Mournful melancholy makes her miserable,
Murky moods move her to morosity,
She's miffed and morbid, her mind is mourning,
Moping about in mellow melancholia,
Marred in misery, misty-eyed, she's mortified,
Melting in maddening malaise of malcontentment,
Malfunctioning malignancy has made her mean,
Melodramatic memories magnify her misfortune,
This monotonous, mundane, mirthless morning,
She's a mangled mess of merciless moaning,
A mere mortal mutilated by melancholic musings.
9th May 2023
Contest: Anatomy of Melancholy
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
Categories:
morosity, cry, depression, sad,
Form: Alliteration
Amuck in this life, she fights and bumbles
Onward and forward she kicks and stumbles
Easily, angrily, quickly she grumbles
While in the distance dark thunder rumbles.
At last she falters, listens, then mumbles
“Good God!” and into oblivion tumbles.
“Soul’s Battle” first appeared in the Dead of Night Newsletter, July 1994, then collected in Lake of the Devil: Poems of Morosity and Jest (Duck's-foot Tree Productions, 1995) limited to 75 copies. It was included in the poetry section of the omnibus edition of novel, poems, and tales Anthony Shriek: His Doleful Adventures; or, Lovers of Another Realm (Centipede Press, 2017). It is also included in my forthcoming Hippocampus Press collection The Ghost Garden and Further Spirits.
Categories:
morosity, death, faith, hope, myth,
Form: Rhyme
The piggy's in the truffle bucket
Eating all the truffles
I kick 'im in 'is snuffle-snucket,
I beat 'im with me buckles
But nothing ruffles piggy's knuckles
'e 'as to 'ave them truffles.
I write a lot of horror poems but those aren't what I've been posting at Poetry Soup (the horrors and fantasies appear in magazines and anthologies). Light verse such as "Snuffle" undoubtedly gives people a mistaken impression of what I write most, if this is all they see.
But I have always been especially fond of "Snuffle," originally written in honor of folklore author and Buddhist Darroll Pardoe, who included it in an issue of his letter substitute Pig on the Wall decades anon, and much later included in my collection Lake of the Devil: Poems of Morosity and Jest (Duck's-Foot Tree Productions, 1995) limited to 75 copies.
Categories:
morosity, animal, earth, farm, food,
Form: Rhyme
O, little birdy,
haven’t you heardy?
You will be plucked today.
Cooing and lovin'
soon in the oven
baked on a silver tray.
Glazed honey sweetened
you will be eatened
served on a plate e'er long.
So, little birdy,
O!, little birdy,
sing to me one last song.
“O! Little Birdy!” was in Rudi Rubberoid’s NOMO THE ZINE, January 1992; then in THE RATTY'S GAZETTE 8, 1995. It was gathered into my chapbook collection LAKE OF THE DEVIL: POEMS OF MOROSITY AND JEST (Seattle: Duck's-foot Tree Productions, 1995) limited to 75 copies.
Categories:
morosity, animal, bird, food, humor,
Form: Lyric