Long Time No Hear

Prompt: Songs you love but rarely listen to There are far too many of these to post a complete listing so will go with the few I have had the pleasure of listening to today as I made notes for this write. I am starting with Transvision Vamp and Baby, I Don’t Care as it …

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Night Shift

Wide awake beneath a black ink sky only thoughts for company sharing bittersweet sips of coffee feeding the words in spiralling strokes on the page thriving in the creative pool oxymorons play with juxtapositions conflicting ideas united in device and the pen throws in a delicate pause whispered in the night as the synonyms and …

A Royal Birth

Candice was special, she was lucky, she had been chosen. That is all she had heard for the last nine months. Now the time had come for the child to be born. Desperately she kept telling herself it wasn’t her child it was theirs. The child was for the survival of the hive. They started …

Nightingale

https://youtu.be/eCiYaoICK3w   Yanni Nightingale

Tug of War

A battle waits and only strength can win The old must die for the new to begin While battle worn, devoid of all but hope Beguiled by hate a soldier stakes his claim In fireside stories refusing to mope His inner resources taking up the strain As fears and doubts have left the rope too …

Home for Tea

The vagueness falls around a winter dawn And frost is nipping at by boot clad feet A golden hue; a glimpse of a sunbeam With trees like sketches with a pencil drawn Where the curling mist seems to gently greet The dog and I out walking by the stream In this wintery bliss where nothing …

Modest Mussorgsky: A Night on Bald Mountain

https://youtu.be/iCEDfZgDPS8 Title: A Night on Bald Mountain Date: 1867 Composer: Modest Mussorgsky Romantic Era Russian 1839 - 1881   Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a composer and an innovator of Russian music during the Romantic period. In defiance of the conventions of the Western music establishment, he deliberately strove to give Russian music its own identity. …

Flush or Faunus by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You see this dog. It was but yesterday I mused, forgetful of his presence here, Till thought on thought drew downward tear on tear; When from the pillow, where wet-cheeked I lay, A head as hairy as Faunus, thrust its way Right sudden against my face,—two golden-clear Large eyes astonished mine,—a drooping ear Did flap …

Discarded Masks

The sheen of gloss to make a pretty smile And like a clown the tears are lost with style In automated steps of make believe While freedom is found only in the dreams Of a girl in a world meant to deceive And she hides behind the biddings it asks Yet his voice echoes the …

Comparison of Passion

Dust settles rapidly On empty battlefields In mourning reflection And lovers lingering In velvet temptation Such feelings equated resolutely Love Hate The friction intimates That spirits awaken indifferent   ©JG Farmer 2018 Form: Rhopalic Verse

Where the Heart Leads the Feet Follow

Prompt: Songs that make you want to dance No prizes for guessing this write will feature a fair bit of tango, so that is where I will kick off with El Choclo by Angel Villoldo https://youtu.be/aV9wGF8QieI Next up La Tropiilla de la Zurda by Carlos Libedinsky as it is so frikken sensual to dance. https://youtu.be/VgiQthd09V0 …

Rhapsodomancy

She speaks to me in words upon the page The mystic woman who so often takes My hand and leads my soul in ways of sage She dries my tears through the pains and heartaches Then guides my pen to write all the hurt out And see the truth that my poetry makes Her belief …

Wastelanders of Friadan

The Wasteland people didn’t talk much. What language they had was limited sounds from the back of the throat, and we didn’t know or understood what they meant. Their homesteads, if they could be called that were sparse and ramshackle. Makeshift shelters surrounding a central fire, but to them, it was home.  The concept of …

Catena Rondo

  The Catena Rondo, created by academic writer and poet Robin Skelton. It is a quatrain stanza form with the second line forming a rhyming couplet with the third line. The second line also becomes the first and fourth lines of the following stanza. There is no limit to the number of stanzas and the …

Iron Maiden: Aces High

https://youtu.be/np8GaFHD9Lg Formed in Leyton, North London, Iron Maiden is a heavy metal band. Formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris the band’s discography has grown to thirty-eight albums. Iron Maiden are pioneers of the new wave of British heavy metal from the 1980’s onwards. Aces High, written by Steve Harris, is Iron …

For Life

Within the darkness lies a poet’s sight The special something that is his delight That something perfect dwells inside his mind It stirs with his words as he takes his breath And on the page his thoughts slowly unwind A gentle breeze or a tempest in ink This ink is like blood exposing his soul …

