When the setting sun settles
Upon the weeping western skies
That's when I earn my medals
Hearth fires from smoldering eyes
Crystalline orbs glow like rare art
Gemstones shine light on my eyes
Mining ore from cast-iron heart
Molten metal melts the skies
Smelting, my weeping western eyes
Gemstones spark life in my heart
Heavy metal forged from her skies
Casts raw iron into art
Formula Fe2 O3
Iron is just awesome – let’s see!
First it was prehistoric man
Who was always an iron fan
Iron is a third of the earth
Industry is iron by birth
Pritchard designed and Darby made
Iconic Iron Bridge won’t fade
Smelt pig iron from iron ore
Produces cast iron galore
Backbone of skyscrapers, bridges
Organs of cars, washers, fridges
Clever Bessemer carbon gone
Heralded steel for everyone
Mankind’s most ingenious feat
Turning raw earth to steel – so neat!
Iron’s compounds are versatile
No wonder it’s used all the while
Inks, fertilisers, pesticides
Paints, enamels and more besides
Many iron phrases pervade
Each as an English language aid
There’s ironclad, iron curtain
Iron grip and more for certain
We need it in a small amount
For on haemoglobin we count
Open your eyes and look around
Everywhere an iron surround
Iron has magnetic appeal
First place must be iron with steel
Orange peel. Scent fresh but bitter,
tangible in taste and air. A circle in fruit
that dangles and is turned, twisted from
branch. The challenge to keep the
peel whole, no break. Sink teeth into
sweet segments of dripping flesh.
Orange rust. A door, a gate. Age in crinkling
metal, steel ancient with salt and sun and
seasons beating what thought strong. Orange
rust of a family home, a flake for each child
who flies the nest. Rusted crisped wings. Upon
closer inspection the rust appears golden.
Not amber nor red,
neither start nor stop.
A forever-in-motion colour.
from the I-shaped metal
we set sail to the ocean
with a pirate crew over dozen
as lightning struck and tide crashes
to go over the horizon together
has always been the X mark we trailed
then there's the cannon boring hole
and the mermaid's enchanting call
to a single pebble, tied to a rugged rope
we drift away to the sea
some survived remained ashore
keeping stone to be afloat
being a rock is to keep adore
a new ship, as the old one's sunken
with few and enough crew
despite the artilleries and the abyss pull
Villanelle of a Metal Queen (c) 2025 by Russ Dodson
I just don't know where else to start
to tell you of this love of mine
she is the beating of my heart
these feelings that I must decline
I just don't know where else to start
the memories both sweet and tart
hold feelings that I would enshrine
she is the beating of my heart
I wonder can I play that part
to make these treasures glow and shine
I just don't know where else to start
so soon again she must depart
to let her skills and soul entwine
She is the beating of my heart
She is a rockstar, and a large part
of the sound she helped refine
I just don't know where else to start
She is the beating of my heart
Old School Cool (c) 2025 by the Entangled Pair
She's hot, yes, but she's also cool
she is a gem, she is a jewel
I think she's great (and I'm no fool)
she beats those drums like she's old school
she pounds those skins, sometimes it's funny
she hits them like they owe her money
and one thing more I'll tell you honey
she's on that kit whether cloudy or sunny
She's been that way right from the start
plays from the the soul, plays from the heart
she always does more than her part
it's not just passion, it's her art
looking back I am that fool
dug in like a Missouri mule
and if this doesn't break some rule
she's not just cool - she's old school cool
word
Pensee poetry form sort of
metal
lightweight silver
creeps up fingers, toes, legs, hands
early in the morn while writing
metal seizes poem's heart
There comes a young lad from abroad.
He wants a car but can’t afford.
So he gets scrap metal
And this he does fettle.
Then calls it a Honda Accord.
He took it out for a test-run.
At first this seemed to be great fun.
But in metal he fettle
The welding was brittle.
Suddenly it all came undone.
The bell rang
In the castle high,
Calling for the rise
Of those below.
War floods the gates,
Not of fire or stone,
But of hearts torn.
Now, they cause pain.
Blood, death, gore,
Strikes those below.
Hearts of gold among the red,
Try and fail to stop the end.
In the castle high,
They do not care.
With hearts shrouded in gold,
A metal so cold
No warmth of tears,
Of terrors, of fears,
No care among the ones of gold
For the reds pouring below,
The lands plowed.
The people die,
Yet they do not cry.
No, they're hearts are gold.
No tear falls,
Not for their land,
Their home.
His love incarcerates her heart
Like a prisoner captive in shackles
Inescapable
All consuming,
Overwhelming
Like a magnet to its metal.
Internet
has woven the world into a tangle of introverts
made us think that our fellow man
is a slow minded-dangerous- dullard
Internet
and mankind do have one thing in common
in that they're bipolar entities,
in the wink of the mind or a tap of the key
they're capable of love and rage
painfulness and joyfulness
peaceful contemplation
or mindless devastation
Man's
soul is devolving into a dead blue seed
in the metal garden of the ever-evolving machine.
Politics have swallowed his laughter and smile
he's deaf to any other point of view
head banging like a heavy metal crocodile
while stroking a harp from his pristine pew
His bitterness is like a pissed off tarantula
fangs raised high above star-spangled heads
of those with a different colored mantra
he labels all of them the living dead.
In another time and circumstance
we could have become best friends
but his demon has always been politics
and this head demon never-never rests.
What is Ukraine's war really for?
How about funds from rare earth ore
Hear Lynsey Graham shout
"We'll keep Putin out!"
And stash trillions in our cash drawer
Ukraine has 0.4% of the Earth’s surface but about 5% of the world’s mineral resources. Ukraine is one of the world's top 10 titanium producers, ships iron and steel products to Europe, and has ambitions to become a key supplier of the critical minerals Europe needs to meet its electrification targets and cut reliance on Russian energy.
Speak to me in Whispers
My weakness is magnetic
Attracted to the metal in your spine
My creative spark
Ignited by the fire in your mind
The hunger I have for learning
Is fed with the manna you bestow
The vessel of my longing
Is bound to the ore that you row
So speak to me in whispers
Never let the volume rise above
The soft sweetness that's between us
To break the fragile bubble of our love.
A heart for the Tin Man
A brain for the old 'crow
I
Hello there, metal man,
How do you do today?
Dear tin brain
Dear tin limbs. Oh dear!
Weren't they always tin?
Dear, gold and bronze golem,
You don't mean to say
You were a man?
A real one?
A tin beast, you were born
Aluminum in your heart, aluminum in your soul,
Can't you feel its dust in your lungs?
Silly man, you don't have a heart,
You don't have a life
You have limbs rusting with malaise
And a hollow head
You metal man.
Dear tin fellow.
II
Have you any eyes? Have you any eyes
Or simply hollow metal wounds gaping in your forehead with small grins
But do you grin?
Or does your metal mouth simply
Stretch across your face like
A bloodless axe wound?
Do your limbs run with that crimson stuff?
Or are they hollow, hollow, hollow
Like the hole in your chest?
Swing your axe, dear tin man,
Chop your trees, metal golem,
Let me watch you
With a pathetic smile
You pathetic man
Metal cannot feel
Tin cannot burn
You cannot die
Goodbye, dear tin man,
Rest your tin head and sleep.
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