Poetry, stories and strange odds and ends from the desk of a writer
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews … Continue reading The Tyger
https://youtu.be/-rbMHbYogYs Persian Night Samvel Yervinyan
I watched the skies and wondered on a dream When you gaze on the stars this moonless night Do senses drift as if upon a stream Or do they thunder like a city crowd? Does love lead your heart to take delight While floating on a wispy spiral cloud? And do those stars above seem … Continue reading This Moonless Night
Silently amid the green fields he watches over the Vale a visage over centuries like a guardian from a distant time rising hills beckon the foot falls walking with the peace of nature escaping the fast-paced living of neon lights in the towns and cities the rural idyll of great kings and warriors and time … Continue reading Vale Walking
https://youtu.be/aJQZ6qjn-q4 Title: Phantasy Quartet Date: 1932 Composer: Benjamin Britten Movement: 20th Century Classical English 22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!” He took his vorpal sword in hand; Long time the … Continue reading Jabberwocky
I walk the stony ground wrought in life’s pain That echoes the tales of a broken heart My tears lay lost in the rivers of rain That mirror the sorrow inside my soul Yet mere words have no thought on where to start No solace nor comfort of joyful parole For lines of poetry hold … Continue reading Shattered Love
Rhyme Type Example Masculine Rhyme Sprite/tonight Feminine Rhyme Waiter/equator Triple Rhyme Drastically/fantastically Assonance Rhyme Stub/rug Partial Consonance Rhyme Wild/fold Full Consonance Rhyme Wild/weld Eye Rhyme Heard/beard Rich Rhyme Time/thyme
https://youtu.be/WxnN05vOuSM Iron Maiden Number of the Beast
Her spell is cast and surges through my blood The ebb and flow of life within my veins It cannot change the emotional flood That leaves my soul lost in an angel’s chains A heavenly place yet it burns of hell Of pain and pleasure in melodic song Nothing to say with no story to … Continue reading Poisoned Blood
Title: Cleopatra Date: 1887 Movement: Pre-Raphaelite John William Waterhouse British 6 April 1849 – 10 February 1917
As I gaze through the window pane I see questions I should ask you Yet the answers will hurt again I see the rose in fragrant hue Her beauty compares not to you For your beauty is all I see Still my heart is broken in two If you can’t see love inside me … Continue reading Window Gazing
I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, … Continue reading Ozymandias
https://youtu.be/TFLRHPUWBI8 Sadeness Enigma
It’s mind over matter this sleight of hand Simple illusions that deceive the eye But it’s never easy to understand As the man in a black suit casts a lie Silently stunned so we never ask why The speed of hand faster than what we see And nothing’s what we perceive it to be But … Continue reading Sleight of Hand
As I awake the last dream I see is you fading away as my eyes open and consciousness replaces sleep ordinary replaces the fanciful it’s just a dream and in the cold light of day working boots and hi viz beckon my only companions as the day begins the essence of darkness echo from the … Continue reading It’s Just a Dream
https://youtu.be/kAJcVR0n-ek Title: Flight of the Bumblebee Date: 1899 Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Russian 18 March 1844 – 21 June 1908
When the wise talk of love is it a dream And do they dance beneath that moonlit beam Just like you and I as we kiss goodnight To hold the moment of love’s sweet delight In a courtship that leads us to the heart A prelude to the passion we behold The beautiful gift granted … Continue reading Changing Direction
The tender touch I can’t feel as paranoia steals my breathing yet desire burns a raging flame drawing closer pushing away on the precipice of despair love me don’t touch me I seek beauty not lust there are other things we can do talk to me shared philosophy in conversation inspire my thinking in gentle … Continue reading Love Savvy
https://youtu.be/xwtdhWltSIg Losing My Religion REM
On the Ning Nang Nong Where the Cows go Bong! and the monkeys all say BOO! There's a Nong Nang Ning Where the trees go Ping! And the tea pots jibber jabber joo. On the Nong Ning Nang All the mice go Clang And you just can't catch 'em when they do! So its Ning … Continue reading On the Ning Nang Nong
Beside the dreamy streams he stands alone, The fires of lightning sparking in his eye, As the white stag comes to the sacred stone The Sun-god smiles wherever ravens fly, Like a mountain reaching for misty sky Proudly stands the chief of the Mabogni His battles fought, in peace dwells Lord of grain Through summer … Continue reading The White Stag
The hustle of her chamois leather jeans That caught my eye on that hot summer night A glance, a smile and the story began With hidden words of love that poets write With deep sandy eyes, she hypnotized me I was willing to surrender my heart For she stole my mind in erotic dance Such … Continue reading Spanish Eyes
