Thank you for your courtesy Frank. I must admit that there are some words that I'm completely incapable of uttering.

I agree with all the sentiments expressed in your catalogue of the evils of the world.

Couldn't help laughing at Fr**k.

Thanks Musty for reading & the opinion. Exactly the point, the obscenity famine war and want represent and IMO the other listed offensive aspects of practises more offending to us than a verbal offence ever can be.

Yeah - while being called a 'warmonger' would offend me much less than being called a 'c', war and famine remain among the world's worst ills.

Madrigal

Come meet me on the island,
Though people are now gone
Warm autumn fires
And golden spires
Shall always linger on.

Refreshed in marble halls there
We’ll sigh as Neptune plays;
Each different key
Speaks of the sea
And love’s forgotten ways.

Then we'll gaze while a sunset
Turns every shoreline red,
When final beams
Descend like dreams
Into God's crimson bed.


©

Wondering

Have you wondered why the sun
Paints the evening all as one?
When it sinks down in the west
There's a time of perfect rest
And a picture is unrolled
So ornamental, rich and gold
It changes river, hill and sky,
Have you ever wondered why?

The ancients wondered till they knew;
Aware of every distant view
They turned the key and looked upon
Utopia and Avalon;
Science teaches many facts
But not the way a soul reacts,
How beauty witnessed through the eyes
Encourages the heart to rise.

This I know from what I've seen,
From ocean deep and valley green,
From lilac blossom, snow that falls
And sunlit ivy climbing walls.
Have you wondered at each star?
What endless, countless things they are,
A billion silver points of light
Like beacons in the black of night.

Only when we break the bond
Is there a way to pass beyond
And then perhaps we'll even see
The wonders of eternity.


©

On seeing the Needles

Our ship sailed out, we left the Isle of Wight
And soon my eyes beheld a strange formation,
I'd always dreamt of witnessing that sight;
The Needles, stoic guards in strict formation.

They loom beyond the sands of Alum Bay,
Three remnants of hard chalk giving no quarter,
Caught in the prism of the sun and spray
Their jagged peaks shone bright above the water.

A lighthouse at the front helps vessels steer,
Though time is taking great efforts erasing
Defiant stand the chalk survivors here
That keep spectators mesmerized and gazing,
It's humbling on a visit to be near
The Needles, coastal sentries so amazing.


©

Aaahhh yes! Musty, the romantic and the educator.

Three Romantic poems probably means a darker one's on the horizon Biz

The same thought had occurred to me.

The Find

Not far from a white tent's rigging
Sponsored by authority
Two friends after constant digging
Hard for archeology
Made a find and now were swigging
Alcohol beside a tree.

Something really made them start for
Shocks weren't routine; though the team
Dug the virgin earth of Dartmoor
No swords, not a jewel did gleam:
Through the soil they chose to part more
Stared a face set in a scream.

Long at rest, a stone age peasant,
Well preserved and fixed in mud,
Though his features looked unpleasant
Crushed by time and lacking blood,
By the late moon’s silver crescent
Eager colleagues chewed the cud.

They talked of the coming glory;
Scholars would prepare reports
For a prehistoric story,
Fame and plaudits filled their thoughts,
Newspapers requiring gory
Details pay to get retorts.

To the tent they tried to mosey,
Drunk and stumbling, glad to bask,
Sleeping bags are warm and cosy,
More so with a whisky flask,
Soon they slumbered feeling dozy,
Pleased with their successful task.

While both slept content they did right
Twenty yards off at the ditch
They’d disturbed in lunar mid-light
Shovelled soil gleamed dark and rich,
That’s where fingers moved at midnight
When a hand began to twitch.

What caused such an evil traction?
Some old curse or just bad luck
Instigated this reaction
And a corpse through eras stuck
Slowly rose and with the action
Freed itself from slime and muck.

On its legs, a dead man standing,
Devon’s zombie cold as ice,
Injuries showed ancient branding,
He had been a sacrifice
But the debt remained outstanding:
This one sought a vengeful price.

Limbs containing hollow pockets,
Mouth wide open, weapon-shaped
Where the skull received a knock its
Sacrificial wounds still gaped,
Eyes were only empty sockets,
Feet towards the tent that scraped.

Strangled them while they were dreaming,
Years of bitter thirst to quench,
Now the mouth refrained from screaming,
Now the tight fists could unclench,
Then it limped 'neath moonlight streaming
And fulfilled, laid in the trench.


