écrasez l’infâme
The Scientific Enlightenment spead in the west at no small cost
Imprisionment, blasphemy, censorship, internment, death
Yet the magnificent Secular, Spiritual Sceptical, Scientific Spirit Survived
and slowly tamed...
Sunday 31st October 2021 10:04 pm
Also by John E Marks:
Remembrance | The way of the cloud | Early onset Alzheimer's | Roll away the stone | A permanent loss of happiness | Halloween | White Teeth | The ruins of Nineveh | Going home | HOLY BROKENNESS | CONNEMARA SEER | Generation 27 | The Resurrection of the dead | White privilege | A lamentation upon the fall of Constantinople 29 May 1453 | To the crags, where eagles soar | The flowers of the forest | Plurabilities | Lunecliff |The moment
I knew her. We were at work together.
I had not seen her for at least two years.
‘I’ve left Mike.’ The news came as a bombshell.
‘I’m with Vince now. You know, from the office.’
‘But you seemed so happy,’ I said, weakly.
‘You have to seize the moment,’ was her reply.
The moment? Vince? That lazy sofa slug?
‘He’s exciting!’ she snapped, smiling hungrily.
‘The momen...
Sunday 31st October 2021 9:55 pm
Also by Stephen Gospage:
Geese | Middle Class | Grass | Messiah | Village | Fahrenheit 451 | Architecture | Birds | Volcano | Land | Climate Change and us (Updated version of a poem posted on 24 September 2020) | September Ist, 1939. |All Hallows’ Eve
All Hallows’ Eve
On All Hallows’ Eve
When the bewitching hour falls
And darkness descends
From out of the shadows
Something slowly stirs
The slightest movement, flicker, twitch
Seen from the corner of your eye
Shapes emerging, cloaked in mystery
Gliding along ancient pathways
Gaunt, swaying spectres
Shrouded in mist
Carrying their stories and sadness
The...
Sunday 31st October 2021 5:17 pm
Also by Brenda Wells:
Ascending | The Loss of Summer | While Evil Walks | After the Rain | The Box of Letters |WINNING THE BATTLE, LOSING THE WAR.
On the shore of Ganges,
when the Sun was at it highs,
there comes a fisherman,
to accomplish his sighs.
Trapping the biggest fish,
was his promise to his child,
and he tried till dawn,
even caught the cold mild.
But grabbing the gotten chance,
even though aiming for moon,
he landed up in stars,
which is oasis in the dune.
Dreaming big is not wrong,
expecting ...
Sunday 31st October 2021 4:01 pm
House Shoes
Sunday 31st October 2021 12:41 pm
Also by d.knape:
The Accident | Talented & Gifted | Doing | For Once | Shopping Cart | Nothing Today | Speechless | Boiling Water | Lizard | Punctuation | Limbo | Woke | Friend Me | First Sign | Hide-Out | Smart Wife | X Marks The Spot (just for fun) | The Poem That Stays With You | Little Flower | Lost It | Armadillo | Snail Trails | Mandate | Old Goat | THEM | LIFE | Simple Man | October |Tell Me
Tell me you love me, tell me you care
Tell me I look good, my clothes, my hair
Tell me the truth but no more lies
Tell me the secrets shown in your eyes
Tell me a story, one that’s not true
Tell me it’s not about me and you
Tell me it’s finished, the affair you had
Tell me you’ll come back…
I’m really sad
Sunday 31st October 2021 11:24 am
Also by Rick Varden:
I Hear | I see, you see, they see | FAKE |Sleep Tight (rehashed)
It is the night of Halloween
time for the spookiest party of all
Stars imitate blinking disco lights
the full moon a sparkling glitter ball
The dance floor crunches under stomping feet
a crisp carpet of Autumn leaves
Pumpkin lanterns glow by candle light
tangled cobwebs hang down from the eaves
The walking dead dance with the devil
witches recite rhyming spells in tune
Vampires flas...
Sunday 31st October 2021 10:15 am
Also by julie callaghan:
Extra Hour (A Repost) | Autumn Razzle Dazzle | Rick Astley | Dalyan | An Eerie Scene | Yorkshire Scene | Autumn Scene | New York Asters | Asters | Roses | Besides The Sea | Rainbow Sunset | A Month Of Mixed Emotions | Testing Times | Saturday Morning Sailing School | Gem Of A View | Yellow Summer Sky | Far Side Of The Bay | For Jake |Spy derr
You’ve captured me
In a web I’ve woven,
That I placed at your door
for you to come over
To seduce me with your fluttering eyes
To entice me out of the safety of life.
To whisper the intoxication
To vaporise my mind with elation
To take my hand and lead my mind
To bright sunshine that leaves me blind
But frees my body and frees my soul
Pre...