Title: Grafton Gallery, from Les Affiche Illustrees Date: 1897 Movement: Art Nouveau Eugène Grasset Swiss 25 May 1845 – 23 October 1017
The day you left my world just fell away, No hope or will to face each brand-new day, Nor reason to linger awhile in bed I cannot fix the heart you left for dead. In ev'rything a memory of you, No answers left to tell me what to do, As nothing but pain fills my … Continue reading The Tears of Dawn
https://youtu.be/k4V3Mo61fJM Fix You Coldplay
I look in her eyes and feel the fires burn Such passion is not a fleeting sojourn I feel her heart beat tugging upon mine As in her kiss I taste the sweetest wine My tongue longs to linger upon her lip While gently teasing as her senses slip Before the lingual dance in rhythmic … Continue reading The Mystery
A mastless ship now lost at sea With no maps or places to go For all the stars have left the sky I have nothing left to go by My heart is empty, shot by pain A mastless ship now lost at sea A mere speck in the endless blue And no idea of what to … Continue reading Lost at Sea
sips of half empty sour the dreams of living drink half full instead © JG Farmer 2017 Form: Haiku
https://youtu.be/Jmk5frp6-3Q Date: 1914 Composer: Gustav Holst English 21 Sept 1874 – 25 May 1934
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, … Continue reading O Captain! My Captain
As the winter skies darken And black storms howl the arcane Heed red clouds and harken The Sun King greets us again Dark nights intimidating A world of change awaiting Turn of seasons predating Winter’s winds breath abaiting On Solstice night he’s reborn Decked in green and holly thorn The festive colours adorn Fireside merriment … Continue reading Nadolig
John Keats 14 October 1795 – 23 February 1821 English Poet John Keats was an English Romantic poet and one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantics alongside Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. John was born on 14 October 1795 in London, the son of Thomas Keats, a hostler at … Continue reading The Nightingale Poet
https://youtu.be/EpZlX6WVMJo In the Dark Parasite Inc
This sense of fear that grows as twilight fades And reapers of souls descend on the Earth, To feed on destruction in chaos’ birth, Dear angels of truth tremble in the shades. The eyes of Man see nothing but old mud, Where the beauty of nature once stood proud, There is no movement, not even … Continue reading The End
Those words of denial hurt me a shattered heart refusing to love or be loved for love meant pain without mercy never-ending unrelenting unkind unkind words unable to see they left me blind outside of darkness I didn’t exist as words pierced my soul until all I crave is silence serenity tranquility to dry the … Continue reading Lost Tears
The Street Date: 1933 Movement: Metaphysical Art Balthus French 29 Feb 1908 – 18 Feb 2001
The night reveals the beauty of your love As senses fall, one by one, it’s you I see I am below and you; you are above A goddess taking all her want from me In your embrace you set my passions free Yet captive in the power of your eyes You hold me here, the … Continue reading The Eagle Cries
Rhyme Scheme: abab cdcd efef gg Meter: Decasyllabic or pentameter Structure: 3 quatrains and a couplet Example: The Black Hound of Destiny by Jez Farmer As darkness takes our souls to hell what has become of pleasant dreams when death has tolled its final bell no one remains to hear the screams. Gwyllgi calls, the … Continue reading English Sonnet
https://youtu.be/sf6LD2B_kDQ Elements Lindsey Sterling
Only lovers share the true secrets of love that touch the soul The mystery hidden betwixt stars and moon And none may know why the simple kisses make two lovers whole Yet witness the magic of the sacred rune A silent whisper that called two hearts to always beat as one In the knowledge that … Continue reading The Magic
I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I waterd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both … Continue reading A Poison Tree
Dormant, he sleeps within my heart his tranquillity is my darkness and he rests silently with one eye open he waits for love’s tender kiss to awaken his veracity and strength for love is his inky black quills of flight © JG Farmer 2017 Form: Free Verse
https://youtu.be/F5zg_af9b8c Date: 1899 Movement: Romantic Jean Sibelius Finnish 8 Dec 1865 – 20 Sept 1957
My Lady taught me well beneath the sky That mine is not to fear eternal flame For fear won’t lead me to her realm’s divine. To fear her words and never ask her why Condemns my soul with no one else to blame As choices made, they must truly be mine. Yet if I hunger … Continue reading The Choice
Foot Scansion Sound Example Iamb -/ De-dum Detain, betray, entwine Trochee /- Dum-de Raven, pathway, garden Spondee // Dum-dum Stand up! Sit down! Go back! Anapaest --/ De-de-dum Understand, contradict, Japanese Dactyl /-- Dum-de-de Signature, fantasy, elephant
