You are viewing the category: Neknus & Other Poems
Nightwatchers
Nightwatchers You watchers of the night!. Why do you stare So steadfastly upon the silent stars?. Do dreams of famous immortality Impel you to explore, with such profound Intent, […]
On Re-Reading Keats
On Re-Reading Keats Re-reading you, (my friend, though long since dead), I am suffused with feelings strange and strong; A flood – a whirl of words – pours through my head, My captured heart bursts into happy song!. […]
Xerxes in Greece
Xerxes in Greece (October 480 BC) Xerxes, sat on his throne high overSalamis, Stared down in disbelief to see his Persian fleet, (More than two thousand sail), trapped and destroyed within Those narrow straits where they were lured by wily Greeks, Whose mere four hundred triremes beat the waves to foam And […]
Myrna's Dance
Myrna’s Dance [Adapted from Neknus, Canto XXX] They drink to pained excess who know Not when their bellies will be filled again With anything more tasteful than poor scraps Stolen, or begged, from wealthy merchants who Fill the markets daily with their goods. They drink until the wine and […]
The Dancers
The Dancers [Adapted from Neknus, Canto XXIV] And so The dancers enter to display their thrilling art. In they come, these splendid charmers, (Twenty males and females all With nature’s graces unadorned), Each more finely formed than anyone Assembled there had ever seen, Or […]
Optimist?
Optimist? You cannot fool me, Death, with your façade Of mystic power and stern finality. Others you may, perhaps, through grief delude For, in distraction, reason’s clarity Can be confused. Of this I am convinced; When your sly fingers steal my latest breath I’ll briefly sleep and then, refreshed, […]
Never Despair
Never Despair (Sir Winston Churchill K.G. d. 25th January 1965) The Spirit of our Age Is now no more. He has dispensed with our mortality And joined again that God from Whom he came. What words can tell Those qualities […]
Future Hope
Future Hope Ancestral country of my dearest kin I come, Unprejudiced, with liberal intent; Peace I bear in my hands. My heart aches at your misery and shock. My eyes Weep for your desolate despair. I sense your moidered hurt. My death upon your bloodied land […]
Ireland (1970s)
Ireland. (1970s) Through fresh green fields and orchards ran The road he had to tread; Through straggled towns and villages His path of duty led. Till in some place he did not know – Although it seemed he knew – He saw the One he thought he’d meet […]
J. R. R. T
J. R. R. T Master of myth and ancient folklore; dream Maker; inspired begetter of fresh hopes; How much we owe you who, in your vast works, Breathed onto fossil thought and made it live!. One aspect of […]