Saturday 30th October 2021 9:32 pm
Also by Edbreathe:
Going under | Banned(s) | PLAs-sTiCK | Un Said | mIN d | s- LasH of rED | PlAn it Rape | plOT | CuP Bored . | bRid(g)e | Kill (We’re all going to die ) | 1/4 Tet |John banged a pan
There's a bloke called who John lives next door but one
He's not Don Juan or Don Juan but one
He's just John
He turned up in his dungarees
He fixed the shed but charged no fees
Though this poem is mere smidgens
I'm only just mentioning he used to own pigeons
Saturday 30th October 2021 7:51 pm
Also by Jed:
Hard Edge Beaming | Hunger seems | Flying sources don't like Nazis |Driven to the brink !!
Tom was driving his wife Sue to the brink,
Spending too much time at the pub addicted to drink.
To weigh up why he was wrong,
To the pub one night Sue went along.
"What will you have to drink Sue ?"
"Think I'll have the same as you."
Tom knocked back two whiskies really quick.
Sue followed suit ,but was really sick.
"That's nasty poison !! Sue shouted out,
Can'...
Saturday 30th October 2021 7:18 pm
Also by hugh:
Bra vanity !! | A poem written from my grave for Halloween by Beryl's husband | A new boyfriend for Jane doesn't go down well with mum and dad | Human kindness we must spread | Vera the vampire ,a hungry girl ! | Booster jab delays !! | Jail for Jim, a lesson to be learnt | Our democracy we must preserve, police protection our M.P.'s deserve. | Our hearts are filled with shock and sadness for the death of Sir David Amess M.P. | A dad song !! | An angel gives a pair of statues an opportunity to have a good time in the bushes | Kennel cough !! | As Morgan my granddaughter reaches the age of 20, a successful future lies ahead | A hardened criminal on the run ! | What lies ahead ? | Trees spread happiness all around | Tougher laws required |Sunflower
Although she was beautiful
her struggle never seemed to fade.
With roots as strong as hers she would always smile
even when her petals were plucked and frayed.
Remember how her beauty glowed
as she faced the sun with grace.
Half laughing, half crying
somehow she bloomed from her pain.
Saturday 30th October 2021 7:01 pm
Also by KIANA LYLES:
Affirmations for my mother |GRACE
To these logs I place my flame
to know their loss must be my gain,
for what was beauty in the tree
gives light and life to such as me.
Saturday 30th October 2021 12:29 pm
Also by ray pool:
IN LAWS | HUNTER'S MOON | PRIDE | REEL STREETS | PLANTING UP THE FIELDS | CRISPS - THE FALLOUT |53. Poem
In an year so much has changed
And in years gone by, everything's different
Me not the same anymore to look and talk
I'm all together a new character, with lovely personality
My confidence speaks volumes about me
Attitude humble filled with gratitude towards all
Leaving an imprint on paths walked through
Making my atop to the success in spirituality
Don't look at me and w...
Saturday 30th October 2021 11:36 am
Also by Sunshine:
52. Poem | 51. Poem | 50. Poem | 49. Poem | 48. Poem | 46. Poem | 46. Poem | 44. Poem | 44. Poem | 43. Poem | 42. Poem | 41. Poem | 40. Poem | 39. Poem | 38. Poem | 37. Poem | 36. Poem | 35. Poem | 34. Poem | 33. Poem | 32. Poem | 31. Poem | 30. Poem | 29. Poem | 28. Poem | 27. Poem | 26. Poem | 25. Poem | 24. Poem | 23. Poem | 22. Poem | 15 poem |The friend I can be
And as I sink beneath the sea
I feel the force beneath my feet.
Dragging me down to the deep abyss
I fight the force and push to release.
The chains so tightly wrapped around me
I know I can reach the surface to be,
the grounded child who can watch curiously.
I stop and I wonder which wave threw me and remind myself of the friend I can be.
I kindly reach my hand out to m...
Saturday 30th October 2021 3:51 am
Overflow
10/28/21
I'm so afraid of your rejection.
For fear of my regression.
Wait! Hush. Just give me a second.
Don't mistake my explanations for aggression.
My mind is overthinking.
Get to know me, I know I'm overflowing, maybe I'm over showing, I know I'm oversharing.
Shut up self. Ugh you can be so overcaring.
This is the fight with myself.
Know that I've been up on many a ma...
Saturday 30th October 2021 2:53 am
Also by VHH:
SOLID | My Heart Crave |A Thread of Hope
As pain and jealousy give way to wonder and gratitude , I realize the beauty of a love that opens ones eyes to life. The time between the yearned for reunion or unfathomable new beginning, fades like the forgotten darkness that comes in the blink of an eye. Whether a rekindling of old love - renewed by perspective - or the birth of new love - when one gathers the strength to carry the hole in thei...
Saturday 30th October 2021 2:21 am
Also by john A Giordano:
Lost | A Lying Shroud |Virgin Craves Love Devil Craves Blood
Screaming take me
sensual naked awakening
raw sharp penetrating
awesome devil lover
satisfied vampire bat.
