Best Gallows Poems

Gasping
rasping
clasping
grasping
condemned man's last gasping, rasping breath,
hands on the noose clasping, grasping- death

(* Tyburn was the site of public hangings in London from the 12th century,
executing everyone from Highwaymen to Clergymen, at what is now Marble Arch)

For contest 'write me a Tyburn', sponsor Kim Rodrigues

24th january...

Continue reading...

Dedicated to artist N.

It was the spring so frantic that 
even the ancient gallows at
the city square spawned a green sprout.
I read my poetry aloud 
to you, my first, my awkward and
ecstatic poems that I penned
last night to sing your abstract art,
your cold and unresponsive...

Continue reading...

Walking up the steps to the gallows rope,
Hands bound tightly behind me, there is no hope.
The hangman, the preacher and the crowd all want me dead,
For what I’ve done or something I’ve said.
They haven’t given me a chance to explain,
Why I’m not the man who...

Continue reading...

on a sunny day
          She visited the gallows
          To see her loved ones...

Continue reading...

DUBLIN GALLOWS       
DowN from Grafton Street near St. Stephen's Green,
I'd hear her cry sometimes til first of dawn,
the love o'me life, me lassie, me queen,
an' every blow that brought her cryin' on.

I'd give me own life to make her...

Continue reading...

The unruly mob beat me to death 
In the dank filthy street,
Before the scaffolding had its chance
To snap my whiskered neck
Beneath the bone crushing force
- Of the proverbially,
(But still most certainly)
No less than lethal 
Terminal velocity...Lucky me!

It was a real load off 
My overactive imagination:
Finally,...

Continue reading...

twisted branches cast their shadows
upon dusk infested gallows
slowly bringing up some shallow
hollow eyes, so full of fear

waiting out the fall and winter
with tighter ropes in wooden splinter
slipping into nooses center
taking lives away from here

captivated by death standing 
a chilly hand all demanding
crowds have gathered, screaming,...

Continue reading...

…As a dragon I have soared,
…Regions ranging shore to shore,

…Great stories, great adventures,
…Great tales and greater pleasures,

…But as I recount my years,
…The dark specter of time leers,

…Reminding of days gone by,
…Spent without reason or rhyme,

…Now chained in murky shadows,
…Underneath deadly gallows,

…Upon which I killed all...

Continue reading...

Walked a wooded trail, suddenly unsure of my surroundings,
wondered had I'd become lost..
only a moment disconcerted, as dusk grew nearer. 

I went over an old river crossed by an even older bridge, 
there not seen and yet to see a small child oddity. 
for no...

Continue reading...

A gallows stands in the midnight light;
The empty rope swings left to right.
The rotting steps stand bleak and bare
Though many feet had passed through there.

A shadow recalls the wretched waiting;
Of rusty bars and iron door grating.
A teeming mob and rasping cheers
And a little child who...

Continue reading...

You drew me to this open plain
And down this drain
And up again.
You drew me to this hazy day
And into the gallows.

You'll weep into an open vein
With deeper pain 
Than lashes gained.
You'll tempt me with a chastised egg
And into the gallows.

You'll open up this waited cup
With...

Continue reading...

Nine months naked in the darkness eating drugs of malnutrition
How ironic in a cage today he shares the same condition
All the eyes that he has closed are nightmares of heaven's eviction
Damp with blood not of his own was proof that led to his conviction
Nine months...

Continue reading...

The gallows stand tall
       Booming into the white sky
             Wooden steps stand before me 
            ...

Continue reading...

Welcome to the gallows my friend
Welcome to your lifes end
You lived you life so fast and hard 
So from life you have been barred.
Worshipping everything under the sun
Taking what you wanted  with a gun
From state to state
You made your own fate
So Welcome to the...

Continue reading...

Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain
both beloved affluential cognoscenti,
     (took their life via cerebral hypoxia)
     neither death can one explain

left family and friends to speculate
     without lapsing into speculation
     impossible...

Continue reading...