The bride.
Beneath the veil, a vision as yet unclear.
Eyes widen, whispers hushed as she appears,
Head held high, assured and confident,
Opulent, her dress stitched with extravagance,
Look closely at how the bodice compliments her frame,
Desirous women wish they could dress the same
Behold, raised veil, her beauty revealed.
Exquisite radiance nevermore concealed.
Alabaster...
Monday 31st July 2023 7:38 pm
Also by JD Russell:
Ode to a Red Rose | The Seven Ages | East Norfolk Elegy | That’s no life. (Image, Melancholy by Edvard Munch) | Naughty Nonet | In an attic room | With love, goodbye | Take hold of life |The Leaving Cert
Mislaid for decades, I had never seen it
– the certificate they gave you the year
you finished school. Thirteen and biddable,
I doubt you had been much bother at all,
picking up quite easily the basics
prescribed for the life that lay before you.
Beyond the geography of small towns,
fields, and enigmatic hills, among which
your predecessors scratched out a living
o...
Monday 31st July 2023 7:36 pm
Also by David Cooke:
A Wet Break |Just Sitting
Many years ago when we traveled from California to Spain
(the trip of a lifetime!),
we bought a painting that both my husband and I liked.
I don't know why my husband liked it,
but I liked it because it showed a little dark-haired girl sitting on a step watching two boys pretend to be in a bullfight (red flag and sticks dressing up their imaginary contest).
I imagined that little gi...
Monday 31st July 2023 4:26 pm
Also by Hélène:
Late at Night in the Urban Jungle | Traveling | Healing | Rising and Walking | Spirit in 3 Parts | Magic Before I Sleep | Love Songs | Painting the Canvas | Giving Thanks This Day | The Scent of Roses |Nivlek
If i were free to be weak,
And for a moment to break.
i know it wont be for the first time
Trying to remove
what seems to be a stain,
Thats a past with a lot of pain.
everything happens so fast
but i know wounds to be the last
Mementos the body
Shares with the past.
who cares about my only
fears, tears, scars, when oddly
bravery and chivalry are a requirement.
...Monday 31st July 2023 10:43 am
The Pier Head 30/7/23
Under Bella's watchful eye, I sit alone.
I look at the ferry, come sailing home.
I take a walk around Georges Parade.
I look at 2 ice cream vans doing trade.
I think to myself, how quick 30 years fly.
As heavy looking clouds now pass by.
I watch an artist paint Edward the King.
I hear a busker... Beatles songs to sing.
A cruise liner has a well earned break.
Hundreds of ...
Monday 31st July 2023 10:38 am
Also by Mike Bartram:
Time | Mother Earth (For The Alba's And Nola's) | Nightmares! | A Sheep Dogs Tale | At Times Like This | 9 Friends | The Birds |Who the hell can see forever?
Wild is the way, unclear is the day.
The seeping mottled sky passes me by
Opening before me the vista of a life:
A world of smell and sight and sound,
The portals of discovery all around,
I enter this world, this newfoundland:
The sheer vividness of colour abounds
Synaesthesia's all round visibility of sound,
Flesh and blood, heart and soul
All the half-created, half-perceived
Epipha...
Monday 31st July 2023 10:36 am
Also by John E Marks:
Sinéad O'Connor | Granddaughter | Bandit country | Noli Timere | Sketches in a minor key | Space-Time | Heart-worn highways | A stoic suicide | An Aphrodite night | UNDER THE VOLCANO | Outfoxing the Furies | The rhythm of a dream | Conjugations & Confabulations |Away with Words
Hi Everyone,
I have produced my third collection of poetry, 'Away with Words,' I can't seem to stop!
It's available on Amazon for £7.99 paperback, £2 on Kindle.
As with the first two, all proceeds go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.
If you buy it, I hope you enjoy it. It is my masterpiece!
The picture captures the River Derwent in Malton, just next to the bus station.
With love to...
Monday 31st July 2023 9:34 am
Also by John Botterill:
Juju | Burley Road | The Diving Tree | July | My Mother Said | Ashes to ashes |Happiness, Ever Elusive
I’ll lay here still
And wait for a happy song to dawn on me
I’ll lay here with full intent and will
That it will call upon me.