Saturday 30th October 2021 2:13 am
Also by Nigel Astell:
A Quick Pint then it's off to Edgeley Park | The Walk |OVETT, CRAM AND COE
Throughout the early 80’s we in Britain set the pace
(And unashamedly I was a fan)
As weekly records fell in that iconic 4-lap race
To the troika that was Ovett, Coe and Cram.
The one ran with pure arrogance, the second of these had
A running style that simply seemed to flow;
The third, the pride of Sunderland, a loose, ungainly lad;
There was no match for Ovett, Cram or ...
Friday 29th October 2021 9:30 pm
Also by John Coopey:
IF WE ONLY HAD TIME | A VIEW FROM THE HOT SEAT | IMAGINE MY SURPRISE! | STORMING OFF IN A SHITTY | WAKEY TO CAS | SWEATY BETTY'S | THE GALVESTON GIANT AND THE GREAT WHITE HOPES | SCAMS I HAVE KNOWN | THE GOVERNESS |Create.
There's a black canvas staring back at me.
Nothing else, no smiling people or vibrant colors, just black paint smeared across a white spread.
Motivation slipped my existence months ago
But I have this moment and in my current state of sadness I wish to create
Even it turns out to be acrylic nothingness.
Friday 29th October 2021 9:15 pm
Also by Jordyn Elizabeth:
Numb. |Dice
Fascinated by all that’s random
Our short lived interactions with strangers
Always questioning what could be
A rolling scenario of ifs
Glazing over one’s eyes at night
Life is that of a mere die
Set numbers plaguing our skull
Remember that every number has purpose
One just has to give it purpose
Friday 29th October 2021 1:51 pm
Also by Cody Roach:
Beautiful Pain | Unanswered | Fire | The love you want | The unseen | All I’ve ever known | Draft | Petra |The Witching Hour
Passing the graveyard's mossy stones
Heard some quite appalling moans.
Coffinwood creaked as they stole out
One giving a cadaver such a clout
I wondered if in an earlier life
The pitiful corpse had belonged to the wife?
Me with saintly image in silver locket
Coarse salt hidden deep in pocket
Silver crucifix brandished high
So evildoers would pass me by.
A garlic ...
Friday 29th October 2021 11:29 am
Also by Jennifer Malden:
The Stalker |Molly McKane
Buried in the Forest, is Molly McKane.
She cursed all those who utter her name.
Murdered as a Witch, a wicked old soul.
She was cruel as sin, heart black as coal.
As the flames took hold, no scream or cry.
Vanish did the Sun and black was the sky.
Whisper her name 3 times, it's now said.
And Molly McKane will rise from the dead.
From the bleak Forest, so the legen...
Friday 29th October 2021 10:38 am
Also by Mike Bartram:
2 Rooms...2 Views | County Road | Scar |Liberation
Perhaps I had lost my mind.
Envisioning goals within my grasp.
But far from my reach.
My heart yearns for what it wants.
However,
My mind prevented me.
I had lost my mind to the process.
The process and letting my former self die.
Rise and birth of a new me.
Shackled and bonds finally removed.
Now, im no longer bound to the limitations of life.
Im free.
My mind and body is merely...
Friday 29th October 2021 9:38 am
Moving Home
Moving home is always full of stress,
But it may also be exciting.
Is it all a huge ordeal?
Or do you find it quite inviting?
It takes so long to pack things up,
And there are boxes everywhere.
For it surely tries our patience,
As there is so much to prepare.
Is the move something you fear?
Or do you long for pastures new?
Is it all one big nightmare?
Or a dream that has come true?
Friday 29th October 2021 9:00 am
twenty
i never imagined living to this age
and maybe that’s why it all feels so surreal
the younger version of me lost hope so quickly
i never planned to reach this day
i don’t want to celebrate
i don’t want to blow out any candles
or open any gifts
i want to feel better
i’m spending the couple nights before i turn twenty relapsing alone in a cold room
there is nothing ...
Friday 29th October 2021 5:01 am
Ostracized
Name on an ostracon.
The reckoning decrees
That one is to be
Exiled to the marginalia
Of life, sans regalia
Of former glory, no
Laurels to rest weary on--
But perhaps the chance
To recommence at
The foothills, on a far
Sturdier footing, might
Suffice as recompense?
Friday 29th October 2021 2:23 am
Also by Holden Moncrieff:
Conciliation | Pickpockets | Dilemma | Collage | Roll Call | Achilles | Fated? | Fresco | Grappling |The HARUSPEX (Granny Slugshaw)
The HARUSPEX (Granny Slugshaw)
Granny Slugshaw used to read tealeaves
But now... it’s sad to say
Everybody has teabags
TASSEOMANCY has had its day
She’d lost income… to new-fangled teabags
Be they square, round or pyramid
A fortune teller shudda seen it coming
Granny Slugshaw never did
She wracked her brain for a new source of income
She was sk...
