I am a ruined house
With a rusty fence,
So many phantoms reside resting recklessly,
A clock on the mantelpiece that won't work. It's stuck staring at me,
Tick………,
The wallpaper is crumbling and fading away like my miserable memories.
It doesn't seem real even though it is.
Dreamy, dreary , dread , dead.
But the fire is still working
Though everything is cold
And almost dead.
Somehow it is never always cold,
Flames auburn and assured.
I fall in love,
When the wind
Clatters and chatters the weary windows.
When you knocked on the tedious door,
I fell in love with you,
You seemed full of halo light,
Full of sparks
Like the 4th of July,
Your words full of life,
You could make thousands of people alive.
But I can't untarnish the fence,
Can't paint the walls crimson.
But your eyes think,
I'm beautiful,
Life is fleeting and transient,
So, I started painting the panelled wooden house crimson.
You can't paint oak crimson.
It's ruining me,
I can't fall in love.
Categories:
panelled, heartbreak, heartbroken, love, love
Form: Free verse
The Great Halls of Eden
(A lone voice whispers)
Walking in like the Grand Inquisitor
Tomás de Torquemada
Dressed in a dark robe
With Beethoven's “Moonlight Sonata” playing loudly in her wake
I can remember when Love brought me through a gate
To a doorway leading to her Three Castles of Rejection
Cruelty
Intolerance, and Fanaticism
And when she nearly broke me within each of those walls, she introduced me to her other Three Castles of Seduction
Through another darkly lit doorway
Ecstasy
Blissfulness and Tranquility
Such is the juxtaposition of entering her Great Halls of Eden
For those Red coloured doors within that painted room, could lead you to your sweet salvation or doom
So just be careful when you smell her sweet perfume, when she smiles, as she approaches
For once, she takes you into her Great Halls of Eden
Once you enter that oak panelled waiting room
Always remember
One day, you could be in her master bedroom
And then one day, feel the harsh bristles of her witches broom
As you soul pleads and yells
Such is the power of being under her mesmerising spell
(C) Copyright John Duffy
Categories:
panelled, spiritual,
Form: Rhyme
They hold their courts of pomp and ceremony in the name of history they say.
They sway the poor and destitute at arms length to avoid acknowledging their eyes, their hearts, their voices for existing in this state of way.
They laugh of joy in conceited waste, and waste and waste. Entitlement lives and must be maintained this way they say.
They expect respect for rank in society and the loyalty of blood and sacrifice with no questions ever put their way.
They scoff and laugh sipping sherrys in clubs of oak panelled, vaulted halls, their derrières on the softest leathers while outside beggars crawl out of their way.
Categories:
panelled, character, conflict, culture, discrimination,
Form: Free verse
FLICK PROPHETIC FINGER
Knocking hard on a massive ancient gate,
Step out of a gaunt, granite building,
Leave behind its austere contents,
With wood-panelled box-seats,
Pinching sardine-tight orthodoxy's rumps,
Say farewell to enforced isolation,
Corralled within a pulpit-facing pew,
Flick prophetic finger
At sanctimonious conformity,
As I cross the widening threshold
Into a welcome world of
Confusing discovery.
Give place in me to an individual,
Questioning all from A to Z,
Finding the new pathway, opened out
To an approaching horizon. It holds
My curious gaze beyond
Present knowledge.
I know with some deeper weight of understanding,
Unhinged from the enclosed
Constriction in which I have been
A prisoner of my own choice.
Now the chains sheared off, scales
Fallen from once-blindfolded eyes,
I, flying as the uncaged bird,
Lift suddenly into free flight
On instinctive weaving
Of supple strength.
Categories:
panelled, break up, change, flying,
Form: Free verse
The meal deal, the power crush.
The entitled airs they seek so much.
Swallow dignity, swallow pride.
The panelled walls of entitlement house their hides.
What of humility, what of honour is left?
Power and greed above all else.
To the sycophantic grovelling horde.
Your spines were not meant for you to crawl.
Make your deal to have your snout in the golden trough. Quote your Latin spiel and have your hoorah intercourse.
Your faustian deals will burn your souls.
Categories:
panelled, abuse, corruption, dance, evil,
Form: Free verse
Majestic flight sweeps up from lobby sprawl
Mattress padding pink carpet creeps corners
Bannisters ornate in century's old discussions
Omit disclosure of grim history above
Uniform scuff tread flat railed staircase
Stretches ominously into third level dim
Each step taken fades from life the stepper
Cobwebs claim frames of dust dampened portraits
Compressing is staircase from dingy third
Wide shouldered folk hunch, tunnel encroaching
Trapdoor top is a shock to wood tread traveller
Rejoicing of stiffened hinges, solitary sound
Huddled roofspace floods intrepid with doom
Heanous endings leach from panelled attic walls
Slivers of snowdust rays showcase eye sockets
Emptied in skulls committed to fourth floor torture
6th September 2020
The Fourth Floor of Nowhere Poetry Contest
Craig Cornish
Categories:
panelled, death, fantasy, halloween,
Form: Free verse
Is it today now or yesterday still?
