Battlements Poems | Examples

Too Far Gone

It hangs upon the precipice:
once lethal, looming by design.
A stalwart, buttressed edifice,
the press of time has not been kind.

The howling seas, like dogs of war,
have savaged once proud prominence.
The cliffs that thwarted all before,
succumbed to tidal dominance.

With shoulders squared, and jaw tight clenched:
no further; here, the line was drawn.
The hounds at bay, thus firm entrenched,
a costly, lasting truce was spawned.

By blood, by sweat, a people saved
to live out days beyond these walls.
There on the battlements engraved,
vita pro omni, life for all.

Ironic, then; ‘twas built to last.
Uncaring, time just marches on.
A crumbled vestige of the past,
no rescue now; it’s too far gone.

----------

for the Pick-A-Title, Vol 31 Poetry Contest
sponsored by Edward Ibeh
written on 07/10/2022

Castle Home

Bright banners fluttered high in the warm summer breeze
	guards in armor bright do walk the battlements high
no travelers pass in through the gate
	the portcullus is down barring the way

not long the journey we had been on
	nor far the travels away from our home
yet when we left no one barred the way
	all then were welcome to freely come

we hail the watchmen in the towers gate
	bid that they would unbar the way
cold is the look that we do see
	they answered no you do not belong 

all who are welcome are gathered within
	those who we summoned our already within
the gates will not open to you ever again
	go on your way be gone from here

turning we ride away from our home
	not understanding just what did change
that we’re not welcome here in our home
	the gates are barred and we’re sent away

and darkness falls as we right away
	and all our hopes do fade away
we feel lost at be cast out
	now we are rejected and know not why

warm summer days have now turn cold
	and days of spring are for ever gone
darkness deep now lies in our heart
	now as our home is forever lost

Battle

Knife sharp nerves, veiled in silk
Stretch and strain to break through
This barricade of skin
To reach out across the charged chasm,
To touch you where you stand,
Shadow-drenched and whisper-close,
To cradle you in love’s aeolian embrace.

But Fear, the captain of my soul,
Commands the battlements before which
My desires lie in legion,
Gore besmirched and dying.

My nerves, lost and defeated, have retreated,
Snail-like into their familiar shell.

Years pass in an irretrievable moment.

© Barry Freeman – 22nd April 2002

Love Forlorn

battlements high of cold gray stone
	softly lit by rays of sun
there she walks while gazing out
	over the slow rolling waves of the sea

practice field does lie within
	covered in grass both soft and green
a worthy knight with sword and shield
	looks longingly up at she

long dark curls to slowly wave
	with the slow shaking of his head
he returns to the practice drills
	endless long hours of training

plain sword and shield of simple steel
	no coat of arms nor emblem there
a simple man of arms is he
	that ne’er of maiden fair would see

her eyes of blue so clear and bright
	the fair features that fill his dreams
the longing passions that burns within
	the ache of the heart that knows no relief

again he turn unto his drill
	longing that it will empty his mind
free him of his love forlorn
	that her love might him embrace

On the morrow he will depart
	Traveling hence to the battle where he must be
perhaps somehow his will heart will forget
	that perhaps that in his return he might free

The Castle of Otranto

What is a castle, but a vain attempt
to keep at bay a horror, dark, adverse,
that sniffs its way towards our flesh and bone?
It seeps through portals, leering with contempt                         
at battlements and barriers.  The Curse
can find us, where we sleep, alone.
Rank weeds creep up, malodorous, unkempt:
a moaning wind weaves through them, to disperse
their evil seeds, unstoppable once sown.
Our crude carnality can fool us, tempt
a sense of something “out there”.  This perverse
conception causes castles.  Walls are thrown
around us.  Though we toil on soil and stone,
the menace is internal – and our own.

Mediocrity Monstrosity

A glint in the black, like stars
    Pearly, polished, pointy peaks of a fiend
      Fangs of self-deprecation, puncturing every effort
    Coursing the flow of doubt, discouragement and defeat
I may not see your face, beast, but your teeth betray you in darkness

Dripping with the blood of my best effort and intention
    Inexperience and ignorance, clotting ...
      I am but a babe in the woods of poetic expression
    Searching like Hansel, for crumbs of excuse and artistic insight
Oh, I see your vestiges, hear the gnawing of your dismal disregard

And your umbra shades every scribble ... every keystroke
    But I know you well ... I know who placed you there
      Yet, with a sword forged in kind encouragement and friendships, rare
    I will stand on the battlements, and fight to the end
And should you gain the last word, it shall be inscribed ... in my blood.





~ 8th Place ~  in the "Plucking the Poisonous Parrot" Poetry Contest, Maureen McGreavy, Judge & Sponsor.