Thursday 28th October 2021 10:52 pm
Also by kJ Walker:
Mi Mam's Take On Contraception |Us
Once a few million years ago, in thrones were the giants
Herbivorous, carnivorous with razor sharp teeth
They wore no precious jewels nor clothes of silk
They hunt their fellows for food, oh the roaches seen it all
The world metamorphosed, puny organisms born
Rid of feathers and razor sharp teeth- 'harmless' they thought
Even roaches pitied the new guests
Among lions and tigers, t...
Thursday 28th October 2021 5:18 pm
Also by Khione:
Endless As The Sea |Midday Traffic
Traffic is like
a game of Tetris.
Every vehicle just
a part of a puzzle
trying to fit in.
Moving forward
they navigate
through a straight path.
Glitching as they waver.
Red lights sound an omen
and Green just noise.
To keep the game going
one must move on
to the next point
A sharp sound rings
Signalling the end
of a game well ...
Thursday 28th October 2021 1:24 pm
Also by Blue Raven:
The Case of Self Worth |I thought you’d moved on
We are reduced to WhatsApp now you’ve left
the ting tells me your specks of thought, no touch
I think you may be synaptically challenged, cheat
your triad of expectations; you, me and her!
If you are trying to separate us, send me messages,
unfurl your inner petals of speech so you can serve me
and I’ll dissolve them into cadences of text history;
a nexus of hope deleted and u...
Thursday 28th October 2021 1:03 pm
Tossing stones into shallow pools
Putting on these blue socks & walking away,
but these blues keep stalking down my neck
Dropping from my lash, from cheek stained red
Shame and bitter contempt
Sorrow and chewed Nicorette headaches
Dead breaks of trees waiting to burn,
on a match to turn things sideways
Wide days spent dreaming
Long night spent grieving
Childhood spent teething for truth
...
Thursday 28th October 2021 7:10 am
Also by Patrick Kennon:
Starboard smoke pit | The terrible tempo |How the Greats Feel: Part 1
Emily Dickinson
Dried roses and loneliness
Damp musk, juniper gin
A sweet secret kept well
E. E. Cummings
Modern buildings made of his words
Falling oak leaf, smoker’s cough
A feeling of getting away with murder
Henry David Thoreau
Wading boot lifting from the muck
Abandoned shed, rotten wood chopped
A longing for sapiosexual chemistry
A...
Wednesday 27th October 2021 7:51 pm
Also by Candice Reineke:
Not Everybody Likes Poetry | Your Florida Preserve |WHO?
Pray tell me who here is the victim....
The one who is heard shouting out - .
Or the one who is said to have kicked him
Unable to abide the corrosive uttered doubt?
..........................................................................
Wednesday 27th October 2021 4:08 pm
Also by M.C. Newberry:
GONE | NEVER AGAIN - an old style ballad lyric | SUNNY? | WHERE WAS THIS? | WELL? |untitled
Am I understating?
The difference between the sky
and the cosmos inside of my head
When the silence is loud,
is there a difference?
Wednesday 27th October 2021 4:24 am
The Blanket
I found it in the loft
In a dusty old chest
It whispered, come closer
Come get some rest
I made it to the bedroom
As slumber took my eyes
The blanket in a corner dark
Stifling long lost cries
I heard them in my dreams
A young girl's shallow wailing
I felt his hands around her throat
Under twilight slowly fading
I awoke to it upon my bed
He...
Tuesday 26th October 2021 10:58 pm
Also by Stephen W Atkinson:
A Place For Mushrooms | The Sixpence |Your heart, my piece of clay
Your heart, my piece of clay
he whispers.
A vessel of love and light
that he walks right alongside.
Dance with me on the waves
he whispers.
Your feet leave the ground to meet the surface of stillness.
There he listens.
Open your hands
he asks so gently.
Your fingers unfurl and your palms lay open to the sun.
Reflecting ripples of light off the water bene...
Tuesday 26th October 2021 8:46 pm
Also by Sarah Mae:
Night's a brittle song (pretty words from picture books) | I waltzed out my front door this morning |Heather
I walk in wonderment,
Through these Winter streets,
Stalks of sodium glare.
I will walk forever if needed,
To be with Heather and her hyacinth hair.
If I walk these distances,
Will the past recede?
A year for every yard perhaps,
Until we are forever young,
In a Vampire’s lair.
Bloody kissing Heather and her hyacinth hair.
We are every bird in flight,
W...
Tuesday 26th October 2021 7:18 pm
Let us show
Let us show
Tuesday,26th Oct 2021
Let us show
and grow
with the patience
and seize the chance
the world needs to change
and manage
with the tolerance
and love's stance
let us make it appear
sans fear
that it has no other go
but love has to glow
the world needs healing
a good dealing
regarding humanity
and treatment of one famil...