Is it time already for morning pill?
hazy light filters in through the window,
as crimson gathers over distant hill!
Can’t tell early dawn from the evening glow,
for me time stands still and the day is slow,
from downstairs sound of kitchen plying food,
my rumbling hunger signals time to go!
I walk in to dinning hall, panelled wood,
smiling faces greet me as sweet as could,
Coffee, bread, favourite jam and honey,
they wish me a morning, morning so good!
Some days I get visitors too many,
Some other days there are hardly any,
young girl comes often with two little tots,
When daughter’s name fails you, it’s not funny!
My son is very tall has grown so smart,
Like his dead mother very good at heart,
He brings little ones to play with grandpa,
they ride on my back playing horse and cart!
flickering thoughts..how memory ages raw,
life as it flows has to obey time’s law,
yet Love finds a way to overcome this flaw,
Love finds a way to overcome this flaw!
Written 06/August/2020
Honourable mention
Sponsor Brian Strand
‘Strand New any form any theme(18)’ Contest
Categories:
panelled, age, child, dad, emotions,
Form: Rubaiyat
We moved house today
This house lacks warmth and heart
Everything in disarray
We don't know where to start
Things in packing cases
Others in a box
A pile of dirty laundry
Underwear and socks
Old toys that the children
Refuse to throw away
Looks like that pile of books
Are also here to stay
Useful gadgets bought and never used
I wanted to be rid of them my husband refused
Furniture that doesn't fit in places as before
Why have we kept that old panelled door?
Pictures, mirrors and photos of the kids
Vases, jars and canisters some without their lids
Shovels, rakes, old garden hat
Propped along the fence
Husband shouting out "We forgot the cat"
How could we be that dense
The children start to complain
"When are we having lunch"
How could I have given birth
To such a selfish bunch?
The dog started barking, the parrot to squawk
I put on my coat and went out for a walk
Categories:
panelled, 10th grade,
Form: Rhyme
I am not the giver,
am not a diva.
Can't get you high,
can't even give you a fever.
When you are wet, I can't get you dry
When there is heat, I can't give no quiver.
Can't make you die, can't make you fly.
Ain't even got the liver.
Your whining, your tears, your complaints.
Your pining , your fears, your disdains.
Though strongly panelled,
But wrongly channeled.
There is a man upstairs
Our whole burdens he bears
Whenever you see me do those things
It is he in Me that wove those strings.
The curtains are ripped asunder
Now we can access him like no other
What is the need of a middle man
When there is no more a riddle man?
snug up to him, he won't lie
Draw nigh, open eyed and quote "i"
He made us, ordained us
And he is responsible for us.
So when next you decide to turn the heat on me.
Am a just sit back and Fry me a pizza
While you hit hard and Cry me a river.
Categories:
panelled, anger, freedom, wisdom,
Form: ABC
Ahh Jamie lad where hast tha bin?
not heathered shire, so searched within,
nor mountain river's gilded beck, but
inside burnt out blackened wreck
Brings the coffin from the plane,
touches tarmac black again; coming
home with no hello, attends the
soldier’s funeral show
Cuts my heart in two to see, bonny
lads bright bonnet free, sits on top
of panelled wood, resting still as
new formed bud
Now your’e here lad home with me,
resting down by blossomed tree,
I hear the nightjar’s plaintiff plea,
and tip my hat to soldiers free
Categories:
panelled, death, loss, military, son,
Form: Verse
The panelled walls of cedar wood, pencil thin red aroma
Reflect the firelight burning light, warming coals
Black windowpanes bar the cold and wind to a blacker outside.
Pictures in the flames rise, to an occasion or a dream
But in retrospect so strange, as the chimney above grows cool
And snowflakes melt on the black dusty dead scraps of wood.
Categories:
panelled, absence, winter,
Form: Free verse
Burgundy drapes fall
From the window
This fireplace
The embers glow
Muted light
Reflecting
Panelled wood
Soft glowing
Crackle of wood
Flickering firelight
In our room
Our delight
Great Forest Tapestries
Of leaf and bark
Adorn the wall
Our forest
Our trees
In our room
Filled with books and firelight
The snow outside
Still falling
Soft scent of you
My heart,
calling
The soft hue
Of Tiffany lamps
Rugs from Persia
Being with you
In our room too
Billowing clouds
Tall ships sail
Of seas green and blue
Upon the hearth
The dogs lay
Snoring softly in firelight
They enjoyed the walk today
In our room
Flickering firelight
Illuminating the gloom
Snow outside
Soft and white
Categories:
panelled, imagination, love
Form: Ballad