You are viewing the category: Clouds of Glory & Other Poems
Illusions?
Illusions? Some nights, from out the dark, I seem to see Dim flicker-lights of stars behind thin mists Which veil them from my focussed sight. Is this because I think they’re there, and so permit my brain To turn my thought into apparent fact?. Or is peripheral night-vision more acute?. […]
The Death of Harold
The Death of Harold (14 October 1066) Outnumbered, but undaunted, stood the English king NearHastings, with his close-embattled shield-wall-ring And steadfast axemen, beating […]
Music and Poetry
Music and Poetry (A ‘Neapolitan’ Poem) Rich streams of suasive sound arouse in open hearts Emotions which can overmaster reasoned thoughts. Skilled music stirs our minds with flowing tides Which wash our senses’ and our souls’ […]
Larksong in War
Larksong in War Larksong in War Hear how expressively small skylarks wring From shell-shocked throats incendiary songs Which burn into crushed consciences the pains Of conflict and its needless suffering. Self-mortaring into smoked skies, the larks Explode in tonic shrapnels which pierce through Hate-deafened ears to lodge, deep in hurt hearts, […]
Xanthippe
Xanthippe When he could speak, the mild philosopher observed: “You seem to take much pleasure telling me, forever, My faults and foibles. I have never claimed to be A flawless paragon; not even in those days – […]
Nature's Gossips
Nature’s Gossips Along the margins of some forest paths Fresh, purling rivulets run noisily. They are wild Nature’s gossips and will tell The seasons of the year in tones that brook No arguments from sceptic minds. They’ll say Where foxes’ dens and badgers’ […]
Pain
Pain I’ve a pain in my heart, But I do not know if Its ache is a part Of my death or my life. Is it pain which denotes That my heart is diseased? Or a pain which reports My emotions’ […]
Father!
Father! “Who is this stranger – solemn, pensive, mute – Who haunts our house with vacantly vague looks; Whose mind seems more engaged with dreams than facts, Oblivious of problems; distantly Preoccupied with abstruse reveries; Muttering incantations to himself whilst Counting numbers on his chin, with fingers […]
Seduction
Seduction Surely the charming phrase, the lavish gift, The brilliant display, are mere attires Of courting-rituals, designed for swift Submission to lust’s transient desires?. Do not the birds and beasts, to gratify Instinctive urges, flatter each their sort […]
Autumn Evening
Autumn Evening The watercolours of an Autumn evening wash The sky, above the darkling Western hills, with stains Of intermingled pink, pale gold, green-violet. Against this lambent backdrop stand the distant trees Poised in stark, uncompromising poses, more clear In outline, now, than at the hazy […]