The Chair

The chair just sits So empty now And loneliness Is lost in grief The tears I cry For me, not you The emptiness Of letting go I held your hand And begged the pain To set you free To fly among The stars above I did not think I’d feel alone But for that chair …

The Crossing – Signals

It was the last day of September, and it was a day that time kept suspending itself around me. I was sat with Arina in the living room, listening to the heavy rain falling outside. She was sewing, and I was watching the silver needle dart in and out of the fabric. It was hypnotic …

Watched by Hannah Hoch

Title: Watched Date: 1925 Style: Dada Artist: Hannah Hoch German 1889 – 1978 Anna Therese Johanne Hoch is best known for her work of the Weimar period. She was one of the originators of Photomontage, a type of collage of actual photographs. Key themes in her work were androgyny, political discourse and shifting gender roles. …

Moving Forward

So tightly wrapped within the endless heat Yet daring not to breathe to find my feet A distant memory that haunts my dreams My days of binding are over and gone I can breathe now without ripping the seams And look back at the girl I left behind Without fear of rage or feeling self-hate …

Etheree

The Etheree is a 10-lined poetry form with an ascending syllable count of 1 to 10 through lines 1 to 10. Therefore, line 1 has 1 syllable, line 2 has 2, and so on ending with line 10 and 10 syllables. Example: Elemental by Jez Farmer Fire Air, Earth Water sprites combined as one. Life's …

Necromantic Rune

A pale reflection as day turns to night Soon enough the skies will be dark In her waning of fading silver light I feel my qi start to spark Soon enough the skies will be dark A quiet moment before the storm I feel my qi start to spark The air is rich with magic …

Leaky-eye Tunes

Prompt: Songs that make you cry This is where the classics come into their own, especially the sound of the violin so no shock there is going to be a bit of Samvel Yervinyan. https://youtu.be/henMgfslBPQ I have been privileged to see Samvel in concert with Yanni and the next piece truly made my eyes leak …

Brief Glances

I’m quite a reserved guy, the type that goes to the gym when its quiet. On the odd occasion there would be one or two other guys in the changing room but today it was crowded, a heaving mass of masculinity. Maybe I should have given up then, but instead I took a deep breath …

Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his …

Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough

https://youtu.be/yURRmWtbTbo Michael Jackson Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough

Call of the Corax

The darkest hour, and the rain brings delight As the thunder echoes across the night When a cool caress touches the warm air The tempest roars to break the summer heat And to this solace my soul is left bare At last I dance with demons of the dark For love will always lead my …

A Poem of Beauty

I want to write you, my flame, my poem of beauty as my words paint your body the artist and poet whispering the grace of love and the elegance of desire as words capture the stretch of fabric taut across your breast and my thoughts linger in that delight like my fingers seeking the warmth …

The Crossing – The Morning After

The next morning I woke up leant against an old oak tree. It was late September and I should have felt cold but instead, I felt embraced and warm. Embraced I was, in Gai’s arms as he slept beside me. I moved slowly and silently as not to wake the sleeping man. As quietly as …

Astor Piazzolla: Libertango

  https://youtu.be/WpEpS1FX5ic Title: Libertango Date: 1974 Composer: Astor Piazzolla Nuevo Tango Argentine 1921 - 1992 Astor Pantaléon Piazzolla was a composer, particularly of music for the tango, a bandoneon player and arranger. His compositions revolutionised tango music into the nuevo style combining elements of jazz and classical music. He has been described as the ‘world’s …

Rose-tinted? Maybe, Baby

I doubt I was born to love or be loved Yet I yearn for her touch of velvet gloved Hands caressing my heart; her love holding Me; I long for the sweetness of her kiss In that moment her desire is unfolding A rose opening her soul to her sun Like the golden tendrils of …

Sing It

Prompt: Songs you sing out loud In recent years my voice has gone through a lot of changes as the male hormones have done their job. So I am starting with one I used sing back in the day from the beautiful Debbie Harry and Blondie https://youtu.be/DbDdMqE49SA Another one from the past with Gloria Gaynor …

The Waiting

The virtues of patience are wearing thin when the hands of time stand still after years of waiting so long in anticipation and yet now that I know the time is near I feel it is out of reach that patience running so thin it’s almost out with the mockery of time all doubts have …

