Best Fawkes Poems
T’will be his death of this he's sure
But for this sin there is no cure
All John did was to stand on guard
Now his family name forever marred.
As a child trained in the Protestant faith
Too late he had now seen his wraith
Converted to Catholicism and fervent too
Knowing never more to see morning dew
He trembled, weak and so close to death
Afraid now to take his known last breath
His bowels loose his spirit lost
Forehead bowed, fingers crossed.
He could almost feel the horse and rope
But knowing he now had no hope
Confessed he did as Guido Fawkes
These step were to be the last he walks
His genitals cut and then to be roasted
Bowels and heart, next to be toasted
‘John’ then ‘Guido’ now known as Guy
Did not want this way to die
Through accident or was it his plan
He climbed the ladder with his hangman
Did he jump or was it a mistake
As he fell and his own neck did break
The legacy for this man Guy
An effigy to be strung up high
Set on fire every November fifth
With explosive fireworks lit forthwith
No child he left to bear his name
But Guy Fawkes still hangs onto fame
To blow King James of Scotland high
For this act of treason thirteen did die
© GG 3/12/2013
Contest Entry: Happy Holiday
Wraith …own ghost.
On the 5th of November in 1605,
When the new religion of Protestantism was taking hold,
Political activist Guy Fawkes was arrested and executed,
For attempting to detonate Parliament for Catholicism old.
We burn the guy on a bonfire every year to commemorate,
That he was destroyed and not the centre for political activity,
The crux of legislation, set by hard, honest and tough debate,
By the people’s representatives who effect a stealthy integrity.
Guido Fawkes became Guy through his strength and prowess in war,
Over whether Spain’s government should uphold the catholic faith,
So denouncing Guy reinforces this wrongness of just one religious table,
And sedates our own tendency to informally become our own fable.
Guy Fawkes converted to Catholicism in his teenage years,
And fought to keep Spain catholic in the Eight Years War,
Then travelled to England where he met other like minds,
Who sought to reject the Calvinist future that was in store.
The group felt only effective if they were able to detonate,
The Houses of Parliament in a mammoth gunpowder plot,
‘Cos King James I was securing Elizabeth’s Protestantism,
Which by law through representation was not going to rot.
But one man of that group could not abide his conscience,
And in a letter told made the authorities aware of explosives,
That awaited ignition in a room under the House of Lords,
Enabling a gang arrest and the execution of the subversives.
november the fifth-
layered rolls of liquid fog
envelope the bonfire-
the party becomes a
damp squib
Guy Fawkes' Night
By the middle of October the piles are growing.
English weather fails to dampen
childhood enterprise.
Gangs traverse the streets in forage
To drag, on broken prams, a hoard,
A booty of wardrobes, cupboards, easy chairs.
Mattresses and piles of junk -
Now treasure - with which to build the towering fire,
The tough kids claim the bomb site first for theirs,
A blemish in the landscape of the street.
Eight brothers of pernicious mien
Snotty toddler to Borstal boy,
Hob-nailed boots, no laces, florid knees,
Of visage pale, straw haired and thin.
Like robber barons, invincible, wild,
They guarded it by day and night.
We others, timid, watched from a distance.
One day, their sentry absent, ventured inside
their heap to see - a cave-like room: old sofa; sticky carpet;
broken table; a cosy space, almost habitable,
close refuge from domestic misery.
One brother found solace with a five-pack of Woodbines.
Smoked
And slept.
Their Bonfire was enormous that year.
As funeral pyre beside the Ganges stream.
Where smoke-bound spirits rise to astral planes.
A shame it started early
with no-one there to see -
- or help.
11/01/20
Contest Eight Word Challenge
Sponsor John Hamilton
The
bonfire's
flames crackle,
burning some wood.
The air's filled with smoke.
Fireworks that soar
bang and whoosh.
It's so
good!
November 5, 2022
A good friend told me about the UK festivities.
To explain it, in detail, it’s not my proclivity.
But so awesome to know, at least, Fawkes was a fighter.
As submission to bogus mandates here, and in the UK grows ever tighter!
King James, in the 1600’s was taking away more rights of Catholics.
Fawkes wanted to blow up Parliament, kill King James….
Alas, the gunpowder, stored too long….as useless as a used match stick!
Our elected nincompoops use our freedom to forward, astronomical agendas.
Aligned with the idea to merrily change our children’s, God-given genders.
So celebrate with grand bonfires and grand fireworks this night!
Fawkes and his crew were executed, but at least, they tried to make wrong,
right!
11/5/2022
8pm PST
USA