The Wind in The Chimney

by STEVE RUDD

Monday 21st November 2011 11:03 pm

How strong am I today!

Says the wind in the chimney

Thrashing and trashing your trees

Whirling up leaves and buffeting

Birds like they’re being chucked away

By an unseen hand. Listen to the rain!

Listen to the rain drumming on your tiles

Causing you damage householder

Says the wind in the chimney.

You can’t stop me now!

Sings the wind in the chimney,

Wresting and warping your dreams

Of summer – my banshee song

Demented, sung by legions of berserkers

Called winter who don’t care about death

Sings the wind in the chimney.

My sinister voice!

Sighs the wind in the chimney

Sighs about what might have been

But for the unexpected shit that nixed you

The message never delivered

The test results too late

The traveller who never made it home

Back to his hearth

Sighs the wind in the chimney

I will seek you out!

Moans the wind in the chimney

My fingers even now ease open cracks

Seek out your weakest points

Soon my talons will be through your clothes

And I am your only lover now

No-one else will have you

Moans the wind in the chimney

Listen to me keen!

Howls the wind in the chimney

Keen as a widow’s wailing

Keen as the knife that dealt the death

Now earth itself is wounded

Its warm and beating summer heart is slowing

Only trouble lies ahead, trouble and wolves

Their eyes gleam in dense forests

Howls the wind in the chimney

There is no escape!

Screams the wind in the chimney

I could blow you on to your arse right now

I could chill your very flesh melting away

Stripping away your muscles and warm veins

And covering your skinny bones with leaves

Feel me whirling round your ankles

I am the reason your knees are aching

I am the reason you are mortal

Summer cannot save you now

There is no escape

Scream along with me

Screams the wind in the chimney

Comments

winston plowes

Fri 25th Nov 2011 13:17

Great writing Steve. some lovely imaged. made me put my collar up and hunker down just reading it. Win

Roy Chetham

Thu 24th Nov 2011 00:20

Haunting evocative stuff. Perhaps a "modern" classic?
Bearing in mind what I was taught at school I can see this being used in poetry lessons of the future.

Cate Greenlees

Tue 22nd Nov 2011 18:26

Ah yes, I see where you`re coming from now.
It works. But Im quite a fan of classical poetry and I wouldnt say this it "sub" anything!
Cate xx

Steve Rudd

Tue 22nd Nov 2011 17:54

Hello Cate, it was kind of you to comment at such length.

I see what you mean.

Set against that, I was trying to go one beyond the standard nature poem.

I started writing this poem one night when I was sitting up with a sick dog, by the stove, listening to the wind and rain howling down outside, and it seemed a metaphor for how nasty life is - not just the weather, the weather is merely the front for the underlying nastiness of life - not only is it freezing cold, pitch black, blowing a gale and pissing down, the dog is ill, I had (and still have!) money worries, I am not in the best of health, various people who we'd relied on like joiners, plumbers etc had behaved like dickheads and caused more damage than they'd fixed, and so on and so on - and this is life, that's all there is, just the howling of the wind. The nasty words were chosen to try and demonstrate the nastiness of the wind because the nastiness of the wind is the nastiness of life. A dark, impersonal, random battle where birds just get chucked away and people get hurt

But yes, you are right, I don't think I quite made it clear, but one thing I didn't want to set out and write was some sort of sub Wordsworth, Edward Thomas nature poem!

Cate Greenlees

Tue 22nd Nov 2011 12:13

I really enjoyed reading this Steve. There is some strong imagery here and your use of repetition is very effective.
I do feel however you are occassionally slipping between styles...."I could blow you on to your arse right now" along with "chucked" and "shit" somehow doesnt seem to sit right with the rest of the poem.It is so dark and foreboding and full of wonderful passages it makes me quail for the coming winter!
Cate xx

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The Wind in The Chimney

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