A song for hope,
And a poem for good measure
Will it hold my reservation if I’m an hour late-
To the dinner I was meant to host?
Will it hold traffic for me as I cross the road?
Perhaps in the distance, I’ll know it someday soon.
Perhaps I’ll ...
Monday 31st July 2023 3:18 am
Also by Katherine Page:
Willing Servant | A Hopeful Haiku | Unknown Caller |The Final Solution Fantasy
The Sallow Achieved Once All Was Lost
I am awake, and see the light shine
through a bland window,
I frown and gather a yawn to sew,
and then exhale an abrupt shadow upon
a very solitary duvet.
The grit is still within my eye and,
I am not too keen to see the clocks current
state of sentence,
stretching, I note the odour
now incre...
Sunday 30th July 2023 11:37 pm
Also by ZTK Space:
This Was a Bet | The North End |THE MOORLAND TRAIN
Another train one. A re-post from 2014. You may hear the dead hand of The Man in Black.
I hear the train guard’s whistle
The slamming of the doors
The fireman stokes the furnace
For the haul across the moors;
The driver lets some steam off
And sees the train guard’s flag
Then gets those big wheels turning
For the Goathland Drag.
You’re leaning from the window
...Sunday 30th July 2023 11:33 pm
Also by John Coopey:
THE SLOW TRAIN | DON'T TWITCH ASIDE THE CURTAIN | 1984 AND ALL THAT | NAKED ATTRACTION Part 2 | DOUBLY THANKFUL | COLLIERS AND KIDS | THE UNDATEABLES | FISHING WITH MY DAD | THE BYRON | "NO IRISH NO BLACKS NO DOGS" |Questioning meself
Am I cursed with the extremes or blessed with a balance view
For on a Monday I care what everybody things of me
But by Tuesday I have no care for anyone or any of it
For the jobs a trap. The edcuation is a serious lesson and money is what keeps me engaged with al institutions
Know I like to mention al along I said I was angel
Have I an questionable past? Maybe
Have I robbed ...
Sunday 30th July 2023 11:24 pm
Blood of another kind
I ate everything you said
I bought what you made
you became a voice in my head
I followed to a point
there’s an emptiness ahead
pain in the back
I take the vow to become
everything myself
we’re blood of another kind
flowing through like minds
suddenly destiny’s not so abstract
with decades barking in the back
blood of another kind
...
Sunday 30th July 2023 7:38 pm
Also by Robert C Gaulke:
Interpretation | Shellfish Culture | Kill yourself Slowly | One day you'll know | Squinting | Certainty |Proceed to the Route
Take the second exit,
not the one which suits.
Did I not make it clear,
proceed to the route.
I know which way’s best,
to complete a commute.
So, do what I ask you,
proceed to the route.
What is the point, when
we live in dispute.
This shouldn’t be so hard,
proceed to the route.
Or switch me off,
this unwanted control.
Go on, I dare you.
...Sunday 30th July 2023 3:21 pm
Also by John Gilbert Ellis:
The Unmentionables (In Rubaiyat Format!) | Perfection | Indiana Jones and the Denial of Decrepitude |Nibiru gold
All these atoms they seem so new
But they must be a billion years old or two
I tried to buy one on ebay for you
I was out bid by a man from Nibiru
It was pure gold and went up his nostril
It made him feel like a true apostle
Saturday 29th July 2023 11:48 pm
Also by Jed:
Nature honed | How auto triggers ww3 | Nissan Micra UFO |Quiet
So quiet
Evening breeze washes over me
Honey scent hangs on me
Infinity rains down on me
Warm air caresses me
Open my eyes , your smile
Washes my tears
Gentle fingers through my hair
Hand takes my cheek
Pull my lips to cherry blossom
I quiver beneath you
Childlike ,
Hopeless in your arms
Vacuumed against the softness
Consumed in the fire
Satiated by y...
Saturday 29th July 2023 10:31 pm
Also by Edbreathe:
Exit | Honey suckle | Doors |Cut Flowers
She had broken pieces when we met.
Some of the shards piercing her still,
revealing a disquiet of scars.
Love, the brigand that put them there.
