Tag Archives: free verse

The Rain Fell

The rain fell

In the wood I know well.

I could say it’s sound

Was very profound

And the forest rang with birdsong.

 

 

All of this is true.

But I was wet through

And wanted home

And hot tea!

Threadbare

The scent of cheap perfume

Pervades an overheated room.

She in her mini skirt

And too high heels.

He in t-shirt and jeans.

 

They play their scenes.

She loses skirt and heels

And feels

The threadbare carpet under her feet.

She wants to sleep …

 

Sometimes she weeps,

But not in front of them.

He sighs.

His fun is done.

Occasionally he cries,

Though not when they can see.

 

The same dance

Of no romance

Over and over again

To hide his pain.

 

She has a child to feed

Or perhaps some other need.

Sometimes  he wonders about them.

But they are free

As is he …

To choose …

 

Elegy on a Former Neighbour

I passed by

Where you once lived

And remembered how you gazed at the stars

So far away.

 

It is cold today

But you are lost to frost and sunshine.

You denied the divine

Yet loved the starry sky.

 

No telescope can see where you are gone.

Yet I think you would agree with me

That we came from stardust

And must go

Beyond where the telescope can see

Shadows of Poetry

In early January

My shadow goes in front of me.

The sun shines

But my hands are cold.

 

One day I know

My shadow will no longer go.

Though perhaps in rhyme

I will leave something behind

And people may see

Something of me.

For poets make shadows

Through their poetry

The Passing Year

Should I shed a tear

For the dying year?

I survived a brain abscess

And lived to see the tree undress

In autumn.

 

My hair has longed turned white.

I can not fight

The passage of time.

Yet take delight

In this brief rhyme

Of life.

 

All things pass.

Yet my glass

Is at least half full.

 

 

The weather is dull

But I still hear the steady tick tock

Of the clock

On the wall

And relish these fallen leaves

For I, as they

Must pass away.

Stream of Consciousness Ramblings

My stream of consciousness runs

As the clock ticks.

The night is dark.

My heart is part dark.

I hear the TV

In the other room.

I imagine a girl’s perfume

But it is just I

Alone, unable to call.

Yet I may fall again

When I return to the capital city.

I can be witty

And I have desired pretty

Girls. I still do so,

But know

The night is cold

And I grow old

As the clock ticks the hours away.

In May

Girls dance around the pole.

I desire women and wine,

But time is short

And what I ought

To do

Is …

But to kiss

A girl’s soft lips

And for it to be meaningful

Would kill

This itch of mine

For women and wine.

Or perhaps I lie

To myself.

It is a truism

That wealth can not buy

Happiness.

Yet I

Continue to lie …

 

With the Dark

With the dark

And the light

In my heart

I make art.

 

I play a part.

The stage light

Illumines the night.

 

For a while

I smile

Then comes the dark.

 

 

Closing

The clock ticks another year towards its close.

Winter’s clothes will soon replace autumn’s leaf-strewn face.

Spring lies well concealed in the wings

And summertime is a half remembered rhyme

In the ageing poet’s mind

Where everything repeats

And time defeats.

Until all as leaves fall.

Winter Solstice

The wall clock ticks.

We have reached the Winter Solstice.

The ache in my shoulder

Says, I grow older.

But, after tonight

The evenings will slowly turn bright

And bare trees

Bring forth leaves.

 

 

The longest day will come.

The winter solstice

Will return once more.

But the great see

Must, one day

Sweep all this away

Leaving nothing behind.

Yet we still dance

Surface

A shadow in the bathroom glass.

What I see

Is the public  me.

And when I pass

There will be

No me to see

Merely soulless  glass.

 

 

Yet reflected back

In the verse I leave behind

Some may find

In my rhyme

The black

And white we call art.

 

 

Now in the mirror I see

The surface me.

And not my heart.