Tuesday 26th October 2021 6:00 pm
Also by Jadia4708au:
I shall make | Run & survive | Feelings | True love | Miles ahead | Live dead | You are beauty | Presence of mind | Waste not | Ask nothing dear | Quest-serves no purpose | Past | Let us reason out | Happiness-real factor |CELESTIAL
The stars I hold as electric beams run through me
Vibrating I'm moving a zillion miles an hour the moons just let on like he knew me
Present
Blow back the kisses the sun has just blew me
Love
from the planets so truly
Recharge put celestial through me
Give
I share out what you have given to me
Times ten it returns right back to me
To enable one to keep it..one must give it away
It's...
Tuesday 26th October 2021 12:50 am
Also by Sarah Louise mcnee:
PASSENGER |Hiccup
The day's drudgery should be done by now
still he shambles. Dimmed Wandering skies
match hard concrete ground as on he shambles.
His feet are aching but his head aches more:
he could just as well be that disintegrating
plastic bag buffetted along, his torturous journey
has no point. The love of his life has left
their love-nest. She just needs some space.
He has heard that phrase before ...
Monday 25th October 2021 10:24 pm
Also by Adam Whitworth:
Words In A Vacuum | Humble Travellers | For Want Of Immortality | For The Happy Couple | Villanelle For An Acorn | Wishful Thinking |Stories
Stories tell me stories
Lay them on top of me
Pile them high as I sleep
They become memories
Pounded into me
Oh the bloody ink
I see a life ahead of me
A life behind outlined
In words and thoughts
That are maybe mine
They follow a line
Weaved together
With the hard work
Of discerning meaning
Monday 25th October 2021 11:29 am
Also by Robert C Gaulke:
One more last chance | Save a bit of the mystery for me | Hacking Sex | As stupid as it seems | My Bank Account | Retconning You | Chère Heights | A Person of Interest | Her Story Checks Out | Bad CGI |Halloween
in my cupboards
skeletons hang
still mouths strangers to the songs they sang
I take them out
bone-dry and hoar
wan skulls shorn of the locks they wore
pelvic sculptures
sharp as a blade
silent shrines to hectic love they made
bereft of flesh
that lit my fire
no lithe joints but threads of thin wire
hot tears drop on
memories clean,
pick...
Monday 25th October 2021 10:41 am
Also by simon lucan:
Girls In Care | Sweet Dreams | Blind Date | Descent | Carrion |Goodbye, dear friend
Goodbye, dear friend
As adults we adventured in to the sea
Clumsy
Intimidated
Determined
And having so much fun
No one else was bothered
To learn such a difficult skill
To take the long drive from our town
Just to be in the water for—a day
But you did
And so
Our journey together moved forward
We started in the shallows
And with ti...
Monday 25th October 2021 8:30 am
Also by Rasa Kabaila:
Moments like this |Last Goodbye (Stockport Market)
Holding a fingertip softly
on a battered pencil
this is your last memory of him
counting what stock they had left
before helping them to pack up
knowing they would return without him
smiling faintly
as the book stall said
he was welcome to any book there
and Jenny at the cafe
who wouldn’t let him go
without promising to come back,
standing there lost in thoughts
until they wer...
Sunday 24th October 2021 4:22 pm
Bouquet
She could not see the flowers
as an act of kindness,
as a thank you for sharing
some of her time with me
The expensive bouquet
was still there on the counter
Monday morning when she left
The roses, azaleas, and carnations,
even the inanimate vase,
seemed saddened and troubled
at having been seen as an apology
for a crime where no charges
had yet...
Saturday 23rd October 2021 9:35 pm
Also by Mike McPeek:
Lovely Afternoon | Solace | Unit of Measure |eyelids and earlids
eyelids and earlids
beauty from color
shapes
scenery
glimmer from a lake
all lost with eyelids closed
birds songs in the forest,
symphony of city car horns
beeping to a crescendo
cooing of a morning dove
breathing of a lover
all lost with ear lids shut
is one better
to lose than the other
one would have to ask Helen Kel...
Saturday 23rd October 2021 4:11 pm
Also by Clyde McCulley:
was the old woman a ghost too? | the old woman in the upstairs window |Forgiveness
You lay in bed at night with thoughts that bring you down
You thought that you were strong, but you were wrong
You relieve the moment when you lost it and went into the dark
You lay there awake wondering if you could have done anything different
Could you have made her stay?
Could you have shown her that you lost your way?
You lay awake because you haven't forgiven yourself
Be...
Friday 22nd October 2021 12:41 am
The Reaper's Brother
Night lingers just before
the Sun smiles
Dark hugging every scar
within my soul
Peacefully patting my innocence
on the head
Like an unsuspecting child
being hushed off to bed
Snickering as I close my eyes
knowing dreams will bring
no peace of mind
"Don't worry dear one,"
from a crooked smile
"Peace will come with my brother."
As he twirled a lock of my ha...
Friday 22nd October 2021 12:02 am
Undetectable
I’ve been sitting on the precipice of this
For a while
Unsure how to express my feelings
When I don’t know what I feel
You see
I’m hysterically nonreactive
I’m worryingly unworried
A switch
From nothing to everything
Because - like Whitman -
I contain multitudes
Many great thrashing waves
Like creatures
They slip through nets
Can’t be caught
They...
