(Seeing an old man walking out of a marriage registrar’s office with a young girl, two women talking…)
Retaining charm till old is art
More than the matter ‘tis of heart,
Look, unstirred, undeterred,
Caught he has a young bird—
The daughter of his old sweetheart,
Now hurt as if by Cupid’s dart!
And old habit as well
(An old man, a retired teacher, and his two sons invoke spirit to write on Ouija board, which makes a spelling mistake, and the old teacher would not allow it to go farther, quoting, a mnemonic device to remember spellings of words with ei or ie. )
Invoked, the ghost when came to be,
The planchette moved on its will free,
The old man still shouted:
Ye must recall, blockhead,
This: I ere E, save after C,
Look, there’s no C in grieve, it’s G.
________________________________
Tongue-in-cheek |07.07.2023| humour/rhyme
Categories:
planchette, humor,
Form: Rhyme
Beside midnight's minting bare branches
Dead fingered messages on bedroom pane scratches
Four awe struck teens oija board captured
Followed fast spelt results, from rock star sanctioned
Questions asserted by incredulous desires
Hoisted upturned glass drawn answers much admired
Grave lain idol caressed all the girls inquired
Decisive planchette slide surprised previous denyers
Eerie sequenced letters spelt Cobain's cause of death
Conduit confirmed it an accident, fans bereft
Of Kurt's cutting edge grunge, now Nirvana aroma left
Bygone, but through them, legend found breath
1st October 2020
For: 'Unexplained' Poetry Contest
Sponsor : Carolyn Devonshire
NB - Biological studies have demonstrated that the
phenomena of seemingly self driven planchettes
during seances is caused by the ideomotor effect,
a sub concious physical response. Ironically, the
less control participants think they have, the more
their subconscious controls what happens.
Categories:
planchette, 10th grade, art, character,
Form: Rhyme
I smile and greet I'm a beautiful thing,
some friends and old lovers I meet in the night,
squinted and blurred since I gave up my ring,
my insides not outside, my inside is not right.
Occasional drinks while asked where I've strayed,
it saps at my strength to put on this facade,
the would be sympathy I am holding at bay,
my organs are softened but I must appear hard.
My back against reality as my demons I face,
I am pounded by waves as I try to sleep,
I wake and I wipe while my mind can't erase,
the planchette of woe points into my deep.
I'm fighting, I'm losing, I feel an embrace,
but not of a sweetheart, a harsh about face,
I'm not warm, I'm stark, a lightning tree,
I have learned to act now, but it is not me.
I feel the end is uncomfortably far,
it's a while since I picked up my guitar,
I take up my knife every day,
I know not what keeps the blade at bay.
A wise woman once told me things would be better,
accepting no help as she thought I'd let her,
so I steer free of strangers and friends that would be,
while I invoke the danger that lends, but it's not me.
Categories:
planchette, anxiety, faith, loss, lost,
Form: Free verse
PAST LIVES
Oh, what might I have been?
Get the Ouija board, the planchette
Exhort the spirits of Cayce and MacLaine
Take a float through the baffling arcane
The past must suit male fancy
“Madam Zolta consult thy crystal clairvoyant
Bring forth those vaporous hosts
The filmy, the whispering, shapeless ghosts”
I yearn to hear some lordly title
Her quartz then flares, receding to shade
“Well, madam, be he of humble or regal fame?
Ego falters now, but give me his name”
So faint now that after breath
Seems to tremble Zolta’s damson drapes
And slowly in the middle half-sphere
Does an almost human face appear
The mouth is that first takes clear form
Those tissue lips in upward curve
Zolta’s chamber sudden quiet as a tomb
A perfumed vapor haunts the room
“I am that which once you were,”
Escapes the quivering gossamer line.
“And I the single past life you’ll see
A dainty, silly Scotch lass – tee hee”
Categories:
planchette, funny,
Form: Free verse
Written March 8, 2012
Death mixed with morning rain and darkness,
Icy patches hidden on the pavement
Lived comfortably on the outside
As I rode along in my car like the
Planchette of a Ouija board.
Unaware that the power(s) that be
Were battling against each other
To push my car on the board to
Spell out either life or death,
My morning thoughts
Were interrupted
By a 360 spin faster than
The distance between
Two thoughts...
Ending up muffler-first gagged on
A snowbank with nothing,
No one around for miles.
I gazed at the three-lane
Highway where LIFE
Was spelled out this time,
And realized that
DEATH may have been on the
Board thirty minutes later
During a busier time.
Thirty minutes later
Found me talking
To a mechanic
Instead of my family talking
About me in the past tense
And trying to communicate with
Me through the Ouija board.
Death inefficiently cheated
Marked off on My To Do list
For the day.
How many more times will
I be able to mark that off?
Dare I ask the Ouija board
Knowingly sitting in the corner
Of my closet?
Categories:
planchette, death, introspection, life, car,
Form: Free verse