

Yet it is no haunting blight.

Such a sight!—

I hope to write

Of such delight,

Excite in disarray

Neither madness nor decay—

Betray not my Way.