When I gave her cut flowers
she had no chance of seeing
the field of understanding and tenderness
from which they came.
Saturday 29th July 2023 3:56 pm
Also by Mike McPeek:
Navigators | The Difference | Jose Cuervo and Friends | The Last Time We Spoke | Personal Effects |Woolies
Woolies
I’ll never part with my pasta jar
though one day the draining board rack
I will have to. They’re not family heirlooms
but Woolworths relics, I got them
with a voucher - to think there was ever
such a thing. The circular mirror
with its silver frame I bought for my bedsit room
in Aberystwyth has long gone,
and the little glass jug I used
as a watering can...
Saturday 29th July 2023 3:41 pm
Also by Peter J Donnelly:
Death of a Crassula | Duck Breast for Dinner | Two Deaths |Video Link
The colonel’s hamming up the bonhomie,
The President spits bile for all to see,
The regimental parakeet is shot,
A corporal is cleaning up the lot.
Stand to attention, don’t bother thinking;
Get back to the trenches, cold and stinking.
Gleaming new tanks make the battlefield shake,
Flattening its residue in their wake.
We’ve got more weapons, let’s pick a new toy;
...Saturday 29th July 2023 8:33 am
Also by Stephen Gospage:
Minefield | Uxbridge | Trouble | Ukraine, SW19 | 500 days | Trickle | Writers | Left Field |La fleur de l'éveil
Au milieu d'un jardin
Parmi autant de couleur
Mon attention est captivée
Par une seule fleur
Une fleur délicate
Parmi autant d'autre
Une fleur pure et belle
Sans aucune faute
Ça c'est ce que j'ai vu
Dans un jardin infini
Ça c'est ce que j'ai cherché
Pour compléter ma vie
Pour compléter mon être
Pour rendre ma vie plus belle
Pour me faire croire au futur
Dans ce monde mortel
Friday 28th July 2023 10:54 pm
Also by Voice of the Soul:
Le discours sans parole | La complexité simpliste du sourire | La vérité derrière le regard | Two souls | New horizon | Focal point | Spirit storm | The lyrics of my feelings | The poet’s fight | What's the point | Into the depths of my being |PASTIMES
Yes, a mandatory retirement age in Congress
I believe it's time has arrived
We will base the age on FDR's fireside chat
And if you heard the broadcast live
Friday 28th July 2023 7:05 pm
Also by Short Attention Span Poetry:
IT'S THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT |An Oily Rag
Had a little drink about an hour ago
catfish on my line
push out on the raft where the river's slow
steamboat passing by
gives my such a wail like a thundering train
hat's over my eye
give another hoot like the express train
thats a two-step in ragtime
Been dreaming again I was twenty five
summer was ablaze
you wake me, shake me, see if I'm alive
what for are my days?
you can sa...
Friday 28th July 2023 2:48 pm
Also by Adam Whitworth:
The Plink Goes On | Ancient Tail |Subconscious
My subconscious
Is focused on a goal
One which transcends this flesh
Death is but a transformation
But the rebirth that follows
Is where growth lies
Happiness found
In the journey
Because the destination
Is an ending
That comes all too soon
Ground yourself
Take a breath
And remember the universal truth
Of why you've taken this form
Bound in...
Friday 28th July 2023 2:11 pm
Also by Eric Berard:
One Day |Sacked on my first day at H.S.B.C. In Dover
It was really exciting when I got the results of my G.C.E's,
Managed to get nine passes,my parents it did please.
My first job was at a local bank,
My mathematical skills I must thank.
Unfortunately I was sacked on my first day at H.S.B.C. in Dover.
A man asked me to check his balance,so I pushed him over !!
Friday 28th July 2023 10:54 am
Also by hugh:
Hundreds of school kids run riot in Manchester city centre as cops hit with eggs,shops closed and trams forced to crawl !! | Our life on this earth is the creation of an extremely clever mind | The power of the banana | A big thanks to our Creator | Planting a future in a teenage brain | A door to door hearing aid salesman gives up his job | The resurrection of the N.H.S. is a must !!! |Show No Tell
Ion believe in friends and that's factual
I'm still growing and its a process
People come and go that's practical
Only thing that matters is the progress
Don't have room for no pity party
Not sorry
Niggas A' claim you then act
This is real life not Maury
Got the results and came back
See you can trust but only partly
Call you on yo flex, cut you off, and do it sha...