Thursday 21st October 2021 9:40 pm
Also by Alexandra K. Parapadakis:
See Her |MMXX
after Philip Larkin
Never again such crowds
shouldering such exultation,
no more the sea lion choir
hauled up on the stands.
The stadia and arenas
silent like grief,
the sun quenched in remembrance
of a million flowering hands.
And shutters on the High Street
tight against the abyss,
the weekend staff furloughed,
the checkout bleepers schtum.
The h...
Thursday 21st October 2021 10:53 am
Also by Tim Ellis:
The second peak |they and me
They say am on me way up
but way do i feel so down
lost and confussed,
they blame my mood on the moon
i aint no wolve but tonight am singing meself to sleep
does life go fast or am i just slow to catch up
been too am ocd,
i cant sit still am sure does i name on that too
bit i just want to be free
why dont people understand me
why is so hard to believe
so har...
Wednesday 20th October 2021 10:18 pm
Also by Keith Byrne:
bang | hi |Come down from the Hill
Come Down from the Hill
Come down from the hill and speak to us
you will find us in a queue waiting for a bus
We see you from afar with money to spend
when we don't even have enough to lend
We voted you into power to speak for us
but the whole process seems quite useless
Once in power you enjoy expenses and wealth
often this is obtained through corruption and stealth
...Wednesday 20th October 2021 11:40 am
Also by keith jeffries:
Cut it all away | Removal | Moments only..... | Silent Witness | Vast Horizons | Shifting Sands | (untitled) | Look but do not Touch | A Fountain of Eternal Hope |House of Love
I'm glad that you walked out of that house
That House of Love,
I had believed you would never forsake
Must have felt liberating, leaving me shaken
Abandoning my warm grip to hold your own
The emotional tides that came as you left were overpowering
Left me stranded and weeping
Could reach you anytime
Had believed in our love that would stitch us close
Closer than b...
Wednesday 20th October 2021 10:12 am
Wilderness
Tuesday 19th October 2021 3:56 pm
Vincent in Spitalfields
Circle Line rambles comfortingly
round the City's historic places
taking its time like a
pre-Beeching branch train.
Grey autumn day in east London.
From out of the darkness
and traffic of Commercial Street
we’re immersed in Van Gogh,
you lured by his sunflowers,
vases, bedroom, starry nights.
Light illuminates art but
can dazzle, drive you mad.
Shot ...
Tuesday 19th October 2021 11:21 am
lost
Disappointed myself as usual
Appointments I can't seem to attend.
Achievements I failed to achieve on my own
Important concepts were out of my reach.
Practise what you preach, I will do that but some other time.
Hypocrisy is a philosophy I need to look into,
Lately, it doesn't feel authentic.
Latent learning seems to be idealistic.
Pointing fingers while three of them poin...
Friday 15th October 2021 8:21 pm
Also by JustKelvinMasilela:
fading reality | chasing | questioning | betrayed | Ghosts of the past | Change | Too much of life | Regret |October 2021 Collage Poem: This Side of Heaven
Magpie flaps to the tune of Nature’s injustice
The poet strives for another success another year
Sunday wakens, bedraggled and woebegone
Coronation Street anthem drawls its falsehoods
Upbeat parental ending yields to great grimness
Wild West Yorkshire runs with bullet blood
Words find new hope in an army of perplexing forms
Goddess pours like erotic iron on the breathless...
Friday 15th October 2021 11:35 am
Sniffing Around
The husbands
Of the divorced women
Drinking and watching the girls
Sitting with their dates
With legs apart in short skirts
Evenings of the lonely men
Strolling behind lazy women
Watching the rhythm of the buttocks…
Often narrate the same story again
And again, without any pause
The husbands, lonely or alone
With or without glasses in hands
Remain dru...
Friday 15th October 2021 11:26 am
Drinking In October
It occurred to me
While drinking one night in October--
Sometimes I am happy
And sometimes I am sober
Friday 15th October 2021 2:02 am
Times a’changing
Bored of this feeling it holds no real meaning.
Unlike the feeling I get from your love now that’s a real thing. Never thought I would get here but it’s now so very clear.
I’ve grown and out grown this old desire. It no longer excites the alluring fire. This side of life I no longer admire. I seek new heights to take me higher.
I feel strong but not wasted. I apprecia...
Thursday 14th October 2021 12:11 am
Juniper Ridge
squinting through the condensation on my windshield
brought back memories of february hearts painted on school bus windows
with spindly fingertips, now callused from a guitar that played me
shitty riffs. I don't remember when I grew so fond of black hearts that devoured me
and spit me out like radiation, but music always made me forget.
so I turned up the volume and let my foot cave...
