David Furlong Poet Free verse

Erebus and Terror

Held fast!

Ruthlessly trapped in a white sepulchred vice
that slowly, inexorably, crushes all hope.
Starving we wait, with lips black and caked,
all frozen in a wasteland of ice and snow;
revealing desolation and utter despair that 
relentlessly flows, to an uncertain death.

We, officers and men, who’d aspired so high, 
had failed to spot the strange irony 
of our two ships’ names – ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’! 
Darkness and horror now stalks each soul, 
icily gripping us, in manacled madness.    

Naked we entered this imperfect world, 
born to long suffering and adversity. 
Dare we bear arms against this dread fate? 
Or, meekly succumb to what destiny holds,
shorn now of all means, to sustain our lives? 

In the bleakness and sorrow of that long winter’s night, 
we watched the fell stars of mighty Ursa, 
circling, like bears, in the spangled blackness,  
remorselessly hunting each human soul 
…to a grizzled end.

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Skat A September 8, 2015 at 2:20 PM David, Congratulations on having your poem featured on the home page. **SKAT**

Rev. Gerald Dillenbeck March 3, 2015 at 10:44 AM Deeply appreciate how dynamically stark it is for me within this space of static and terminal stuckness you, and history, have created together. Great place to visit, in large part because it becomes so clear that no one would want to live here. And, thanks for your appreciation of my polarities as well. David Furlong March 3, 2015 at 12:04 PM Gerald, thanks for your comments. It is strange how poems sometimes emerge. I was playing around with the theme of 'bare' and 'bear' and that led me to icy winters and then I remembered the loss of the two ships, which led to the poem. David

Olive Eloisa Guillermo - Fraser February 26, 2015 at 8:59 AM I like how you made each line.. as one read along the feelings you rose are intensified.. descriptive in every way..the title goes well with each line...... my fave stanza is the 2nd!.. olive eloisa David Furlong March 3, 2015 at 12:08 AM A belated thanks Olive for your comments, they are much appreciated:)