I’m not holding on to anything,
not the body or its dreams,
or dream-bodies.
Not really thinking,
watching unattached the mind-play.
Mind sews cobwebs into chain-mail.
That which holds this 'I' together
rolls with no anchors
within its own confused rivering.
I leave and return.
The sun is rising behind winter trees,
I am not looking,
I am remembering another sunrise.
Yet the sunrise is out there,
even now rising,
that unseen light
clears mind and eyes.
The day will take me soon,
commanding me to own what I claim to be,
but in the next pre-dawn,
the next surfacing,
I will know again that I am not.
Categories:
chain mail, poetry,
Form: Free verse
"Chain Mail"
Amor Amore Amour
Armor Armour
Chain Mail
l’amour
Read red
Written and worn
(LadyLabyrinth / 2021)
Categories:
chain mail, muse, symbolism, woman,
Form: Free verse
There was a man named Dale who dressed himself in chain mail,
In the absence of fan mail,
Whilst checking for more mail,
To cover his big toe nail,
He stood on a rusty nail,
And got caught in some hail,
When a taxi he failed to hail,
His chain mail leaving a paper trail,
Which the police were able to trail,
Right up to the jail,
And he may still be in that jail,
Not able to get bail,
As everyone knows it is hard to get bail,
When chain mail,
Is too wet to send through the mail.
Categories:
chain mail, adventure, analogy, character, cheer
Form: Limerick
Rushing away from the Devils hair hoisting heave
Rushing to Gods downy laced embrace, searching as astray and bereaved.
Rushing away from your most tenebrous night-frights.
Rushing to your chain mail-cloaked knight.
Rushing away from the skies troubling tears.
Rushing to the sun-singed grassy spears.
Rushing away from the contemporary world atrocities.
Rushing to the falsely glazed generosities.
Rushing away no longer
Only rushing to authorities, tongue untied, and hands unclasped from behind my allegorically lashed back.
Rushing away, wiped from my options, forced to breathlessly quarrel and yack.
Categories:
chain mail, world,
Form: Couplet
BEGUILED
His arms proclaim a prize – me – to ravish
But I protest - I’m here to lavish
Gift me, my knight, adore my soul with praise
And promise me your love for all my days
He smirks a grin - tries to woo me with guile
But he melts when I mete him a prized smile
I love her curves, her soft ivory skin
My lustful intent - impure with sin
Yet my heart faints for her – this wholesome jewel
Abandon my armor – I’ll be her fool
He’s more handsome and courageous, today,
And his armor shines. I’ve won his soul’s pay!
Your chain mail bows with your embracing knee
And I accept this finger crown from thee
8/22/2016
Categories:
chain mail, love, lust,
Form: Couplet
The quiet library rented my mind for a season in an hour time is a hand no one ever sees I
think this is an end bend the spoon lick the blade it’s all for sale silence is chain-mail
reason hits like a kiss of claws scratching for salvation the key of A drove a composer
mad drawing of a withered woman lost in a face
Categories:
chain mail, spiritual, visionary,
Form: Free verse
Far far away there's a place of great beauty;
The place has many wonders:
Like the big and huge dragons,
Or the ferocious warriors, battling;
Clad in chain mail,
Or the magnificent warships, ready for a voyage,
Setting their sails.
There is no barren land;
No space for desert sand,
But many a field,
Wonderful crops which yield.
The forests are full of life and green
Where not a sight goes unseen,
There is the cure for every disease
And all the people can live at ease.
It is a place where dreams come true,
And the problems there are little too.
Such a wondrous land does exist,
A place where your worries will be least;
Where everything is possible, it seems,
The beautiful land of beautiful dreams!
Categories:
chain mail, dream, fantasy,
Form: Verse
hot is the noon sun
melting flowers in the mud…
arena cheers for raw blood
I glare at my foe
his dagger raking bruised knee
…weight of life upon my shield
fierce blow cracks his neck
rudis pressed on stained chain mail…
breath smelling of freedom’s prize
audience casts flowers
thumbs hunger for next combat
more slaves to kill… but not me.