Wednesday 13th October 2021 4:34 pm
Write off day
Today a write off
not to be acknowledged or cataloged
Disappeared before even given a chance
I like it to be left unknown,
a name or possibility only makes it harder
harder during the haunting hour,
when I shall disembodie all potential
but remain to my conviction anyhow
murduring all the day has to offer,
in the name of brief but true figments
in my make belief m...
Monday 11th October 2021 5:43 pm
Für - broken – Elise
Inviting ivory whites.
Resting flat and sharp-edged between the black.
In the concert’s hall:
Bach? Debussy? Satie?
Your desires and melodies a mystery to me.
But you played – this I do know, though
You stopped.
Strayed away from the keys,
Career more a boon to Baby Boomer demands.
For a woman? You could choose:
A nurse, a care worker – a moth...
Monday 11th October 2021 10:50 am
Also by S Sampson:
Shortsighted | Juggle |Lionheart
For what may have been and for John.
On the isle of giants beneath the wings of eagles, a flycatcher sings in the bough of an apple tree. It sears the damp air with high-pitched bullets that ricochet off the nunnery rocks and out toward the Ross.
Standing midway between its beak and the pebbled beach lilts an ancient wall, in whose lea lies a stone.
Common, unassuming, like a m...
Sunday 10th October 2021 3:34 pm
Also by Graham Parker and his musings:
Bean Abacus | Thief in the night | What did they see? |Gloucester Avenue
Take me down to Gloucester Avenue
Where my journey will begin to beat the blues
A place where I am treated with respect
Where I can chill out relax and reflect
I have a home at Gloucester Avenue
It's a peaceful haven where people really care
There is much work on me that I need to do
I get honesty and dignity beyond compare
The latest news is that it is closing down
A vital lifeline of...
Sunday 10th October 2021 8:18 am
Emily Dickinson
Sunday 10th October 2021 12:14 am
Also by Hala Abdul:
Essay: "The Waste Land" 2 | Essay: "The Second Coming" | Essay: "The Waste Land" | poem: karmic cycle | poem: 100 |Escape
Hold my hand and let us escape
Don’t look around, just wear your cape
There is so much to see in the outer world
No need to stay at home all curled
Beautiful greenery and the sound of ducks
Focus properly and hear my tender words
Children running and adults socialising
The lockdown is over, this is hardly surprising
Let’s dance in the park or sing in the woods
...Saturday 9th October 2021 11:45 pm
Also by Aisha Suleman:
Diamond |Ready-to-Eat (MRE)
You are looking for love,
But love is not a Meal that you can buy at the supermarket, Ready-to-Eat (MRE).
All those evenings in loneliness made you think more than you should it,
All that free time has been your worst enemy,
Movies, books, and songs are telling you,
What you have in the house: it is not love.
Love should be wrap in brilliant colors,
like that movie that made y...
Saturday 9th October 2021 1:33 pm
Whole
09.10.21
I'm not a broken vase
Not pieces put back together with golden glue
Not some fragile, broken thing
You can't cut yourself on me anymore.
You kept trying to hold me together
To put flowers in me and show me off, so proud
But I'm not a vase,
Never was
Saturday 9th October 2021 1:12 pm
Telling a Joke (Advice Given to a young lady)
PREAMBLE- Know your audience
Know your subject
Write out your joke in full
Read it aloud many times
Remove all diversions
Check for confused references
Ensure you have a command of the required terminology
Try not to get out of your depth
Avoid sporting, scientific, historical or technical references
Limit your choice to sex and fashion
Political issues ma...
Friday 8th October 2021 8:10 pm
Also by Tommy Carroll:
Trigonometry | A Greater Palastine |It Started With a Kiss (for Nicola Adams)
Your fist, her chin,
in the ring that never before
let the likes of you in.
Did you think about that
as you laid those blows, about
those who knocked you down
for a hundred and sixteen years?
They marked your gold
at the art gallery.
Outside, not in.
There are some fights
you are yet to win.
-
From 'The Taking Part': https://joewilliams.co.uk/publication/the-taking-part/
...Thursday 7th October 2021 11:03 am
Start today
You say tommorow
I say today
Why is that
It's lots better
You see as
It could be gone in a second
Stop putting your goals
On hold
In order to get them ticked off
You must set yourself
A plan,while chipping
Away at it each day
Including now
Imagine looking
Back and seeing the results
The calender keeps rolling
But you must not use
It as an e...
Thursday 7th October 2021 10:33 am
Also by sophiethegirl whodarestodream:
music is good for the soul | how happy I felt | blogging is good | the importance of sunscreen |Under The Old Whale Bones
If you can find your way back here
let’s meet
under the old whale bones
this place that we each love
Where we look out to sea
or back towards the sleeping town
One day, we’ll stand together
and unbeknownst to us
it will be
for the last time in our lives
Whichever of us, must go first
let’s make a promise to meet again
under the old whale bones
Hearts filled with feeling
and the b...
Wednesday 6th October 2021 4:43 pm
Blackberry Jam
In the evening, we walked the towpath.
Ducks rattled reeds, rippling stagnant
water in sundown’s amber light.