Thursday 27th July 2023 8:33 pm
Also by Jayla Shuford:
Cause |NIGEL FARAGE AND DICK DEADEYE
You can say what you like about Farage
But he's achieved more in his life
Than any MP now in Parliament
Or the World and its trouble and strife.
Farage reminds me of Gilbert's Dick Deadeye
From the perennially popular "Pinafore"
Created to utter disquieting realities
That more fanciful minds would deplore.
Gilbert knew much about human nature
Targeted in his To...
Thursday 27th July 2023 3:43 pm
Also by M.C. Newberry:
GOODBYE GEORGE ALAGIAH | WHY, WHY, WHY...DELILAH? | SCOLD | FANCY FREE | WORKING UNDERGROUND | TILTING AT WINDMILLS | WHEN | TIME AFTER TIME (AFTER TIME!) |Sinéad
In the bubble gum 80s
I floated around
For truth
And feelings
And then she cried,
And cried out loud over and over again
Her life no holes barred
No filter “just me”,
Just be
You taught me
Just be yourself
And fuck anyone who disagrees
Thursday 27th July 2023 10:25 am
The diadem of the land
A diadem of sovereignty, a symbol of royalty
made up of Unique jewel of valley surrounded by the rarest gold of Mountains
Waited for it's rightful place to dwell with all its treasures and troubles
After an indefinite hunt for a secular and Democrat souls
Chosen the queen of peninsula and set its heart on hers
The diadem added beauty to the queen and to the land it added fortunes
...Wednesday 26th July 2023 7:51 pm
Nature's Wedding
Let the melodious song
of the numerous creatures
that reside here with us along,
in the lands and the skies
guide our light feet.
Step forward,
and bathe in the light of the sun.
As she blesses our love
and ignites our skins and soul.
In this bittersweet moment,
tinged sour by all that could have been,
should have been ours,
let us surrender our hearts
...
Wednesday 26th July 2023 3:20 pm
Also by Yasoda:
Icarus The Fish |Black Shades of Melancholy
Down in the depths of this despair
A place of which I wasn’t aware
But now I’m here, and you’re out there
We’re poles apart, and you don’t care
Up in the clouds of happiness
Is where I prefer to exist
I had no room for a darker life
I always tried to resist
Yes I always tried to resist
It wasn’t always like this
It used to be so good
It wasn’t always like...
Wednesday 26th July 2023 3:19 pm
Also by Rick Varden:
Haiku Parliament | Haiku Positivity | What’s in a name? | Haiku Relationships | Haiku Regret | Haiku Tables | HAIKU FENCES | HAIKU WATER | You and Me | HAIKU WINE | HAIKU LOVE |marlboro menthol (07/26/2023)
it's 12 degrees
and the marrow cools:
we catch --
breaths hitched
to a cataclysmic gait
a crooked pace:
all-damned
while you wait
god's sticky magazines
pages pregnant
with guilt
regret
the ilk of resplendent idleness
of abandonment
in this blind-eye of a city, turned
to rot, mitotic
never-ending
a car crash of ashamed sex
but it's just too good
to be any other way .
Wednesday 26th July 2023 11:46 am
Also by Zach Dafoe:
thoughts on piss christ and photography (06/21/2023) |Sizzling to Blistering
Thousands of holidaymakers found themselves trapped on the Greek island of Rhodes as wild fires started by the extreme hot weather took hold causing many to abandon the island.
Factor seven basking toned tan
Record high temperatures
Sleepless in Rhodes danger lurks
Red flamed toenails
Ash covered bikinis speedos black
Multi-coloured T-shirts frown
Seizing suitcases desperate r...
Wednesday 26th July 2023 11:09 am
25.07.23
he me called beautiful or so I think.
what could truly be beautiful about me?
the scars on my legs,
face or chin?
My uneven hips,
my bow legs?
or maybe it was in the heat of the moment,
I gave him my lips and
he pounced.
he tasted the sweet nectar we call saliva
And made it his home.
his rent was due to stay in my arms
So he u...