©
*rudis---when a gladiator is set free as a slave
after a bout, he is given a wooden sword,
named rudis.
For Amy Green’s Choka for Chokehold
By nette onclaud
Categories:
chain mail, life, war,
Form: Choka
Original perception
That wave of thought
Just breaking into breath
Eyes awake
The formative tissue merges
Seeking destiny with each pounding rivet
The sensory system develops
Highly charged with Nabisco appetites
As valves open and close filtering
Shimmering cultural ennui
World weariness revolts
Motors charged innervated
With bold forward missions
Spiritual prowess
Masked in the empire of symbolic
Dominance
To give up the cultural mandate
Reheat the branding mechanism
Of limited identities clinking in chain mail
And release the contracted talons as they are
Ready to unfold, break loose
Categories:
chain mail, fantasy,
Form: Free verse
Original perception
That wave of thought
Just breaking into breath
Eyes awake
The formative tissue merges
Seeking destiny with each pounding rivet
The sensory system develops
Highly charged with Nabisco appetites
As valves open and close filtering
Shimmering cultural ennui
World weariness revolts
Motors charged innervated
With bold forward missions
Spiritual prowess
Masked in the empire of symbolic
Dominance
To give up the cultural mandate
Reheat the branding mechanism
Of limited identities clinking in chain mail
And release the contracted talons as they are
Ready to unfold, break loose
Categories:
chain mail, fantasy,
Form: Free verse
Original perception
That wave of thought
Just breaking into breath
Eyes awake
The formative tissue merges
Seeking destiny with each pounding rivet
The sensory system develops
Highly charged with Nabisco appetites
As valves open and close filtering
Shimmering cultural ennui
World weariness revolts
Motors charged innervated
With bold forward missions
Spiritual prowess
Masked in the empire of symbolic
Dominance
To give up the cultural mandate
Reheat the branding mechanism
Of limited identities clinking in chain mail
And release the contracted talons as they are
Ready to unfold, break loose
Categories:
chain mail, fantasy,
Form: Free verse
Original perception
That wave of thought
Just breaking into breath
Eyes awake
The formative tissue merges
Seeking destiny with each pounding rivet
The sensory system develops
Highly charged with Nabisco appetites
As valves open and close filtering
Shimmering cultural ennui
World weariness revolts
Motors charged innervated
With bold forward missions
Spiritual prowess
Masked in the empire of symbolic
Dominance
To give up the cultural mandate
Reheat the branding mechanism
Of limited identities clinking in chain mail
And release the contracted talons as they are
Ready to unfold, break loose
Categories:
chain mail, fantasy,
Form: Free verse
Sweet Francine
Sweet Francine if you were Queen
I’d be your Knight in Armor
I’d fight for you, to self be true
You lovely little charmer.
If deadly peril crossed our path
My sword would clear the way
Fight to the death and laugh
Though death might find a way
In any fight this poor knight
Will carry yes your banner
Prove true blue, in any fight
Approve you, hope my manner.
But dying there upon the lance
I can look up and smile
The charming lady passes by
But drops her head awhile …
Don Johnson 20-may-11
And lying here with broken spear,
the lance lodged in my chest,
my blood does flow,
darkness comes n goes
my love gives her last caress...
Yes Linda Marie,,,
my words get tangled up with fiction...
of foolish knights ...
chain mail the fights...
but the lance fixes his affliction....
xo
Don
Categories:
chain mail, adventuredeath, death,
Form: Rhyme
The dawn purloined by a shadowed thief,
in the kitchen morning blues were stealing,
across the sprawl of formica grief
with hot buttered daybreak unappealing.
Perforations flooded to slake the thirst,
and down on thermoplastic, kneeling,
a hot Hail Mary brewed and burst
and spiderweb cracked the ceiling.
The chain mail pot spilled a stain of toffee
and dreams died once more with feeling,
rats in the walls tapped a preference for coffee
with the legend: “Move over, Darjeeling.”
Categories:
chain mail, allegory, parody, time,
Form: Verse