An angel and a devil
work me over every morn
Contending for ownership
to neither (am I) forsworn
I tell myself I won’t succumb
to the devil, that old bum
Then he takes down the angel
The fireworks have begun …
In the end, it’s MY will versus MY won’t
They’re mere illusions by my throne
Red flags forsworn, my trajectory fell
Into the gravity well of your spell;
My soul is intact,
My body in fact -
Split between love or lust, I cannot tell.
You are a rogue element at my core,
The current conducts me towards the door;
But my body, lame,
Hard into the game,
Outcome forsworn, it charges for encore.
Laws of physics applied in humankind,
Amplify frictions of a human mind.
Attract or repel -
Yet under the spell
One human law’s evident, Love Is Blind!
With all the time I spend on rhyme
in vain pursuit of beauty
I neglect to help my fellow man
and fail my forsworn duty
So this vow I make right now
Do not think I take it lightly ~
to rig up my toilet to fertilize my lawn
and flush it day and nightly
In frangranced,dim,candlelight.
Where romance is not ever old.
And twinkling stars, appear at night,
That makes us warm and again,bold.
As our bodies reflect on the ceiling.
Years of love have been our guide
Looks of amour, are a blessed healing,
To journey on together on life’s ride.
Children blessed our many years.
We smile, grateful for the little we had
They brought us through our tears.
A home, pets,made us more than glad!
I recall our very first warm meeting,
Destiny at that minute was born.
Your eyes not for a second fleeting.
For all eternity, I was all yours, forsworn!
3/16/2023
In confessionals of doubt
he chased absolution
The devil unmasked
—his penance forsworn
(Washington Chapel: November, 2021)
Twenty Titles, A Beautiful New Birth
In a sad blindness, one may yet find hope
Sweet romance is in truth a healing balm
What in Life, can we truly ever hold
True to Heart, an old poet's solemn vow
Drowned in passionate depths of our deep love
Come to me Love, so that tender heart swells
O' broken heart, tis now thy time to mend
In thy love-realm I would gladly live and die
Caressing Virgin soil, with soft caring hands
I beg to yet again kiss thy sweet precious lips
As cool winds grace soft emerging twilight
Where Nature's beauty and man's design meet
There Winter's lonely fallows deeply dream
Where weeping willows in silent peace grow
Seeds sprouted from deep within mother Earth
Fair maiden, forever this true love hold
Wide eyes absorbing true magical scene
Waterfalls in rainbows where we shall play
I am laid bare, naked with nothing to hide
Shall we believe in that promise forsworn
Robert J. Lindley,
free verse, 7-22-2019
re-post inspired by John 's contest
LOVE PHRASES
A veiled dawn,alone,without strife
an absent dream,a love that
could never be,an allegory in a
simple code.a promise forsworn,
an ebbing tide,abandoned to the past.
This serenade of love.Passion’s word,
a haunting theme of the inexpressible
this play within a play,that secretes
selfless love,a passage of light to my
soul,and all was fine,beauty was asleep
innocence dead.
From my Cameo 2008
Shall We Believe In That Promise Forsworn
Let not hate blind thee to love's true powers
for within its realm rests treasures untold;
man's walk, missiles are thrown from dark towers
with greater frequency as we get old.
What shields dare we in our hope ever seek,
which sharp swords do we carry to defend
the righteous, the innocent and the meek.
What fruitful crops do we thus truly tend?
As the final winds on setting sun blow
with no new dawn to give future reprieve;
Spring waters are no longer born from snow
we perish, from world designed to deceive.
Shall we believe in that promise forsworn
when all the world heaps it with utter scorn?
R.J. Lindley
Sept. 17th, 1987
Syllables Per Line: 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 0 10 10 10 10 0 10 10
Total # Syllables: 140
Total # Lines: 16 (Including empty lines)
Words with (syllables) counted programmatically: N/A
Total # Words: 110
LOVE PHRASIS part 1
A veiled dawn,alone,without strife
an absent dream,a love that
could never be,an allegory in a
simple code.a promise forsworn,
an ebbing tide,abandoned to the past.
This serenade of love.Passion’s word,
a haunting theme of the inexpressible
this play within a play,that secretes
selfless love,a passage of light to my
soul,and all was fine,beauty was asleep
innocence dead.
From my Cameo 2008
Listen to me recite this part phrasis on youtube under my pen name ichthys chiro
But fiction you are, our Juliet, unborn,
mere humans find love so hard to portray,
thus leading many to their death, astray,
fear not a Romeo is born each day.
Childless children be not to death forsworn.
Why leave the bloom of youth in this dark way?
To these false examples swear not, allay ...
these foolish gestures and stay unmourned.
What care true love for false sacrifice's knife
or petal poisons made by perverse form,
live and brave the days with courage cajoled.
Oh, waylay the cowards path, leave your grief,
for grief will come to all within life's storm;
live a full life linger for life is gold.
You speak as if you've read all the pages.
All knowing; bestow yourself this grace.
Beneath that serenity lies an abandoned cage.
Don't try to hide what's scrawled across your face.
I've forsworn myself, now I'll tell the truth.
The only reason for love in this world is you.
Do you want to see my eyes shaded from the sun?
Take this love and concern from deep inside me.
Tear down these walls, show this damaged heart is done.
Prove it's not "you and I" and no longer "we."
A tomb is set in earth, shuddering beneath you.
A souvenir of your self-inflicted ascension.
Housing the victims you so lovingly slew,
Demons overtaken; yearning for redemption.
Please don't tell me it's wrong to keep holding on.
Don't say those feelings were never worth the fight.
Even when the pain is numbed and gone,
I'll still need and bleed to feel your sunlight.
There are hazards there,
to board imagination of another soul,
to probe behind the rocks along the way
and find too much, converting chill into reality—
there is the romance!
There too is desert, the wandering for years,
knowing that the self alone will dessicate
until there is another sacrifice,
another mingling of the blood there at the wrist,
forsworn to die as breath is dry upon the skin.
It is as much a ship's departure
blessed of the wind upon the back,
blessed to see the stars above the prow
and still detect the beating of a second heart
as passionate as mine to cease
its feckless thundering.
There is the time to seize the glory
of the second wind from out the east,
the second rising of the power of God
that lurked behind the cloud of innocence
to interpose its frailty
upon device, its patient magic
on the dryness of despair, the bones
of a forgotten day, connected still again
by two...and by that still outrageous gambit
forged of love.
Still
as a
summer morn..
a youth
lovelorn..
the
veiled dawn..
a heart
that mourns..
a portrait
drawn..
of memories
time worn..
ambitions
withdrawn..
a promise
forsworn..
an idea
inborn
High in the closet,on the topmost shelf,
A plain paper box lies smothered in dust .
Inside, bits and pieces of life,
Strips of silk, binding fragile memories.
Spirits engaged in an endless dance,
Destiny's cord unsevered by circumstance.
Scattered images of unrenounced tenderness,
Tainted only by the musty scent of promises unfulfilled.
Priceless momentos of another time and place,
Just a plain paper box tucked safely away in forsworn silence.
Quiet Darkness
Quiet darkness envelop me
winged intruder, lights dissolution
soar beyond day’s raucous din
Leave me in somber solitude
seek solace in myself, soul intact
beyond lacerating tongues
Reviling others call “nevermore, nevermore”
unwashed congregation, nor unholy pact
pull me from a life forsworn.
Stephen (Stoic)
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