Wednesday 26th July 2023 7:24 am
Also by justice j.:
16.01.23 | 14.07.23 | 16.07.23 |BIG BAD FOX
In various hutches pods and cages
her poultry world
a commitment based on egg production
in the scuffling shuffling universe
of confined resentment and sensed rages.
Opening her arms feathers fly out,
a confetti confession of love
oblivious to smell of ordure, urine
while her daughter follows in hot pursuit
naming not blaming the curious rats
racing and cha...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 10:39 pm
Also by ray pool:
DEATH ENCAPSULATED | FRIDGE FANTASY | CHESS KILLING TIME |Raising Spirits
He said it once
Never again
Now it's like a seance
To contact her man
Spirits appear
As soon as she speaks
A future so bright
Turning so bleak
Can she break the ice
Dropped into his whiskey?
Or call on the departed
(Far less risky)
Does he love her?
Yes-No-Yes
Definitely maybe
She'll just have to guess
So she raises a glass
Time for a toast
Her...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 9:16 pm
Also by Ruth O'Reilly:
The Manicure | Sand Witches | Yellow Square |OUR OTHER LIVES
Deeper than even the wood pigeon’s gloom,
and always arriving just too late,
in light less than a shuttered room,
our other lives still wait.
They wait for all that might have been
had we but turned the other way.
They have looked into the years and seen
the emptiness of their days.
Between the second glance and the first,
though now uncertain of their names,
they gather on...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 5:51 pm
Also by Tony Hill:
RAPE | A BLIND PIG* | A DOLL'S HOUSE |Singularity
Tuesday 25th July 2023 3:48 pm
Unhappy landings
Some days he scours the Channel in his boat,
binoculars scanning for hapless migrants
in leaking dinghies; or sits atop
Dover’s white cliffs, keeping sentry
on Britain’s behalf; or barges into
budget hotels, hunting down those
who have evaded his dragnet;
or wipes away the occasional
milkshake, like seagull poo, that has
landed as if from the sky on his jacket.
B...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 10:28 am
Also by Greg Freeman:
Extra time |Forking Hell
Everyone’s asleep
But me.
I’m branching out.
The possibilities drone on
Like a tedious speaker
Killing the conference vibe.
Bifurcating and swearing
At my selves,
I duplicate Fs into infinite exasperation.
Thoughts are fungal threads,
Blackening nice wallpaper and
The clean insides of my eyelids.
Every dimension lives -
Peeled and paired,
Sliced and sta...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 10:14 am
Also by Charlie Sparkinson:
Kintsugi | Her Habitat (2011) |Fallen Leaves Do Not Resent The Wind
The young beeches have finally
Surrendered their winter leaves
To the midsummer breezes.
Will the wind not strip me
Of my own dead thoughts?
Tuesday 25th July 2023 10:07 am
A call missed
My ear's brief deafened state I am sorry till I stay awake, unanswered call as your presence in my dream is a way
In slumber's arms, we softly lay, Time slipped by, a dreamlike sway. As dawn unveiled the morning skies, Your call arrived, a sweet surprise.
In dreams, we wandered far and wide, Our souls entwined, side by side. Forgive me, dear, for moments missed, Yet, in my thoughts, you sti...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 3:39 am
Did You See Her?
They said she couldn’t
And so, she did!
She up and floated
Taking colours
From the rainbow
Leaving a starlit trail
So bright
Even the moon
Questioned
Her iridescent
Glow
She filled her world
With butterflies
Leaving a rose petal
Path behind her
Her world was replete
With beauty
No man
Woman
Or child
Could catch her
...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 1:37 am
Also by Clare:
Take Pity! | Joie de Vivre. | Drape Your Skin. Repost for an anniversary. | I Loved. | I Love You! | I’m Drained. | Day’s End. | Expectant. | St Julien. |Malachi Middlemound
As a rugby league fan, there are many tales I relish of the great game,
but none are as remarkable as that of the little lad who ignored the critics to fulfil his lifelong dream.
In a northern city not too long ago, Malachi Middlemound,
all five-foot two of him, harboured a secret ambition – to play rugby for his hometown.