We braved brambles for blackberries,
tangled knots of purple succulence
shrouded in swarms of midges.
Scratched and bitten, our battle wounds allowed
only a taste of the spoils, the rest left, layered,
sugar and berries, draped with muslin.
In the ...
Tuesday 5th October 2021 6:38 pm
Environmental Poems Read at Wirral Poetry Festival 2021
Poets from Merseyside have started to reignite the art of live performance with a series of eight spoken word events around the Wirral Peninsula.
The Wirral Poetry Festival has emerged from its online only status and has been back in the community over the past weeks celebrating the run up to National Poetry Day 2021 on Thursday.
On Sunday West Kirby Arts Centre hosted a green even...
Monday 4th October 2021 11:17 pm
Pest Control
The celeb from the other side of the pond
with a bug motif imagined
that his mop-headed crew were more
in than the man whose visitation
split history into two eras. The
insect fellow enjoyed
wearing the red uniform of cultural demolition
and historic revisionism called revolution.
Though his late diminutive voice may still
charm gray-haired fans, the chap he alleged
to dwarf continues un...
Monday 4th October 2021 4:47 am
Also by Brian Hodgkinson Jr.:
Who's Whose | 2 Trees |Like the Tide
Slapping and stretching her palms on the shore,
She is desperate to reach her old Love again.
Time and Wintertide have pushed her back; drained her.
And she longs recklessly to re-cover her ancient home.
The imprint of her love is littered in the limestone,
In the petrified wood of the Peace River,
In the red fingers of Dades Gorgem,
Nested on the peak ...
Sunday 3rd October 2021 2:18 pm
Also by Dawn:
I Want to Stay Here |"A Speech"
Ladies and Gentlemen
Boys and Girls
Dogs and Deities
It is a real privilege to be invited to give a speech at such a grand, global gathering. This is me—
Breaking the fourth wall
To discourse. To disclose. To devastate.
To talk to you all
About my deepest, darkest intention to eradicate
But the question to ask: who am I
Am I the God who is in control
Wi...
Sunday 3rd October 2021 8:16 am
Also by roxannemories:
《前世今生》 |The Guitar Player
While sitting on a long and wooden chair
A lonely girl is playing the guitar
And when the left hand slowly moves along
The right hand gently touches the mild strings.
The room is empty and the lights are dimmed,
The walls are dark and distant around her
And hidden from the sight of anyone
But still surrounding her from every side.
The woman has a white and lovely ...
Saturday 2nd October 2021 9:38 pm
The storm after the storm
In general, it is possible to fly,
This requires a certain solitude,
And I don't mean temporarily,
Immobility breeds creation,
Just like being blind heightens the other senses,
It's easy, they say, if you know how,
To weather the storm after the storm,
Keeping your ideas close in case,
Another comes rolling along.
Saturday 2nd October 2021 9:04 pm
Also by Austin Darnell:
Veneer |It’s hidden well, but I search deep within the crevices of your mind.
I interpret your words and actions to depict intention and longing, want and need.
They’re masked behind masculinity; hidden within the social construct that disallows you to be free....to feel.
That which praises to the appeal of lust; turns love to dust.
Strong enough to break a woman’s heart, but no strength to trust us.
Friday 1st October 2021 1:58 pm
Written Upon a Subway Wall
How far away is Peace?
Can we be Still?
When we are Lost in the Realm
of Deceiteful Decievers
Waiting to be Saved
by Mindful Believers
We Must Reconstitute Ourselves
Find Something to Believe In
Upon God's Green Earth
When We don't know Who to Trust
or what to Believe In anymore
Make Love
Not War
Peace Is Always At Hand
And In Mind's Eye
Friday 1st October 2021 6:39 am
Lowlight Afterparty (Speech)
Lowlight Afterparty (Speech)
Thou shall never know if words could ever suffice
Nor should the laws of nature bound the mind to the earth
For we exist as long as the fade of eternal light
Brings a dimming to the afterparty as we find it cannot always be night
And though our hands feel our knees and our locked chests
Some can see clearly yet roam in the subconscious dark depth...
Friday 1st October 2021 2:27 am
Life Advice to My Younger Self
I’d tell the younger me, that everyone makes.
Poor life choices, bad decisions, and mistakes.
You will lose loved ones; you will be heartbroken.
You’ll say regrettable things you’ll wish you’d left unspoken.
There will be times when you want to be alone, and times when you are lonely.
A million “what if’s” and a billion “if only’s”
Whilst your memories of...
Friday 1st October 2021 12:11 am
CATHEDRAL
Beneath majestic heights
public footsteps
ring a tapestry of sound.
Time surrenders here,
hushed voices
slice through space.
In ancient plans
the sky has been considered,
clouds float across
ascending lengths of glass
not stained but clear
while high in the dome's recesses
portholes angle to paradise.
Thick with prayers
stone walls are candle-b...
Friday 1st October 2021 12:07 am
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