Dark Night of Christmas Eve

. for public domain

(Why some people walk dark alleys on Christmas Eve)

From stone battlements they stare
into blackness, each aware
of the dark night of the soul,

where so many loose their way
ere the breaking of the Day,
wash out to sea with the shoal.

Each a beam of Heaven's Grace,
ready offer God's embrace,
to mend broken lives, whole.

Her Emotional Castle

Her walls are rock, her walls are straight, 
With battlements protecting her eyes,
Her fortifications hide all of her fear, 
While deep in her mind she cries,

She cries about those battles she’s had, 
About the jungle that’s holding her shoes,
Behind the wall she cries in blood, 
After all of the domestic abuse,

From her son, her daughter, her mother and spouse, 
The words that cut to the bone,
That’s why she built a shield of a castle, 
In her mind it is made out of stone,

And that’s what I see when I peer through her eyes, 
A castle rising up through the mist,
It’s beautiful grace amongst all the hurt, 
The castle I could never resist.

A New Dawn

The meter—the castle,
  the rhyme in the moat

The battlements weary,
  all meaning afloat

The knights at the ready,
  swords sharpened and drawn

Each piercing a sonnet
—each flag a new dawn

(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)

Colors of South Gate

Show me the gate
Show me the fortification
I see the trooping of colors

Where is the gate show me
Show me that i may lock it
I see the trooping of colors

Show me the mole
Show me that i might eliminate
Roy i see the trooping of colors

Show me the battlements
Show me the prepared designs
Roy i see the trooping of colors

Why did we go to war
We went to protect
The south gate.. i see colors




Code 254
(southgate remmembrant)

Resolved

This is my space, my firm position
anchored upon the firmanent
No push or prod can make me budge
my locus' ever permanent

No entreaty nor allure shall pull 
or waver my good judgement
No threat can raise me to my feet
nor curses cause my movement

I am colossus;  a monolith
your swords smash on my battlements
Archangels fail to breach my walls
only God, could make a dent

Throw down your arms, move on from here,
return from whence you came
In time, when people tell the tale
for you there'll be no shame

For this I say, I am resolved,
immovable and bound
No force, no foe, nor destiny
to shake me can be found

I promise you, that at my death
these words will yet be proved
I am set and resolute  
and I will not be moved

- Break Not a Flower Nor Inscribe a Stone -

I feel it so strongly deep inside the cry of your heart
It but echoes my souls endless fear of being apart 

Use your strength to go on with life even though it is hard
Where is life’s joy when treated with such reckless disregard?

I wonder can I ever free you from this endless pain?
My body and soul are laden with such cold heavy chain

Lead me through the maze of your mind, let me break down the wall
The donjon has been built of adamant and shall not fall!
 
I will rend the dark veil and bright starlight will fill your soul 
The battlements long secure crumble, your love makes me whole! 



Written by Shane Cooper & A-L Andresen 25.03.2015
Copyright © All Rights Reserved

Break Not a Flower Nor Inscribe a Stone - a Collaboration With Anne-Lise

I feel it so strongly deep inside the cry of your heart
It but echoes my souls endless fear of being apart
 
Use your strength to go on with life even though it is hard
Where is life’s joy when treated with such reckless disregard?
 
I wonder can I ever free you from this endless pain?
My body and soul are laden with such cold heavy chain
 
Lead me through the maze of your mind, let me break down the wall
The donjon has been built of adamant and shall not fall!

I will rend the dark veil and bright starlight will fill your soul
The battlements long secure crumble, your love makes me whole!

Brain Battered Song

Wave upon wave breaking
against my battered mind,
surge upon surge
relentlessly smashing
my battlements.

Thunder and lightning
echoing in the recesses
of long-lost musty thoughts,
lighting up the crevasses
of my pain and doubt.

Atoms and planets
flitting by in blurring motion,
lost vision unfound in
the extreme speed of time.

Art and literature
playing with thoughts and shape,
like rhyme found
in the beat of a heart,
a song.

Death and silence
damping the earth with weight,
gravity its slave,
life came too late…

Invulnerable

You must tear down those walls,
the battlements and ramparts
that surround your heart

That fortress, that was
built with the blood,
sweat and tears of your fear  

That safe place, a haven for
a frightened man to hide,
perchance to end, a bitter shadow

Bitter, is a cloak that slips
on easy, but chokes the
spirit and kills the soul

Better, then to live naked, 
vulnerable in the light of day,
than be safe and dead  

Fear, now's a heart cloaked
to the world, solitary
in it's confinement

Courage, then's to mind a
heart that's ready to see
the light and if it's to be, pierced  

Down then, with those damned
walls, cast off that rancid cloak
and walk out into the light

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