"It's right to target those who need it most,"
the reaver said. Her eyes flashed, black as night.
"What matter that some will give up the ghost?

Though tragic, nothing vital will be lost."
Old age these days is seen to be a blight.
Who cares about those that will miss it most?

They're all blind, or lame, or deaf as a post.
Aren't we doing them a favour? Well, quite:
what matter that th...

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Like a fought-over bed, the ancient rock
tumbles, crumbles to the shore.
The ferry waits to leave the dock.

Spinning, wind-whipped, on the loch,
struggling against nature in the raw.
Like a fought-over bed, the ancient rock.

The waves heap up, a sudden shock.
Forget for once the thoughts that gnaw.
The ferry waits to leave the dock.

Did you count me lost as you eyed the clock?
Did ...

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It’s that time of the year, how some people truly do love it.

The cold brings the night early, brisk wind and mild flurries

Grab the old winter jacket, red beanie and gloves with a snug fit

The winters here unfortunately, they’re calling for snow in the mornin

The salt crunches under you as you spread it, one cold gust makes you hurry

It’s that time of the year, how some people trul...

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I hate the way we have to live today

in fact sometimes it simply makes me fume;

I wish this Covid crap would go away.

When even children can’t go out to play

and must resort to games in their own room;

I hate the way we have to live today.

When distancing requires that we must stay

at home, and only get to meet by Zoom.

I wish this Covid crap would go away.

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I was enjoying sitting in the garden, pondering the beauty and the timelessness of nature, compared to the fickleness and unreliability we see in our leaders and found myself writing a villanelle. First draft below – may yet be edited but I wanted to share it now.

Constancy

Reminders of a life, a dream now torn
Scabia, flags and tulips, forget me nots
Behind the privet hedge a rolling lawn

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This nonsense about Killing Eve
Get on with it is what I say
I find it so hard to believe

Perhaps she flatters to deceive
She lives to fight another day
This nonsense about Killing Eve

It is a tangled web they weave
Not black or white but shades of grey
I find it so hard to believe

So surely someone can conceive
A way to bump her off today
This nonsense about Killing Eve

Call m...

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A love so deep, I can not sleep.

Forever awake in a bliss, endless dream

I guess my thoughts are yours to keep.

Alone again, I tried counting sheep

But even in the dark empty you brightly gleam

A love so deep, I can not sleep

Even as I make my fearful leap,

I see you, in the peaceful stream.

I guess my thoughts are yours to keep

It’s been so long I can’t h...

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Is God with you, dear soul? Are you with Him?

In mazes, mists and twists of this life's track,

Who shows the way and guides your steps there in?

Go you solo, on your own, will and whim?

Hid you in the herd? Run you with the pack?

Is God with you, dear soul? Are you with Him?

Without a guide thick shadowed woods are grim.

To find the path needs knowing that you...

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Hello to this, for me, new universe of WOL. This poem was 'uninspired'. I was give the first line as a challenge to see if I could make a poem from it. Can there be good 'uninspired 'poetry?

Ding! Dong!

Who's that ringing my doorbell?

That ding-dong-dinging's hard to ignore.

Better get out of my shell.

Have they got nice stuff to sell?

Or are they collecting for the poor?

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The Parable Of The Wolf And The Lamb.

We are the men of peace, they say,

we hide in plain sight of you all

taking their innocence away.

We simply ask that you will pray

for those who sin and those who fall.

We are the men of peace, they say.

We ask for penance every day,

we prey upon the week and small,

taking their innocence away.

We look after th...

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Preamble: for this week's Rhymers theme "first", here is my first attempt at a villanelle.

My son, it fell to you to be born first

You turned a couple into Mum and Dad

You sometimes had the best, sometimes the worst

You changed our lives when into them you burst,

And for that day I ever shall be glad,

My son, it fell to you to be born first.

Our parenting was w...

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Once more- to haunt the country lane;
the hollow and secret bower
of a melancholy refrain.

So fit it should begin to rain,
Autumn send her gloomy shower
once more to haunt the country lane.

We persist in similar vein,
in thrall to a timeless power
in the melancholy refrain:

Set free all sprites to walk again
if only for a brooding hour,
once more to haunt the country lane

And p...

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Do not regret the choices you have made

In musing on the pages of your past;

Rejoice before your memories can fade.

It’s pointless thinking chances thus portrayed

Could ever pan out as your hopes forecast;

Do not regret the choices you have made.

The grass is always greener, so it’s said;

But wishful dreams can wilt and wither fast.

Rejoice before your memories ca...

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I’ve left my clomping prints on every shore 
since Africa was Eden in my youth. 
The sand will bear my dent for evermore. 

I chewed-up gum-trees with my baby jaw 
and bit the dry red heart with my first tooth. 
I’ve left my clomping prints on every shore. 

Europe roused my growing thirst for war. 
Her spirit fired me up, one hundred proof. 
The sand will bear my dent for evermore. 

...

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Nothing pure, unbroken lasts,

The world changes innocence,

It's best to disregard the past.

We're fated to don the cynic's mask

In spite of life's condolences,

Nothing pure, unbroken lasts,

Despite our ill-reaching grasp,

Or self-preserving countenance, 

It's best to disregard the past.

The body decomposes fast,

we lose our precious permanence,

Nothi...

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Forgive me please, my sins, I beg, for I

Am not the glorious hero that they claim;

For I am one who dares to reason why.

They spoke of honour, courage, do-or-die;

They showed me how to shoot, to kill, to maim.

Forgive me please, my sins, I beg, for I

Am no brave lion, no matter how I try.

Returning home I feel somehow to blame,

For I am one who dares to reason why...

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Home By Christmas

I fear I let my feelings rule my head,
that you would have no trouble getting leave.
You would be home by Christmas as they said.

All through the Autumn, sleeping cold in bed,
I dreamt of all our marriage would achieve.
I fear I let my feelings rule my head.

Not since the day that both of us were wed
had we missed carols, sung that holy eve.
You would be home by Ch...

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(This was an attempt at a villanelle but I'm not sure if its quite the right structure . .oh well)

I only wanted to help

And when I offered to get you some shopping

It wasn’t me saying you’re not up to it any more

I only wanted to help

Thanks for the cup of tea

But when I offered to make it

I wasn’t saying your tea was bad: far from it

I just didn’t w...

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 I’m interested to know what makes you tick

So tell me what you learned today, my son

Oh reading, rioting and arithmetic

When you go late night shopping with a brick

Can we blame too much drink or too much sun?

I’m interested to know what makes you tick

Somewhere along the line I missed a trick

So this is all you’ve learned – excuse the pun

Just readi...

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Our eyeless stares, the endless stairs constrain;

Figures of proportional intention,

We blandly trudge from plane to transformed plane.

Warping up and wefting down in vain,

Aching for a canvas of convention,

Our eyeless stares, the endless stairs constrain.

Incidental in some artist’s brain;

Ageing embryos in mock pretension,

We blandly trudge from pl...

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Edge

Gone is the mind where love and hope once played,
She feels the urge to paint a world with blood.
She watches moonlight dance along the blade.

She dreams a world of red in every shade,
Would banish all the rainbow if she could.
Gone is the mind where love and hope once played.

All trust now shredded, reason torn and frayed,
A hollow corpse where once a woman stood;
She watches moonlight dance along th...

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