The Wedding Party

It had been a beautiful day. The early spring sunshine was the perfect background for Kate and Matt as they took their vows. Cameras clicked as Matt kissed his bride amid the rainbow of confetti swirling on the light wind. A few hours later the bodies of Matt and his bestman, Alan, lay on the …

David Bowie: Blue Jean

  https://youtu.be/LTYvjrM6djo   David Bowie 1947 - 2016 David Robert Jones, better known as David Bowie, was a singer, songwriter and actor. He was renowned as a leading figure of innovative and popular music from his first album in 1967 until his death in 2016. In a fight over a girl, he was punched in …

Inside Her Eyes

In roseate shadows where dreams are seen His fingers tap his thoughts across the screen The words of love upon hi-tech device As old as time; for love remains the same It is no science nor is it precise As it catches the soul in its embrace Lingering gazes lead the heart inside The eyes. …

Haiku

  cloudless skies gaze on the wilted velvet rose soon the storms will come ©JG Farmer 2018 Form: Haiku

The Crossing – Hopes and Dreams

In the days before we escaped there was no such thing as hope. Each day was the same, yesterday blended in today and no one dared think of tomorrow. Here in a quiet suburb life was gentler and not a desperate scrap for survival. There was time to think, time to learn and time to …

A Favourite Custom by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Title: A Favourite Custom Date: 1909 Movement: Romanticism Artist: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Dutch 1836 – 1912 Laurens Alma Tadema, better known as Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, was one of the most highly renowned Romantic artists of the late 19thC. He changed the spelling of his name to the more English Lawrence while making his niche in …

Dance Free

Tonight, I waltz within your arms once more Across the night sky’s celestial dance floor As love extends her touch beyond the veil And should you care to reach out, take my hand And join me once more so our ship can sail Upon the everlasting heavenly sea And if you should ask me the …

Her Song

Prompt: A song for your girl/boyfriend Initially looking at the prompt I thought one song, how the hell do I choose just one song from the endless tunes we send each other. Really it wasn’t difficult there has only ever been one song that says it. Don’t suppose Caz will be surprised by it. Nothing …

The Café

We had been off the motorway just 15 minutes when it happened. For no reason whatsoever, the car just stopped. There was fuel in the tank, but nothing when Kel turned the ignition, not even a half-hearted whirr. Kel picked up her torch and popped the bonnet. ‘Turn the ignition for me, Jess’ I turned …

Get Down on It

There is a distinct lack of funk on the playlist – so changing that with this one. https://youtu.be/qchPLaiKocI Kool and the Gang Get Down on It

Morning Light

Texte: With face more pallid than a daylit star – Rouen Place de la Pucelle by Maria White Lowell Cadaverous tendrils of early dawn Invoking light towards a virgin morn Across the sleeping land where no life stirs From slumber; resting gently as it goes Until darkness to the light its hold confers And in …

I’ve Got a Golden Ticket by Roald Dahl

I never thought my life could be Anything but catastrophe But suddenly I begin to see A bit of good luck for me 'Cause I've got a golden ticket I've got a golden twinkle in my eye I never had a chance to shine Never a happy song to sing But suddenly half the world …

Shirt Buttons

I watch your fingers dance on pearly white Then smile as you unbutton my shirt; tight I hold you close as your breath plays my skin And you tug ‘til cotton drapes on the floor And closer, I hold you, my desire within The guilty want of your body neath mine I keep my vow, …

The Crossing – October 3rd

The weeks passed, and my twenty-first birthday was getting closer. It was now the first days of autumn and the trees and countryside were taking on the vibrant shades of fall. I had never got excited about my birthday before. I only knew it was October 3rd because they had told me. I did not …

La Follia

  https://youtu.be/VHRdFILo_Yw  Title: La Follia Date: 1700 Composer: Arcangelo Corelli Movement: Baroque Italian 1653 - 1713 Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer. He studied under Giovanni Battista Bassani and Matteo Simonelli. Corelli’s first major success was at the age of 19 in Paris. By 1679 he had entered the service of Queen Christina …

Colours of Life

Dark clouds of pain make it so hard to see The colours of what is going to be We dwell and mope in dull and aching grey With eyes closed: not daring to look ahead As if in the sadness we want to stay To leave tomorrow’s beauty far behind As if the future has …