Gulag Poems | Examples

Patterns, Self-Portrait

 I never know my body has rotten
 until it appears through the wall mirror
 these remains are heaped upon an autan
  next spire takes a hearer turn for queerer

      now urban commercial cores of gulag
      I am a particular         schlockier
     for signs which are cheap to erect as clague
      extensions can be found from that nearer 

    some convergent, others conflicting stun
    I suspect having to do with my craag
    this penetrates deeply into a gun
     into the family         into dague

         extreme lengths to which I loosely spun
           remain a shadow in place to slither

Inclusivity

We 
Accept everyone 
In the gulag.

(8/25/25)

Something Left Over

It must have been made
and rejected
in times grinding gears –
a knobby irregularity,
a leftover of smelt and dross.

This is all there is
a gobbet of oven clinker,
but behind it I sense cracked teeth,
soot seared across burnt eyeglasses,
blackened bones,
for after the gas came the flames.

Here it is,
a fragment long convulsed
from its own incineration,
an irregular rake-off, smithereens
dragged across a blind stone floor.

This tittle of slag once had to fit something
the rough rim of an iron door perhaps
behind which an old furnace
still cools in faraway minds.
A ferrous chip chiseled from a gulag,
or a souvenir from an SS campfire meet.

There is always something left
after the unthinkable,
always some spicule of irregularity,
detritus to explain or confound
as we toss it back into the fire again.

Happy Nu Ya!

I tiptoed near the gulag
This eve of new year.
The gulag
Gagged like a grave yard.

I stooped
And waited.

Midnight
Ungagged the gulag.
I grinned
At the gust of "hapi nu ya!"

Have You Been?

Have you been
Hiking the  Quiraing trail on the isle of Skye?
watching golden eagles as they fly by?
Have you been
Hiking through fields of paintbrush on Mount Hood?
From Trillium Lake to Timberline, if you haven't you should.
Have you been
Pushing a frontier, discovering the new
Being all you can be, pursuing every clue?
Have you been
Locked in a small box on a Sandinista command?
They call it a Casita because there's no room to stand.
Have you been
Found dead in a Gulag before you might have been traded
For a Russian hitman, now all hope faded.
Have you been
Imprisoned by the scheming of one man's small mind
wings clipped, hemmed in, and confined?
Have you been 
Locked up for ten years in Ariel Castro's basement
Chained, beaten, having ten years wasted?
Have you been
In solitary confinement for a year, because you protested fraud
In a D.C. jail, rights trampled roughshod.
Have you been
Dying with no friends left, in a hospice bed
Your sons think you are unaware, but you're all there, not yet dead.
Have you been 
Dreaming at your desk, with your eyes wide open?
Looking for space, wishing for time to surf life's ocean?

The Evil Within

Within the heart of everyone
There lurks an evil mystery.
Undermining good intentions,
Spurring on to malefaction.

God declares, our hearts are wicked,
defiled by sin and selfishness.
Yet in our sight we are upright
With a modicum of malice.

Sinning for the sake of sinning
Not just occasional misdeeds,
But delight in sin and evil,
was Augustine’s apt conclusion.

Solzhenitsyn clearly saw it
As he lay in Russian gulag.
The line between good and evil
runs right through every human heart.

Even gangster Mickey Cohen
thought he was a decent fellow.
With no need for transformation,
Or God’s gift of soul salvation.

Deny not the evil within
Treat it as a venomous beast.
Plead like Paul for God to free you,
Give you grace, to eschew evil.

Brush Strokes

Brush strokes

 The sky this afternoon had odd clouds
looked like icebergs floating on pink air

The seagulls took refuge on my terrace.

A grey wolf with a leg of lamb scratched 
on the door, I let it in.
when preparing the meat, the wolf left
down the hall that was dimly lit

I asked no question

I remembered a Russian painter of black forests
and dark red sky I think he was foresighted
therefore, sent to a Gulag.

The sea in the bay is dark with white spots
the Russian has gone mad, was his name Kozlovski?

Back in the hall where the wolf had disappeared
left a pile of dung as proof, in case, I thought
 it was a dream.

Dribbling In the Gulag

A drug smuggling dribbler is in a pickle
Commie Lebron is acting quite fickle
she should rot in a gulag
with this self-oppressed snob
until they choke on the hammer and sickle

Winter Palace

It's cold at night in
the winter palace

In fact,it's cold in the day

With the chill of regret,and the frost of the heart
that's froze disappointment in place

Where once I basked in illusory light
I find myself chilled to the bone

So true,there's nothing that's lonlier
than being ,with someone,
    Alone

What to do?What to do?,with this
Gulag that has become my life

Imprisoned in ice,
Entombed with despair,
In a tower of unending strife

Why?,would I opt to remain here?
Why?,would I choose to reside?

In a self imposed cell of my 
     My making
In this miserable cold here reside
This edifice of
Foolish choices

Atonement,will it
Ever arrive?