©

You know me so well

Sh..sh..shiver. I'm glad I didn't read that before I went to bed last night.

How true the moral contained in the tale. It isn't always the guilty who suffer.

Hi Biz Sacrifice was a big down-side of the pagan era. In truth it never really went away; the Christians merely channeled the need for it into the death of Jesus. I guess that was better than sacrificing animals and other innocents in the name of faith.

You're right that sacrifice has never gone away. There have been far too many innocents sacrificed just recently.

The world gets no wiser does it?

Not a lot

Harlequins and Violins

I passed through halls
With splendid walls
Until at last I found
A masquerade, a rich parade
Of characters profound.

Each guest was masked,
In joy they basked,
As red wine quenched my thirst
Bohemian sorts prepared to waltz,
A string quartet rehearsed.

Then harlequins
To violins
Began to dance along,
No answers save what moves they gave,
Fleet-footed, lithe and strong.

Glass chandeliers
Like Helen's tears,
Fine furniture for kings
And yet one smile did so beguile
It outshone all these things.

Before too soon
A harvest moon
Beamed bright and high above;
The night advanced and when we glanced
Both of us fell in love.

Her face was fair,
I joined her there,
A fantasy come true
While harlequins to violins
Danced on the whole night through.


©

Aaaahhhh yes! 'Such stuff as dreams are made on.'

I must cultivate day dreams, as my night dreams never end in the right way.

I loved 'Lilac Land' Musty......ohhh the wonderful scent that thought evokes.
I'll try to find that poem again as a 'pick me up' when we are all stuck under a foot of snow in mid winter.

I think you have to be a dreamer to like poetry Biz


Thanks so much BB I was pleased with Lilac Land when I finished writing it and few corrections were needed, which is unusual!

Possessive

I chose her out of many here,
I like girls young and shy,
Much easier than boys to steer
Whose hormones go awry.

One night with malice I connived
To float this way and seep
Into a human, I arrived
While she was fast asleep.

At midnight in her bed, that's when
She swallowed my creed’s pill,
Not Christianity or Zen,
Not Islam; stronger still.

It takes a while before the change
(At first they all stay calm),
Next day she felt a little strange
But nothing to alarm.

The mother sensed the daughter’s mood,
When asked what made her ail
She lied that homework made her brood,
The reason she looked pale.

At home she started breaking rules,
The pet cat shunned her gaze
Yet when she called her parents fools
They thought it was a phase.

In class she acted even worse,
Her teachers couldn't see
Each loud and filthy foul-mouthed curse
Was really down to me.

Both parents tried to help, although
When they proposed a shrink
Another rage began to grow
Which pushed her to the brink.

Eyes rolled white in a fiendish face,
She spat at them and swore,
The table shook then left its place
To move across the floor.

The smile was gone, the features masked
By evil hands caressed,
The first time that they ever asked
If she had been possessed.

She’s trapped in my demonic vice,
Her bedroom is so cold
It’s like a freezing tomb of ice,
She speaks in tongues of old.

Let priests try hard to save her soul
With crosses to assist,
God cannot save the girl I stole,
Nor any exorcist.


©

Not just a dreamer, you also have nightmares.

I had searched for the song that has the lines "You call me a dreamer, Well maybe I am", but I'm trembling too much to pppp..............

Oh! I've recovered. It was Bing Crosby singing "Far Away Places".

I'm not a great fan of Bing - did you know his song Please inspired The Beatles' first big hit Please Please Me Biz? Useless Trivia Part 298

The Tin Man's lament

My friend gave me a token
Then flew off in the air
Forever leaving broken
A heart that wasn't there.

While bad witches need slaying,
No good spell comforts me;
Emotions keep relaying
How I miss Dorothy.

The straw man and the lion
Thought steel resolve would win,
My outlook though lacks iron,
I'm simply made of tin.

I watch the Oz terrain glow,
Through loneliness I plough,
I'm here over the rainbow
Yet old and creaking now.

The yellow brick road we walked
Feels lonely and I'm blue,
It’s many years since we talked,
How are Toto and you?

Dear Dorothy so gentle,
To leave was not unjust
But tears are sentimental
And mine have turned to rust.


©

No, I didn't know that. In fact I couldn't recall the song "Please", but having listened to it on youtube I much prefer the Beatles song.

Can't say I'm a fan of Bing Crosby, much prefer Frank Sinatras' voice. I'm sure you're fascinated to know that.

For goodness sake, someone send him a tin of WD40 - it will put new life in him.