But notorious braggart, ‘Bruiser’ Bill Billycan, would laugh, saying ...
Monday 24th July 2023 6:18 pm
Also by Kevin Vose:
A novel experience |Trapped in this
claustrophobic body
as it ages
plummeting towards inevitability
all youthful thoughts
of immortality thrown aside
by reality
where did life go
when did life go
a speeding train that makes me move more slowly
the longer the journey takes
sometimes at a snail’s pace
towards a final stop where I get off
and out
and gone
forever
Monday 24th July 2023 4:34 pm
Schizo-Saviour
SHUT the fusion modulator
& PLUG into schizophrenic circuits
surrounding loops of drowning sound
& climb \\ exiting the fire escape
of the spinal staircase where
six pomegranate chambers exist behind six doors
on six floors of the unexplored skyscraper mind
elevator on the ground floor
of Maslow's pyramid reads
out of order
font formed in tri...
Monday 24th July 2023 3:46 pm
Also by Rob Cohen:
the triumph & the trauma | The Cost of Paradise | the fall (one size fits all) | of Sparrows, Soot & Sand | Masked Mystique of Venetian Hedonism #9 | reflections in the chapel of sacred mirrors |Stains
once stood a great warrior
of malice and pride
with no battle too bloody
for his hungering eyes
his blade, sharp and stained
stood tall at his side
left in its wake
only dead men would lie
then, in the distance
that red, setting sun
gave a glimpse to the man
of the deeds he had done
the crimson and black
was all he could see
he saw not the...
Monday 24th July 2023 9:26 am
Twixt Pen and Eye
I, poet, may write of love
and in that moment feel
a meaning clear:
yet my soul knows love
my hand will never pen
You, reader, read that word
and think to know my mind
I say you cannot know the love
my heart placed behind that word, only
your sense of the love you thought you saw
The poet can never truly speak
and have his reader k...
Sunday 23rd July 2023 4:20 pm
Also by Chris Armstrong:
In the beginning, God [early draft] |The Media
The Media
We are depressed and oppressed by a relentless media.
Endless conflicting reports which are attempts at disinformation.
It is easy to become seduced by their messages.
Few if any report good news to gladden our hearts.
They are the harbingers of woe.
They rejoice in misery, calamity and are the voices of doom.
In their work I see a daily intake of grammatical an...
Sunday 23rd July 2023 12:05 pm
Also by keith jeffries:
A Guiding Light | Martha | Contradictions |Rent-a-Gob
Rent a Gob Fartage, please quit ballooning, we have had enough,
Of your complaining that your bank’s given you the old ho-heave,
So why don’t you (in short sharp jerky movements) just bloody well bugger right off,
Your best ever promise was, if Brexit was a failure, the UK you would leave,
So sod r...
Saturday 22nd July 2023 6:26 pm
Joyful Stones
Counselling for admission to branches of engineering
hopeful youngsters - with dreams but not score
giving their dreams a whiff of air to stay afloat
till the gravity of reality pulls them down some more.
The day goes doing this, interspersed with teaching
where I see the students who are last year’s crop
they were there last year - in the counselling room
like the ones t...
Saturday 22nd July 2023 7:44 am
Also by pallavitryingthings:
The Lie | The new age terror |race against time
a global race is a global race against time
the hands of time is the race against time
god is the hands of time
god is the hands of race against time
time is in the hands of god
time is in the hands of a global race
god is a race against the hands of time
time race against religion
religion race against religion
religion is a aftermath of a religion
a aftermath is a global aftermath
a...
Friday 21st July 2023 9:12 pm
Recent Comments
TobaniNataiella on She Says Goodbye
7 minutes ago
R A Porter on Sashaying to Byzantium
2 hours ago
Ray Miller on Dominoes
6 hours ago
Red Brick Keshner on Beneath the Armour: Reaching for True Strength
6 hours ago
Reggie's Ghost on Dominoes
7 hours ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on Early winter's day
7 hours ago
John Coopey on IT AIN'T ME, BABE
7 hours ago
John Marks on Early winter's day
7 hours ago
TobaniNataiella on She Says Goodbye
7 hours ago
Rick Varden on Sweet Memories
7 hours ago