Best Pyre Poems
The Handwriting of the Marionette
David J Walker
The confessional was
Paper-thin cursive in ink
A life of sin laid out in as few lines
As were memorable in a
Second person narrative
The ventriloquist's voice opened
The service with a far-off prayer
In another language of tongues
Which only the faithful could bare
As the maître de la marionette
Guided her signed confession
Utopia would open its gates
In the wake of the waves drowning
The funeral pyre
So goes the soul as the steam rose
From the cut strings to the
arcadian clouds somewhere higher
And higher
Sweet lover
I charge you
to palm
our pyre-
Let it burn
Grief now is the fire
My soul the bitter kindling
Strike the pyre,I burn!
Scorching plumes billow upward
Devouring light
Reaches across the heavens
To invite the night
Celestial pyre
Reduced to smoldering coals
Daylight's bold retire
Tanya Harrington
© 9-26-2012
Wonder of Dusk Contest
funeral pyre
from the virgin flat plains
soared a modern funeral pyre
that stood so high
it could be seen miles away
with the naked eye
whose dense black smoke
released into the pure blue sky that day
the last drawn breath of many
waddling padded foot babies
like the silver blade from a heavy ancient sword
slaying the life of an innocent
white fleece lamb
too many died that day
in the heartland
Everyone cheered as the fire was lit
And innocent laughter surrounded the Guy’s pyre;
As crackling flames engulfed the stuffed figure sitting on top of it,
A hedgehog hibernating below, in the heaped dead leaves and briar,
Did not survive the children’s bonfire.
Guy – an effigy of Guy Fawkes burnt on 5th November
Fire swiftly releases and
A soul flies free on its course;
The journey to afterlife,
Needs no vehicles.
Your words are kind, effervescently sweet.
Extending your embrace,
For the comfort others seek.
When I gaze into your eyes,
I experience a sea of fire.
That no one could deny,
Is the quintessence of your passion’s pyre.
No, No, No please stop this
I screamed aloud
Fire started igniting my whole body
I cried loud
Please somebody help me out
Why nobody could hear
Why everyone act like I no longer exist there
I started feeling fear
Everyone is shaking my body and crying aloud
Now, I realize I lost
My everything forever
The one who loves me
May remember me for certain year
The one who dislike my existence
May be happy forever
Break free from the love madness
You claim your heart feels
In the sea of sadness
From which common sense heals
If you give him the chance
He needs to weed you out
Of the love stance
Which beyond a shadow of doubt
If from your tilted and stilted circumstance
You wish to snap
To restore the balance
You wish to inject into the notorious nap
Where headlong
With your blinkered eyes
Although all along
Common sense dares to steer you from the sties of lies
You drink from the demented infatuation
You clink and slink
From a faulty evaluation of the sentimental salutation
To which peace of mind you link
With no shred of evidence
Infatuation an iota for your heart cares
Although on the truth balance you stand a chance
To reap scornful stares and glares
From the balance sorority
To which with precious pride you once belonged
Before the love notoriety
Your sisters in sanity wronged
Without batting the lid
The sorority felt
Infatuation did
Owe them even if the infatuation snow couldn’t melt
Fast enough
To call the bluff
In the infatuation
You claimed too tough
To snap from
With the bare desire
Feelings roam
Into your sanity spire in your penultimate pyre.
(Snaps fingers) Let's talk sonic alchemy, a cauldron bubblin' deep/
Rare groove rising, a phoenix from jazz vinyl's pyre/
Acid Jazz is born, setting the soul on fire/ in London's smoky clubs, back when the eighties roared/
A rare groove movement pulsed, a sound from nowhere that knows no bounds/
More like a fusion, a sonic, soulful thing/ Funk's greasy fingerprints, soul's sweet perfume, Hip-hop's swagger, and fusion funky-fresh, street hood blend/
breaking down old skool jazz/
60s Jazz got an electric shock, a story with DJs spinnin' without end/
Acid Jazz they called it, club jazz, groove so deep/ Psychedelic acid , with a Jimi Hendrix riff/
Man, think trumpets with a swagger, bass lines thumpin' thick and low/ A drummer hittin' harder than anyone you know/ samplin' Clyde Stubblefield drum playin' into four beats throbbin', layered tight, a tapestry of sound/ under a heavy sweety groove so damn tight/ the house club DJ scrachin and spinin' Mike Clark's breakthrough funk beat from Herbie Hancock's cut 'Actual Proof" into an Acid Jazz song that is killin and soul funk chillin’/
Vocals droppin' knowledge/ ladies and hipsters the acid groove is here/
From Western Europe rising/
to Japan's electric gleam?
Latin rhythms joining, a collaborative deep beat dream/
United Future Organization, a trio cool and sharp, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, makin’ sure the groove is a hip, tight, wicked mix, of spoken word off the radar chillin’ bland of nu funk horn street soul/
(Beatbox rhythm under the following lines) Club jazz, the Chambers Brothers “Time Has Come” psychedelic acid rock jazz at Its best/
Dig, you gotta let it go Bro/Acid Jazz and the word mechanic band, precise, and into the jazz flo/
Yo, jump out your set, hit the dance floor, you be burnin'' the joint down/
Smooth and cool with rare vinyl uptown charm/
the funk is heavy/ a vibe that chills and thrills/ Acid Jazz ain't just a sound/ man, it's the high life, still. (Snaps fingers again)
Living in the creek’s dark caverns, he was content with his homestead.
His dwelling place had been foretold
by fairytales on nights so cold.
A promise of the things to come were all that kept the fires fed.
Living in the creek side village, things were over simplified
her place was clear within the clan
to bind her with this darkened man,
to brave his ire and heal his wounds with love’s laughter and lullabies
Raised from birth to play a lead role. All sorts of nonsense in her head.
Her path was clear, her marriage set,
a passive life, a quiet death.
All was foretold when she was young at village fires and children’s beds.
She’d sat awaiting years and years, ready for life to move onwards
Shortly before the marriage day,
a woman came from far away.
Her tale of women taking stands and shunning the foreteller’s words.
The lady, she was not convinced. Her life was not to be excused.
By love she vowed to seize her place
and heal the man with love’s embrace,
thus avoiding the funeral pyre. Dreamers dream, they usually lose.
Inside a bar in my town
I drown brown sorrows, swilling beer after beer
Feeling tall in my gaunt gown as I play the clown
Wishing I could wipe away her memory into a low gear
Which in my Corolla I engage
Thoughts tumbling, feelings grumbling
As mind and conscience I enrage
Fumbling, crumbling, gambling
Until eyes get bloodshot
Mind goes bleary
Brain overheats so hot
I get weary and teary
But what the heck! What to me’s a little peck
To shout consciousness back into business
No hard feelings at all for the neck
That cranes and deigns to break
The cycle of reveries I indulge
Imagining I’d washed away the wreck
Thriving on the madness I encourage
Drinking my life silly
Driving my happiness away
Praying I’d longer remain the hillbilly
Held in a straitjacket bay
Which in my saner moments can’t countenance
Unless up around the bend I conspire to expire
Condoning and contemplating selfies without substance
As in my throat roar and soar eddies of mounting ire.
How strident are their screams, 'Ceasefire!'
~ adding fuel to the funeral pyre ...
your first kiss
turn flocks of birds
in thoughts
in blood
in the bones
they all create their nest inside me
as if I were
another season
or maybe they desire
from the poisoned fruit
escape key for those
who will ask me regarding
Immortality
in waltz step on the pyre
the flight is burning
the freedom
the longing.