Gallows Poems

The Red Gallows

(A rebuilt person whispers)

Before I knew Love

I was once so pure
With a heart so free

Carefree for all to see
Everyone loved and smiled at me

But one day Love came calling 

And offered me the chance to take a risk 

Offered me her spiritual red gallows with rope and chair

Smiled and said 
Climb up there

Put on the

Lost Soul

She hated herself there’s no denying that
As God’s favourite chastened child
Bearing the burden of betrayal
And a heavy heart filled with sorrow
In her sombre world 
Where light doesn’t penetrate the walls 
Penalized for her sins 
Waiting for the gallows to pull in 
And bring her dim life story to the end 
A tortured soul never touched

Illusionary Dictators

They live in a world of illusions
Gripping onto their beliefs
Weaving a web of lies
Steering their journey through the tide
Are guardians of their pride
Masses who follow their rules
Followers of the deceitful fib
Enjoy a life of ease
The ones who supply them
With their fabricated visions
Shape their lives with lead
Are masters of this creed
But those who dare to speak

Workhouse

How is this free verse poem.

Perfumef handkerchifs
Hiding thete smells
SEND THEM TO THE WORKHOUSE THEY ARE SPOILING MY MEAL
Urchins and vagabonds
Scavaging for food
SEND THEM TO THE WORKHOUSE THEY ARE SPOILING MY MEAL
The starving scrambling
Food from the bins
SEND THEM TO THE WORKHOUSE THEY ARE SPOILING MY MEAL
Pickpockets stealing
Stealing my bread
SEND THEM TO THE GALLOWS THEY ARE SPOILING

Gallows at the Capitol

(This dark poem was written on the anniversary and in memory of the events of January 6, 2021.)

Gallows at the Capitol

By Mark D. Stucky
“Hang Mike Pence”
was the chilling chant
the day democracy died
on a gallows at the Capitol,
when citizens began rejecting
election outcomes they didn’t like,
and, to get their way, turned to
threats, harassment, and violence.
Denials of elections,

Prayer At the Gallows

"Nobody favors a share ...
for sins I bear,
no one cares.

Now that the appointed hour pines faintly,
I stand in lights grace, a shadow no more,
barring lives in my wake and none before.

My cup did run over, right into me,
and spilt nothing,
and as I saw the empty cup,
I prayed.

Do tell, 'What does absence appear to be?'
Shunned by

Glad Gallows

Show me how you tie the knot
   Wow, great!
Does it fit your head?
   It would suit you!
Are your legs tired?
   Don't you want to rest them?
   Don't you trust yourself to overcome anything?
Don't you trust me?

The Gallows

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 gallows my friend 
Your life will soon end
Life on the

The Wraith of Gallows Hill

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 town or village folk walked alone on so cold a

Sping and Gallows

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 heart,
your gray-blue eyes and the prune sleet
on my lone way

Black Gallows

The black gallows moan in the shadowy glade where,
vaguely lit by the autumn moon, dark blue pierces the night and the river murmurs of mad seas, of raging waters. 

Contained in the vast ether, I am a shivering willow journeying down the winding river. 
On the banks, the wolves howl, white-fanged with stealthy eyes. 
In

The Gallows

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 stood in tears:
“They’re taking his life, who gives them the

No Room For Gallows Humor

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 knot
     to veer off toward inane,

where

Gallows

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 caused all this pain.
As they slip the hood down over

Tyburn Gallows

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 2018

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