You ought to know
I need your intent
That I'm in love now
Put yourself in my place beau
Show your are content
You ought to know
Do not grin, allow
There's no time like Lent
That I'm in love now
Ask yourself why with a glow
Is there something of Ghent
You ought to know
Try to hold, somehow
you are present
That I'm in love now
Try to be a bateau
Its like a compliment
You ought to know
That I'm in love now
Poor soldier Andrew Jackson who
Attacked the British after peace
Was signed three weeks before at Ghent.
Unnecessary bravery
Is no less admirable for that.
He waves to patrons eating their
Beignets at the Café Du Monde.
Astride a horse, saluting with
His bicorn hat, and stern of face,
He looks less menacing than if
They cast him brandishing a sword.
But who can blame his victory
(Redundant though his conquest was),
The English might have occupied
The Crescent City, New Orleans.
Between Lake Ponchatrain and Gulf
Of Mexico the land is boggy here.
Once rains would pelt Orleans and make
A flood enough for fetid pools.
Pine coffins bobbed and knocked aloud
Discouraging the patronage
Of all the working girls for weeks.
But that was long before the war.
And British and Americans
Were mostly buried on high ground.
So no unnecessary dead
Were ever disinterred by rains
And washed some parishes away
Without their names on coffin lids
To now or ever be reclaimed.
Once was a young fellow in Ghent
His dog followed where’er he went
As the years swiftly passed,
His dog he would outlast
Now he’s a sad, lonesome old gent.
written February 24, 2022
There was an old lady from Ghent
Who tooted wherever she went
Sent up a cloud
Sometimes quite loud
And she never attracted a gent.
written July 10, 2021
FIRST PLACE WINNER
Brian Strand's Contest
Poetry Soup
August 2, 2021
It's a pretty little town in northern New York State.
To visitors of the region, everything looks great.
There was one obscure fact of which I was not aware:
A big War of 1812 battle was fought there.
A large British and Canadian force started a campaign
to seize control of upper New York and Lake Champlain.
British ships under the command of Captain George Downie
fought American ships and armed forces unsuccessfully.
The British captain became an unfortunate casualty.
Not long after, all hostilities would cease.
The Treaty of Ghent ended the war and brought peace.
I thank wikipedia.org for valuable information I obtained to write this poem.
Voracious and Spacious
My poems have become a success
And spread out and also spacious;
The next thing that I then knew,
Was now a horrible Horn haiku
Readers loved vibrant and voracious.
We are learning what writing meant;
Heard about great place called Ghent;
There ability to write people possess
And never distress or ever depress;
More time on writing I have spent.
James Serious Mysterious Horn
Retired Veteran and Poet
RiverSea Plantation
173 Shadowood Court SE
Bolivia, NC 28422
Ghent is an area near
Norfolk, Virginia.
Vacation in Manhattan
Thought I was going to be bored when we
Were told we were going to see
A panel hinged shutter
My speech was beginning to stutter
Jan van Eyck’s nude art I see
12/28/2015
The Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck is a very large and complex early 15th-century Early Flemish polyptych panel painting. The altarpiece comprises 12 panels, eight of which are hinged shutters
Artists: Hubert van Eyck, Jan van Eyck
Period: Northern Renaissance
Dimensions: 11' 6? x 15' 1?
Wrinkle at the line
creams for the age gap!
Holiday in France this year
friends, friends fill an hour.
Or two. Home I say:
danced to nostalgia
in boxes and mind pills.
Then straight jacketed.
Sweet as sultanas
The dreams curbed me in.
A beam houses in Ghent,
One you lived with me
wrinkles our deep lines
for filling water
gaps between here and there.
Yet you & I will see.
bridges
The kids, their teacher, sprouts and dandelions
the aquarellist and a wet bicycle.
Sit on the worm bench as bytes on the mainframe
wiped pastel of a bright warmth with shades of red
gray
as I look down I find more than wanted
for god sake, it’s the age throbbing you see
and frailty, thy name is woman drifts in
been mine for too long in nobis chesterland
churches
slender cobbled gothics and proud romanesques
the decorum of acolytes and bishop
blesses youthful virginity using gods
eleventh finger prodding at my tongue
Florence, Bruges and Ghent
old cities of Europe
contrast with gadgets
life and hearts
break fast