To once more know
Life is worth living,

To be warmly,completely alive.

Over and Under

Melanin lamentation
It appears to be the color of dread
Locked in
is a private penal profiteering feeling
Black site
has a plantation clandestine skin
Making abolition voices
invisible again

Usury jaws open like an abyss trapdoor,
predatory lending
got a bulging debtor belly once more
As the black robes
rattle strike 
a corporate cobra plea deal — 
Let the food chain shakedown siren lure

Leopard spot plastic bags
over the head
Casting poverty pawns
into the a domino pit repo hole

Obsidian wiles got a blue steal bracelet price tag;
dark bags under the eyes, dreams dead
Pale thoughts   ...   Pliny sleepless nights, no dawn:
Implantation device now in control

Overseer bound destination,
underneath the roulette task terrible Gulag will
Siberian tigers have a paper appetite,
turning into eclipse panthers when Dear occupant can’t pay the bill


01-14-22

Something Left Over

It must have been made
and rejected,
in night’s grinding gears –
a knobby irregularity,
a leftover of smelt and dross.

This is all there is
a gobbet of oven clinker,
but behind it I sense cracked teeth, 
motes in a burnt eyeglass,
the thin singed bones 
of fledgling flights into darkness.

Here it is,
a fragment long convulsed 
from its own incineration,
an irregular rake-off, a detritus 
dragged across a blind stone floor.

This tittle of slag once had to fit something
the rough rim of an iron door perhaps
behind which an old furnace
still cools in faraway minds.
A ferrous chip chiseled from a gulag,
or a souvenir from an SS campfire meet.

There is always something left
after the unthinkable
is thought upon,
always some spicule of irregularity 
to explain or confound
as we toss it back into the fire again.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 
Imprisoned under the communist dictatorship 
Of Joseph Stalin,
Survived the horrific conditions 
Of the Gulag Archipelago, 
And believed that all these 
Terrible atrocities happened, 
Because "Men have forgotten God."


           W.A CHOLT. Copyright Fergal O Reilly. 2020.

           30/10/20

     Note: Solzhenitsyn was one of the great prophetic voices of the 20th century, 
                  Warning the West against the dangers of Communism and Socialism, 
                  And of the totalitarian nature of such ideologies. We need to heed his warnings
                  Now more than ever.

Banana Republic Appeal

Sunshine smile,
it Arctic enamel glows
Crescent grin tropical — 
Antarctica guile

A bright yellow corona skin
is so cold-fusion tan Chernobyl
As Dictator icy wind snow blow,
Democracy curvature bend

Creamy sweet coin promises 
of a silky, tubular tongue
Hanging from a lip bung,
monkey climbers can’t resist

Swing blade lo Banana Republic Appeal, 
it’s a Tyranny meal force fed
Gulag sweet fruit flavor med 
has a sick-o whet, ill monkeyshine feel

Blues For Rafaa

We worked together
in the airless cubicle gulag
on the surface of the moon
during the last ice age

Diligently scurrying under
the bright artificial lights
composing odes to poverty
with great purpose and poise

Dodging the executive ghouls
who skulked the narrow halls
Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff
howling as the villagers fled

But there he would be
in a state of perpetual calm
absorbing the vortex of chaos
a tall black-skinned Buddha

Always the one to rise above
the daily details and deviations
always keeping his balance
even with one foot in the air

An open and private man
I never got to know well
some glimpses and peeks
but the film never developed

Filled with a sly dry humor 
engaged to illuminate not shame

the spark in his dark pupils
came from a clarity of heart

His was a living credo of resolve
of stepping back not rushing forward
an involved evolving philosophy
in quiet and thoughtful motion

I will miss him
I will think of him
whenever I take a leap
and am not sure where to land

Mein Kampf Self Imprisoned Gulag

Mein Kampf...Self Imprisoned Gulag

Onset of conception wrought significant
destructive quantum sized genetic quark
invisible, fissile, and congenital skull,
sans crossbones deathmark

scythe kill logical metastatic
psychic path head shrinking Reichsmark
financial reparation taxed this human bark
at peril of ark

covenant fomenting incruent
lacerating psychological ordeal
triggering mythological hound fierce bark
king Cerberus from Hades

bajillion times more
ferocious than a shark
oppressive teeth gnashing
jawbreaking, human prey stark

dead meat, bleak fin de siecle lifespan
razor sharp teeth trademark
death sentence worse
than totalitarian regime,

emasculating, defeating, crushing any spark
to muster livingsocial jackknifing
sole ambition waiting, Clark
Kent (alias superman) powerless,

thus letting me die non staining watermark
as permanent solution
freeing relentless gravestone mark
piercing, sundering, and vitiating

against nemesis, sans panic attacks
exacerbated by infiltrated FARC
militia firearms at the ready,
where soul will peacefully park
amidst cognoscenti immune to snark!

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